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As soon as you hear the tempo and guitar sound of the opening instrumental on Power Quest's new album, Blood Alliance, it will come as no surprise that the band rose from the same ashes that spawned Dragonforce. There are times when the similarity is uncanny, but Power Quest changes it up so as not to be a simple clone.

Blood Alliance features some of the same insanely fast guitars and drums as Dragonforce, especially on tracks like "Rising Anew," which also has an Angra feel to it, and "Survive." The same upbeat major chords and huge choruses are unmistakable. Power Quest doesn't just plow along at a thousand miles an hour for the whole album, though. They slow the pace often while retaining the core Power Metal sound. What results are tracks that sound like Dokken ("Sacrifice," "City of Lies") or Van Hagar. Just listen to the keyboard sound on "Better Days" or "Only in My Dreams" to see what I mean. And that same upbeat sound runs through all the songs. This is one positive sounding album. So positive is the vibe that even I, a Power Metal devotee, needed to spin a little Black Metal after listening to Blood Alliance, just to get back on an even keel.

There's nothing wrong with Blood Alliance other than the song "Crunching the Numbers," which, with its awful guitar tone and jarring transition to the chorus, had me hitting the skip button. I liked some of the songs while others weren't especially thrilling. Power Metal fans and Dragonforce fans, in particular, should find something they like. Keep in mind much of the album sounds derivative of things that have been done. If that works for you, some happy, fast, well played Power Metal awaits you on Blood Alliance.