ILast
Bastion is a band based in Seattle, WA. Formed in 2012 and they play fast almost
European sounding power metal, leaning toward speed metal. The first thing
I thought when listening to the album was that they are a fast version of Blind
Guardian, in the first place because of the vocals of Joe Lovatt. He needs to
work on his voice, because he sometimes sounds a bit false, but in general he
has a same kind of sound as Hansi. Besides that there are also a lot of musical
similarities with Sabaton. The keyboard has quite a big role in their music and
to compensate for that I would have liked the guitars a bit more in front of the
mix. Lots of twin guitars (soli) are also a trademark here.
You
can hear that this is their first album, it sounds talented, fresh, creative,
but also a bit unbalanced. The drums in the song "Road to Redemption" sound a
bit messy and not really tight, but I know for sure that the next album will be
better, just because they are more experienced in recording an album. With a
heavier and better production on the next album I think they can make the
necessary step to put the spotlights on them. There are so many average bands in
this genre and with this album they are the umpteenth at the moment.
If
you like bands like Powerquest, Mob Rules and stuff like that, you should at
least check them out.
