Well it had to happen sooner or later. Here we are just a few weeks into 2008 (and fresh off my year in review for 2007) but I can safely say the new CD “Blind Fire” by LEVERAGE will for sure be in my top CD’s list come the end of the year.

When Brian here at Rockeyez gave me the opportunity to review this disc I looked forward to it as I had heard some good things about this Finish band but honestly never heard their music. I think that actually turned out to be a good thing because I was able to just drop this disc into my CD player and have no preconceived notions about what I was about to hear.

Well right off the bat I was pleasantly surprised with what I heard come out of the speakers. LEVERAGE is melodic, progressive and classy. I was almost immediately reminded of the sounds of MAGNUM (along with Bob Catley’s solo offerings) and the mighty DREAM THEATER. Songs like “Shadow in the Rain”, “King of the Night”, “Stormchild” and “Sentenced” all have that MAGNUM/Bob Catley sound while “Hellhorn” has an “Awake”-era DREAM THEATER feel to with it’s great keyboard work (as supplied by Marko Niskala).

“Mister Universe” (sounding like MAGNUM on steroids!) along with “Don’t Touch the Sun” and “Learn to Live” (both great moody power ballad numbers) show the great diversity of this band.

The album really is an awesome and unique mix of classic hard rock sounds and progressive moments. The record is played flawlessly and produced to perfection by the band (along with Jari Mikkola). And don’t let me forget to mention the guitar-work by Tuomas Jeikkinen and Torsti Spoof, which is outstanding too. Check it out!

Now I’m going to go track down the bands 2006 debut “Tides” and see what I missed…