Something I've always been intrigued by is concept albums that tell a story, and I've listened to a few Heavy Metal artists who mainly centre their music around that idea with Axel Rudi Pell being one of them. It's usually the lyrics in a vocal track that tell the story best but what if you are aiming to create an instrumental concept album? That's a whole different story so to find out if it works. I'll be reviewing the debut EP from an American metal band called ANGELS ON THE BATTLEFIELD so off we go.

Hailing from the Los Angeles area of the USA, ANGELS ON THE BATTLEFIELD are a three-piece instrumental Metal act whose aim is to create epic instrumental metal pieces. Although the bio on their Facebook lists just the guitar and bass players, there is some drums in the music. Don't worry about there not being any which I admit is something that did worry me at first but I can put that to rest.

Their debut self-titled EP is 15 minutes long spread out across three tracks. This is a sensible amount of songs for an EP, and the music itself is straightforward heavy as hell instrumental metal which I do like from time to time when I'm not blasting vocal tracks into my ears. The production across the three tracks is surprisingly well mixed as you can hear the music very clearly. You can appreciate the heavy riffs of the guitars, the deep powerful bass riffs and the pounding drums that make up the rhythm section alongside the bass.

Only complaints I do have to make here is that the melodies do occasionally sound a bit messy and at times repetitive. This can sometimes make it a bit dull to listen to but the songs are a reasonable length at around 4 ½ to 5 minutes each. It doesn't go on for too long which is a smart move so, hopefully these small problems shouldn't put you off too much.

Bottom line, the debut self-titled EP from ANGELS ON THE BATTLEFIELD is not too bad, as it's very enjoyable instrumental metal music and the arrangements remind me of a Japanese metal remix project called DEMETORI. Whether or not that was intended remains to be seen but for the most part, this is music you will enjoy and I look forward to hearing more.