Ignitor-Year of the metal tiger

MVD
2012

Old school metal act Ignitor return with their forth album,their first on MVD records and their second with Jason McMaster (Watchtower, Dangerous Toys) on vocals. With just seven tracks I suppose it's technically an EP. My problem with this band in the past has been that they just seem to showcase a rather generic often times retrained style of classic metal without much of anything to really set them apart from others doing the same style. With everyone and their brother trying to re-create the 80's metal sound it's a crowded scene. Despite the corny album title this is a much better for this band. They still hold to that mid-80's metal sound along the lines of Accept, Judas Priest, Omen, Savage Grace and others. A number of the tracks are mid-tempo, but on occasion they get up to an early speed metal level in pace. This time around they are slightly more adventurous overall and they are definitely tighter around the edges. On previous albums I found them to be tedious, but this time around I was actually kind of sad when it ended. The music is all that you would expect from this type and as always McMaster belts out some impressive vocal performances. This band has been around for almost a decade and they have had some line-up and label changes over those years, but I think have finally gotten their sound to a very solid level. Here's hoping they keep it up and hopefully get to work on a full length effort soon.