This is a second album by a US band labelled as NWOBHM (?!) and Doom. When I first spun this, I can see where this comes from, it’s more like British traditional metal (to give a more recent reference look to Yorkshire’s Hamerex) and the doom elements coincide with some latter Trouble and various periods of Ozzy and Tony Martin era Sabbath. Although overall the more momentous tracks are like Helstar/Destiny’s End, but that’s mainly due to the uncanny similarity of Jeff Neal’s vocals that compare to Helstar’s James Rivera.
‘Warlord’ has a shaky start to the album, it doesn’t sit you in a comfortable place as if trying to find the right balance, but when the bands signature tune ‘Dogbane’ plays, there is much more control and you can get a clearer understanding of where this band are coming from. Sometimes I have found on certain sound systems, the top end of the guitars need a touch more filtering, the shriek is sometimes painful in some quarters and this also contributes to the loss of vocal and drum sound, especially with a thin snare sound present anyway. ‘Calm Before the Swarm’ will get your doom heads grooving and tapping along to the style later in the tune but for complete immersion in this field, ‘Devil by the Horns’ is another full slab of such enjoyable combinations you should hear. It is this combination that works out best as I listen to the entire album as the sound is earthier, less top end like the closer ‘Sands of Time’, that I find a little Danzig sounding with now expected over emphasis on vocal vibrato.
The album sounds a lot like the bands that were hanging onto this style in the late 90’s, musically I like what I hear, although nothing ground-breaking, but the downside for me is the production and mix that ensures a little lack lustre listen, which is unkind to the music in fairness.
(6/10 Paul Maddison)
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