Kriadiaz-Kriadiaz

Pavement Entertainment
2013

I almost passed on this promo from Cleveland's Kriadiaz when I saw that it featured a former member of Mushroomhead. That was until I saw that it was (locally) well-known guitarist Dave Felton (Hatrix, ex-Centurion, ex-Purgatory) whose work I've always appreciated. On this self-titled album, which looks as if it was originally released way back in June of 2012*, Dave Felton is joined by some old friends of his. Chief among them are heavy metal veterans Bryan Trembly (ex-Spawn) on bass and Emery Ceo (Ritual Of Torment, ex-Ritual, Ex-Torment, ex-Tormentor and ex-Dark Arena) on drums. Meanwhile it appears as if this might just be the first rodeo for lead vocalist Mike Ruz. If it is then kudos to Mike as he handles the role of lead vocalist here with ease. There's an air of authority to his voice which fits this band's form of homegrown, bad-to-the-bone, southern metal sludge fest like a glove! Officially Kriadiaz was formed in 2010 and, in addition to this quite hard-hitting debut album, the Metal Archives makes mention of a demo CD that was released by the band. Whether that is true or not I can't verify (or simply choose not to at this junction), but it's neither here nor there when we're talking about what makes this band tick. With Kriadiaz you get a band that is a million times removed from what Dave Felton was doing in Mushroomhead and all I can say is thank God for that! The band's promo offered up the promise of real metal and they most certainly delivered just that-real metal. As Dave Felton put it "We didn’t use any samples and we all played our own parts with out any digital doctoring." He goes on to say "Its Heavy Metal. What can I say?". And he's exactly right about that! This is heavy metal that's partly along the lines of Crowbar, Down, Kill Devil Hill and Pantera. It's thanks to the vocals of Mike Ruz (who sounds rather like a poor man's Phillip Anselmo) that the Pantera reference comes into play, but it's not like you could hold the two bands side by side like they were twins or something. It's more like this Ohio heavy metal band walks the same long road as Pantera, Crowbar and Down which translates into a southern style of metal with a simple side of groove. OK, so notice how I said that Kriadiaz was "partly" along the lines of Down, Crowbar, Pantera and Kill Devil Hill. Here's the other part of the equation with this Cleveland 4-piece: Black Sabbath. No, not so much the doom aspect of early Ozzy-lead Sabbath. Instead these guys (occasionally) take in some of Black Sabbath's (later period) heavy metal sound with the emphasis being on the "HEAVY" part. It's the other side of coin that Kriadiaz is interested in. So, as they tinker with Black Sabbath's brand of heavy metal, their much more concerned with getting that heavy crunch style of playing Tony Iommi to work for them instead of the doom and gloom. And they pretty much do get it to work for them. In a nutshell this is raw heavy metal with a few nice wrinkles thrown in to make it interesting, but it the end it never forgets that it's first and foremost a "HEAVY" metal band that plays REAL heavy metal. What more could any metal fan want?

*It looks as though this album was initially released on Shark Sausage Records which I kind of suspect was the band's own label.

Battlecross-War Of Will

Metal Blade Records
2013

As I looked back over previous reviews I saw that I had covered the last release from Warren, Michigan act Battlecross. That album, "Pursuit of Honor", was a really good collection of traditional heavy metal/thrash metal and at the time (July of 2011) I remarked how happy I was to see a return to this kind of real metal. Since then the scenes exploded though and there are truckloads of bands playing hybrid metal (some heavy metal, thrash, speed metal and power metal all tossed together) with varying levels of success. Here, on album number three for Battlecross, death metal-inspired vocalist Kyle "Gumby" Gunther (I Decay) fronts a band that not only tackles the four genres above, but also death metal and southern metal. There's even some groove metal to be found in some of these tracks so yes, the band is stretching their wings more on their 3rd album. With Don Slater bass playing being as heavy as it's ever been and, with Tony Asta and Hiran Deraniyagala laying down blistering solos, the band has manged to achieve a nice balance between their familiar sound and these new elements. Hired gun Shannon Lucas (All That Remains, The Black Dahlia Murder) brings his immense drumming skills to the party and the result is nothing short epic. He thrashes his way  from start to finish without missing a beat. That goes to the very core of what makes BattleCross so appealing in the first place. The group's core values is heavy metal first and foremost. It might be dressed up with death metal like vocals and thrashing guitars, but it's still heavy metal. Battlecross have certainly come a long way from their humble beginnings as "War Of Will" showcases. Definitely an album I've enjoyed listening to and one that I'll be returning to again soon.