10 years after their last studio effort, ROXXCALIBUR are back with another instalment of their NWOBHM tribute performances. They were quite active before, as their former albums “NWOBHM For Muthas” (2009), “Lords Of The NWOBHM” (2011) and “Gems Of The NWOBHM” (2015) weren’t too far apart. The common denominator for those albums is that the songs they chose for their albums were those jewels that most of us will not have heard of, even if you were part of the NWOBHM movement when you were growing up. I was one of those, and although I have quite an extensive knowledge of that era and genre, I come short in comparison to these guys. A lot of the material they have found just didn’t make it across any pond or land borders back in the day. ROXXCALIBUR has decided that they want everyone to enjoy what they missed back then, and have therefore decided to bring all those old songs aback to life. They have done that again, for the fourth time, and the result is now playing in my room in the form of “NWOBHM From The Vaults”.

What you get to realise is that these guys are not English, as the pronunciation of the lyrics has a slight accent, German to be exact. But that is not a problem here, as it only gets really noticeable when the singing is low and slow. When Alexx Stahl goes higher and faster you can still hear it, but it isn’t annoying at all. Just a fact to consider. Musically these guys surely know how to play. In the 50 minutes they play you can hear where their heart lies. They play the slower and quieter songs with a lot of heart, but you get the feeling that they are holding back. ROXXCALIBUR like the songs they are playing, but they have trouble holding back. That all disappears when you hear the band play the faster and heavier songs on “NWOBHM From The Vaults”. That is when the level of pleasure that these instrumentalists are displaying reaches the top. That is when you can hear the amount of satisfaction radiating from your speakers.

Whatever you might think of compilation albums that are tributes to the past, it is a fact that this is a sure fired way to pique the interest of the people interested, who will take the time and have a good listen. And through this medium, ROXXCALIBUR’s album “NWOBHM From The Vaults”, they will go and look if they can locate the originals, be it physical or digital. And that is a service in itself. I don’t know if ROXXCALIBUR plays live shows, but if they do I bet it would be a very pleasant experience.