Trollheart

Killing machine/Hell bent for leather --- 1978/1979

While US fans will always know it by the latter name, Priest's fifth album came out under the name of Killing machine over here. You can see, I suppose, why CBS in America was concerned about an album with the UK title, having recently been through a lawsuit that alleged the band's culpability in the suicide of two guys. Though that suit was dismissed, the stigma no doubt hung over the band and they may have been gaining a reputation for being reckless about their lyrics, so to title an album Killing machine might have been a step too far for the touchy-feely American market. Over here, we lapped it up. Maiden had Killers, or soon would have, and English audiences were used to, or becoming used to, the often explicit imagery in Metal. With only the likes of Zep, Purple and BOC to draw their experiences from --- none of whom had really what could be called violent overtones --- a band like Priest was something of a culture shock to America, and they reacted as they usually do, by ensuring the offending article was either banned, protested against or watered down, in this case the last.

But whichever title means the most to you, whichever side of the water you're on, this was the album where Priest ditched entirely the progressive rock influences, and started writing much shorter and tighter songs. They also adopted the leather-and-studs image now forever identified with them, and enshrined too in one of the tracks here, as well as the US title of the album. It still failed to break them in the USA, but that was really more a case of a nation getting used to something new, and in time Americans would rock out and punch the air to the likes of Metallica and Slayer; just right now though, they were still working up to it.

“Delivering the goods” gets us underway, and lays down a marker for the band's new sound as well as roaring their mission statement. Right out of the gate it's a fast, snarly rocker with great boogie guitar from Tipton and thumpalong drumming from Les Binks, who would leave after this album. Halford's voice is darker, deeper and more of a growl at this point, but you can hear the strength in it, being held in check. Great solo and a powerful drumroll bringing this to an end then we're into a real boogie with “Rock forever”. Okay, so the title is hardly original, but then Priest were at this point going for a more commercial line. I find the riff in this very close to “Don't believe a word” by Lizzy, but it's a good rocker for sure. “Evening star” starts off as if it's going to be a ballad but then it turns into a kind of Southern rocker and it's very catchy: I would have said they could have had their first hit single with this, but I don't think it happened.

Kicking the speed right back up then for the title track (if you're in the USA) as “Hell bent for leather” sounds like something Bruce Dickinson must have listened to before cutting the first Maiden album he was involved with. I could hear Di'anno singing this too to be honest. It's a simple song but really gets in there, and there's a warbling guitar solo from Downing that just punches your face in. Then they try to copy Queen with “Take on the world” and to be honest it's a bit of an embarrassment, but if you like metal excess meets power anthem, then it may be for you. Great marching drum beat and a shouted chorus; sure this went down great onstage. Good god, they even use a gong at the end!

“Burnin' up” rides in very slowly, almost forty seconds before it gets going on barking guitar and then just flies along, a real headbanger, menacing vocal from Halford, then the next track is only on the US version and is a Fleetwood Mac cover and is pretty rockin' to be fair. The “other” title track is a stomping, grinding snarler as “Killing machine” keeps things heavy. “Running wild” makes me feel that Maiden really ripped Priest off a lot; this is really like “The Prisoner”. The boys finally take a breather with the only ballad, as “Before the dawn” looks back to some of the material from the first two albums, very pastoral, very progressive rock in its way, nice acoustic guitar and a very melancholy feel to it. The album closes then on “Evil fantasies”, a big growling stomper of a rocker where Judas Priest let their darker side out, and maybe it's a bit of a middle finger to those who don't understand their lyrics. Good ending.

TRACKLISTING

1. Delivering the goods
2. Rock forever
3. Evening star
4. Hell bent for leather
5. Take on the world
6. Burnin' up
7. The green manalishi (with the two-pronged crown)
8. Killing machine
9. Running wild
10. Before the dawn
11. Evil fantasies

It's another good album, but so far, though I haven't necessarily hated anything I've heard, I have not been blown away either. I don't get the same feeling I did when I listened to Maiden, Saxon, Tank, The Tygers or Motorhead the first time. This certainly steps up the gears and unleashes Judas Priest into the world as a leaner, keener, killing machine indeed, but none of these are albums I'd be particularly bothered listening to again. Next!

