Free Metal Monday: GOD The Barbarian Horde-Hell & Heaven

Self-Release/Independent
2006

Available for download by clicking here, "Hell & Heaven" is a (wicked) five-track pagan/epic metal EP from the Romanian band called God The Barbarian Horde. Other than the group's 2014 EP, "Zal Mox", the aptly-titled "Hell & Heaven" is just one of the many name your own price recordings from this intriguing act that certainly lives up to the "barbarian" part of it's moniker! You can check them all out for yourself by heading over to the group's bandcamp page.

Forgotten Gems-Jaded-s/t

I remember a review of the self-released debut from this all-female Boston area band back in 2006. I bought their album soon after that and wasn't disapointed. Actually in recent months I had not heard it in a while. Yesterday I was going to do some heavy duty cleaning in the basement last night so I needed some music. As I raided a bin that I have not opened in month I came upon this CD. So I took it with me on my task. Right away "Get up" came blasting on and it flooding back to me just how good this band was. If that song didn't convince me then the power of the next track "Jet car" definitely did with it's powerful main riff. Jaded at this point were a real mix of styles. Some songs let you know that they really enjoyed the party type, late 70's hard rock like KISS and Starz. Other tracks follow more mid-80's metal anthems along the lines of say Judas Priest and Warlock. Either way they put their own brand on whatever style they decide to tackle. In many ways they sound like a band I would expect to have been playing around 1985-1987. That's not putting a limit on them, but rather just saying that their music does anice job of echoing styles from that time period. On their debut they went the lead and studs look plus they had stage names like "Abbey Dragon" and "Britt Lightning". I know they opened for a number of national bands back then including WASP and Skid Row. The music here certainly makes me think it would translate very well to a live format. After this album the band went through some line-up changes. The last I heard of them they released an EP about two years ago and they had more of a less 80's metal look. There six year old debut is worth tracking down.

Hair metal hodge podge

So the rules on this are I have these bags of hair metal discs and I reach in without looking, pull out two, listen to them and give some mini-reflections on them. After all it's hair metal they don't deserve that much time. It's not like 90% of the bands that did these albums put much thought or effort into their writing or recording. Here we go...


Warrant-Born Again
Curse my hands, I picked a Warrant disc. This disc got some praise back when it came out and that's why I bought it. It was supposed to be heavier and Jaime St James formerly of Black -n- Blue was brought in to replace Janie Lane on vocals. Warrant were terrible on their early albums, one of the worst hair metal acts during the time when lame hair metal bands were all the fashion. They were lame, dull and showed how bad hard rock could be. Now in 1992 they attempted to be heavier with their "Dog eat dog" album. It was a little heavier, but the results were like instead of a pile a poop it was a pile of poop with one rose petal laying on top. Anyways "Born again" was supposed to be heavier than this band had ever been, for whatever that was worth. It was...to an extent. Almost every song started out well, but only a few of them kept the momentum going. Not being heavy was always a problem with this band, but so was the lack of solid songwriting which still plagued this album. Although overall they tried, I hear that and on a few moments they managed to put together some fair pieces. Now on to the vocals. Janie Lane always struck me as a very dull vocalist. I liked Jaime St. James in Black -n- Blue, but here it sounds like his voice is burnt out and fried. The excitement he once had in his voice has been replaced by a dry sound and he's seems to straining to achieve even that level. So the vocal change was not a plus, but the music showed some promise. Yes, this was definitely an improvement for Warrant, but still not an album anyone should run after.


Uzi Suite-s/t
Here are the facts that I know about this album-it has four songs, the band was from Texas, it was recorded in 1990 and issued on CD by Retrospect in 2005. That's it, all I know for sure. No band members are listed on the inlay card, I don't know if it was originally a self-released album or just a demo. However beyond that I do know that is album is pretty darn good. The sound is mid-80's hard rock with a touch of metal (despite being released in 1990) along the lines of early Keel, Dokken and Icon. The vocalist was limited, but got the job done. The guitars are solid and plentiful and the rhythm section was above average  for this style. Even their ballad is solid although it's like a mid-80's ballad and not the shallow sappy ballads that were so big in the late 80's/early 90's. I bought this probably when it came out and liked it, but now it sounds even better to my ears than it did back then. This album was so good it could have made it on our Forgotten Gems segment. Except that I hesitated to do that just because I don't know much about this band. Definitely check this album out if you get a chance and if anyone knows more about them then feel free speak up and enlighten us.

