Inner Wish
Waiting For The Dawn

"Waiting For The Dawn", waiting for the dawn: I like to think that this title was born spontaneously during the recordings of the album which always took place late at night to leave space for other bands deemed more promising...

Yet, despite the lack of interest from the studios, this group of guys who approached music playfully soon realized that their chemistry could have resonated with others as well. They embarked on a journey that took them from an almost unlistenable first version of the album to playing alongside the greatest metal bands of all time. The sad truth, however, is that after this album, some gear in the flawless mechanism of their music-making was lost, and it was evidently a crucial one, namely Yiannis Papanikolaou, who after writing and singing the lyrics had the brilliant idea of leaving the band to devote himself to faith and retire to a monastery. Possibly a questionable decision, but what's important is that he managed to leave his mark on an innovative and conservative album that has not yet received all the deserved recognition.
Needless to say, the remastered version of the album brought about immense improvements, although the sound quality in some passages remains reworked. To compensate for this, the album presents a particular amalgam between '80s heavy metal and power metal, with the former component being the one that stands out the most.

Right from "Spacerunner" we realize the maneuvering initiative of the two guitarists, superior in progress compared to the vocal lines, which in turn emphasize the color and range of the impeccable Papanikolaou, with the roles reversing in "Lord Of Truth", where it's the bassist Leventeris who sets the pace.
With "Beyond my soul", InnerWish truly starts getting serious, paving the way for "Last Thing I'll Remember", a ballad in the manner of Scorpions and Bonfire; only exponentially more beautiful for the interaction between guitar, bass, and voice, although even the verses play an important role, leaving the listener adrift in a mix of melancholy and hope, and where we also find one of the most successful guitar solos of the album, without ever overdoing it.

The album then regains a very Heavy-oriented momentum that does not overshadow the always melodic and captivating vocal modulations at the highest level, not even with the sudden guitar outbursts and the solos, to be honest not very original. "Have you ever", the most saccharine piece of the bunch, highlights some pronunciation difficulties, raising a question about their intentionality or not, given its functionality in terms of rhyme. The closing track, "Nightfall", initially not present on the album, along with the fact that the reissue I believe included a limited number of copies, is another reason to grab one without much hesitation.