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Full and fair disclosure: when I was growing up, as most of you know, my tastes were limited and so was my money, so there weren't all that many albums I could buy, which means there was a finite number of albums that really impressed me. This leaves me in something of a quandary, as I find one of the ones that did has already been reviewed but not for Metal Month, so in that spirit I'm going to reprint the odd review here if it's relevant to this section. Being who I am, I couldn't just do that and not say anything and hope nobody would notice. No, I had to create a whole new logo for this. And here it is.

Everyone has heard and knows that one of the major bands that got me into Metal, other than Maiden, was Saxon, and while last year I featured Wheels of Steel and this year could have put in any of their early eighties material, I chose this one, not so much because of how good it is --- it isn't --- but because it perhaps showed at the time that the band were beginning to run a little out of steam, and this would be one of the albums that would sort of nudge me away from Metal for a while and more towards the burgeoning neo-progressive rock music that was coming up with my second-favourite band, Marillon, leading the way.

Even despite its faults though, and if for no other reason than that it is a Saxon album, and they being synonymous with my initial discovery of and love of the genre, this has to be considered part of

Originally posted July 27 2012

1983 saw the release of Saxon's fifth album, as the NWOBHM began to burn itself out, leaving behind some massive piles of cinders, and a few hardened and tempered weapons who would be the mainstay of the metal scene in the eighties and nineties. Saxon of course fell into the latter category, and this album, their biggest selling, was the first to break them in the USA.

Power and the glory --- Saxon --- 1983 (Carrere)


The first album to feature new drummer Nigel Glocker, the sticksman wastes no time establishing himself and setting his mark on this album from the opener, and title track, which rocks along and is a great headbanger, Biff's voice a little less rough and ragged as he began to find his true sound. I suppose if there's one negative thing you could say about Saxon it's that they were unadventurous, as much of each album sounds like the rest, and this, Strong Arm of the Law and Denim and Leather sort of blend together on occasions. But then again, you could also interpret that as the band finding what works, and sticking with it. Sometimes the fans don't want experimentation, don't want change: they know what they like, it works and they want the band to stick with it. Saxon certainly did not disappoint in that regard.

“Redline” is yet another motorbike-themed song, boogieing along with a great southern rock beat somewhat reminscent of “Hungry years” from Strong arm of the law, while “Warrior” pushes in on Manowar's territory, elbowing the Americans aside and showing how it should be done! Great rolling drumbeat from Glocker, hard and fast guitars from messrs. Oliver and Quinn, some great steaming solos and a powerful vocal from Biff. There's something of a change in style then for “Nightmare”, which has almost AOR overtones, though it's still very heavy. Very melodic, could have been good radio fodder. Maybe.

There's nothing outside-the-box though about “This town rocks”, as it powers along on rails of steel, striking sparks as it thunders along, and “Watching the sky” keeps things fast and heavy, with “Midas touch” slowing things down in an almost Iron Maiden ballad style a la “Children of the damned”, with some lovely blues guitar, sliding into a great heavy solo, and finally “The eagle has landed” takes us to the close of the album, with a superb slow cruncher opened by an almost three-minute instrumental, Biff's vocals double or echo-tracked to make them sound a bit psychedlic and weird. It makes a powerful finale to the album though, and in the best tradition of Dio it's a real power stormer.

TRACKLISTING

1. Power and the glory
2. Redline
3. Warrior
4. Nightmare
5. This town rocks
6. Watching the sky
7. Midas touch
8. The eagle has landed

Like I said earlier, this is where I stopped buying Saxon albums, as my tastes began to mature towards more progressive rock and drift away from metal, with bands like Marillion and Pallas coming through, so I really don't know what their releases after this album were like. Fact is, though Power and the glory had broken Saxon in the hard-to-crack USA, subsequent releases, paradoxically more polished and commercialised for the US market, failed to capitalise or improve on that success, and only the next two or three showed any signs of charting, and all in the lower end of the US charts. In the UK, things were just as bad, as fans over this side of the water reacted badly to the “Americanised” Saxon, with album sales suffering. The heady days of the early 80s, when they had enjoyed top ten or twenty positions with their albums for a period lasting about four years, seemed well and truly over.

But chart success is not necessarily the measure of a band, and certainly not a metal one, and Saxon continued churning out albums. They just did it without my involvement. Even now, I have heard the odd album but have never been that totally impressed. It's not that they let me down, or I feel they did, or even that their sound changed that radically, but sometimes, like with Dio, once you lose the initial impetus it's kind of hard to get back. It even happened with Maiden: after Brave New World, with the euphoria of Bruce's return wearing off, I found subsequent releases not really up to scratch. Of course, this year changed all that, but that's a story for later in the month.

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Speaking of Iron Maiden...


30 “Childen of the damned” (from The Number of the Beast)

Given that this was my first Maiden album, I found it a big surprise that the second track was a ballad! Starts off with a sort of acoustic guitar run and a low vocal from Bruce, although it does get harder and tougher for the chorus, but then just as you think it might be about to take off, it slips back to that gentle guitar. It's only when it gets about halfway through that you realise it IS going to pick up and speed along, ending in a big powerful scream from Bruce.

I like this track for various reasons. As I said, it's the first indication I had that Maiden, or any metal band given that they were my very first such, could even be interested in doing slower songs (even if this one did kick balls in the end) and also, I know the book on which the song is based, John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos, so that helped, in the same way that being a fan of the TV show helped me appreciate “The Prisoner”, which came next, all the more. Also I think this was the first time I experienced Dickinson's trademark scream. No, wait: I had heard “Run to the hills”, hadn't I? Oh well, it's still a good story.

29 “Blood brothers” (from Brave New World)
Reminds me a little of both the title track to Fear of the Dark and Afraid to shoot strangers (is there any significance that both those songs are on the one album?) but not only that, it reaffirms the committment of Bruce to the band. It's like he's saying I've been away but I realise this is the place I belong. A better metal anthem it would be hard to find.

28 “To tame a land” (from Piece of Mind

Although I never read the books, I of course knew about Frank Herbert's “Dune” series, but the fact that, quite in contrast to Patrick McGoohan when asked for permission to pay homage to him, Herbert outright refused to let the band call the song “Dune”, leaving them with a rather more esoteric title for the closing track on their fourth album irks me. I mean, why not? Cos the cunt “doesn't like rock bands, especially heavy metal bands, especially Iron Maiden”? Self-important, pompous fucker.

Nevertheless, they made a great song out of it, with great sound effects like breathing and those slightly alien horn/whistling effects at the start, and despite Herbert's blocking of their using the name they used terms from his book. Let him ram that up his ignorant arse. Great closer to the album and it fades out just as it should.

27 “The Prisoner” (from The Number of the Beast

In a total reversal of the reception received by the boys above, star Patrick McGoohan, the very “Prisoner” himself, loved the idea and told the guys to go for it, and we end up with a powerful, slightly paranoid (as it should be) ode to the classic cult sci-fi TV series, with a great hook and a clip from the show to start it off. Not, to be fair, the greatest Iron Maiden song ever written, but it's great fun, and fits in nicely with the darker mood of the album overall, also the idea of things being controlled, directed by an unknown outside agency.

26 “Prodigal son” (from Killers)

Yes, don't worry: there are Di'Anno era songs in the list. I'm hardly going to ignore the band's beginnings just because I prefer their later stuff, now am I? This song featured in last year's list, “Before the Beast”, though of course that was only a top ten and restricted to the first two albums, so consequently this song came higher in that list. Still, I think, given that it's not my alltime favourite Di'anno era song it's done quite well. One of the first proper ballads from Maiden, following “Strange world” from the debut, I've never quite been able to make out what it's about, but it has a lovely rolling rhythm to it, and I think much of it is played on acoustic guitar. Di'Anno, to be fair, puts in a star performance, toning his usual more guttural vocal down to ease us along in the song, and it's good too that there is no actual resolution to the dilemma proposed when he sings “I'm on my knees, help me please. Oh Lamia please try to help me: the devil's got hold of my soul and he won't let me be.” I like too that it ends on exactly the same guitar phrase as it begins.


