From the city that rooted the phrase Gothenburg Death Metal, meaning the classic early 90s melodic Death Metal, for the entire world to dwell and listen, there has been also a room for some old school Heavy Metal. Not that I am renewing something to you boys and girls, especially you, the diehard fans of NWOBHM, right there in the front as the Swedish Metal scene has massed quite an impressive army of Heavy Metal bands that took England's royalty and their New Wave Of Metal Music and made it their own. Of course that none of younger bands won't admit it, and some still wear, as a tribute, the English flag as t-shirts, but their continuing of what the British stopped from doing, made most of what came out of the famous blonde land, and not California, as a breather to Metal's oldest subgenre. AIR RAID, joined the growing family back in 2009 and from what I listened from their debut EP, "Danger Ahead", via Stormspell Records, they have a little work cut out for them, although for a debut show of power, it can be considered as an 80s might.

Influenced by everything that is British, including the early era of JUDAS PRIEST and even somewhat rolling through the outskirts of the early Western European scene groups like RUNNING WILD, AIR RAID showed a few faces of the developing Heavy Metal scene of the early to mid 80s. From NWOBHM speedsters to mid tempo consistencies of IRON MAIDEN and JUDAS PRIEST, through the seven songs of this EP, which by the way includes a little gesture of two tracks of their early 2011 demo, they proved their massive attack no less than their a little bit veteran peers in their local scene. I liked the guitar work quite a lot, though there were solid tracks like "Annihilation" ,which by a long shot sounded like an anthem, and "Free At Last" that weren't so impressive when it came to the written riffing, especially the former that pretty much recycled itself. I was thankful that the main riff of that song was quite good as it caught my ear quite easily. On the other hand, AIR RAID laid down their bombs with "The Metal Cult" that it is an absolute classic as it has everything in 80s classic, a wonderful and catchy riff on the chorus, which on its own was gold. "When the Sky Turns Red" began the assault with another of these alarms that really begin to tire as how many times could that effect can be used really? At least after the fallout of the alarm, things began hitting up with a total of early IRON MAIDEN offensive. The rhythms scoured between mid to fast tempo just as those were written in the book of NWOBHM add by great drum work and enchanting solos and chorus. "Fight Street" sounded a first like an ACCEPT meets JUDAS PRIEST mid tempo burst. The unison of two great forces in Metal under the crumbling ground of the streets made this one a tough shell to crack. All that is left is to raise your fist for the classics. A pretty easy song to handle, just bang your head and enjoy the fireworks.

"Danger Ahead" is another presentation of how the Swedish crews have their way with NWOBHM. I have to say that it made me smile more than once while I listened to it. Of course nothing is perfect and I would have probably done things a little different on several of the tracks to enhance them, but in the end, this is a more than qualified Metal crew that knows his roots and how to produce good music in a harsher land of Metal. Can't wait for the debut full length, for now go ahead and grab this one.