Death of a Hero

Northern Ireland might be among the more appropriate places in Northern Europe for a shout of metallic fury to the four winds, but as of late it has been a fairly under-represented of late. Sure, there are a few recent bands like Gama Bomb that have been making waves in the thrash realm, but they've largely played off a present craze towards retro-thrash and have been a bit comical in their approach. What has truly been missing is a band that attempts to capture the serious side of the locale in question, and recently an independent act out of Belfast called Bakken has been thrown their hat into the ring. While perhaps not the most ambitious or trailblazing of efforts to come about, their debut LP "Death Of A Hero" definitely takes a decent stab at dealing with issues of conflict and tragedy.

Bringing forth a somewhat commonplace take on power/thrash, the resulting sound could be likened to what Mystic Prophecy or Firewind might sound like circa 2001-2003 had they gotten James Hetfield to do a session vocal slot. The production quality is particularly loud and thunderous, though just a hair short of the stereotypical noise-wars sound that has infested Metallica's past few albums. Particularly of note is the powerful snare drum sound, which is fairly reminiscent of the posh character of "The Black Album", though the actual musical content is a bit more intricate. The songwriting generally follows the same typical verse/chorus character of the average Firewind album, though the lead work is a bit less virtuosic and more in line with a standard Kirk Hammett approach balancing pentatonic shred with a formulaic, melodic contour.

The supreme flaw on this album is actually a typical one for newer bands, namely throwing nearly every good idea into the first song and blowing their load prematurely. "Darkest Day" is a quintessential epic metal tune after the mold of Iron Maiden's "Number Of The Beast" with a side helping of "...And Justice For All", starting with an extended intro that listens somewhere between the title song of the latter album and the military theme at the beginning of "Struggle Within". Once it gets going, the early Iron Maiden influences with a massive guitar and drum sound gets pretty formulaic, but even still the sense of triumph and sorrow hits like a wrecking ball. Afterwards, the album largely falls into formulaic grooves with fairly frequent bursts of speed. A few songs like "Sasquatch" and "Fortress Of Evil" have their moments, but largely it listens like "Burning Earth" with a little less energy and a little more repetition.

Overall this is a good album, but it doesn't immediately scream out for attention in a manner comparable to the early works of Mystic Prophecy or Messiah's Kiss, which are largely what this listens like. Vocalist Simon Pickett seems to be trying a bit too hard at sounding like a James Hetfield clone, even more so than the growing onslaught of revivalist bands attempting to outright relive "Master Of Puppets" and everything before. There is definitely room for growth here, but as of now this is a band that is still seeking an identity of their own. Everything is pullled off competently and the average power metal fan will likely find himself banging his head some of the time, but it's not quite something worth selling the farm over.