There you go, I'll do another segment of this some time soon.

Gates of slumber-Suffer no guilt re-issue

Deepsend
2012

Originally released in 2006 this album gets a re-issue from Deepsend records. Gates of slumber sometimes get multiple labels because they normally get to doom label which is deserved due to the thick slow riffage, but they certainly have a bit more of a classic metal sound as well. I liked their early albums, but for me this was the one where they opened up a little bit and began moving away from being just a doom band. So we get ten tracks with four being instrumentals and three are over ten minutes each. Plus a pair of tracks are about Conan the barbarian. I think this is the album where the band began to become something a bit more special. The three longer tracks "God wills at","Riders of doom" and "Suffer not guilt" all provide good canvases for the band to really explore and create some different and varied tones. They take full advantage of manipulating sounds and they take a few more risks as well. I enjoyed parts of songs where they forgot about sticking so tightly to a rigid structure and just played what felt right and went with it. There were definitely moments on this album where play from the soul and heart and that really shines through. This is definitely an album where they squeeze so much out of every note. Glad to hear this album again.

Forgotten Gems-Saint-s/t

If you of a certain age you probably recall a time when AOR bands ruled the airwaves. Whether you enjoyed that style or not is up to you. For myself I liked some bands but it seemed like for every solid band like Journey you had two annoying bands like Loverboy. AOR to me is a style I have to be in the mood for, but having it burned into my eardrums in the early 80's has giving me somewhat of an appreciation for bands that do it right. That brings me to an overlooked gem in this style. Not to be confused with the christian metal band of the same name and not to be dismissed for the lame album cover, this Saint played pure AOR with some hard rock touches. Their self-titled debut was released in 1984 and was hard to find. Retrospect released it on CD in 2006, but has since gone out of print. So were they any good? Opener "Desperate Times" is so much like Journey that you might be wondering if it was some bonus track that was left of the "Frontiers" album. Much of this album has definite similarities to what Journey did between 1978 and 1983 with maybe a touch of Foreigner thrown in. They don't earn many originality points for that approach, but if you are going to copy someone you may as well copy the best. I am not trying to dismiss Saint as just a copy band because that's not fair or entirely true. They possess a good knack for controlling the melodies and pace. Every song has plenty to offer for fans of AOR. When I am in the mood for this kind of music I frequently find myself pulling this one out for a spin. Definitely worth tracking down.

Adiastasia-Life war (re-issue)

Bombworks
2006/2010

This album from Brazil's christian power metal act Adiastasia was originally released in 2006, but this re-release has the album getting re-mixed, remastered and it receives new artwork. The whole feel of the album is that it's deeply embedded in the European style of power metal ala Helloween, Gamma Ray and Stratovarius to name a few. Although as a whole "Life War" sounds like it could have been done around the mid-late 1990's. It's very up-tempo for the most part and fairly long as it clocks in just under an hour. Although they do a decent job of keeping the pace going and it never feels long. As with this style the melodies are plentiful and featured quite prominently in many of the songs. The band masters those for the most part. I also liked that the keyboards really complimented their sound without overriding the power of the songs. It took me a little while to warm up to the album as the intro "Guerra Della Vita” is slightly dull. Then “Father Of Light” came on and I immediately disliked the tin sounding drums and the vocals were low in the mix, but after that the album picks up. The vocals are not quite as varied as the work of some of the bigger names in this genre, but they do the job well enough. It's above average power metal with enough hooks to be interesting, but nothing new or spectacular. Fans of the style should find enough here to enjoy.

