This US band are currently celebrating their 40th Anniversary, whilst there was a notable gap in the 90’s, the band came back with full force. Blimey, it’s been 16 years since I saw them live in Germany when I checked! Along the way there have been a few releases and the traditional roots of the band have always remained “true”. For this outing, the line-up is relatively stable, with the drummer being a founding member. Long gone is Bob Mitchell after a brief return (and when I saw them live), but you may find this vocalist familiar as previous bands include Seven Witches and Overlorde and has been in the Attacker mould for over 10 years, with others slightly longer.

‘Knights of Terror’ has tremendous vibe, the music is really uplifting, exactly as you would expect, think of Ripper Owens duelling with Helstar if you want some easy comparable. Bobby Lucas (vocals) used to be in Seven Witches so there are some similarities to that bands output also. Attacker are to their own though. ‘Stigmatized’ hits hard, fast and furious, ripping themselves around the studio. ‘River of Souls’ wouldn’t be far from a Bruce Dickinson solo records output, it has a similar vibe with some strong vocal vibrato and a musical style infected with groove and the ability to keep your energy levels fairly high. Oh, that riff in the middle of ‘Kingdom of Iron’ sends shudders down your spine and gives you the urge to throw the horns and nod in appreciation. The lead breaks hit all the right positive receptors, the guitar melody and duelling sound quite spectacular also. ‘The God Particle’ is their musical piece of the album, slightly slower, and possessing some riffing seen in power metal circles a good few years ago. There are some strange vocal volume changes in the mix, maybe that’s just my copy I have, but they get lost, then come out loud in other places. ‘The Mighty Have Fallen’ the drumming intro to this takes on a form of a marching band before ripping into the pacier material, akin to bands such as Satan.

I love the music, the album itself is killer, expect “metal-istic” teachings, expect carnage and a positive lesson in heavy/power metal from these US trailblazers.

(8/10 Paul Maddison)

https://www.facebook.com/AttackerBand

https://attacker1.bandcamp.com/album/the-god-particle