Considered by fans and critics alike to be the band’s best recording, Triumph’s fifth album, Allied Forces, has a subtle tension running throughout. Where previous works found singing drummer Gil Moore and guitarist/vocalist Rik Emmett jockeying for alpha frontman status, here they exercised a healthier competition within their songwriting collaborations. As a result, “Fool for Your Love” hits the ground running with the muscle of Grand Funk Railroad and the vocal precision of Boston. The mellowed acoustic guitar picking and reedy Moog notes that introduce the following “Magic Power” hark back to the band’s early Emerson, Lake & Palmer influence. The song soon unfolds and rocks out like a tougher-sounding Journey. But it’s the title track that brings the album to its head. Though Triumph was reticent to be pigeonholed as a metal act, “Allied Force” exemplifies the marriage of late-'70s heavy metal and early-'80s AOR production. The cool sound effects produced by bassist Mike Levine in “Air Raid,” plus the classical guitar interlude “Petite Etude,” helped flesh out an already-strong album.