Diary In Black

Only a select few bands have ever captured the sound, fury and spirit of such classic 80's groups as Judas Priest and Accept. Hammerfall, Dream Evil, Primal Fear, Lost Horizon and more recently, Seven Witches, have taken the sound and spirit of those bands and injected a new modern energy that keeps that style of metal very much alive. Rawhead Rexx is another one of those bands that accomplishes this very, very well. This German outfit plays a classic German metal style with more than several tip 'o the hats to bands like Priest and Accept. This album, Diary In Black, is the second album from the band. They have toured extensively with Annihilator, Saxon and Nevermore and are about to embark on a tour of Germany as a supporting act for Doro beginning April 10th.

Powerful and heavy with exploding Judas Priest / Primal Fear type riffs is a simple way to describe the sound of this band. Most songs are riff driven and I'm sure some remind you of other classic riffs from days gone by. The style and arrangement of their songs is also very typical and very predictable as well. They even manage to throw in some minor key riffing and some "gang style" chants as backing vocals that really dig up the ghosts of Accept past. On several occasions, the harmonized pull-off style to the leads mirrors the style of Wolf Hoffmann (Accept) with the speed, clarity and emotional feel. A U.S. Power Metal sound also runs through this album as well and the tempos vary from very fast and heavy to slow, pounding and dramatic with some great Iron Maiden / Iced Earth harmony third guitar riffs accenting several tracks.

Vocally, this band is top notch. The lead vocals are clear, strong and the vocal lines and choruses are catchy and perfect for this style of metal. Some very Bruce Dickinson - like harmonies are used on a few tracks for the choruses and the lead vocals really shine on a couple of power ballads that appear on this album.

This album has all the elements for a great heavy metal album; great big fat riffs, killer fast and melodic lead guitar, pounding double bass drumming, a killer bottom end and a great vocalist. It's great to see bands like this carrying on in the Judas Priest Painkiller tradition of metal that was firmly implanted on the metal world with that album. Diary In Black is the type of album to put on full blast while driving in your car. Not only are the songs great and well written, it has that killer "sounds amazing in the car" type of sound. Some dismiss this type of metal as being not very original and of being shallow and superficial. Granted, it doesn't sound very original, but this is pure fist-pumping heavy metal, nothing more, nothing less and there will always be a place for bands like this provided they do it well....... and they do a killer job indeed......