Defender of the Crown

Here's a fun fact if you want to feel old: Brocas Helm's Defenders of the Crown is currently the same age as <into Battle was when Defenders of the Crown released! That's right, it's the 20th anniversary of Brocas Helm's seminal third "comeback" album, as well as the 40th anniversary of their debut Into Battle, meaning all of their full-lengths are officially old at this point. However, with a 16-year gap between its predecessor Black Death and the subject of today's review, Defenders of the Crown, one would certainly expect some sort of creative or stylistic change, but outside of an updated production that's not really the case, as it seems most or all of the material presented here was written in the late 80s or 90s, with most of the material having already been released on demos, EPs, or singles from the band's 1989-1999 period. That being the case, this serves more as a compilation than a true full-length, and the fact that it's nearly as long as the band's previous two full-lengths combined helps cement this idea, but it's certainly not as if this is a bad thing. The quality here is consistent and so is the style, making this feel more coherent than your average compilation; this is a band that does one thing very well and knows not to ever stray too far from it, to their benefit. That said, 52+ minutes of Brocas Helm's signature "burst of speed and crazy antics" style may be a bit much for some, and I'd say this album can be a better experience in pieces than necessarily experienced all the way through on every single experience.

Unfortunately, the album starts out with quite possibly the weakest track in the band's catalogue, "Cry of the Banshee," which does have a fun opening riff but never really goes anywhere, just kind of noodling around without a true payoff. Thankfully, the band cranks things up to 11 with the title track, the brilliantly succinct "Defender of the Crown," which comes in like a thunderbolt, stays on for its entire 3-minute length, and gets out of there as soon as it's said what it needs to say. This is a fantastic burst of energy akin to something like the title track of Manilla Road's Open the Gates, iconic and epic yet brief enough to feel special and ephemeral. "Skullfucker" is another absolute classic, with some fantastic bass and drum work, propelling the song forward with a mesmerizing militaristic cadence and vocalist Bobbie Wright's iconic delivery of "PAIN! TORTURE! SEX! WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT!" Brocas Helm are great at coming up with incredibly catchy lines that are often NSFW, and I find myself wanting to burst out "SKULLFUCKER I"LL FUCK 'ER IN THE HEAD!" in incredibly inappropriate situations and often have to consciously stop myself from doing so to not get called out as a gross weirdo. This kind of makes it even more hilarious, though, as that's just a hilarious thought to have occur to me.

"Drink and Drive" carries on the tradition of being iconic and catchy while also having lyrics you don't necessarily want to shout out in public, if you don't want all the nearby mothers to get MAD(D). I could definitely see a reasonable person having a problem with some of these lyrics out of context, but if you're familiar with the band you can clearly see it's a very tongue-and-cheek song only ever intended for comedy value, along the lines of something like Wardog's "Bucket O Beer." That said, if you're particularly sensitive to this issue I wouldn't blame you for skipping it, though musically it's an excellent track and it absolutely cracks me up personally. "Blood Machine" is a bit of an odd track here, as the production values are noticeably worse, and it feels like the version from their 1999 single may simple have been lifted, or at least parts of it were, and transposed here without much work done. The robotic-sounding chorus in particular just sounds low and muffled, and the whole thing feels a bit pieced together and unfinished, although it does have some solid songwriting, especially in the guitar solo.

"Ghost Story" presents us with more iconic drum and general rhythm work, and overall I'd say this album perhaps does the best job of showcasing the skills of drummer Jack Hays in particular over their other albums - perhaps bassists Jim Schumacher, too, though his work was always prominent and inventive on all of their material. This track does a great job of showing out what a tight three-piece unit the band is, though, not losing anything over 15-20 years of activity; rather, they seem more comfortable riffing and jamming with each other here than on their first two albums (though they still sound quite good there). They incorporate the rhythm section of the band into their sound more organically to create a larger atmosphere than the vast majority of heavy/power bands in the 80s or now. "Helms Deep" has a NWOBHM-ish naivete and youthfulness to it that makes it feel like it could have been an outtake from <into Battle, which isn't a bad thing at all as it keeps things relatively fresh, feeling less sophisticated than some of the other tracks here yet no less fun and energetic. The chaotic guitar solo towards the end is also an awesome, frantic swirl of insanity that cranks things up nicely.

