Ancillotti – Strike Back – Pure Steel Records

Sophomore Heavy Metal attack.

This second album of the Italian Ancilloti is a mix of heavy metal and hard rock in the vein of the classic bands of the style, sounding more Germanic than Italian, but as a European band I believe that it sounds right.

Ancillotti shows that their potential sometimes is obscured by the production which sounds shabby for the kind of sound they try to do: I mean, the compositions are really good, the musicianship as the soloing are very good as well, I cannot complain, but sometimes it sounds mudded by subpar mixing and mastering.

To Hell with you and Immortal Idol show this kind of approach where the feeling of rock n roll is alive and heavy metal runs rampant with riffs of pure ode to heavy metal, and solos that are screaming to traditional ears.

Fight roars the metalheads to fight in the name of the rock. Hell yeah, I’m totes into that battle. Over again the guitars here are the main course as well as the refrain!

Firestater is more of a hardrocker, good song, forged in the fires of the 1980’s, not impressive really, but the guys have the guts to try their hands on that!

As the album oscillates in this fair balance between rockers and steels, there is one rotten apple called Lonely Road. It remembers Saxon’s worst moments, and the voice of our hero here, Daniele “Bud” Ancillotti (Strana Officina) doesn’t work very well, really and it sounds a little corny.

Life is for living compensates for the aforementioned mistake and is certain hit! Although there is only one problem, it doesn’t sound as heavy as it is intended.

The drumming of Brian Ancillotti is totally correct and hard but, over again it sounds inoffensive in the final mix.

This album needs one thing: a REMASTERING. It’s just been released, but they should consider this kind of approach should they have the opportunity to do so.

Strike Back is a good metal album that will get the old schoolers of trad metal by the balls, I’m certain of that!

Strike Back is being released TODAY via Pure Steel Records.

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(Daniel “Roderick” Death)

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Omen – Hammer Damage – Pure Steel Records

The cult from US never dies. Power Metal at its best.

Nostalgic people don’t be sad. Omen is back and with a great power metal opus! Consisting of 9 tracks of pure old school metal, the band delivers what is best in the world of true metal music.

Many people will say that it’s just a bunch of old acts trying to sound old in a time that old is wanted. That’s the whole truth, nobody has illusions about that but it’s where the charm resides as well.

Hammer Damage and Chaco Canyon starts the binge of pure power metal mania, showing that the true is still alive. For those who don’t know, Omen is no new band trying to sound old. They are old, trying to sound themselves.

The best track is Cry Havoc with an intricate sound, it’s not catchy and that’s exactly what caught me:  Strange tempos at behest of originality in an old but efficient infrastructure.

Another great track is Era of Crisis, a sound to be remembered. Strong guitar attacks although the production sounds somewhat modest, but really, who cares? The real metallers don’t go for that!

The track A.F.U is a prodigious instrumental tune with like one thousand solos, that kind of heavy metal that lives up to its name.

Hammer Damage by Omen is a force to be reckoned with. If you doubt just take a heed, if you don’t like it a poser you are dear Sir.

Hammer Damage  is out now on Pure Steel Records.  

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(Daniel “Roderick” Death)

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Warrant – Metal Bridge – PURE STEEL RECORDS

The teutonic attack of evil never stops!

Heavy Metal band Warrant (not to be confused with the more famous hair band from Los Angeles) is not here for jokes! Their sound is a professional and solid heavy fucking metal, no mixtures, no poserness, no trends!!

Of course they are no comers in this game: their beginnings date back to 1985, in the golden era of Central Europe metal, when every band was a good surprise.

The very core of Sturm und Drang of Teutonic Heavy Metal seems to have survived all fads from the eras, and it sounds like as Warrant never really stopped as they are still here with full energy to deliver the true metal!

Metal Bridge has a myriad of cult tracks starting with the pedal-to-the-metal attitude of Asylum which showcases a power/speed metal with vocals a la Biff Byford.

The song Come and Get and Get it is really sticky! Man this is the pure strength of steel.

You Keep me in Hell doesn’t stop the massacre and you just can imagine what happens when the other tracks come.

