Dear reader, let me take you back in time for a little lesson in Metal history. The year is 1980, and the scene is dominated by the young upstarts of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, and your humble scribe is just approaching his teens. Iron Maiden is blasting forth with the punkish energy of their eponymous first release; Saxon are rolling over their enemies on ‘Wheels of Steel’, and Kevin Heybourne is declaring all before him as an ‘Angel Witch’. However, the sound it not confined to just the UK, with Accept declaring from Germany ‘I’m A Rebel’, and in America, as a young James Hetfield tries to work out how to play Diamond Head riffs, Manilla Road are threatening ‘Invasion’, whilst from Cyprus Mirror unleash the mighty ‘The Day Bastard Leaders Die’.
Okay, there’s only one lie in the above, and that would be about Mirror, because whilst this, their third album is released in 2022, not 1980, the sound that struts forth from the speakers certainly fits that era perfectly. ‘Infernal Deceiver’ starts out with a galloping bass line that allows Tas Danazoglou to play his four strings at a pace he could never approach whilst in Electric Wizard as he channels his inner Steve Harris, all before a classic twin guitar riff powers in to carry aloft the soaring vocals of Jimmy Mavrommatis. The pace doesn’t slow as the band fire into ‘Souls of Megiddo’, and in true Metal fashion they pillage the pages of literature as they narrate the Sci-fi and Fantasy stories of author John Goetz through the medium of screaming Stratocasters and pounded Zildjian cymbals. ‘Savage Tales’ follow with an introduction that swaggers in with a confident pomp that should be blasted across the largest of arenas to a screaming crowd before the pyrotechnics shoot forth to welcome some six string histrionics. Not every track is delivered at a breakneck speed though, ‘All Streets Are Evil’ being a medium paced foot stomper of a number complete with a vocal hook that just demands to be chanted by an appreciative audience in true Judas Priest style.
Well, since The Priest has been mentioned, it’s fair to say that ‘Fire and Hell’ is a number that will have studded leather glove wrapped fists pumping the air in the finest tradition of the godfathers of metal, and indeed ‘Stand Fight Victory’ practically has the DNA of Tipton etched into each and every chord. ‘The Day Bastard Leaders Die’ is 100% pure unalloyed Metal, from the sprint of ‘Sleepy Eyes of Death’, through the magic and mystery of ‘Demon Candles’ complete with vocal gymnastics that would surely get an approving nod from King Diamond. The album is closed off by the title track, a number that opens with Prog heavy keyboards before delivering a riff that would have Holy Divers launching from the stage into the pit to be carried aloft over a sea of denim and leather.
‘The Day Bastard Leaders Die’ is a masterclass in Heavy Metal that deserves its capital letters, and ignores any of the assorted sub-genres that have sprung up over the years. Instead, it delivers a sound that was first heard long before many of the folks who might read this review will have been born, and in fact, it is the sort of music that was young at the same time that I was, if you can believe such a thing! Paying respectful homage to their musical ancestors without falling into the dangerous realms of either plagiarism or parody, Mirror on this album have delivered songs that scream out to be played live, and I hope as the world reopens for business I get to be in one of their audiences.
(9/10 Spenny)
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