Started back in 1999 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, REXOR laid down their roots with 80's heavy metal style composition by drawing influences from SAXON, JUDAS PRIEST, ACCEPT, GRAVEDIGGER and AC/DC before finally releasing their four-track demo EP appropriately titled "Heavy Metal Forever" in 2008. A mere six years later in 2014 they independently released the full-length album "Powered Heart" receiving excellent feedback from the underground scene. Fast forward to October 7, 2022 and Steel Shark Records have brought them back to the spotlight with the release of "For Glory and Freedom", featuring re-recorded versions of three of the four songs from the debut EP and adding six brand new songs.

Opening with a catchy instrumental on "Feed the Lion", with a potent, rhythmic drum beat under a hefty guitar that leads into the title track "Glory Or Freedom", with a rush of pummeling riffs and gruff, throaty vocals that lose momentum creating a fairly lame effort overall, nothing to get excited about. Track two "From Out Of The Ruins" is a carbon copy of the previous song with a tad bit heavier riffs and hooks and a nice guitar solo to even it out but I'm ready to pull out the "heard it before" card. On to the first song from the EP, curious to see if they offer up a more diverse sound on "Sprit Of The Dark", and they do, sounding like early IRON MAIDEN right down to the riffs, licks and lyrics , "One night in my bed, I was turning to sleep, I saw somebody in the dark, why did you look for me, burn in hell" and while they manage to toss in a meaty guitar solo mid-way through, I'm just not sensing any necessity for them to veer off the well-traveled path. Finally, now this is what I'm talking about "Holy Wine" jumps out with a hardened THIN LIZZY vibe, a rocking tune with punching, francized riffs and the best guitar hooks so far, plus Wash  Balboa exhibits some range in his vocals, something that's been missing on the previous songs. "Fire And Shine" stays in the same neighborhood of the album core but has an infectious head banging, jolting attitude with shimmying riffs and some strong guitar work.

Overall, this is a very standardized album, with tunnel vision on most of the songs, which happens when your vocalist has roughened pipes, but they offer enough meaty metal essentials to keep me from totally leaving a bad review. I did like this album, it's just that too many of the tracks felt like a continuation of the previous track. I'm probably too harsh on REXOR, I see plenty of potential, maybe with so much time in between album releases softened their studio creativity. I don't know, just a thought.