HYSTERICA — Metalwar (review)

HYSTERICA — Metalwar album cover Album · 2009 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
adg211288
Hysterica are a Swedish all-girl heavy metal band and they sound really wild about their metal on this, their first full-length album, which was released in 2009. With track titles such as Girls Made of Heavy Metal, Metalwar and Heavy Metal Man, much of the album is an indulgent worship of all things metal. It may sound a bit cheesy on paper, but as a group Hysterica are competent at their instruments and lead singer Anni de Vil delivers vocals that really fit with the style.

On that note I have to say that the vocals are particularly awesome. Anni de Vil, unlike many other female vocalists in metal, doesn't come across as the typical symphonic metal singer with their melodic and operatic tones tones but rather some more true traditional heavy metal aggression and power. Her vocals are clear in their delivery, yet definitely not gentle and always full of passion for the music and never lacking energy.

Metalwar is probably best described as an album that metalheads can party to, or perhaps simply one to turn up the volume and go nuts to. It is a fair assessment to say that some of the lyrics seem to have been written with a female listener in mind, such as Heavy Metal Man since it does feel a little weird for a straight guy like myself to be listening to a song with lyrics such as "Damn! I want a Heavy Metal Man!", but that doesn't stop me from enjoying the song and recognising the quality of the music. Call it a guilty pleasure maybe.

Unfortunately the album is not without its faults. While all the members are clearly talented but there are a couple of moments where I wish they'd vary a riff a bit or included a guitar solo, since there's parts of the songs that sound like they are just dying for some lead guitar. Otherwise the album is great, especially for a debut effort. The instruments are well played all round though so no complaints in that department. My favourite tracks are We Are the Undertakers, Halloween, Girls Made of Heavy Metal and Got the Devil in Me.

There's not really much else I can say about Metalwar, it's an extremely solid and fun album but doesn't exactly bring anything new to the table of traditional heavy metal unless you count that it's a distinctly female take on it. It's nice, as always, to see more women rocking in great bands and proving time and time again that metal music is not purely a man's playground. I am looking forward to hearing what these girls can do for album number 2, since I think that by then they will have really found their feet and will delivery something that will blow Metalwar out of the water.
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