25 “Holy smoke” (from No Prayer for the Dying)

The main thing I love about this song is the humour that Maiden poke at organised religion, and one would assume, primarily Catholicism, with the idea taken up by Genesis and others of sticking it to televangelists, and the usage of the title to predict what is going to happen to those men of the cloth who fail to carry out their work in a genuine way --- “Holy smoke, plenty bad preachers for the devil to stoke” --- puts the cherry on top. I love how Bruce takes (without any disrespect) the persona of God, or Jesus, as he declaims against those who are perverting his word. The manic glee with which Maiden snap at religion here --- and we all know how well metal and the Church have got on down the decades! --- is almost cathartic. When Bruce sings “I've lived in filth, I've lived in sin and it still smells cleaner than the shit you're in!” I can't help but grin. I'm sure the BBC would have banned this if they could, but by now it's too late and the internet is king.

24 “Only the good die young” (from Seventh Son of a Seventh Son)

We had the opener from this album, and the closer ain't bad either. It's just kind of ... most of what's in between doesn't really do it for me. But this is a great song, powering along on a strong percussion line from Nicko and driven by the twin guitars, a real breath-taker. I like how it starts almost as if it's coming direct from another track, it's not too long and Bruce squeezes every ounce of menace out of his voice in this finale to the album. The little coda of “Seven deadly sins” that originally opened the album is a great touch.

23 “Flight of Icarus” (from Piece of Mind)

This one gets a lot of stick, but it's a favourite of mine. Yes, they totally fuck up the legend of Daedalus and Icarus, making the father out to be evil, but so what? It's got a killer guitar opening, it has a huge Dickinson scream at the end, it's great fun and it was yet another excuse to hear Maiden on the radio and see them on TV. What more could you want?

22 “22 Acacia Avenue” (from The Number of the Beast)

Love the opening chugging guitar that just keeps going as Bruce's vocal comes in, and we're told this is the sequel to the far inferior “Charlotte the harlot” from the debut album. Maiden get a lot of props from me for this, because as I mentioned before, they take an atypical view of prostitution here. While most bands --- certainly most metal ones --- would be leering and laughing, perhaps considering punishment for the “whore”, having fallen so low, Maiden take a more sympathetic view, and in fact the song is about trying to get Charlotte to “Give up all this mad life” and come away with him. A metal band making an honest woman out of a hooker? That's what makes this song what it is, and why I rate it so highly. Not to mention the superb guitar solos at the end.

21 “Another life” (from Killers)

From the rolling drum intro to the screaming guitars that join it, to that hammerpunch ending, this is a great example of what Di'Anno could do when he put his mind to it. Killers is a great album, but there are some duff tracks on it, to my mind. This isn't one of them; while at the same not being close to my favourite on it, it's still worthy of inclusion reasonably high.

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The Batlord

Yeah, that's so much less condescending. I love Maiden, but this song is kind of out of touch in 2015.


And "Hellbent for Leather" has so much more personality as an album title than something as generic as "Killing Machine".

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Trollheart

Well so is a lot of Maiden's music now, but this was pretty progressive, lyrically speaking, in 1982.
Yeah but it's so gay. I mean, could it be any more gay?

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The Batlord

And yet it's still more badass than Killing Machine.

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What artiste do you think least inspires a metal cover? Well, tons probably, but given the fact that they were the mainstay of the disco ,movement in the seventies, I think The Bee Gees qualify to be right there at the front of the queue. And so do these guys, who have built a semi-career on metalling up their music.

