We have some Canadian flavour in our metal today kids. The band is NOOR and they are releasing their first album Mother Guilty Pleasure Part One independently. The album was released a couple of years ago and now is being re-released with a few additional tracks and live performances. Their sound is basically Power Metal so I do expect some musical expertise and a vocal that rips on the high notes, and this is exactly what we have on the first track “Mother's Guilty Pleasure”. I can start by saying that the vocals are impressive and are provided by Thomas Karam who still handles one of the guitars. The track is a little too long but still a good introduction.

The band has some intricate guitar riffs as in the next track “Golden Coffin” that has a number of tempo changes as well, and the vocals continue to impress. The choruses will have some good backing vocals as you can hear in “All Equally Useless” that has a little more cadenced beat and reminds me more of a traditional Heavy Metal track. The musicianship also impresses showing that the boys ain’t here for the chit chat. They mean business are are definitely well seasoned musicians and composers and that is displayed on tracks like “Flaming Rage”, and the good “Hoodlum” that has a mean riff and great work from competent bass player Olivier Roy that throughout the album, has his axe well present in the mix and not hidden behind the guitars all the time. The band emanates flavours of IRON MAIDEN and sometimes JUDAS PRIEST due to the high pitch vocals. Eric Adams  from MANOWAR also comes to mind. the songs will also impress with its variety of arrangements as every song is very well crafted like the beautiful “Forgiving Eyes” that starts with a masterful acoustic arrangement before they assault you with a mean heavy guitar riff. Guitars are another highlight of this release as the arrangements are solid and the sound is mean.

The next track “Hills of Qartaba”, uses the same formula with the nice acoustic introduction and the mean riffs later, and the guitar solo on this one provided by good guitar player Simon Jarmosh are something to behold. Providing the rhythm section for this band is no easy feat. As great metal bands do, you need a solid drummer and the drumming provided on this great release by Nicolas Moro is impeccable. The guy is a machine (in the good sense). It is hard to choose a favourite track but I will highlight the last one from the original release from 2023, “Roseblood”. The band also added 2 additional tracks on the 2025 re-release “Les Canadiens Sont La” sung in French, and “Follow The Light”, both killers. The re-release also presents us with 2 live performances of the songs “Golden Coffin” and “Flaming Rage “. The good news is they are as good live as they are in the studio despite the “garage band “ quality of the live recording. Impressive first release and I look forward to part two.