This German quintet have been around for over 30 years now, and it's not a surprise if you are not too familiar with them - and that's because they only had one album on their catalogue and it was only released two years ago. Now, they are presenting their second album "Metal Fire" via Iron Shield records.

As you might expect by the name of the band and the title of the album, they play a very old school kind of metal. They have a huge heavy sound that is meant to be played on large halls. They lean heavily on aggressive guitar work, together with their chunky bass lines and a barrage of fast drum beats. Although mainly heavy metal in nature, there are also some thrashy cuts in the album provided by the riffs of "Master Key" and "Metal for You". Joel's attack on vocals is unquestionable, doing both harsh growls and high cleans with ease.

One more thing that gives the album a special appeal is the rawness and pureness of its sound. Everything on the record is untouched by any sound modifier, and that makes it a genuine music piece. However, even if the pacing of the album does a great job of keeping the energy up, it all gets boring as soon as you hit the fourth song - and that is because of the lack of variety. Every song sound almost the same as the others; majority of those songs actually have a common topic. You can also notice that their style is akin to the styles of the earliest classic heavy metal acts such as METAL CHURCH, SAVATAGE, and ACCEPT. And while we can't deny that we love that era, we also can't disregard that that approach on metal is almost obsolete - and attempting to reincarnate this style is a hit-or-miss. VISIGOTH hit it the right way, and that is because they managed to perfectly capture the 80's heavy metal vibe, injected modern elements into it and back it up with an exceptionally electrifying live performances - thanks to the prowess of the Palmer-Campana-Rogers trio.

Even having said that, it is gravely unfair to conclude that "Metal Fire" is not a good album. It is, in fact a decent record. What it fails to do is to keep the fire burning high up until the end.