02-08-2023, 05:14 AM

Weirdly, the promo stream for this album has been floating around my inbox for a couple of weeks now, but it took me until today to realize that Ashrain is Nozomu Wakai's new project. He started recording their debut album 'Requiem Reloaded' in 2020 with former Accept bassist Peter Baltes. Later they were joined by singer Iuri Sanson (Eternity's End, ex-Hibria) and drummer Andy C (ex-Lords of Black). Elyes Bouchoucha (ex-Myrath) serves as a guest keyboard player. Simone Mularoni (DGM) mixed the album.
'Requiem Reloaded' is exactly what you'd expect from an album Wakai is involved in: mildly neoclassical hardrock, bordering on power metal at times. I think I slightly prefer this to Destinia. Nothing earth-shattering, but really good for what it is. Good songwriting, spirited performances and I think Sanson sounds a gazillion times better than he did on the recent Eternity's End album.
The tracklisting features some delightfully mangled English and is as follows:
1. Are You Ready for Rock?
2. Requiem for Screamer
3. Put on the Trigger
4. I Still Burn
5. Break Through the Fire
6. Symphony of Despair
7. Believe
8. No Surrenders
9. The End of Sorrow
10. We Fight to Win
No video clips yet as far as I'm aware, but I'll keep you posted if I hear about some of them.
If you can't get enough of me giving my opinions without having asked for it, you can read more of it on my Kevy Metal weblog.