Heavenly - Virus (2006)

I've been won over by Heavenly so far, and this fourth album of theirs has done nothing to sway my view.
At a thankfully more manageable running time of fifty minutes, after the seventy-plus of the last release DUST TO DUST, Virus is not as mean as the cover would suggest, but it is more catchy, passionately played power metal, and Ben Sotto's vocals are reasonably restrained (compared with SIGN OF THE WINNER, anyway).
Such tracks as "Spill Blood On Fire", "Wasted Time" (with Sonata Arctica's Tony Kakko adding his voice), "Liberty" and "The Prince Of The World" are excellent, while they also do a first rate cover of the 1984 hit by Jermaine Jackson and Pia Zadora, "When The Rain Begins To Fall", a song that lends itself well to this genre.
If anything, I've underrated this French band thus far.  Their first four albums are all highly enjoyable, and thinking about them now, I'd have to put Heavenly as one of my favourites of power metal.

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