100% Live

After making one of the best greek heavy metal albums, changing their name to "Speedfire" due to a malicious threat presumably made by the band's ex-record label, and most devastating of all, almost losing the great voice they had on the first album, the band decided to continue with a new line-up. The only original member in this release is Ilias Loginidis, founding member and guitarist of Spitfire. The new members are Takis Tsamouropoulos who sings and plays the guitar, and Fotis Anagnostou who played for power metal band Casus Belli and later for the very well-known (in Greece at least) extreme metal band Nightfall. As a result, we get a live album by Spitfire which was pleasant to listen to.

A second guitarist was definitely what the band needed to sound heavier, since in the earlier years the keyboards usually had the role of the second guitar, and in this album, we have Takis, who is both a qualified guitarist AND a well-trained vocalist. I also saw in some videos, that he can nail some blazing leads on his electric ax. Ilias Loginidis of course fulfills the usual role as guitarist/songwriter and most of his songs from the first album appear here such as "Lead Me On" and "Lady of The Night" which are great heavy metal music. Some new for that time compositions are also pretty good such as "Taste The Fire" with its organized song structure and anthemic chorus and "Fool Enough", the latter reminding me of some quality 80's US heavy metal bands. I would also like to mention that it's good that the band encourages the audience to participate in the songs. I think modern bands don't do this that much nowadays, making the band look soulless.

100% Live, is exactly what it is. The raw recording of the band's 1990 live show in Rodon club with the volumes of some instruments was modified so that all the musicians can be heard in the final product. I'm not a big fan of live albums but I enjoyed listening to "100% Live" even if this and Cloven Hoof's "Fighting Back" are the only live albums I'm ever going to listen to again.