But one of my very faves is Don’t Get mad Get Even with a syncopated drum, lashings of rusty riffs and a bass from hell that gives place to legendary guitars.

This album has 15 tracks, but it never ceases to amuse me with the pure heavy metal attitude. Too bad they carry a name that won’t do them any favor… They should change it in order to get their own cult following.

Metal Bridge is out now on PURE STEEL RECORDS

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(Daniel “Roderick” Death)

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Blood & Iron – Voices Of Eternity – Pure Steel Records

Prog from India.

I don’t always look for India to find my metal but when I do, I don’t. Jokes apart it is very interesting to discover that the subcontinent is producing metal bands and the scenario is alive there.

The problem here comes back to the joke: If I was looking for a band of this type of metal I would try to find them in Europe, US and even Brazil, because it seems that Blood & Iron (not to be confused with the National Socialist band of the same name) are just trying to ape the greater names of the style. Well imitation is a form of flattering in this author’s opinion but let’s plunge in the problems (and possible solutions of this album )

The band has excellent songs, but somewhat they can’t execute them: the vocalist is very good indeed, but the ebbs and flows in the instrumental part just make the abyss of the quality of the singer and the other guys apparent!

For example in the first track, called Eternal Rites with a very hard prog form of music, the band simply doesn’t connect the dots, and this is not because of the production that, although has its flaws it’s not entirely responsible for the  wrongdoings.

Checking out the second track one will find the very same problem: ordinary instrumentation making the background for the great vocalist. That is not to say that even though these flaws they have some helluva compositions. From the third track onward everything sounds repetitive.

The problem here is very simple to be detected and thus solved: the band is playing one kind of music and the vocalist is singing another: try to imitate their heroes of Kamelot or Symphony-X will never do them any favor, unless they dedicate a great deal of their time playing their instruments. So what’s the solution? Try to perceive the limitations and redo the compositions in a form of rougher metal, like speed metal for example. Then, and just then, everything will be equalized. While they continue to try to sound like the great names of worldwide scene they won’t stand a chance and they will be forgotten by the millions of band that are trying to do the same sound at this very moment. Even thought I’d invest in these guys in the future!

Voices Of Eternity is out now on Pure Steel Records.

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(Daniel Death)

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Space Eater – Passing Through The Fire Of Molech – Pure Steel Records

Serbian Thrash Powerhouse!

When I first heard of them I thought it was another Germanic Power Metal band, for they named their band with a Gamma Ray’s song of the very same name.  How wrong I was!

Space Eater is a brutal thrash metal attack from Balkans with a taste for North-American thrash godfathers! This album is insanely great!

Opener Unjagged shows its fangs with pure massacre metal that will leave the most experienced thrashers in awe. Their sound is actually attractive, heavier than one thousand anvils and the vocals are a blend of harsh angry bellows and melodic hookers borrowed from traditional metal although the velocity of the quasi-death metal act seems to deny this!

After this fiery first song, another, better, follows: Passing Through the Fire to Molech is the epitome of rapid speed thrash metal massacre which is impossible to ignore. Destructive riffs and drums fills shows that Space Eater is no less than PERFECT. They play with brio, an ardor for heaviest pre-emptive strikes to kill the reckless. Excellent riffs and great taste for velocity.

Other numbers like the gooey Daisy Cutter, another violent approach leaving no prisoners, the fervor of P.O.W. (with its cutting edge solos) or the great Ninja Assassin leaves me in awe on how a band can create a sequence of songs, one better than another!!!

But the icing in the cake is the last song In Hospital that is their greatest tune.

Space Eater has released one of the greatest (if not the greatest) thrash metal albums of 2014. This is a deed that shall empower them to take place in great festivals across Europe and in North America as well. I hope that occurs because this is a rare example on how to make a band sound perfect in an era that everything else is imperfect!!!! I just fell in love!

Passing Through The Fire Of Molech is out now on Pure Steel Records

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(Daniel Death)

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Project Terror – Conquistador – Pure Steel Records

Hey kids, this is Heavy Metal!!!!

