METAL CROSS — Metal Cross (review)

METAL CROSS — Metal Cross album cover Boxset / Compilation · 2014 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Time Signature
With heart and honour...

Genre traditional metal

Metal Cross is an obscure Danish metal band from the 1980s. Like so many other bands on the Danish metal scene, thy never got the support they deserved and eventually had to fold after a couple of underground releases. Recently reformed, they released a compilation in November via horror Records which collects their underground releases along with a wealth of live tracks. And this stuff definitely deserves to see the light of day, because it's pretty good.

The first five tracks of disc one are from the 1986 demo "Crucifying the Virgins" and are of varying quality, but mostly leaning towards the 'good-stuff' side. After a blistering downright excellent opening track in the form of 'Metal Cross', the band takes on a more hard rocking style in the Judas Priest-inspired 'Crucifying the Virgins' and 'With Heart and Honour', which are okay songs but also the least strong of that lot. 'Waiting for the Dawn' is an epic horror track which is very well put together and features some near-thrashy aggressive elements, and 'Feed the World' is a solid old authentic old school metal track. The next two originally appeared on a sampler from 1988 entitled "Metal Outlet". 'The Evil Eye' (which apparently is called 'Man with the Eye' on "Metal Outlet") features some epic twin guitar figures, while 'Call for the Children' is more of a dark track which features elements that border on being power-thrash. The net three tracks appeared on a demo from 1988 entitled 'M.A.D.H.O.U.S.E' and continue along the same lines as the previous two tracks, but are slightly more progressively oriented.

The beauty of disc two is that it not only documents live versions of tracks featured on disc one, but also original tracks that have probably not been released previously, such as 'Written in the Sand' and 'Vernal Equinox', all of which are pretty good songs in the same aggressive vein as the last handful of tracks on disc one. The enclosed 7" neatly concludes with a track called 'Insanity' which is similar to 'Metal Cross' except it is not instrumental.

Seeing that we are dealing with demo and live material from the 1980s, do not expect this to be a clinically sterile and perfectly produced album. It has all the authentic flaws that demo artists in the 80s (and the 90s for that matter) had to live with. And you know what, that's what makes this release so charming. It's simply authentic. In terms of the music itself, most of the tracks are very well composed, and the last five tracks on disc one in particular are extremely good combining traditional metal with elements of power-thrash.

Fans of 80s metal should definitely check this release out. And then let's all cross our fingers in the hope that Metal Cross will record a new album (preferably a load of new albums) in the same vein as the material on this compilation.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Hin helga kvöl Atmospheric Sludge Metal
SÓLSTAFIR
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Cycles of Suffering Black Metal
BURIAL OATH
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Suns of Perdition - Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion Black Metal
PANZERFAUST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Facilis Descensus Averno Death Metal
SAEVUS FINIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Merciless Crossover Thrash
BODY COUNT
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

DAWN OF REVENGE - Sanctuary [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Farewell [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Curtain of Death - [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Vengeance [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - I Need You [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 5 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed