alternative-zine.com

Reviews

Winter's Bane: Redivivus
Winter's Bane - Redivivus - [DCA Recordings]

2006-12-06

I first heard Winter's Bane with their debut – "Heart Of A Killer", which earned a lot of media attention due to the fact that in it sang former Judas Priest vocalist Tim "Ripper" Owens. The album owed more to King Diamond than to Judas Priest, but band mastermind Lou St. Paul's talent as a guitarist and song writer was immediately evident. I actually liked the band's second release better, released four years later, "Girth" was a heavier and more focused effort, which benefited from St. Paul's vocals, which admittedly, were not as impressive as Owens's, but had the right feel and aggressive edge to make the album a really good one.

9 years later, and finally a third album, musically "Redivivus" is not that different from "Girth", the main difference is the presence of ex-Powergod vocalist Alex Koch, who does a great a great job here. I was rather disappointed that St. Paul didn’t sing here himself, but Koch is a worthy replacement, St. Paul does the usual fine work on guitars, with some great riffs, solid hooks and melodic leads, but Koch has a good range with quite a diverse sounding voice.

Opener "Seal The Light" is traditional power metal, melodic and yet aggressive, a strong chorus and some nice riffs, but it was the second track "Spark To Flame" which drew my attention, built from the same stuff that "Girth" was made off, strong, almost thrashy metal with the right amount of aggression.

"The World" sounded very similar to Nevernore, as did "Dead Faith", same kind of riffing, and Koch sounds amazingly like Warrel Dane, these guys have something going right in here, this is real metal with just the right balance of heaviness and melody.

"Remember To Forget" is again more traditional stuff, a simple and catchy verse with some strong high pitched vocals by Koch. This has a strong 80's metal feel, and a good mid-tempo rhythm. The album ends with one of the more aggressive cuts here, "Despise The Lie" throws in some speed with double bass drumming, with a great lead break in the middle as well.

It's too bad St. Paul doesn’t put more time into this band, three albums in 14 years is not nearly enough for a band of this caliber, that may explain the fact that each release is of such high quality, but I would sure want to hear more from these guys.

Alon Miasnikov



Share |
 
blog comments powered by Disqus