Comprised of musicians who have been members of Manowar, the Dictators, Rob Halford, Lizzy Borden, Udo Dirkschneider, and Cage, Death Dealer are a power metal super group for lack of a better term. Following up their debut full length “Warmaster”, the five piece come out all guns blazing for the new release, “Hallowed Ground”. With the promise of big riffs, big melodic leads and big vocals, let’s see the hand they’ve dealt us to play with.
From the off, you can tell this is a band who have a taste for flair and drama. The symphonic orchestral opening of the album’s first track “Gunslinger”, a wild west themed song gets the attention right away and when it comes in with the metal, it’s a healthy mix of classic Euro-Metal, Power Metal and Speed Metal which is kept up throughout the entire album. With big sounding choruses filled with powerful vocals and memorable melodic hooks and riffs with plenty of sing along spots, they know how to get a track stuck in your head and the lead work on the opening track pretty much paints a picture of what is to come. A solid opener and it doesn’t stop there!
“Break The Silence”, “Way Of The Gun”, “I am The Revolution” and “The Anthem” carry that power metal sound more predominantly, favouring real big vocals, solid and dependable rhythm work and heavy guitars with some real melodic leads whilst “Corruption Of Blood”, “K.I.L.L” and “Plan Of Attack” favour the more speed metal with a NWOBHM influence to it styled sound, giving some diversity, but the one thing both of these main styles of delivery have in common is they both sound massive. The real tracks of interest though for those who want a little bit extra are the more symphonic/grand ones.
As mentioned before, “Gunslinger” has that rock opera story feel to it along with the grandeur in the intro and the tracks “Total Devastation” (About the ‘Cataclysm which the Mayan’s ‘predicted’), “Skull And Cross Bones” (Pirate themed) and “U666” (stereotypical devil and dark theme) all bring that extra edge to the table whilst “Llega El Diablo” is a short instrumental track with a big flamenco styled flair to set up the following track “Way Of The Gun”. The atmosphere building on these tracks provided by the symphonic sections and variety of styles just rounds the album off well, adding some variety to what could normally be considered your standard Euro-Metal band. The one downside though is how predictable the tracks can be, like you know after the first three that big vocal wails are going to feature along with some rapid-fire shred work (Ross The Boss is one of the lead guitarists after all!) but this is just a slight complaint because you know what is coming up so you can pay attention for the big melodic hooks or powerful chorus sections.
Overall, it’s a solid sounding album with enough variety to keep your attention but it does suffer a little from predictability. The influences of the other bands the musicians in Death Dealer have performed with clearly shows and they blend them well but not to the extent where they just sound like a clone. They have their own sound and “Hallowed Ground” is a real strong album and a reminder that not all power metal is about quests and magic and other clichés.
(7/10 Fraggle)
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