Ah yes, France. It's a place known for romance, various types of bread, that one tower, and several great Metal bands. Look, I'm just a guy who likes Metal, not a tour guide. When I was first presented with an album cover that appears to be a bunch of diamonds flying through a brick wall with fire behind it, as well as an extravagant font I started to wonder if this would be music for the wealthy. Would there be a lot of caviar and investment talk? This was my primary concern and introduction to EXISTANCE's "Breaking the Rock".

Upon first putting this album in, I was greeted with the crash of thunder and some melancholy acoustics. As I started to worry this would be some kind of mournful sadness for the next hour of my life, I was immediately saved by a blazing riff. The song "Heavy Metal Fury" opens up the album with a kickass salvo of screaming solos and head banging riffs. The lead singer follows through with a Classic Heavy Metal vocal style. It's the joy of stuff like DIO and IRON MAIDEN. Classic early Thrash and NWOBHM influence is thick here. This is a throwback to the days of denim vests and movies where the bad guys wore leisure suits. It's the 80's style in its prime.

The rhythm section works well with the rest of the band. The drums bang and crash like thunder, the bass is heavy like a blacksmith's anvil. It all compliments the riffs well, which are catchy and engaging. These lay a solid foundation for several songs that are enhanced greatly by awesome solo work. The second song "Honest" is a standout for me due to the great lead. A Metal band trying to capture nostalgia with this style of Metal should definitely have a good guitarist and the solos here are great, they're intricate and "noodly" but also slow down and add emotion to the music. A great solo can feel like the cherry on top of the icing, however there's nothing wrong with enjoying a handful of cherries either. Aside from making myself hungry, the point I'm trying to make here is that there's some enjoyable string work here.

The vocals here are the higher pitched wailing type. It's still singing devoid of all snarls, growls, and other monster/guttural noises. On the note of the vocals, there's several songs where the chorus is delivered in a group "We Are Restless" and "All is On Fire" have that anthem feel to them. I'm aware that this is an annoyance for some people so it should be noted, but I personally enjoyed it as it made most of the songs feel more epic and grand. Combined with the already fantastic musicianship, this helps complete the wall of sound effect. Metal should be loud if nothing else (Yes even you, Doom Metal). Another thing I noticed about this release was that there were a few songs about love. Sure, we can be mature and say that love is an emotion like any other (and several other emotions are covered in Metal) and the fact a Metal band is tackling the subject can be viewed as different and something unique. However, you could also be like 'Love!? Blech. What is this, RnB?' Did the subject matter detract from anything? Not necessarily but it did come out of left field and surprise me. It's unorthodox but not unheard of. It also doesn't demerit what is a solid Metal release.

I would recommend this to fans of stuff like ANNIHILATOR, ICED EARTH, METAL CHURCH, MANOWAR, JUDAS PRIEST, and any other number of "regular" Heavy Metal bands. By now I would find it very hard to believe that someone isn't completely familiar with the vanilla version of Heavy Metal. I hate to say it like it's mundane because it isn't. This is heavy, loud, thrashing, fist raising Metal. It's the spirit of the genre kept alive and well by these French neck wreckers. Hail EXISTANCE!