PowerCross have put out Sign of the Cross, the opening track of Echoes of Elysium / Part I, which Elevate Records issue on 16 January on CD and digitally.
The song does what an opener in this style is supposed to do and makes no apology for it: fast tempos, blunt riffing and harmonised melodic lines, in the tradition of European power metal and played with enough bite to sound current rather than archival.
The album is the first half of a two part concept, eight songs built around myth, loss and transcendence. Each one is a self contained piece, and all of them are tied to a single narrative that finishes with the introspective sweep of the title track. It follows The Lost Empire in 2024 and Renaissance in 2025, both also through Elevate.
The band formed in Athens in December 2022, which makes three albums in a little over four years, a rate most power metal bands take a decade to reach. Guitarist Spiros Rizos writes all of the music and the arrangements, and the line up around him is Veandok on vocals, Panos Boutidis on bass and Foivos Andriopoulos on drums.