The Texan band Project Terror presents their debut Conquistador, a great opus of the so called New wave of American Heavy Metal but one can perceive freshmen they are not because the band counts with the voice of Ronnie Stixx who handled the vocal duties of the American legends Vicious Rumors between 2007 and 2009, and he and guitarist Ian Rendawn are from a progressive band called Divine Ruins.

The sound here is a pure analog Heavy Metal with no traces of “future” in their sound, it seems that everything, from production to the gear, resides in the 1980’s!

First song Breaking the Spell is a solid Heavy Metal number, American way (all the way) with strong bonds to the North American steel that many thought it was dead and gone.

More enticing is the second number called Conquistador, what a heaviest metal dude, the vocals are a blast from the past and the impeccable solos shows that true heavy metal is not dead yet. Indeed it will live forever and ever… Wow.

Day of the Jackal is legit stuff, no bullshit, no false metal, no modern crap! They manage to keep the album at high octane with this one, what a excellent heavy metal tune… This sound keeps me thinking that if the word “Heavy Metal” wasn’t so often misunderstood for some crap like maggosts and juggalos, the world would be a better place to live. The screams here are deafening and high-pitched. The “groove” (aheeeeeeeem) is so intense that it’s impossible to not bang your head.

Killing Machine is like a segue and brings pure Metal rage to the front with double vocals delivering waves of real deal sensations!!!!

The other songs follow suit and you can add to them different but subtle nuances like changes of tempo, ballad-like intros, but the song remains the same.

Conquistador is an underrated album that deserves to be heard by truest headbangers across the world. So listen to it and spread the word of the true heavy metal credo!

Conquistador is out now on Pure Steel Records.

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(Daniel Death)

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Sunless Sky – Firebreather – Pure Steel Records

Where were the good ideas gone?

Sunless Sky is an American entity and this is their debut album. The musicians seem to have had experience in the unknown death metal bands and now they called a guy called Juan Ricardo to be their frontman. But is it really a good idea to release an album just for the sake of it?

It seems that Pure Steel gave them the opportunity to distribute their album, and it’s really strange why a European label would pick an adventurous Heavy Metal band from America, but that is anyone’s guess.

The error here starts with the terrible coverart, a bad-photoshopped baby spitting fire seems fit for the album title however it is really one of the worst art I’ve seen this year, honestly.

But the problems don’t stop here of course.

The sterile sound of Sunless Sky packed in 14 tracks and 60 minutes of uninspired music destroys the day of everyone.

Their sound is Power Metal and they seem happy to photocopy every cliché of the style, put up some screaming vocals for the sake of scream, and by the fifth song it starts to get on one’s nerves.

Particularly bad is the track Pandemonium that is the epitome of everything that SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN MADE in this kind of music.

The other tracks, of course follow suit, with uninspired riffs, uninspired solos, uninspired production, uninspired all.

I recommend this to my enemies to suffer in hell. Listen to it by your own account. You’ve been warned.

Firebreather is out now on Pure Steel Records.

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(Daniel Death)

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Ichabod Krane – Day Of Reckoning – Pure Steel Records

Good American Metal, but not excellent.

ICHABOD KRANE debuts with their album Day of Reckoning featuring members of Detroit cult Halloween and Sleepy Hollow as well as Wülfhook, a 40-minute CD containing 10 tracks of traditional heavy metal done in the pure American way.

Although the album has some great songs, like the first one, Dark Valentine, which brings a packed heavy metal with good solos and 1980’s vocals by Jeff “Sling” Schlinz (a thing that will let the fans of this kind of music crazy because he is a good voice of the style), the album has its ebbs and flows like in the song Nothing without You, an unnecessary and kitsch ballad, and one and another bad moment.

Thankfully they return to form in the great track Struggle Within that’s a hymn of the underground heavy metal persuasion with the high-pitched vocals and all the brouhaha.

Another great song is Immortal: sung with gusto and with riffs that is the legitimate thing.

Day of Reckoning is not a breakthrough album by any means, but it will satisfy purists elsewhere.

DAY OF RECKONING is out now on Pure Steel Records.

