Picture-Warhorse

Artist Station Records
2012

My first exposure to Dutch traditional metal band Picture came from a friend at my old workplace. This had to have been a good 10-12 years ago we are talking about because it was certainly before you could even hope to find their music on Amazon or Ebay. I have no idea how he came across the group or what made him decided to take a gamble of downloading their albums. He came in one day with "Heavy Metal Ears" and "Diamond Dreamer" (the band's second and third album) in his hands and thought it would be something I'd enjoy. After all he had helped school me in the ways of NWOBHM and Picture certainly fit that bill. Along with "Eternal Dark" (album number four) I grew to love the sound of Picture. Funny thing is that they were also one of the first bands I sent to Metal Mark when we were in the early stages of our friendship. Now here it is so many years later for both myself and Picture and somehow/someway we are both still trucking along. Granted Picture seems to have more steam in their pipes than I do because this album is hot to the touch. Has it really been 30+ years for these guys? Formed back in 1979, Picture is regarded as the first band to play heavy metal in their country. For a band that was huge in Holland as well as places like South America, Germany, Italy, Mexico and Japan they are largely unknown here in the States. Doubtful that will change after all of these years. For one thing their albums still are not easy to pick up here. "Warhorse" is an import and if not for friends in high places (or rather overseas!) the price tag would have been too much for me to justify given my single father status. Hopefully it will drop in price with time as "Warhorse" is a nice chunk of heavy/power metal. While the band might have started off as more hard rock than metal their new material is pure power metal with crunchy bass, pounding drums and tasty leads. Vocalist Pete Lovell (who was actually the group's third lead singer) sounds great. His voice has matured and might be a shade rough but it adds to the rugged power metal edge. Original members Rinus Vreugdenhil (bass) and Laurens Bakker (drums) really do a good job of holding down the back end. Guitarists Mike Ferguson and Peter Bourbon really work well here and as stated the licks are nice. "Warhorse" is an album Picture should be proud of as it sounds classic while having enough modern touches to appeal to the retro heavy metal crowd. If you can find this one at a good price I'd highly suggest grabbing it.