Kev Rowland
There was a time when I listened to a lot of metal just like this, the year was 1979 and there was an explosion of music in the UK with bands coming out with an independent attitude. If the punks could do it, so could the metalheads and there were bands everywhere. At the time I was into everything with guitars and as well as Iron Maiden, Saxon, Samson, Def Leppard et al, I was searching out Chainsaw, White Spirit, Geddes Axe, Jaguar, Fist, Fireclown, Limelight, Tytan and many more. But these days many of these bands are just seen as being a footnote in the history of metal, and while some deserved to be huge but for some reason never were (Raven, Steel, Heavy Pettin’, Diamond Head for example), the rest fell by the wayside not through lack of belief or ability but because their songs just weren’t good enough.
That is the case with this album. That the guys can play is never in doubt, and the fact that the album was recorded live with the just the vocals being added afterwards proves that. But the songs themselves just aren’t there. But, this is a debut and these guys are young, and they are showing promise. So while there isn’t enough on this album to really get excited, there are enough to show me that given some time and plenty of gigs these guys might turn into something a bit more special than they are now. But, if you yearn for those days 30+ years ago then you may just find that this is something for you after all, but at present it doesn’t really stack up. www.ironshieldrecords.de