Rose Tattoo-Blood Brothers (Special Tour Edition)

2008
SPV


Long running Aussie rock band Rose Tattoo actually released "Blood Brothers" last year, but this is the tour edition which includes the CD plus a live DVD presenting the band's performance at the Wacken festival back in 2006. So let's have at the CD first, I always admired these guys for their ability to create just rough and dirty real gritty rock without a lot of flash. They have always been compared to AC/DC and they do sound like earlier AC/DC although obviously Rose Tattoo have stayed closer to their roots which is a good thing in this case. Once again they show their worth on this album with tracks like the rough and tumble "Black eyed bruiser", the no-nonsense rocker "Man about town" and "Slipping Away" which revolves around my favorite riff on the album. This band has had times where they didn't exist and they have had band members pass away. So it hasn't been an easy road for these guys yet they have persevered and have managed to soldier forth and stay genuine to the type of music they been playing over thirty years ago. Rose Tattoo thrive on putting out the kind of solid rock music that is so easy to get into. Still in a scene where so many bands try to sound and look like the real deal, it's readily apparent that Rose Tattoo are the real thing and it seems to come rather easy for them as well.
The live DVD included here has the band sounding strong on a major stage and the DVD helps make this a very worthwhile set.

Spread Eagle-s/t

1990/2006/2008
Lovember


The debut from New York's Spread Eagle was originally released back in 1990, then it was re-issued in 2006 and when I saw being distributed again in September so I decided to get a copy to check it out. I remember seeing a few half-page ads for it in the metal magazines back in 1990. I don't know if I read negative reviews or if I just couldn't find it at my local record stores back, but for whatever reason I never got around to hearing it back then. In more recent years I began to see a lot of very positive reviews on it so I decided to check it out and see what all of the fuss was about. "Broken City" comes bursting on with more guitar changes in the first thirty seconds than many of their peers had in a whole four minute song. The groove is undeniable as they just ride this one out of the gate and hang on as it bucks and kicks all the way. Tracks like "Back on the bitch" and "Switchblade Serenade" are a bit more typical of the times, but just active enough to rise up and stand out. My two biggest complaints about hard rock back then and in general would be that they settle for bland rhythm sections and that the guitarists either can't or won't just rip loose on the rhythms enough. The rhythm section of Rob Deluca on bass and Tommi Gallo on drums are certainly well above the average and not afraid to step up and be heard. Guitarist Paul Di Bartolo is a monster just peeling off riff after riff with plenty of skill and precision with everything focused towards making the songs stronger as a whole. Vocalist Ray West is right in there screaming all the way and leading the charge. As a whole they remind me some of Skid Row, but more groove oriented and maybe a bit more versatile. Should Spread Eagle have been big? I wouldn't say that necessarily, but they probably should have gotten more notice than they did. Yet it was a crowded time with so many acts being signed at one point, it was inevitable that not everyone was going to emerge successful and sometimes it was just luck of the draw or having your single or video hit at the right time. However Spread Eagle debut stands out as an example of enjoyable hard rock of the time and it has aged rather well to boot.

Rockets to Ruin-Love, drugs, rebellion

Self-produced
2006

This is an older one as it came over a year and a half ago, but I just heard of these guys this year. Then I just recently got my mitts on this CD after hearing several bands from their area talk about how great they were. Rockets to Ruin are from Atlanta, Georgia and my initial impression is that they remind me of LA Guns and Faster Pussycat as they primarily play a style of 80’s sleaze/glam rock. Yet second and third plays had me contemplating that this band was doing even more than that. The sound is nothing new per se as we got simple rhythms, fairly gritty vocals and the lyrics are certainly nothing new. What’s different here is that they don’t launch into 1-2-3 approach on every song. We get songs where the pace slows and the vocals change up and it almost feels more like a live show. Now that’s not to say that everything works, but their approach was unique enough that it caught my attention right away. They took some gambles and used a typical format but then shuffled the music into different approaches here and there. Like I said not every song was captivating, but right away this showed their confidence in what they were doing and already they are beyond the bulk of bands who are churning out 80’s style glam these days. I know that this band has been playing live regularly and I have hopes that they continue in this fashion and I think they are really onto something here.

http://www.myspace.com/rocketstoruin