We Rock Sweet Balls and Can Do No Wrong --- Tragedy --- 2008

With a new album in the pipeline for this year (the video released from it lampoons the Grease hit by Olivia Newton-John and John Travlota, “You're the one that I want”) Tragedy have released four albums, of which this was their debut. Not all of them feature music by the Bee Gees, but most do, and those that don't tackle the soft-pop/disco music of other artistes such as Neil Diamond, ABBA and KC and the Sunshine Band. They also number a Barry Gibb in their ranks, but although this would be hilarious, I've checked his Wiki page and find no reference to Tragedy (other than the song of course) so must conclude the guy here is just using his name or, perhaps in a staggering coincidence, it's his real name. Either way, they're a five-piece (unless you count “Lance: towel boy, complete idiot”), most of whom use or have a variation on a Bee Gees name --- Andy “Gibbous” Waning, The Lord Gibbeth, Mo'Royce Peterson etc --- and all of whom, of course, sing lead vocals. Sounds like this could be a blast.

Great guitar boogie and then a voice which may not be as high as the original (could anyone be?) but he gives it a go. No idea who's singing of course, but it's really funny. The fast percussion really works. Definite feel of G&R covering this. Great ending and into “Jive talkin'” as you've never heard it before. Big hammering guitar before we move into the main riff, though we only get the main keyboard motif once, which is a pity. Supplemented with a great guitar solo though, so I'll forgive them. Okay, we get it twice; it's also right at the end. Now this is going to be interesting: “How deep is your love” gets another punching guitar makeover and there is of course nothing of the soft, sweet orchestral keyboard from the original; it's like they're kicking and battering it and dragging it through the muck. Lovely.

Some very good vocal harmonies, as I guess you'd expect, but Tragedy really hit their stride in the midsection of this song, and although it's nothing like the slushy ballad it originated as, it's not unrecognisable. Not quite. Great guitar riff to close and we're into “You should be dancing”. Oh this is going to be good. With a power metal march and squealing guitars we suddenly get quite a falsetto vocal (fair play to whoever is taking the mike at this point) and we get a real fretfest in the middle which really rocks the song up. You should be headbanging, perhaps? There's a great guitar-backed section then in the third minute (this version runs for over seven!) which sounds somehow ominous, and then shouted group vocals “Dance!” and then we get a Black Metalesque oration, firmly in its mouth. This is fucking incredible. Dance to the apocalypse. Fuck, yeah! Definite standout so far. It even ends on the riff from “Iron Man”. Unbe-fucking-lievable!

I actually don't know “Our love – don't throw it away”, but it seems to be a ballad and they actually use the piano here, courtesy of Disco Mountain Man, then Mo'Royce Peterson's guitar snarls in and it takes off, a power ballad with real power! Maybe a little too long at just over six minutes, but done very well. Seems like they're putting in a Southern Boogie style guitar solo here at the end. Now that's how to do it! And just when you think it's ending on a soft little guitar riff, they throw in a power chord to bring it to a shuddering close. “More than a woman” thunders along on the guitar, with those great vocal harmonies and then we get one of the centrepieces surely, as they attack “Night fever” with a will. Big roaring guitar and a howling vocal before the song explodes all over the place with a real Iron Maiden feel and a cool solo from Peterson. “Shadow dancing” is, unfortunately, the other track on the album I don't know, so I can't really comment on it, other than to say it's a good guitar boogie with the vocal more or less back in Axl Rose territory.

Meh, it's okay but I would rather have had, I don't know, maybe “You win again” or something. Anyway we're now into “Too much Heaven”, which gets a total power ballad treatment, with a “Kashmir”-like rising guitar intro that somehow they make fit into the melody of the song. Fucking brilliant. Sitar-like guitar in the middle eighth and a group vocal chorus, be interesting to see if they can hit the high note at the end. Well, fuck me! They did! Back into “Kashmir” for the ending. We close, on what else but “Tragedy” itself, driven on a busy guitar line which does manage to capture the slightly manic sense of the original song as it rises, rises and rises in intensity and the guys certainly rise to the occasion. Superb. What a finish!

