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Onward is another in a long line of bands that escaped my attention during the years I wasn't paying attention to the world of Heavy Metal because I'd assumed good music wasn't being made anymore. Thanks to a Pure Steel vinyl reissue in 2014, that oversight has now been corrected and, if you could see me, you'd be looking at one happy metal fan. Featuring the late Michael Grant on vocals, Onward was making the kind of epic US Heavy/Power Metal we used to get from Manowar, before they became bloated and full of themselves, and Virgin Steele, before they decided to write Greek tragedies across multiple albums. The band's debut, Evermoving, is full of catchy songwriting, fantastic solos and powerful vocals. Onward opens the floodgates with "The Kindness of Strangers" a title which belies the shredding nature of the guitar riff, and proceeds to kick ass for just about the rest of Evermoving. Songs like "The Waterfall Enchantress" and "Witches Winter Eternal," in addition to having great titles, are examples of how to meld music and lyrics to come up with something greater than the sum of its parts. Evermoving ends with a couple of duds; "Storm Coming Soon" isn't bad but Grant's vocals on the chorus sound oddly flat, which is strange considering he is in perfect tune almost everywhere else on the album, and "The Lost Side of the World," which, again, isn't bad, but starts slow and takes far too long to get up to speed. Nevertheless, the first six songs on Evermoving more than make up for the deficiencies of the last couple of songs.

If you have any affinity whatsoever for classy, well-played Heavy/Power Metal and missed Onward's Evermoving the first time around, like I did, rectify that situation immediately with this reissue. You will not be disappointed.