It’s late on Thursday night, album release day is a Friday and this is just one the usual deluge of new material due to surge onto Spotify in the early hours. And I wish I could have told you about it a bit sooner! However, excuses to one side here is a brief rundown of an album you definitely need to be locating once its metallic bits and bytes make their way into your digital devices.
Anyone familiar with the band, or indeed with Judas Priest, will be at home with the twin guitar attacks and high-pitched vocals. Tim Owens was always a superb stand-in for Halford, his voice being similar enough yet still very much his own. KK Downing obviously needs to further introduction! Alongside the rest of the band, they unashamedly play the same kind of music you could expect from the band from which they sprouted. And why be ashamed? It’s quality classic heavy metal, played ridiculously well.
Even the song titles hark back to classic tracks (“Sons of the Sentinel” and “One More Shot at Glory” surely can’t be coincidental), and it’s so easy to write then off as just being hangers-on, or a knock-off of the arena-filling original band… but they’re so much more than that. The Sinner Rides Again is as good as anything that Halford’s crew have released in recent years, and that’s no faint praise.
At heart it is just a NWOBHM album like so many others, but one with a pedigree. The songs are well crafted, the music hammer and wails, and the vocals are both gritty and melodic. There’s a bit of dual vocal work as well, a perfect example being the aforementioned “One More Shot At Glory” where Owens’ high-end screams are layered alongside a lower-end, gravelly take on the same lyrics. The usual formula is stuck to throughout (verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus) with some great solos and riffs padding the whole package out.
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The thing is, much as it’s arguably formulaic this familiarity makes it so easy to get into and enjoy. It’s a metal album you can slap on and be headbanging to within minutes. You just feel at home with the aural assault.
As Downing states in the PR puff, the band aren’t out to do anything new. More to ensure that something well-worn isn’t forgotten or allowed to die:
We’ve lost a lot of great people – Dio, Lemmy, for example – but this amazing and unique style of music must be preserved for as long as possible and I feel it within me to continue to play my role, as I always have, and to defend this metal genre, which we all know and love.
Well as far as this reviewer is concerned – mission accomplished, at least for one more album cycle. With the new material rattling round in my head, I’m very much looking forward to seeing them on tour in a little over a week! Their Helloween-replacement slot at Bloodstock was perfect for them and I’m sure their headlining show will be no less enjoyable.
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The Sinner Rides Again is released on 29th September
Header image by Mind Art Visual
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