Who wants to be the next slave in line? Would he or she please raise his or her hand and scream "I". Well it is not going to be me; I am too old for this shit. Come to think if, it scares the shit out of me to say that I am too old for something, especially in Metal music. Anyhow, I present you the new album of an Epic Metal band from Italy that seems to long for a pleasurable slavery under the sign of the 80s. And so they did by calling themselves PLEASURE SLAVES, which by the way was named after the old MANOWAR classic title. The music is almost the same as the name but with Italian accent, no Eric Adams at the front but the capable theatrical figure of Simone SK Grigolo, and no blasting bass like MANOWAR's Viking giant Joey DeMaio. "The Last Of The Giants", via Rising Records, crosses between stories of the glory of Valhalla, bravery of Medieval Knights right to the immortal way of True Metal.

In the bottom, the album felt like a script for a melodramatic play on one of those large scale venues. Maybe it will be a good idea to build a special setting for several of the songs within the tracklist; it will probably get someone interested. As far as the music is concerned, it is a mere 80s oriented effort, also the same can be said about the album's production (Though the skins didn't sound as lively as in older releases but nothing can be perfect right? At least the drummer did well). PLEASURE SLAVES provide a nice example of MANOWAR meets IRON MAIDEN plus a nice tweak of NWOBHM. On the other hand, the riffing wasn't too constructive but pretty simple. It came to the point, at least half of the album, that the music was just scenery to Simone that took the reins the main storyteller. However, on the second half of the release, where great songs came to light, the two guitarists had their way with conquering lead guitar work that took the reins of music toward their direction.

"The Song Of The Seven" was the first that really thundered with both the vocalic drama, amazing keyboards cover and emotive and plain beautiful riffing and lead solos that won't put IRON MAIDEN or MANOWAR to shame. This one could have been a true theatrical spectacle. "Hero", the glory of the knights, maintains a great main riff that sounds similar to the classic plus a fine chorus along with it. I think that "The True Way" and "The Power Of The Nights" have a true potential even though they had a few dry sections that weren't so appealing.

If you happen to enjoy Epic Metal music in the vein of early MANOWAR, hail this one. However don't expect the same energies of the Americans, or at least what they had in the past, this is a storyteller's ride and it shows it rather with ease. For who is more open, I would watch for this one.