After listening to this specific album for about 7-8 times, I couldn't help myself from thinking where the hell have the guts of Metal musicians gone. We (generally speaking) bang our heads up and down to the tunes of Nevermore, Pantera, Rammstein, Nightwish (phew...) or Slipknot - their offerings to the development of the Heavy sound into new fields of no-question, but then period - and when a new simply Heavy Metal album/band comes out we (specifically speaking, this time) only hope this will be the breakthrough for traditional-based Metal to strike back with merciless force. This album, Viron's NWOGHM, brought back the thinking/skepticism/hope/fury into my mind...
This German band may be a 'rookie' in the official Metal discography database, still a few may know that they've risen from the ashes of (or 100% were transformed from) an act called Seduction (two Demo CDs came out, Ode To War and Winds Of Valhalla in 2002 and 2003 respectively). It is said to be Crematory drummer Markus Jullich's idea to 'guide' the formation of a real German Heavy Metal band. Maybe it took 3-4 years for Seduction/Viron to fulfill Jullich's ambition but it was definitely worth the wait.
I have the impression Viron did not exactly name their debut album as NWOGHM (New Wave Of German Heavy Metal) accidentally. Expanding with arguments: a) releasing a Demo CD in 2004 by the same name, they got back an awesome feedback from various labels all over Europe. 'Updating' most of the EP's songs for the 2006 full-length release, you don't change a winning title! b) Faith is the food of success/recognition and if Viron are confident enough for participating in a new wave of German Metal bands that wanna get rid of the 'happy' lame Euro Power Metal overdoze, then they mast clearly state it first thing in their discography. c) If you cover the 1985 Exxplorer classic Run For Tommorow in your Demo EP, then you might as well be a German Metal Wave merchant.
When you grow up and spent your youth as a dedicated Metal fan but prevent yourself from being that retro, then (ultimately) you filter your influences through your own personality and contemporary beliefs to come up with an excellent result. The likes of Blind Guardian (songwriting formulas in their 3 first albums), Manowar (aura), Heaven's Gate and Chroming Rose (intelligence), Angeldust and Brainstorm (power and dynamics), Vicious Rumors and Jag Panger (commandment and passion) and (last but not least) Iron Maiden (what makes the Metal world go round?) all gather in the mind of the one(s) who wrote the album's songs. From the opening thunder of Blow The Fuse - the ideal song to expose fury - to the sentimental lyric of Winds Of Valhalla (from the Seduction days?) and then to the disastrous mysticism of Ride On and Born Out Of Light, it is obvious that this band is capable of several good shit in the near future.
To mention a few things 'bout the peripherals, all five members of the band are exceptional. Of course, the Oscar goes to singer Alexx Stahl whose Kursch-meets-Dickinson-meets-Tyrant-meets-Gillan voice is a winner from the very start. Still, the guitar duo of Feucht/Dequis is - hands down - a kick in the ass while the Holzhauer/Neudi rhythm section stands proud as a killing machine. Last of all, the production of this album (handled by the band itself and Kristian Kohle Kohlmannslehner in the Kohlekeller Studios during 2004/2005) is ideal for this kind of music: power, intensity, lucidity, precision and reverence are the first words crossing my mind.
If a differential equation was capable of expressing the development of 'pure' Heavy Metal sound from the mid-80's to each follow-up year existed, then the 2006 results would point at Viron and NWOGHM. Ability and logic are on their side, add the - we hope - Metal fans' support and the path will be wide open. Ten killer songs in one CD; you don't see this happening every day...in our days.