As classic Metal as it can get, this album did not finally win me over due to its vocals. Not mentioning this on purpose, but it knida became somehow irritating to continuously hear Stefano Bottari's singing; not a bad voice at all, but he needs to hold his horses at times plus avoid sounding childish. Apart from this objection, ...When The Slate Becomes Diamonds is a good choice only for the ones seeking some...
...GAMMA RAY-meets-MAIDEN mix from a Mediterranean band. DENIED had so far released only a demo CD in 2005. Heavyland saw reviews only in Italian press - as far as I'm concerned, at least - so DENIED is new 'news' due to this Painkiller release. A quintet hailing from Messina, Italy, DENIED - is it an assumption of mine? - do not tend to take themselves rather seriously. Dunno if this is done on purpose, but - while things do sound rather interesting in songs like The Waste Remais And Kills or Horrorama - the band behaves at times as if they're 'high'.
The guitars are on the loose, with some killer riffs here and there (check Ride To The Land Of The Machine Guns, for example) but too MAIDEN-isque, while the rhythm section is as needed; nothing more, nothing less (apart from some kick-ass ride cymbal use from Francesco Giorgianni). The leads do 100% step on the IRON MAIDEN pathway; nothing further.
All three normal songs of 2005's demo are again present, I guess in better 'shape'. I really hope DENIED will attract some interest from 'classic' metaleads; on the other hand I was not left astonished. Listening to the album for a couple of times more, I automatically started down-grading the album gradually. So, just stop here and mark it with a...

 DENIED - The Shield In The Sky (Live - 01/06/2008)