Canada = Metal. One of the best obscure bands from there comes after a very long time to offer us their new album with the simple and to-the-point title Metal Manifesto. In the beginning and in the first listening of this CD I had a lot of thinking. When you have songs like Metal Inquitition, Witchhunt or Fire God behind you believe that it is almost impossible to listen to something equal with the 80s era stuff. Something logical since we are talking about songs that - from the first time you come across them - will be forever carved inside your memory. And if we see it in such a point of view then Metal Manifesto loses easily the comparison although such thing is not so fair. Besides we are more than two decades away from these albums and time sleeks any musical blemish. Except that, after some time Metal Manifesto can win you; it is real and it is Metal. Good Metal.  
Metal Manifesto was something like a phantom album. There were plans for a third opus back in the 80s, the name would be Shock, but after some heavy disagreements with the label Gord Kirchin would release it under the name of DOGS WITH JOB. After an eternity the band would return in 2004 as THE EXALTED PILEDRIVER with new musicians surrounding Gord Kirchin and for the first time ever they would play live not only in Canada but also in Europe and countries like Germany or Greece. In 2005 and via their Internet page we would listen to some new demo songs like Blood Bath, Metal Manifesto, Battle Axe and the old one Road Pigs. Unfortunately the new album would be delayed seeing the light of the sun in the end of 2008 via Northern Storm Records; the distribution is not the wanted one and I don't know in how many stores in Europe you can find it.
About the album now. First of all I must share with you that it is more than a pleasure hearing this voice again. Mr. PILEDRIVER has not lost anything from the timbre he had and for once again he finds some fantastic vocal lines that simply blow my head away. Even when he is close to Alice Cooper's vocals in songs like When I Saw Your Face he is pure enjoyment. The record varies from speed tunes to heavy ones, like the above mentioned. The fast ones are absolutely neckbreaking, just listen to The Last Day Of The Weak, Volatile and the furious Unsuck My Cock. Bloodbath and I Am The One have bombastic drumming, especially the first one, followed by excellent riffing and thunderous refrains that will remind you of the past. Of great surprise is the self-titled masterpiece; here the refrain is the ultimate one, a song that has nothing to be afraid of the old ones. The mediocre songs are the last two, The Things I Give and Road Pigs but I have to admit that after a hundred times I have heard this record the first one starts to be more sympathetic.
Personally speaking, this comeback gave me much more enthusiasm and fist banging madness than the rating you may see below. But I don't know what it can offer to the newer people in Metal and if you are seeing for the first time this name I do not only highly recommend their two first albums but I find them as some of the best Metal recordings in the 80s Canada's scene. Despite the fact that PILEDRIVER was more than a studio project in the past and all the songs were written by others and not from Kirchin, here he proves that he knows how to deliver the goods. From the cover till the very good soloing this return is surely much better than expected and it will be a shame if this recording does not become more known.