California Bay Area Stoner Metal mages SAVIOURS are back with their fifth full-length album, "Palace Of Vision" just in time for Halloween. Unlike previous releases, "Palace Of Vision" is a little bit faster than their previous material. It's been two years since the band had managed to put out a record because Austin Barber's relocation to Los Angeles for work. The band had to part ways with former bassist Carson Binks but the band is back in a big way and picking it up right where they left off.

"Palace Of Vision" has numerous memorable and powerfully charged Heavy Metal anthems on it. The instrumental track "Cursed Night" has a slow, traditional Doom Metal rhythm track that lulls in the background as both Austin "Fucking" Barber and Sonny Reinhardt (not sure if he's related to legendary jazz guitar player Django Reinhardt) rip through every measure of the song. What a treat it is to hear these guys play! They are solid guitar master-chefs, cooking up tons of delicious licks that I would compare to Adrian Smith & Dave Murray of IRON MAIDEN, Hank Sherman and Michael Denner of MERCYFUL FATE, Tony Iommi, the late Randy Rhoades and the like. His talent is at that level of greatness and it is a huge part about what makes this band so lovable.

I have to say that my favourite track is the closing track on "Palace Of Vision" is the most-excellent heavy metal track "The Seeker" that closes the album perfectly with a melodic Doom Metal torrent of powerful riffs and hypnotic singing rhythms from Austin Barber. The guitars are red hot and strong but them come across more clear than any other instrument in the mix. This makes an excellent closer to an already excellent album that is very dense with riffs, solos and super-charged musical energy without feeling exhausting to get all the way through.

I don't think the goal of this whole manifest was to bring anything new to the table. The band still sounds like the same old SAVIOURS, even though the average song tempo has been increased a bit. The band really didn't take any time to experiment with trying to come up with new songs. And that's OK. If it isn't broke, why fix it, right? What has worked for SAVIOURS in the past, luckily for them, still works for them It would've been interesting to see what could've come out of the band experimenting with new things but I can't complain about what they have already provided on "Palace Of Vision."

There isn't a single bad thing to say about people behind this band. These guys are truly upholding a style of Heavy Metal that is authentic to the music that was made in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Any song on this album could be confused with coming from any of the later decades of the Twentieth Century from the riff writing right down to the production of this album. As post-modern as SAVIOURS might be as a band, there is a truer feeling from their music that I cannot, in good faith, affiliate with ninety-nine percent of post-modern metal bands touring and releasing records this year. The best part is that it seems that SAVIOURS wrote this kind of music that that they themselves can listen to their own material and enjoy it just as much as they enjoy the music of the bands and artists from the past that influenced them.