Although many doctors in History tried again and again to trace where things begun, no Metalhead has any doubt: everything came out from the dark on February 13^th, a Friday, when "Black Sabbath" was released. And along BLACK SABBATH, JUDAS PRIEST and MOTÖRHEAD are the pillars of the genre, because everything was born from these three bands, but many more came after five decades of life. And to celebrate it, the Norwegian quintet SLAVES TO FASHION released "The History of Heavy Metal", a tribute to the genre

Although the band has a deep Heavy/Power Metal core, they did things in a way that's unusual to these days: they wrote an album that is a compilation of many of what Metal came to be since its roots. There are moments that seems like the old masters, sometimes is near Thrash Metal, Glam Metal and even Nu Metal. It's a full tribute to Metal, without preconceptions. And it works perfectly, full of energy, and a feeling that really talks deep to Metal fans, especially the older ones.

The album was recorded, mixed and mastered by many different people, under the production of Torfinn Sirnes. But three names must be written: Beau Hill (who mixed "Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'N' Roll", a Glam Metal song, the genre he worked a lot with during the 80's), Flamming Rasmussen (the famous producer who worked with METALLICA that mixed "Thrash of the Titans", the Thrash Metal moment as the name states clear) and Tommy Hansen (yes, the same one that worked with HELLOWEEN on their classic albums, and he mixed "The Power of Metal"). And as stated above, the band worked in a way that goes from analogic devices (to catch the vintage old ambiences) on the first songs to the digital techs. All these efforts were done to create the right feelings for the listeners, but always on the right way to keep things clean and defined. And all the songs has many guests, all of them put their best to create the feeling that it wants to express.

All the songs are fine pieces of Metal that can talk directly to the heart of the listeners. But the 'sabbathical' essence of "MCMLXX", the elegant weight and technical work shown on "The Priest of Maidenhead" (well, the name speaks everything), the heavy Glam Metal feeling of "Sex, Drugs & Rock 'N' Roll" (very good guitars, indeed), the aggressive insight of "Thrash of the Titans" and "Expressions of Extremity" (this one shows grunts and shrieks, a remembrance of Death Metal and Black Metal),  the tender feeling that recovers the Power Metal roots heard on "The Power of Metal", and "Too Close (to See Clearly)" (the Symphonic Metal and Gothic Metal influences are heard clearly, but there traces of other genres as well) are the best ones for a first time. But calm down and listen to the album two or three times, because for those that live on only one or two Metal genres won't be able to understand it all at once. And by the way, all the songs have videos on their Youtube channel, because the band released 10 singles: slavestofashion - YouTube

This homage is really amazing, and SLAVES TO FASHION deserves applause. "The History of Heavy Metal" is one of the best tributes of all times.