Review by Alex on June 5, 2020.

Originally released in 2007 then repressed by Careless Records in 2019, a modern classic of sorts, unknown to many (including myself) until now. We Will Fight! by Italian power/speed metal band Alltheniko is a go-round, a rotation of heavy metal eras and branches. Despite the power/speed metal tag, We Will Fight! has a lot more going for it than that, which in this case could either make or break the record. Some listeners like consistency, others like solid tunes and others like a bit of both.

What We Will Fight! offers leans more on the side that attempts to please everyone as far as the involvement of the genres are concerned. It has power, thrash, epic, black/speed ('Dead Brain (Extermination)') and even an attempt at death metal growls on the same song. In addressing the matter of consistency first and foremost, you won’t get that. The genre tag of this band is true to an extent, and Alltheniko make certain to represent it on tracks like the opener 'Thrash All Round' and 'Sound of Rust' seemingly influenced by Overkill. Then to insert the power metal via the melodic piece you could hear on the latter, sounds of a convincing and well put-together song. Not forgetting the guitar solos on both, they slay and provide some incentive for the listener to stick-around till the end.

As mentioned earlier, other styles commingle with the set intentions of We Will Fight! that is primarily a power/speed metal record. The epic power metal vibe of 'Sufferman' and 'Coming Soon' would cause any listener to re-investigate the band given how smooth they are put together as representations of epic power metal. Hence, the album at times instead of feeling instrumentally linear, bounces around from power to thrash to epic and the incorporation of all three sub-genres such as on 'The Silent Priest' does not make the task of labeling easy on occasions.

Cast aside genre-adhesion, and what you would end up with is a pretty decent collection of songs attired in an attractive array of fabrics. Some of the best tunes on We Will Fight! strike viciously in the form of 'Sufferman', 'Coming Soon', 'Alltheniko "We Will Fight!' and 'Criminal Mind' that compensate for the lack of focus on any particular playing method. The rhythm and melody Alltheniko are able to extract are mesmerizing and really make it easy listening to the album in its entirety. The vocals are cool too, its thrash metal themed mostly so it has a sort of shabby edge to it that works with the contrasting sung chants and surprisingly favorable clean singing aiding the power metal segments heard on a song like 'Sufferman' etc.

All in all, there's a fair amount of replay-value and if you could excuse the somewhat underwhelming production and amateurish organization then, We Will Fight! has some reward for you.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Review by Tobias on April 16, 2001.

Metal veterans Savatage are back with yet another thematic album addition to their powerful twenty year history. Savatage have always been story-tellers, and they were perhaps the very first to bring in the epic and operatic feel to metal albums. I’m prefacing the review with this because when it comes to the concept work of Savatage, you really need to take the whole package into consideration.

With the likes of Hall of the Mountain King and Wake of Magellan behind their belts, Savatage certainly needed something with a slightly different edge to it. That isn’t to say that the music has changed, though. The story behind Poets & Madmen is perhaps the most disturbing and interesting of all to date. It follows three guys with nothing better to do, who break into an abandoned asylum to discover a disturbing story of a Pulitzer prize winning photographer gone mad and have a bit of a surreal experience.

The problem that I find with the story telling of Savatage, particularly on Poets & Madmen, is that you can’t figure out what the story is by reading the lyrics; they’re just way too cryptic and ambiguous to effectively weave a story together. Of course, I had a pre-release promo CD to review without the official sleeve that might include the story, but I had to go to Savatage.com to read the short story that the album was based on. After doing this, listening to the album suddenly became a much more interesting experience.

So to take the music aside from the story and judge it separately I think is somewhat unfair to the work of art that Savatage are delivering. However, I still feel the loss of Criss Oliva in the guitar work. Somehow it just seems a little bland compared to the intensity and flair that he’d added to the albums before his unfortunate departure from this earth.

That aside, this album still has a lot of interesting and entertaining listening to offer. Savatage’s ever present trademark sound like metalized classical music is almost brainfood on tracks like Morphine Child and Surrender.

Bottom Line: Fun story telling from the concept metal vets, but still lacking much of the excitement and edginess that the late Criss Oliva brought to the band on albums like Mountain King and Gutter Ballet.

Rating: 7 of 10

Review by Tobias on April 16, 2001.

