Now where did I put my black leather jacket? And where is my studded belt and buckskin gloves? Probably left them back in the 80s, but thinking about it, I was born in 1982, after the fury already started back in England where NWOBHM continued a musical phenomenon that in the 70s no one projected, and the world was powerless to stop, and it still does, it is called Metal music. However nowadays only a few bands really had something to say when it comes to the revival of NWOBHM. Actually, today this tremendous subgenre that reshaped 70s Rock and Punk, provided a fine measure of technical abilities and elevated singing, is under Swedish hands that took away the old British superiority. SCREAMER, a rather new Swedish band I had the honors to take on their debut album, "Adrenaline Distractions", which introduced me to their old-fashioned sound and auspicious musical direction that led me back decades ago when I was little, luckily fell into my lap once again with their second release, "Phoenix", again via High Roller Records, to start 2013 with a wicked kind of flash bang encouraged by old school Heavy Metal. Just for the first kick, I have to add that this baby turned out levels up from their debut so you can step right in for the next paragraph.

As like plenty of NWOBHM in the past, especially those that arose right in the first years of the 80s, slowly diminishing the remainders of old British Punk in the vein of the PLASMATICS or SEX PISTOLS along with a few Rock attributes, SCREAMER follows the same criteria and aspects such as the insanely classic sound production. Straightforward material that consists of immensely catchy, yet exceedingly choral choruses, crispy sounded guitars bearing vintage Metal riffing along with a few Rock prickles, absolute beats of steel and rhythm based bass, is the key in order to recapture the once glorious British moments al'a IRON MAIDEN, early SATAN, TOKYO BLADE, BUDGIE among others and trivial UFO and LED ZEPPELIN sways. Song after song on "Phoenix" SCREAMER proved the title, rising from the deep sand with a show of determination that nearly diminished their debut material two years ago.

"No Sleep 'Til Hamilton" blasted my face with a fine sense of mid tempo Heavy Metal telling the story about touring, heading from place to place to show a group's worth to play the true music and the experience of playing it live. At first I thought that it was some tribute to MOTORHEAD that hold the title of their live performance "No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith", yet it came to be much more in the picture of a six minute tracks of simple crafted Metal with an attractive long C part and crazed soloing that made it number one. "Demon Rider", "No Regrets", "Slavergrinder", the first three songs, can be gauged together as shining highlights as if made years ago and forgotten about. Such enthusiasm to compose those vintage exemplifications should be awarded. "Demon Rider" is a flash in the dark, amazing chorus and a wonderful main riff. "No Regrets", like galloping on a horse towards the green horizons of the English land, perfectly made chorus, great work on the thumping skins, clearly a MAIDENish song with no regrets. "Slavegrinder" sprinting in heavy as hell, tougher than it gets, providing great vocal performance and a crude main riff running away evil. "Lady Of The River" setting itself as a great specimen of the mixture of late 70s Hard Rock showing a fine vintage groove along with brittle Heavy Metal. At first I was sure it would end up being a ZEPPELIN type track but rather fast I came to notice that Metal will forever rule the day. A truly inspiring song filled with an emotive sagacity that is hard to shake.

In a nutshell, this is an amazing album that every NWOBHM fan should press hard to his / her chest, never let go and not ever loose. Surely this is one my first candidates for the 2013 top crown.