Is this is the new image of Heavy Metal? If it is, you will not get any objections from here. Even though this new release by the German band, The Claymore, is far from being a true 80's oriented classic Metal, both in sound and style, yet in the end, it is a powerful release. At the first, the expectations weren't high because as seemed in the past, a large part of the modern Heavy Metal bands weren't able to recapture the same quality and form of the true Metal of the 80's. Nonetheless, The Claymore's third album, "Damnation Reigns", is a different level of performance.

The Claymore's Heavy Metal, added with elements of modern Power Metal al'a their country peers, Brainstorm, is polished, depthy, catchy with taste, musically heavy and aggressive, melodic while not giving up on the 80's Metal breeding house. On several sections and passages throughout the album, the music tend to be similar to modern Melodic Death orientations, but when the melodic vocals starts spreading, the true source of the music is unfold. The four leading tracks of the album, "Behind Enemy Lines" (Highly performed with guest appearance by the ultimate Tim "The Reaper" Owens), "Children Of The Nile", "Return To Zero" and "Silent Scorn" attracted much attention with their diversity between modern Metal to older styles of the music. Also, as bonus filler, there is the great performance of the W.A.S.P classic, "Chainsaw Charlie".

In order to give you a small example of the band's quality and rating there is the track "Behind Enemy Lines". Although Tim "The Reaper" is one of the major factors for the success of this track, the band's vocalist, Andreas Grundmann, still shows great abilities. Moreover, his performance was elevated to higher levels on the others tracks, aside from the hitters. For further proofs, on the other great tracks as "(e)scapegoat" (Featuring the high power Rage guitarist, Victor Smolski), "Oceans", "Oblivion" and the fine opener of "Ashes Of The Wicked", the music is flowing smoothly as the talented twin axes engulf the experience with attractive Maidenish harmonies and compelling solos. In the end, "Damnation Reigns" is the The Claymore's finest hour to date and one of the better modern Heavy / Power Metal examples to date.

While not being extra technical, The Claymore had the chance to set an example for future Heavy Metal. As most of the bands, they rely on the past but on the whole, they made and still making attempts to make progress both on the production and material. Check out this wonderful album released under Black Bards Entertainment.