Formed in 1995 in Athens, Greece, InnerWish is one of the first melodic metal bands that have set some kind of foot outside their home country. Finding inspirations in bands like Judas Priest, Gamma Ray, Hammerfall and Helloween they started to write own songs. 15 years later, their 4th full-length is about to see the light. Did InnerWish count 5 members on their previous record 'Inner Strength', for this new album they have expanded with keyboard player George Geogiou.
"The Signs of Our Lives" opens fast and furious, a bit like Judas Priest starts their records. The song has a nice rather commercial melodic chorus, which makes this track immediately one of the better ones on this record. Babis Alexandropoulos is a singer with a very good and powerful voice, sometimes with a kind of Jorn Lande (or should I see Dio) vibe. He changes frequently from lower into higher sung notes, one thing is for sure, and he certainly can deliver.
Another song I want to mention is the title-track "No Turning Back", again a song with a nice heavy guitar riff with threatening sung vocals and nice keyboard parts in service of the song. Double bass track "Save Us" is one of the other heavy songs on the album, again the heavy guitars shine. In all the songs InnerWish has succeeded in creating nice choruses that give the album a more commercial character than a band like Primal Fear. Most progressive track is "Kingdom of Our Prime", a nice slow epic track with choir-like choruses. Musically you can compare InnerWish best with a few modern bands like Sinbreed, Narnia, Rob Rock and Masterplan. If I didn't know better, I would have guessed this was a Scandinavian combo.
After the on Gamma Ray speed-played track "Full of Lust" the album ends with an emotional piano ballad. If Babis Alexandropoulos still didn't convince you with his vocals on the first 11 tracks, he will certainly do that with this last song. I tried to describe what you can expect on this album and I think that fans of the bands mentioned above will like this album for certain.
