Ignitor-Haunted By Rock & Roll

EMP Label Group
2017

Austin, Texas' heavy/power metal band Ignitor returns with their sixth full-length album since first forming in 2003. With eight original compositions and a cover of Raven's "Hung, Drawn, and Quartered", "Haunted By Rock & Roll" is also the forth full-length album from this N.W.O.B.H.M.-influenced group to feature lead vocals from Jason McMaster (Dangerous Toys, ex-Watchtower). Things start off with "To Brave The Way" and then run straight on through to the aforementioned Raven cover. There is a lot of N.W.O.B.H.M. (Judas Priest, Iron Maiden) meets old-school U.S. power metal (Metal Church) madness going on over the course of the nine tracks, but unfortunately the album's terrible production job just ruins it. The album is completely muffled. The vocals are way to high and up front while the bass gets lost in the mix. If it wasn't for the awful production this could have been a eight out of ten kind of metal album. Having given it a few spins, "Haunted By Rock & Roll" failed to win me over. At best this is a C- release from a band that I normally love.

Ignitor-Mix Tape '85

Independent/Self-Release
2013

This short piece is a holdover from yesterday's Free Metal Monday feature as well as a brief news piece about the band's upcoming schedule and their forthcoming album. For those who do not know the name, Ignitor is heavy/power metal band from Texas that is fronted by Jason McMaster (Dangerous Toys and Watchtower). This 2013 release finds the band covering songs from the likes of Anthrax, Venom, Judas Priest and Exciter and it can downloaded fro free by clicking on the link at the bottom of this article. It fit's in nicely with the group's last studio album, 2012's "Year Of The Metal Tiger", and features the following track listing:

1.	Deathrider (Anthrax cover)
2.	Fast as a Shark (Accept cover)
3.	Violence and Force (Exciter cover)
4.	Into the Coven (Mercyful Fate cover)
5.	Witching Hour (Venom cover)
6.	Hell Bent for Leather (Judas Priest cover)
7.	A Lesson in Violence (Exodus cover)
8.	Highway Star (Deep Purple cover)

As far as the new album is concerned it is tentatively scheduled for spring 2016. Even though the band is currently hard at work at Emphatic Audio Recording Studio in Austin, Texas putting everything to tape (ya!) they have managed to secure a spot on the main stage at next year's Ragnarökkr Metal Apocalypse festival in Chicago, Illinois! The event will be held at Reggie's Rock Club on May 6th & 7th so be sure to mark your calendars and get yourself prepared for what will surely be two days of metal madness! For more information on this Texas heavy/power metal band be sure to head here and as promised here is the link for Ignitor's all covers album,"Mix Tape '85"

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.