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Stayin' alive
2. Jive talkin'
3. How deep is your love?
4. You should be dancing
5. Our love – don't throw it away
6. More than a woman
7. Night fever
8. Shadow dancing
9. Too much Heaven
10. Tragedy

It's hard to know whether these guys are poking fun at The Bee Gees or actually like them and want to record their music. They certainly remain true as they can to the originals, while still putting their own metal slant on them, with at times hilarious results. Whether they have just found a niche they can exploit, or are really trying to start a new subgenre, it would seem that on the basis of this and presumably the rest of their albums, which I intend to explore in due course, the phenomenon of what they term themselves on their fourth album, disco-metal, is here to stay!

And I couldn't be happier!

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So for once we've actually had a proper band that has a career and though they were not the kind of music I would prefer, at least they weren't some scrotes with a three-track demo from Upper Volta. Let's see what kind of luck we have this week as we take our second trip into


Well, well, well! Looks like we're back to normal. What was that I said about demos? These guys have them, and three of them, but only up as far as 2006, with no albums, and with a name like that I am not going searching for them on YouTube; doubt I'd find them anyway but the idea of what I might stumble across (shudder!) --- no way man. Oh, they're from Brazil in case you were wondering.

On we go then.

Across the road, it would seem, to Chile.

That somewhat hard to read logo says Perverze, and yes, they're split up and have a demo tape. Gods of Metal, take pity on me! Third time lucky then...


Noisegrind eh? Sounds enchanting. Well, at least they have an album. Three, in fact. Guess we're looking into them then.

Name: Knelt Rote (don't ask me!)
Nationality: American
Subgenre: Black Metal/Noisegrind (oh joy!)
Born: 2008
Lineup: Gordon Ashworth (Vocals, Guitar)
Lucas Danner (Guitars)
Kevin Schreutelkamp (Bass, Vocals)
Elias Bloch (Drums)
Albums: From without (2008), Insignificance (2010) and Trespass (2012)
Live albums: None
Compilations/Anthologies/Boxets: None

There isn't too much information I can get on these guys, but from the description of their music I think it may be a short review. However I'm told their early albums were a mixture of “power electronics” (whatever that may be) and noisegrind, while the later ones see a move towards a fusion of noisegrind and black metal. Oddly enough, perhaps, it's that one, their most recent, that I'm going for.

Trespass --- Knelt Rote --- 2012 (Nuclear War Now! Productions)

Several reasons I've gone for this. First, I don't know what power electronics is but looking at the lengths of the tracks (all in the one to two minute range) I feel it may be pretty brutal and hard to even get any sort of idea as to what the music is like. The middle album has a track on it that is fourteen minutes long, and finally this is the only one that comes up on YouTube, Spotify and GPM both hiding and shaking their heads and asking me to please go away when I type the name in. So this is the one, like it or not, that we're stuck with, but in any case if I have to listen to any of Knelt Rote's albums, I would probably have ended up choosing this one.

Well we kick off with “Usurpation”, and it's the standard hammering of black metal guitars and a dark, scratchy voice probably reading a bus timetable or something (no lyrics available). I can hear the occasional riff makes its way through the general noise but there's nothing to write about as such, so far anyway. “Hunger” is pretty much more of the same, with a rather disturbing and disgusting noise at the end, like someone with a bad cold snuffling. Yuck. The next track is slower, more grindy and favours the bludgeoning approach rather than the stab-n-slash of the first two tracks, though “Passenger” does quicken its tempo about halfway through. That nasty sound is at the end of this one too.

“Succumb” is just a wall of noise, and there's nothing more I can tell you about that, while it battered into following track “Compress” and continued without my even realising we had switched tracks, so that tells you all you need to know. At least “Identical” does not live up to its name, opening with sound effects and then a slow, doomy, sullen guitar riff. It would need to be a little different, as it runs for almost eight fucking minutes! This slow grind lasts for about three minutes, so that's not bad, but then the next four are spent in faster thrash with attendant growls, so we're back to normal it would seem. Luckily for me, this leaves only two tracks, one of which is short, one of which is not.