Metal veterans Savatage are back with yet another thematic album addition to their powerful twenty year history. Savatage have always been story-tellers, and they were perhaps the very first to bring in the epic and operatic feel to metal albums. I’m prefacing the review with this because when it comes to the concept work of Savatage, you really need to take the whole package into consideration.

With the likes of Hall of the Mountain King and Wake of Magellan behind their belts, Savatage certainly needed something with a slightly different edge to it. That isn’t to say that the music has changed, though. The story behind Poets & Madmen is perhaps the most disturbing and interesting of all to date. It follows three guys with nothing better to do, who break into an abandoned asylum to discover a disturbing story of a Pulitzer prize winning photographer gone mad and have a bit of a surreal experience.

The problem that I find with the story telling of Savatage, particularly on Poets & Madmen, is that you can’t figure out what the story is by reading the lyrics; they’re just way too cryptic and ambiguous to effectively weave a story together. Of course, I had a pre-release promo CD to review without the official sleeve that might include the story, but I had to go to Savatage.com to read the short story that the album was based on. After doing this, listening to the album suddenly became a much more interesting experience.

So to take the music aside from the story and judge it separately I think is somewhat unfair to the work of art that Savatage are delivering. However, I still feel the loss of Criss Oliva in the guitar work. Somehow it just seems a little bland compared to the intensity and flair that he’d added to the albums before his unfortunate departure from this earth.

That aside, this album still has a lot of interesting and entertaining listening to offer. Savatage’s ever present trademark sound like metalized classical music is almost brainfood on tracks like Morphine Child and Surrender.

Bottom Line: Fun story telling from the concept metal vets, but still lacking much of the excitement and edginess that the late Criss Oliva brought to the band on albums like Mountain King and Gutter Ballet.

Rating: 7 of 10

Review by Alex on June 5, 2020.

Originally released in 2007 then repressed by Careless Records in 2019, a modern classic of sorts, unknown to many (including myself) until now. We Will Fight! by Italian power/speed metal band Alltheniko is a go-round, a rotation of heavy metal eras and branches. Despite the power/speed metal tag, We Will Fight! has a lot more going for it than that, which in this case could either make or break the record. Some listeners like consistency, others like solid tunes and others like a bit of both.

What We Will Fight! offers leans more on the side that attempts to please everyone as far as the involvement of the genres are concerned. It has power, thrash, epic, black/speed ('Dead Brain (Extermination)') and even an attempt at death metal growls on the same song. In addressing the matter of consistency first and foremost, you won’t get that. The genre tag of this band is true to an extent, and Alltheniko make certain to represent it on tracks like the opener 'Thrash All Round' and 'Sound of Rust' seemingly influenced by Overkill. Then to insert the power metal via the melodic piece you could hear on the latter, sounds of a convincing and well put-together song. Not forgetting the guitar solos on both, they slay and provide some incentive for the listener to stick-around till the end.

As mentioned earlier, other styles commingle with the set intentions of We Will Fight! that is primarily a power/speed metal record. The epic power metal vibe of 'Sufferman' and 'Coming Soon' would cause any listener to re-investigate the band given how smooth they are put together as representations of epic power metal. Hence, the album at times instead of feeling instrumentally linear, bounces around from power to thrash to epic and the incorporation of all three sub-genres such as on 'The Silent Priest' does not make the task of labeling easy on occasions.

Cast aside genre-adhesion, and what you would end up with is a pretty decent collection of songs attired in an attractive array of fabrics. Some of the best tunes on We Will Fight! strike viciously in the form of 'Sufferman', 'Coming Soon', 'Alltheniko "We Will Fight!' and 'Criminal Mind' that compensate for the lack of focus on any particular playing method. The rhythm and melody Alltheniko are able to extract are mesmerizing and really make it easy listening to the album in its entirety. The vocals are cool too, its thrash metal themed mostly so it has a sort of shabby edge to it that works with the contrasting sung chants and surprisingly favorable clean singing aiding the power metal segments heard on a song like 'Sufferman' etc.

All in all, there's a fair amount of replay-value and if you could excuse the somewhat underwhelming production and amateurish organization then, We Will Fight! has some reward for you.

Rating: 7 out of 10