Although they obviously don’t have a monarchy I think it is considered high treason not to look on Doro Pesch as Queen of German metal and possibly wanting to visit the country again without being locked in irons I would be loath to suggest otherwise. However if there were a crown princess waiting patiently for abdication it would without doubt be Sabina Classen of Holy Moses. Her band have been around since 1980 and are about to release their eleventh studio album looking and sounding as fresh as they did three and a half decades ago. Some feat even for a bunch of dedicated life-long committed thrashers. I have happily dipped in and out of their career and had the pleasure of catching their powerful sets at German festivals a couple of times Naturally I was keen to hear what progress they had made as they had stated that it was partly necessary to “redefine” themselves and make their sound more contemporary. This should not scare lifelong fans away though, we have not suddenly gone all metalcore or anything here and Holy Moses are not looking at doing anything as drastic, breaking any ten commandments of thrash as the cover may suggest; essentially it’s business as usual straight down the line.
Serving up a salad of scything riffs and barking fierce vocals over thirteen tracks you know the second that ‘Hellhound’ bites in that this is going to be literally snapping at your heels from start to finish. The sound here is crisp and sharp with enough low end to beef it up admirably. The melody of this opener hits in the chorus and digs in whilst the main rage of the track is formidable and goes like the clappers, bolstered by some backing yells from the players as well as some fiery solo work. Air guitar gets a really good work out over the 45 minute disc as does the neck. Peter Geltat seems full of ideas adding some subtler textures to things guitar wise in the quiet parts keeping the music flowing along and his and bassist Thomas Neitsch’s backing vocals add to the toughness of Sabina’s snarling. Barks and snarls well there could well be a theme as ‘Undead Dogs’ tears away and has some great metallic solo riffs flowing through it. Guess these pups need a bone throwing preferably one recently torn off and complete with bloody flesh. It’s probably one of the most catchy songs on the album before the doom like riffs of ‘Into The Dark’ deliver us to Cerberus and does just as described in a slower but no less volatile fashion.
Songs are tightly honed, no unnecessary fat as they rage around the 3-4 minute mark, give you a damn fine battering and quickly move onto the next thrashing. There are some odd fast whirling guitar parts that perhaps have a more modern feel to them as found on ‘Delusion’ but these fit in perfectly even if they sound like a swarm of invading video game alien ships. ‘Fading Realities’ by comparison goes with the old fashioned brutality at its heart, violent, venomous and completely unforgiving. It would be good if we could have the chance to witness some of these new songs over here, Holy Moses although massive in Germany and other parts of Europe have never really been prolific visitors. It’s that same old story of having promoters take a risk and bring them over. Numbers such as the chorus storming ‘Delusion’ are as hungry and thrashtastic as it gets and with cuts off this album and naturally a cover of Nazi Punks Fuck Off there should be suitable Mayhem all round. Solid head-banger!
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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