"Juggernaut" is a half-instrumental track that feels more like a jam number with a few vocals added at the last minute, but certainly still holds its own, having some similarities to "Into the Ithilstone" from Into Battle but a bit more experimental and unpolished, not really following the traditional "verse/chorus/verse/chorus" structure but just kind of doing its own thing. "Time of the Dark" goes back to highlighting the rhythm section with some extensive bass and drum riffing that manages to stay surprisingly engaging despite not bringing in any guitar or vocals until the 1:30 mark, almost feeling like something out of a Primus record (though JIm Schumacher has been playing since before Les Claypool formed Primus, so I admit the comparison is somewhat unfair). The song then turns into something that can be favorably compared to "Fly HIgh" from Black Death, which was always one of my favorite tracks from that record and has a more muscular USPM sort of character to it than most of their stuff does. I'd like to mention that this is generally the part of the album where it starts to feel a bit overlong to me - not because the last few tracks are bad or even significantly worse than anything else, just that a one-note, straight-ahead band like this is better with a shorter presentation. Still, as I said, if you split it up or aren't like me and don't feel like you need to "power through" the rest of it, there's still some great material in the last third of the album.

"War Toons" is another track that feels a bit underproduced compared to the rest of the album, and may have simply been lifted from the version on 1994's Ghost Story EP without much work, but it's a solid jam, if a bit underwhelming by the band's standards, feeling more like an homage to 70s rock than a burst of epic metal. "Never Kissed Goodbye" is fantastic, though, playing with rhythm in the rhythm/lead guitar interplay in a way I've rarely heard in metal, almost feeling like something that could have come from Dire Straits in terms of the guitar work and structure. It's certainly a more complex and subtle work than the band's standard fare, and yet it works incredibly well, thankfully providing some more variety towards the end of a longer album. A midpaced, romantic rocker isn't something I would've ever said I wanted from Brocas Helm, but it's a lot more than that when you listen to the guitar work and it works brilliantly. In fact, this is in contention for my favorite song on the album, although "Defender of the Crown" and "Skullfucker" are definitely in contention.

"Persian Gulf" shows the band taking an almost thrashy direction with the speed and aggression of the guitar work, and its uniquely relentless, chaotic nature makes it a pretty memorable instrumental, as it shows a direction the band never really took on any of their full songs; this is the only song I've really heard from the band that has any post-NWOBHM influence, sounding like it could be influenced by Metallica or Slayer while the rest of their songs are firmly rooted in a pre-1982 sound. Finally, we end with two longer tracks, 2 of only 3 tracks on the album that surpass the 5-minute mark (the third being "Time of the Dark," which is only due to the 90-second bass/drum solo). "Children of the Nova Dawn" is a rockin', laid-back anthem that shows the band channeling Manowar in the best way possible, going for a more measure, epic gallop as opposed to their typical speedy romps. While Bobbie Wright is no Eric Adams, his delivery is perfect and he always stays within his range, so that this track can easily go toe-to-toe with something like "Battle Hymns" in terms of atmosphere and catchiness. Of course it's a bit dirtier and more down-to-earth than Manowar, but that's just Brocas Helm's style, and the track doesn't suffer from it in any way, an interpretation of the more epic style rather than an attempt to fully imitate it. Wright's faux-British accent here is a highlight as well, adding to the fun, silly nature of the experience.

Finally, "Drink the Blood of the Priest" closes things out with a fucking organ solo, a first for the band yet something that doesn't feel at all out of character, providing a creepy atmosphere that still manages to never take itself too seriously, like a parody of early horror films. This definitely feels a bit like a multi-part epic more than anything else the band have done, with the intro slowly building up intensity until the verse comes in, and the song stays at a pretty slow pace for its entire duration, making it feel very experimental for the band. It certainly is the best fit for album closer, as its measured stride helps provide a resolution for the intensity of earlier tracks, though I feel that ultimately this song falls a bit short at times, really only feeling like a truly great experience for me in the chorus, but it's nice to see Brocas Helm trying other ideas, and again it provides some variety to this 52-minute album.

Overall, this certainly has some of the band's best material, and anyone who's a fan of the first two albums is likely to enjoy this, but simply due to the sheer number of tracks here there are some (relatively) weaker ones, which wasn't really the case with the first two albums due to their brevity. That's not to say I would have preferred any of these tracks to remain unreleased or that the band did a bad job with the song order - it's actually quite good - but the overall experience isn't quite as consistently magical and energetic as in their other albums. That said, this is more than worthy of being included as part of their classic 3-album run for any prospective listener of the band, and it serves as a testament to the band's legacy of consistency and tightness as an incredible and inimitable three-piece institution. If you're interested in Brocas Helm, this is an absolutely essential inclusion for your listening.