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I
must admit to liking this band a lot after first seeing them perform
live acting as support for Doro at Bradford Rio’s a couple of years
ago.
Their first album 'A Prayer for the Dying' was quite an impressive piece
of work. Although I was really looking forward to this second release,
‘Metal’, I did wonder whether this band, which had released such an
impressive debut album, would be able to retain the high quality of
material to follow it up?
The answer is a resounding yes! If you like no nonsense metal in the
vein of Judas Priest, Accept and Dio then Messiah’s Kiss is the band
for you. Delivering classic metal denim and leather style. From the
first track proper after the customary intro ‘Uncaging Rebellion’
give you a taste of what’s to come, power chords twin guitars
reminiscent very much of old Judas Priest.
With ‘Believer’ you get very old school guitar riff and thunderous
drums, ‘Metal till we Die’ is very Manowar, raising horns to the sky
and singing out the chorus, you know the kind of thing. ‘Fight or
Fall’ starts of with a ‘Blaze Bailey’ style vocal but the flurry
of guitars soon knock up the tempo a few notches.
The down beat ‘Holy Waters’ has a very power metal base about it.
'Angels' could also fall into the same genre with the use of a narrative
mid section to give it that suggestion of monsters and myth. My
favourite track on the album by a long way is the more subdued 'Tears in
the Rain' with the more melodic guitar riff and not at all fitting with
the leather clad image of the first few tracks.
The more traditional metal tracks like 'Hell or Victory', 'Run and
Hide', and 'Road to Exstasy will definitely win you over, just for the
quality of the guitar work. Probably the strangest track is the last one
'Dog Idols', which can only be described as odd !!!!!!!!!!! Two minutes
of a dog growling is an outlandish way to finish of an album but who am
I to criticize?
Some might say that this type of metal is outdated but there are still
plenty of diehard headbangers out there who will appreciate it.
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