This is a promising US band who took their name from a darker Deep Purple tune and it’s fair to say that dark riffs is their thing if last years ‘Shades of Black’ EP is anything to go by. There is a cool whiff of Sabbath, some straight classic metal and powerful vocal lines that really take you back to a time when singers could sing and they had their own individual character with the likes of Thin Lizzy and UFO components included as a bonus.
When I mentioned their ‘Shades of Black’ EP, it is fitting to note that all six of those tracks feature on this full length release, therefore some of you may be familiar with their music. But of the new recordings ‘Adversary’ is a truly great track. From this you have a touch of everything that this genre can offer. ‘Secret Sect’ has a video associated with it and I would really recommend you check this out which brings us to ‘Edge of a Knife’. On this track the vocals begin to expand from their previous lower register moniker and really get a workout.
The darker sections of the release I mentioned comes with an older tune ‘Fires of Abalam’ that coincidently almost splits the release in half with a much doomier character, rather than a more rocking upbeat nature of the remainder of the album. Classic duel lead guitars come to light during ‘Devil Knows The Truth’ that reminds me of classic Thin Lizzy, not necessarily by style, but certainly by nature and guitar tone. Other nice tunes on this very long running release include new tracks like ‘The Banishing’ and ‘From Beyond’ near the end of the album. However, it’s not a thing that I relish in ending, I have played this well into double figures, the tracks are very memorable and it does sound nice a vintage, but with soul, even some of the drum sections are very jazz/swing like Mr Bill Ward used to play on some of that classic material.
All in all, this figures as a really cool album, it doesn’t deliberately sound dated even though the style is steeped in heritage and this will appeal to a wide variety of fans, not just those looking for the next cult band.
(8.5/10 Paul Maddison)
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