All the trends in Metal have the same weak point: as a specific trend becomes a success (in terms of public and commercially), more and more bands come from out of nowhere, eroding more and more, and eroding the patience of the fans to a point that they chose to stay with those they already like, closing doors to other ones. It's due the inability that we all have to hear every band that releases an album. And sometimes good bands appear and don't get the due attention. This Old School trend from the 80's that is wagging our ears has 75% of releases that we can leave aside, because are cloning someone else, but the other part is doing something good. It's the case of the Spanish quintet THE WIZARDS, from Bilbao, and their third album, "Rise of the Serpent", is a good release.

Their efforts on music bring us all a Hard'n'Heavy sound heavily influenced by NWOBHM (especially IRON MAIDEN), but bearing some personal touches due the range of influences that goes from 70's Hard Rock to earlier Power Metal names from the first half of the 80's, and even some bits of Doom Metal can be detected. It's nothing that we all didn't have heard before, but it's good, with some charming melodies and a powerful insight. And by the way, their choruses are really good! The sound quality is a problem that a great part of the bands from this genre seems to never overcome. No, it's not something bad, but it could be better, because the sound bears a crude insight that seems to be a vein tentative to sound as if they were in the past. We can understand everything, it's heavy, but a less crude sound would make their music even better.

Eight very good songs are presented on "Rise of the Serpent". The charming heavy melodies of "Apocalyptic Weapons" (fine guitars, indeed) and of "Destiny" (this one is filled with a fine work from bass guitar and drums, along with a very good chorus), the Hard'n'Heavy scent that can be felt on "Circle of Time", and the hammering tempos of "Strings Synchronise" are the best moments of this album, but I truly recommend you to hear it all. A good band that still has potential to make something better, but for now, "Rise of the Serpent" is a fine choice for a night after spending long hours working.