2008-05-24
These Scottish metalheads are mad, it's quite obvious.
Apart from that, the band they reminded me the most was Canada's 3 Inches Of Blood, but something in the music made me think this is actually better – sure, they have about a tenth of the recoding budget 3 Inches Of Blood had, but the music is better, the vocals are better, and their balls are bigger (metaphorically speaking).
Though the cover, which looks like something off an underground 80's metal album, and the evident lack of funds may turn some people off, I would strongly suggest both fans of traditional 80's metal and more open-minded current metal fans to give these guys a listen. From the opener – The Whirlpools Of Hades it's quite clear this is going to be good: Strong guitar riffs, thundering drums, a solid bass underline, and tremendous Halford-like high-pitched vocals interwoven with deep, growled ones.
The best thing about the band is the overall sense of fun in the album, they don't take themselves too seriously so it doesn't come off as pretentious, yet it's well-played and well written enough not to be considered as camp or parody, it's just their version of traditional 80's metal brought kicking and screaming into contemporary metal.
The sound, courtesy of Annihilator's Jeff Waters certainly helps, it also serves as quite a surprise since according to the cover and booklet you'd expect a poor sounding self releases sound. It definitely elevates a track such as the title track, where things take a turn for melodic thrash as the background for the great vocals.
A bit more about the vocals – the high-pitched ones are among the best I've heard in a long time, this guy is on-par with "Ripper" Owens as far as I'm concerned – while not being as annoying as that guy from 3 Inches Of Blood.
To sum things up - get yourself this album, it's melodic enough, heavy enough and just plain good enough for any self-respecting metalhead.
Alon Miasnikov
