In the summer of 2024, Absinthe Green’s ‘Give The Devil His Due’ was given some well deserved re-promotion. Although the track was two years at that point, it hadn’t really connected with a UK crowd. If it happened to be your first exposure to the Greek rock band, it certainly wasn’t a bad place to dive in. The track’s tonal shift from classic sounding doom into a driving hard rock riff showed off the band’s range of rock sounds very naturally, and although the featured vocal could’ve perhaps been a little sharper, the bulk of the track shared a great melodic feel.

‘Viva Forever’ is another recording that, although not perfect, captures a band capable of sharing a pleasingly natural vibe. The guitar sounds used to form an epic intro carry hints of a late 80s sound, evocative of a pre-blues obsessed Gary Moore, and a shift into something a little busier and heavier captures a brand of melodic metal that straddles a love of a trad sound with the grandiosity of the European symphonic acts.

Of course, the bombastic elements inspired by a world of Nightwish clones help to create the perfect way of heavying up an old Spice Girls ballad, and its great to hear a familar melody transposed to a huge sounding guitar. As before, the vocals sway between strong and a little wobbly in places, but this is always preferable to the absolute perfection shared by a lot of the symphonic acts who are hidden under layers of studio trickery and massively orchestrated moments. If anything really works here, though, it’s a massive lead guitar break which shamelessly shares a love for a whole world of melodic metal from the 80s, and is also used to give this track a huge climax behind the lead vocal.

Take a listen below.