Evil Star

Well it seems that this band is still stuck in the 80's with it's brand of blistering and reckless heavy metal. This new album, Evil Star is the Swedish band's third full length and like the first two, the Iron Maiden worship is still ever present in their music. They really sound like some long lost, overlooked NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) act from the early 80's. Sounding more like they've existed for decades, this band is a throwback to an era when metal was reckless and fun. Similarities to classic acts like Diamond Head, Metal Church, Demon, Motorhead, Mercyful Fate and early Iron Maiden are as abundant as ever and I really look forward to each and every release that his band has to offer. With standard tuned guitars, galloping rhythms, high pitched vocals and absolutely no influences from either the modern metal or the speedy power metal scenes, this band allows a veteran metal head like myself to relive the glory years of the early 80's without having to dust off a whole stack of classics from that era. This band pretty much covers all the bases in one single album.

The sound of this band consists of the classic big fat power chord guitar sound, lots of Dave Murray style wah lead guitar and many Maiden style riffs and instrumental breaks. The Maiden galloping style can be heard on the title track, Evil Star and some of the fast pull-off and muted riffing styles as heard on Maiden's Flash Of The Blade grace several tracks especially American Storm and The Avenger. The punkier and street-edged sound of the first 2 Maiden albums is also ever present on most tracks and the drumming style is pure Nicko McBrain (Maiden) with the driving style and lots of ride symbol drum riffs to propel the song. The instrumental track Transylvanian Twilight is almost a clone of Maiden's Losfer Words even down to the Nicko-style four count intro. The riffing and lead guitar follows the same sort of arrangement and it leads abruptly into a great track, Devil Moon, that has a more epic sound and has a very Blue Oyster Cult style chorus. The speedy riff breaks and harmonic leads near the end are classic Maiden. The Blue Oyster Cult influence is seen again with the band's cover of the classic Don't Fear The Reaper. A ripping heavy metal version, this one's very true to the original arrangement but gets the full throttle heavy metal guitar treatment. This is the first version of this song (and I've heard several others) where the vocals are actually higher pitched than the original as done by Donald (Buck Dharma) Roeser on the classic Agents Of Fortune album. Influences from band like Accept and Mercyful Fate can be heard on the tracks Black Wing Rider and The Dark respectively. The Dark has the classic charging rhythms and harmony third guitar leads as penned on many Mercyful Fate albums by guitarists Michael Denner and Hank Shermann and Black Wing Rider has the speedy fast Accept style riffs.

This is a band that I listen to more for the sound of their music and the great attention to detail in trying to create a style of metal music that not a lot of bands play anymore even by the NWOBHM acts that are still around today. What shortcomings the band may have as far as songwriting and originality are more than made up with tons of killer riffs and a general head-banging good time. If ever you longed for the days of the NWOBHM again and thought the only way to relive those glory days is through revisiting the classics of the era, think again. These guys are flying the flag of the era quite proudly and are one of the few bands keeping this sort of metal alive. Keep it coming guys.....I absolutely love this stuff!!