Wizard - Bound By Metal
Limb Music Products
True Metal
13 songs (53'56)
Release year: 2003
Official Homepage, Limb Music Products
Reviewed by Ben

I, like many other newly converted Wizard fans, discovered this group through their Head of the Deciever album and more recently, Odin. Since the relative success of the aforementioned albums, LMP has decided to re-release the band’s third album Bound By Metal which is cool cos the original, while not impossible to find, is rather difficult to obtain. The music here is a primitive, almost barbaric, hail metal and kill posers style of metal, to some incredibly cheesey and lame, to me really self indulgent and gratifying. There are no symphonic elements whatsoever, no hymn like choirs, no “happy” melodies, instead there are rapid fire true metal riffs, gang shouted choruses and heavy pounding drums. The production is good and while having relatively simple songs the band is tight and the singer can belt out the high notes, although on some he sounds a little forced and strained, but not often. Like I said earlier almost every song is about how much metal kicks ass and how posers should die with a couple of exceptions that deal with war and other metal related topics.

From the opener Hammer, Bow, Axe, and Sword you know that this band loves metal, maybe loves it a little too much. (nah that’s impossible) A strong song that has a very loud and proud chorus that gets hammered into your head as they repeat the title about 500 times throughout the course of the track. Manowar love is very prevalent throughout this cd and oh whats this? A song called Brave Warriors? I wonder what that ones about? Another self indulgent metal song that makes me smile with pride. Something I noticed though on Bound By Metal is that sometimes certain tracks seem to drag on and don’t really satisfy the listener as much as the bands current era material. Examples of this are Mighty Wizard with its lackluster feel overall and while Dark Wings is a good song the bridge is really weak and it makes the song lose a lot of its momentum. There are quite a bit of standard feel good tunes but not in a full meal type of way tracks but more in a “Man I need a quick true metal fix without all the extras” way. Simple yet to the point they are effective but nothing amazing that you haven’t heard before. A few songs that do rise above the rest however are A Nice Day to Die, Believe in Metal, and Gladiators of Steel. Lyrically, the former two are just strong cuts that praise a warrior’s glorious death and how much metal means to us while Gladiators of Steel is about the metal warrior inside each and every one of us. Musically speaking, while they don’t contain certain phrases that make you look over at your stereo and go, “Damn, now that was cool,” they are strong in the sense that they are well structured and do not get boring. Good catchy choruses, with soaring vocals and speedy riffs, that’s a Wizard song for you. There are two pieces though that I have to mention in this review. The ballad, Unicorn is just really, really cheesey. And that’s coming from me!! I mean c’mon man ballads are cool and all, but I can’t imagine these ripped metal warriors singing about a white horse with a horn sticking out of it like it was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen. It just doesn’t fit in with their image. At all. Really. The other one I have to touch base on is Battlefield of Death or as I call it, Black Wind, Fire, and Steel part II. The intro is exactly like the Manowar song except the bass is doubled and it even has the same vocal hammers and music that mirror the “brought by the talisman” part in Black Wind, Fire, and Steel. Like I said earlier though, its obvious Wizard love Manowar so its probably a not so well disguised tribute to them.

As a whole, Bound By Metal is a decent cd. It doesn’t break any barriers at all and is just a feel good, I love metal type of album. If you can’t take bands like Manowar or Stormwarrior seriously you most likely won’t be able to with Wizard either. Newly converted fans like me would do well to pick it up but if you’re new to the band check out The Head of the Deciever or Odin first then come back to Bound By Metal.

Killing Songs :
A Nice Day to Die, Believe In Metal, and Hammer, Bow, Axe, and Sword
Ben quoted 71 / 100
Other albums by Wizard that we have reviewed:
Wizard - Thor reviewed by Thomas and quoted 85 / 100
Wizard - Goochan reviewed by Jeff and quoted 95 / 100
Wizard - Magic Circle reviewed by Mike and quoted 64 / 100
Wizard - Odin reviewed by Mike and quoted 92 / 100
Wizard - Head Of The Deceiver reviewed by Danny and quoted 90 / 100
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