Some more CD tips for summer's end.
Ressurrection Kings - Skygazer
Five years after their self-titled debut album Ressurrection Kings are back with Skygazer. I have their debut, liked it and recently when playing all Dio rediscovered how Craig Goldy helped creating some of the best albums of their Dio era. So checking out a clip on Youtube was enough to make me pick up this album as well. Ressurrection Kings plays melodic hardrock/metal. With Craig Goldy and Vinnie Appice there is a link to Dio, but Chas West is not trying to copy that voice. Several bands might come to mind when listening to the album. Their aim was not winning the price for originality just write good music. And they managed to do so, with Angry Demons as possible highlight. If Craig Goldy returns to Europe one day with a Dio hologram I shall pass. However if Ressurrection Kings make it over, I'll be there.
Vulture - Dealin' Death
This German Vulture is an example of how magazines still work. Reading a positive review and interview made me check them out. I liked being catapulted back to the eighties with their speed metal sound and got Dealin' Death. The screams are there, even if not as high as some in this genre. The guitar attack is there as well and the songs scream for you to headbang along. When this band mentioned in the interview playing Scum in the past I am sorry I missed out. Sounds to me like party guaranteed when live on stage. Every year I pick up some bands that bring me back to eighties (speed)metal. In recent years I think of Ranger, Riot City or Eternal Champion. This year's recommendation so far is Vulture
Melting Eyes - My Final Resting Place
Melting Eyes play ear ripping old school deathmetal as they say on their FB page. Well no lie told here. What I like most about them is that they are not about one speed only but vary the slow and very heavy with the uptempo riffing when more speed is needed. Six songs in half an hour present well what they stand for. Two guitars setting the speed and a grunt that seems to be coming from as low as a final resting place indeed. This album should raise the interest of some labels as they so far remain independent. Now this is the debut EP by Melting Eyes, but as they are from The Hague I did see them playing before. While at Westland Metal Meeting I was just entering the area during their dying tones I saw them opening for Gruesome in Musicon. Live to me Death Metal always works even better and the good news is that soon we can enjoy their album presentation in Musicon. Together with Rages of Sin who gave us one of Holland's best extreme metal albums of 2020 that promises to become a party, Now we only have to hope that our government after letting 100.000 men watch spoiled kids driving in circles early September also will let 100 people walk around Musicon 1 October.
Agent Steel - No Other Godz Before Me
Agent Steel means Skeptics Apocalypse and Unstoppable Force two albums of the mid eighties that made the band possibly the best speed metal band around. Their mix of wildly fast guitars, crazy fast solos and the highest pitched screams of John Cyriis made those two albums classics everyone of my generation knows. Unfortunately I never saw them playing live at the time. Unfortunately also the band fell apart with John Cyriis leaving in 88. His voice was a very dominant part of the overall sound. During following decades the band would return without John and release several albums I don't know. Now John is back, but the band is new. He gathered a strong international line-up around him and basically we continue where we left of after Unstoppable Force. Only problem to me is that it all does not sound in your face really. The songs themselves are good and tell us again how we are not the centre of the universe. For a Brazilian like me it is interesting to read the opening of Sonata Cósmica in Portuguese and the Incident being fully in Portuguese and telling the story of my visits to Minas Gerais looking for Iron Ore (thanks to Brazilian guitarist Vinicius Carvalho). Now the question remains will we be able to see these new songs live on stage one day. Reputations might scare some off, but hopefully we get the chance as this new album screams for a live show. Think I am going to play me some Untoppabe Force now.