Armory are part of the recent collection of new Swedish bands and they are a self-proclaimed Speed Metal band, however I find more straight up Maiden-isms in the majority of tracks than pure speed alone. If you take ‘Cosmic War’ there’s a touch of speed and there’s a lot of melody driven material too. Whilst as a reviewer you tend to fall into the trap of comparing heavily to other artists, I cannot but comment on the often nasal or rather the tone of the vocals that reminds me a lot of the Wahlquist brothers (Heavy Load), which is great in my book! Now that’s out of the way, your attention should be grabbed with ‘High Speed Death’, and then you fall into the speed metal spectrum from which the conception and true form of Armory comes out to play. I found it took a track to set the album in motion after the first couple of spins, but once you’re there, you should enjoy the ride.
Whilst not always presenting themselves as tight as some of their peers, the songs are arranged well and their art for melody is certainly cool. Added are a few of the modern screams akin to the likes of Deathhammer & Ranger, these reside on two or three of the tracks that I noticed. Out of the two really outstanding tracks, namely ‘Phantom Warrior’ and the near epic (in terms of duration) ‘Space Marauders’, these easily crack a smile to the face of the most miserable cynic among you. The energy is certainly there, but it doesn’t alight your senses like some recent releases I’ve heard from this sub-genre and label when you take into account the album as a whole.
What you have is a speed/heavy metal release that is very guitar driven with the added bonus of some cracking use of vocal melody. Armory are a band to watch and take note of.
(7/10 Paul Maddison)
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