TRAITORS GATE — Devil Takes the High Road (review)

TRAITORS GATE — Devil Takes the High Road album cover EP · 1985 · NWoBHM Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
siLLy puPPy
TRATORS GATE was one of countless acts to pick up the playing style of the NWOBHM sound of the late 70s and early 80s. This underground band formed in Pontypool, Wales only as Cyron in 1979, first changing its name to Quest and then settling on TRAITORS GATE. To demonstrate how prolific the early years of the NWOBHM were, there were actually two other bands with the same name in England alone. One from Fleetwood and the other from Weston-super-Mare.

While never achieving any level of success, TRAITORS GATE which consisted of Andy D'Urso (guitar), Steve Colley (bass), Paul House (drums) and Sy Davies (vocals) released one demo in 1984 and then an EP titled DEVIL TAKES THE HIGH ROAD in 1985. Originally only consisting of three tracks at barely over 11 minutes, the rediscovered “lost gem” was remastered and rereleased with three bonus tracks from those same early years thus essentially doubling the EP’s length.

This is one of those long lost artifacts that seems to have been reevaluated and deemed worthy of finding a second life. It features the typical NWOBM format of heavy guitar riffs, a pummeling bass and percussive rhythmic drive and those classic high pitched vocals all forged into melodically driven hard driving upgraded versions of the 70s style of hard rock. Guitar solos of course are very much part of the formula. Every once in a while especially on “Love After Midnight” there are a few keyboard sounds that creep in.

Admittedly this is catchy stuff that fits well into the overall era but honestly these sorts of bands were a dime a dozen and TRAITORS GATE never evolved beyond a second tier band at best. This EP sounds more like the style of NWOBM that was brewing around the 1980 / 81 timeline. By 1985 bands like Saxon, Iron Maiden Raven and Satan had already developed the heavy metal style quite well. No doubt this was a competent band and DEVIL TAKES THE HIGH ROAD is definitely a worthy dip into the obscurity bins however the emphasis of calling this some sort of lost classic is a bit over-exaggerated.

The band reformed sometime in the 2010s, released another EP and finally a full album “Fallen” in 2018 before two of the members sadly passed away in 2020. It’s likely TRAITORS GATE ended right there but of course bands can carry on with only one founding member. A nice dated throwback to the 80s with a unique style that does stand out to a certain degree but ultimately not one i’d find worthy of rising to the to ranks of NWOBHM royalty. The bonus tracks are just as good as the three originals so i personally consider this a six song EP rather than the original three song EP that has been out of print and impossible to find anyway.
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