Italians Hyperion released an album back in 2017 entitled Dangerous Days, also for Spanish label Fighter Records, and if you own and enjoy that record then I feel pretty safe in saying that there is nothing on Into The Maelstrom that is going to change your opinion of the band.

For those of you new to the band, well, if it’s finely-crafted, efficiently executed power/heavy metal you’re after, then you’ve undoubtedly come to the right place. Hyperion deal in riffy, melodic metal first and foremost; they never turn down the chance to inject a memorable, singalong element into their songs, but that’s not to say that there are the sort of cheese levels here that you might find with someone like, say, Freedom Call. No – this is serious metal… but melody is never far away.

The band have moved a little away from the overweeningly sci-fi-inspired lyrics this time around – Ninjas and Wrestlers get a look in this time, amongst other things – but really the focus is on the riffs and the melodies more than anything else. The album’s best song, the nine-minute-long The Ride of Heroes sees everything fall into place best; Michelangelo Carano really flies vocally here whilst guitarists Davide Cotti and Luke Fortini mesh perfectly, elevating the song to heights many bands in this genre could only dream of. Driller Killer is a little more modern – at least it seems so at the start as clipped, syncopated riffs set the scene, before the song explodes into a fully-formed NWoTHM chorus that Monument would kill for – but for the vast majority of the music on offer the band know what they want and stay in the according lane.

At times you find yourself wishing for a little more overt aggression – especially in the album’s production, which is a little polite at times – but that is literally the only thing I can really come up with by way of complaint. Hyperion offer nothing more than good headbanging times, and if that’s enough for you then this is an album you’ll want in your collection.

Into The Maelstrom is out now.