Spookily, along with fellow Canadians Riot City who Traveler recently toured Europe alongside, their debut self-titled release was my joint top album of last year. Unfortunately, like many, this tour was halted by Covid-19. As I witnessed them previously in Germany and very recently in the UK, their live show captures an amazing sense of energy, it’s an art to try to get that on record. With ‘Termination Shock’ the songs have done this. I will say that the mix and production is a touch thin in places, but the musicians themselves provide a great wealth of heavy metal, traditional in its form with many facets of speed thrown in. There has been much more of a collaboration this time around, a couple of other band members have added songs, whilst vocalist Jean-Pierre Abboud (Gatekeeper) added lyrics to all bar one. Deaf Dealer were a classic Canadian band I really enjoy (‘Keeper of the Flame’ is one my favourite albums), bestowed a song upon Traveler (“STK”), and the track itself is thus Traveler-ized!
The opening track ‘Shaded Mirror’ does do the album justice, its fast, riff orientated and cool. However, a track like ‘Foreverman’ really displays character and musical expression. There is plenty of light and shade and in the softer sections; the vocals really show their strength. The other track I have really found favour with is the following one, ‘Diary of a Maiden’. For this, the arrangement is varied and gives you a good feeling of anticipation wondering what will come next, as it’s clear it is not all meat and potatoes speed. The guitar trading riffs and solos are very pleasing.
Moving through the album, it grows on you further. When I mentioned the production quality earlier, I did not take into account the warmth of the songs themselves. Therefore, as we go deeper, the album sits more comfortably into a real metal assault fitting to their live gig stance. Dylan Barstad completed the artwork, perfectly capturing Traveler’s world with the album title provided by bassist Dave Arnold.
There is a definite buzz around this band, it’s exciting, fresh and delivers on those famous influences I hold dear in terms of traditional metal. Canada do have some of the finest bands in metal, Traveler are easily in the top half of this pack. ‘Termination Shock’ is fun and exciting outer space traditional metal!
(8/10 Paul Maddison)
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