Metal is the most universal musical genre of all time. Bands playing it appear on countries that are hard to think that they could. And from the lands of Kazakhstan, a veteran with 27 years of experience on its shoulders: HOLY DRAGONS, and "Unholy and Saints" is their 18^th album and latest release. Their music is a mix between traditional Heavy Metal from the 80's (with clear references to names of NWOBHM and German Metal) with German Power Metal. It's not something that wasn't done before, but their musical resilience is enough to turn into energy and personality. It's heavy and aggressive in the due proportions, but without losing the melodic ambiance that the band's musical genre needs. Yes, it's really good.

The sound production is dry and a bit rawer than the needed (what improves their natural aggressiveness), and the choices for the drums' tunes weren't the best ones (the sound of the snare drum isn't good), and some problems on the mix can be heard. Anyway, it's not a waste of efforts, but could have been done in a better way.

There are 14 good songs on "Unholy and Saints", being three of them ("Through the Dark Sky", "Ravenmore", and "Beltane Night's Dream") short instrumental songs, only to create the right ambiance for some parts. And on songs as "The Boilerplate (The Story of a Victorian Robot)" (the clear influence of NWOBHM is shown on the harmonic structure of the song and on the use of good guitar duets), the thunderous "Ravens of Odin", the fast and energetic "Fly Your Guitar" (a Power Metal song with fast drumming, but what a solid rhythmic work), the hooking melodic shock given by "The Hall of Shame" (that walks a musical way between Glam/Hard Rock and traditional Heavy Metal) and by "Pretenders" (this one is close to HELLOWEEN's music work on "Keepers" era, but what lovely guitars), their melodic tribute to Ronnie James Dio presented on "The Elf", and the hooking riffs of "Unholy and Saints" are their best songs. The vocals are good, but they can improve in a better way next time.

"Unholy and Saints" doesn't present anything different that all the Heavy/Power Metal fans weren't introduced before, but shows that HOLY DRAGONS deserves praise for their resilience and talent.