There are two existing trenches in Metal today: one of those that prefers Old School models, and one with modern outfits. People could have best of both worlds at the same time, but some fans try to state things as ‘true’ and disparage the other (a childish thing to do, but the Peter Pan complex is a reality) due their own personal tastes, creating ‘rules’ that they could throw up their own asses. Stated this, let’s speak about “Leatherhead”, the first full-length of the Greek quintet LEATHERHEAD. Their name doesn’t lie: they’re an Old School Metal band, playing a form of Heavy/Speed Metal that was usual in the turn of the first to the second half of the 80s. It’s not a sin to say that names as JUDAS PRIEST, ACCEPT, ACID, CROSSFIRE, EXCITER, ANVIL and HELLOWEEN (on “Helloween” and “Walls of Jericho” days) can be a huge influence for the band’s musical work, based on the blend between fast tempos with melodic care inherited from NWOBHM and high-pitched thin vocals (that can be better adjusting on the screams).

The formula is already known, but they’re honest and play with energy, and have potential to create even better songs in the future, but they’re already on a very good level now. The band recorded the songs at Coyote Studio under the guidance of George Kougioumtzoglou, with mastering being done at Suncord Audiolab by Achilleas Kalantzis. The efforts were done to present a strong and heavy sonority, but using an organic outfit on the instrumental tunes (maybe they just set their gears on the easier way possible and recorded in this way, and evaded to use of an overloaded set of digital editions). It’s good, and easy to be understood. And the artwork of Mario López for the cover (that’s great) fits on their musical work. Oh, for the mastering for the vinyl version of the album was done by Bart Gabriel.

The intro “From Beyond” is like a spark igniting their fire, with “Equinox” (a fast and melodic song with fiery guitar riffs and solos, a perfect hit for their live gigs), “Dressed to Kill” (a massive and weighty assault with excellent contrasts between the tempos, what means that it shows a very good and technical work on bass guitar and drums), “Vampire’s Kiss”, “When Death is Near” (a song with very good melodic appeal, with clear influences of MANOWAR due some epic touches), “Into the Werewolf’s Lair” (very good set of melodies and charming vocals), “Judge Steel” (wow, what amazing and weight song, with very good vocals once more), “Under Your Bed”, “The Awakening”, and “Leatherhead” (a fine depiction of their musical creativity, with NWOBHM and US Metal melodies coexisting here) following, these guys show potential, and please: to say that the vocals can be better DOESN’T MEAN to fire Tolis! It’s just that he has a good voice (that fits with the band’s music), but his screams can be better used, it’s just a matter of playing gigs and rehearsing.

“Leatherhead” is a fine surprise, and LEATHERHEAD deserves the careful listening of all Metaheads.