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With the growing plethora of bands named Seven Gates (or variations thereof), it makes sense one of them would play Power Metal, and that’s pretty much the name of the game for VII Gates and Fire, Walk With Me (something they stole from Twin Peaks, I’m sure). The Swedes try out a lot of things, which makes this difficult to describe. On the one hand, they have an old school way of riffing, recalling Maiden, Priest and Accept, but they also have flashy keyboard and happy-go-lucky parts that bring to mind Domain and Edguy. Vocalist JJ Rockford wants to be Halford so bad, but he’s actually a dead ringer for Nostradameus frontman Freddy Persson, and a lot of this album does have a certain Third Prophecy feel to it.

There is nice variation here, from up-tempo songs like "The Saviour" and "Seconds Left To Live" to harder edged tracks in the shape of "Like A Rock" and the awfully named "Love Bullet". The band go for a meaty production, but it sounds a little wimpy in places (the drums have no color at all), and really, you could give this one a miss and no one would care. That said, it’s not a total waste, and Power Metallers with too much time on their hands might want to give it a shot.