First thing, this is one awesome, kick ass, metal-as-fuck album cover artwork, second, I'm a sucker for any band with Angel in their name, so, SEVERED ANGEL, you've already got me by the balls, what they do with my balls now depends on five guys hailing from the Northeastern United States (NY and PA) forged to unleash a sonic assault of melodic heavy metal upon the masses with their debut, self-titled full-length album released May 2, 2023. The band came together in an unorthodox manner, In 2018, drummer Wayne Noon started the Rat Salad Review network to promote his favorite bands and have fun with a podcast that provides insight to the metal bands that the mainstream media are unaware of. Some of those bands included TIMELESS HAUNT (Dimitri), THE NIGHTMARE STAGE (Muchnik), INFINITE SPECTRUM (Repetti), and THE BITTER SEASON (Mavs), and in early 2022, Wayne suggested forming a new original band, and ta-da, (sorry, I know that's not very metal) SEVERED ANGEL was born. So, let's see how a band that came together via a Podcast puts it all together.

Forget the opening instrumental "Introspection", looks like they were trying to set an atmosphere but turns out to be a mundane piece, because the next song "In the Red" truly sets the pace, nice, hard driven riff with clean and intermittent sludgy vocals that are unfortunately over powered by the backing melody, "Dogs of War" comes right back taking a darker turn opening with a blackened riff before vaulting into a vicious and virulent assault of the eardrums and powerful vocals that gel perfectly together. I'm pumped to get on to the title track "Severed Angel", but much to my surprise it's a ballad.......complete with soft, warm piano and orchestral backdrop, I was expecting a head numbing, smash mouth song, maybe the PR department at Bud Light choose this direction. The eighth track, appropriately titled "Number 8" immediately blows through the speakers with an infusion of speed metal with a diverse layering of clean and harsh vocals, galloping beyond sinister and ethereal harmonies and melodies. A very intriguing and eccentric song that may be my favorite on this album.

I went into this review a little biased, as I earlier stated about the artwork and the band's name. This is a very good album, they hit on a lot of cylinders, they have a lot to offer. SEVERED ANGEL has a nice, polished balance between classic and speed metal riffs. The vocals are brazened, despite a couple of songs where they get a little lost in the shuffle. They've got a few elements to work on and iron out, but they are headed in the right direction.