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(Daniel Death)

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Zarpa – Bestias Del Poder – Pure Steel Records

Classic Spanish band is back with a new album.

For those about to rock, Zarpa is no new band, because their debut was in the distant year of 1978 (being one of the oldest heavy metal bands in the world). After the debut EP, two albums came in the 1980’s: ¿Ángeles o Demonios? (1983) and Herederos de un Imperio (1984). The band seemed to fold but they returned in 2000 with a full length and have been fully active ever since.

This new album brings the traditional Zarpa sound (although they failed to produced a breakthrough, they fell into the category of “classic metal”), with pure steel and blast from the past.

Songs like EL REINO DE LA VERDAD showcases a pure Germanic feeling a la Accept and it’s impossible to not be touched by the sincerity of their pure heavy metal sound with truest guitars and genuine energy!

Besides, a song like DENTRO DE TI, DENTRO DE MI doesn’t fail to deliver the purest traditional rock n roll with hight pitched guitar solos, screaming along with a plain rhythmic guitar and rhythmic session!

JAQUE AL REY is another indefectible heavy metal anthem of European proportions!!! No fillers here dude!

The problem is the very language: I never thought that Spanish was a good language for heavy metal because it’s very mellifluous and somewhat betrays all the heaviness that is behind the lyrics, mainly when one can understand the words (because Spanish is very alike my native language which is Portuguese).

Aside of that, Zarpa is a force to be reckoned with, as they’ve proven for years of service to real heavy metal, so if you’re in for the classical and real deal, this is the way to go!

Bestias Del Poder is out now on Pure Steel Records.

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(Daniel Death)

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Death Dealer – War Master – Pure Steel Records

Dealing death with Heavy Metal.

Death Dealer is a band that has Ross the Boss and the guy who played drums was Rhino (which I believe is not in the band anymore) and if you simply don’t know who these guys are, stop reading this review now and go back to your pseudo-metal bands. POSEUR!!!

This CD, War Master was originally released last year, but now it’s receiving a new edition by Pure Steel Records, and as long as I’m not used to review re-releases, this one deserves to be reviewed (and re-listened) because this is simply one of the most extreme heavy metal albums (and by extreme I’m not inferring death metal or black or grind) of the 2000’s and 2010’s… This is what SUPPOSED to be HEAVY METAL, but for some reason posers always try to put the truest bands down, but they will not destroy the absolute straight of Death Dealer.

The first track takes the name of the band, and man, the guitar are really “up-tuned”, they spit fire with high pitched licks and the vocals of Sean Peck is so shrill that makes the eardrums bleed with pure force of heavy metal from hell! The song structure is simply perfect, the singalong chorus just adds insult to injury and the whole mass of noisy production is a kick in the face of those who play false metal!!!! Believe me, this is the ultimate true band in the world!

Another great song is Warmaster that has a war-like (duh) feeling to it, really bloody and unrelenting as we were in a battlefield fighting for the honour of pure heavy metal attack against the infidels of the style, this is a statement of non diplomatic conversations!

Curse of the Heretic is really satanic and shows us the dark days of inquisition while the witches takes revenge in blood with help of our friend Satan himself. Don’t mess with the fucking witches dude or they shall do away with your kind.

The Devil’s Mile is the racing against Satan and the song and riffs are breathtaking while you wait the result of the speedy melee, this is total combustion fire to the most dedicated heavy metal fans around…

Wraiths on the Wind, the track that ends the CD, is the best one, and I can’t help but sing the whole lyrics because it’s ghostly and occult as fuck, while the screams of Sean Peck sends shivers down my spine with his supernatural voice from hell.

This CD is simple the most perfect thing, and there are no flaws and no frills: Death Dealer is here to assert that heavy metal is still alive in the  most violent form and it’ll be never, ever sold out to the audience of poser kids who wait for something, well, softer… Go ask your mother for soft things. Here the whole scheme is true to the bone: a game for strongest die-hards ONLY!!!!! Buy. NOW!

War Master is out now on Pure Steel Records.

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(Daniel Death)

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