Heavy Metal to the very end! I memorize, with so much skepticism at times, the days when Heavy Metal was one music. You'd love Twisted Sister, Saxon, Manowar, Running Wild, Metallica and Bathory at the same time without being obliged to justify your likes, since all those were Metal bands. And then came the killing. The result: a typhoon of sub-genres and the question from time to time what the hell is this X band playing. O tempora, o mores...
German Metal maniacs Metal Inquisitor is the kind of act formed by furious 80's Metal lunatics. No questions asked, the sole purpose of this band is to create Heavy Metal songs destined to bring tons of headbanging, beer drinking and hell raising! It may seem too retro for many Metal fans - especially the younger ones - but there were times in our beloved music when it was all about spikes, leather, patches, pins, denim and beers! No keyboards 'overloading', no ethereal atmosphere, no complexity excess.
Doomsday For The Heretic is the band's second full length. The debut effort, The Apparition (2002, Iron Glory) did make some good impression due to its in-your-face sound and general attitude, while a variety of live appearances in Germany and Central Europe enlisted the band (formed in 1998) as a thunderous onstage act. Still, it was the deal with German Metal mail-order/label Hellion Records that pushed the band into writing material for a brand new album on a more serious basis. Beware: serious does not, in any case, mean mature or calm. On the contrary, the result of the now reviewed album is none other that the elementary fact that...
...Heavy Metal will never die!!! Doomsday For The Heretic features a dozen of songs that clearly present how Metal music once was (and what decline it has now gone through...). With a variety of influences - from the traditional NWOBHM sound to the supremacy of Iron Maiden/Judas Priest and then to the Running Wild/(early) Helloween dominance - it is with true belief to state that once the album begins to play in your Hi-Fi, you'll find yourself banging your head from the very first second. No reason to refer to any song in particular: all tunes kick serious Metal ass! As for the band: the vocals are in classic Metal vein, with a 'middle pitch' range, while the instruments show no mercy, bombarding us with endless dozes of straightforward Metal madness!
Life's too short to cry: if you think the whole Edguy or Slipknot 'network' carries the sense of Metal you want, then stay away from this album. However, for the ones who want to ensure the influence of albums like Killers, Killing Machine, Under Jolly Roger, Kill 'Em All and Walls Of Jericho in today's Metal bands, this is your chance! In 21st Century words: If Sweden's Wolf is your cup of tee, then Metal Inquisitor will be you bottle of beer!
Now, waiting for the Up The Hammers fest (May 2006 in Athens, Greece) for them to eat our hearts out!