“Interlude” has a nice sound to the title, and has a relatively restrained and atmospheric guitar opening, and in fact compared to the music Knelt Rote have been assaulting me with since this album began, it's mnelodic and even relaxing, with I think no vocals, which in this case is certainly a plus. As I said, it's short --- at least, in comparison to the closer --- at just over three minutes, while the last nail in the coffin comes in the six-minute-plus form of “Catalepsy”, as the band return to the pummelling attack they seem so used to. There is something of a guitar break in the second minute, but it doesn't last, and the overall effect is of being chopped to death by whirling helicopter rotor blades.

While someone screams gibberish at you.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Usurpation
2. Hunger
3. Passenger
4. Succumb
5. Compress
6. Identical
7. Interlude
8. Catalepsy

Nothing to say really: mostly just noise and anger and aggression and power. I can't even give them a pass based on their lyrics, as I did with Exhumed, because I can't find any. Just not for me, not even with my newfound semi-appreciation of black metal. If this is noisegrind, then file it away with grindcore under the heading DANGER: DO NOT LISTEN IF YOU ARE TROLLHEART!

I don't do half cleavers, so it gets a very grudging

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Meh, at least we weren't pussied into changing the title. I mean, what is it with America? You're one of the most powerful countries with some of the most violent people in history, and yet you cringe and worry that a title sounds too dark on a metal album? Hell Bent for Leather sounds like it should be the name of a gay club, or a BDSM club. Or a gay BDSM club. I'd be embarrassed asking for an album with that title!

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Another interesting album released in March is this one by a band who, though they're called Viking, are in fact thrash metal. Hmm. Read on...

No Child Left Behind --- Viking --- 2015

Introduction: I don't know if this is the longest a band has gone between albums, but it certainly must be up there among them, as this is Viking's third album, their previous having been released in 1989! That makes a staggering twenty-six years between albums! Some bands don't even last that long. So what have they been doing in the meantime?

Track-by-track

1. 9:02 on Flight 182: Is this a reference to one of the planes from 9/11? Starts with control tower chatter and such, but then the vocalist is singing about 1978, so I guess not. Heavy, pounding track with a fast, rapid-fire delivery at times on the vocal. It's energetic, passionate, but I'd just say all right; nothing that makes me gasp “Where have these guys been all my life?”
2. By the brundlefly: Huh? What's a brundlefly? Well anyway, good driving rhythm that really makes you want to headbang (if only I had more hair!) and certainly has thrash written all over it. Other than that though, meh. Again nothing that gets me particularly wet.
3.Blood eagle:Okay, now this is a great title for a band whose name is Viking. We all know what the Blood Eagle is, right? Well the song rockets along and as you would probably expect has a lot of anger and menace in it, especially in the guitars and the hammering drumbeat.
4. Debt to me: Feel there's a mix of Metallica and Maiden in here. Still not all that terribly impressed though I have to say.
5. An ideal opportunity: Went by without my even noticing. That cannot be good.
6. Eaten by a bear: Like this better. Has a great riff and drives along really well. Great title too. Sort of a moaning, droning, lamenting vocal. I love when he sings “Please don't eat me!”
7. Wretched old Mildred: About a witch? Well it has a nice grindy feel about it and I like the way he sings the chorus. Other than that, it's not too different from the rest of the tracks here.
8. A thousand reasons I hate you: I love this! The lyric is fucking immense! “I hate the way you look and I hate the way you blink, I hate the way you talk too much and I hate the way you think!” Absolutely hilarious. One of the best tracks here. Great aggression but with a large side order of humour to go. Brilliant.
9. Helen behind the door: Meh. Too long by far at six minutes for what it is. Gets very wearing after two.
10. Burning from within: Okay, they're obviously just having fun here but it's a headbangfest and little else. Meh.

Conclusion: It's okay I guess but if I had heard my favourite band was coming back on the scene with a new album after a quarter century absence, I don't think I'd be too impressed after listening to this. For diehard fans of Viking only, I would suspect.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018