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Lords of the Trident > Chains on Fire > Reviews
Lords of the Trident - Chains on Fire

With a high, high, ho! - 75%

naverhtrad, August 10th, 2022
Written based on this version: 2011, CD, Junko Johnson Records

In my review of Death or Sandwich, I referred to Lords of the Trident as essentially ‘glorified college rock’, but also hastened to add that there was nothing wrong with that. I think the same assessment has to hold true for Chains on Fire as well, which still listens like a college band production and maintains that level of enthusiasm, eclecticism and raw energy throughout—but also suffers from the same sorts of limitations. What you have here is a solid USPM / NWoTHM foundation with a modestly sci-fi / dystopian thematic bent, served up with a healthy helping of comedy-rock self-effacement and ironic distance in the Spın̈al Tap vein. Basically, what Cauldron Born, Eternal Champion, Visigoth and Twisted Tower Dire serve up essentially straight-faced (insofar as that’s possible), Lords of the Trident do on Chains of Fire with tongues planted firmly in cheeks.

Lords of the Trident are all about that next catchy hook, that next earworm twin-guitar riff, that next sing-along-inviting vocal catch, and it shows up here in spades. ‘Face of the Enemy’, ‘Chains on Fire’ and (toward the tail end of the album) ‘Wicked Touch’ in particular have exactly these instantly memorable traditional-heavy ‘guitar metal’ melodies that stick in your head for days. They are clearly meant to be (and clearly are) performed with a Judas Priest studded-leather theatricality on-stage.

The fun thing about Chains on Fire, from a thematic perspective, is the way in which LotT play with science fiction tropes about the dangers of technology. Whether it’s ‘Face of the Enemy’ dealing with a SFnal case of advanced (surgical) identity theft, the spectre of an omniscient-omnipotent panopticon / one-world government in ‘The Enforcer’, or ‘Man / Machine’ giving us an interior look at someone who has undergone the RoboCop treatment, there’s definitely a Black Mirror vibe to this album overall. And they play with the dystopian perspectives in a way that’s not entirely tongue-in-cheek, which is understandable for a Wisconsin band writing in 2011. (Fuck you, Scott Walker!) Of course you also have ‘Wicked Touch’ which isn’t quite as over-the-top as ‘Huey Lewis and the News’ from Death or Sandwich, but is also a damn fine breakup song. And there are prefigurations of The Offering in the evil priesthood and small-town murder cult stories of ‘Foggy Bottom Town’ and ‘Followers of Set’. There’s just so much good stuff here to appreciate, even if it’s all still a bit rough-hewn around the edges.

‘The Metal Sea’ is the evidently-obligatory Alestorm-adjacent pirate-rock sea shanty on the album, complete with accordion action, and it’s every bit as cheesy and every bit as enjoyable as you could want—and then some. This song kills at live shows, by the way, when certain members of the audience have two, three or four Hamm’s in them and are feeling a little buzzed, and Fang invites the crowd to sing along to the ‘high-high-ho, high-high-hee’ chorus. As to whether yours truly was such a member of the audience at a certain recent local concert and doing this with all the enthusiasm of your usual shitfaced bleary-eyed double-chinned pot-bellied tweed-capped tankard-sniffer down t’ Irish pub—I, uh, plead the fifth.

I guess my real substantial nits to pick with this album’s songwriting are ‘Skyforce’ and ‘Fighting for Love’. ‘Fighting for Love’ is unfortunately too far to the AOR / radio-rock side of things for my liking, and makes me roll my eyes in a little bit too ironic a way. And as for ‘Skyforce’, it’s an unnecessarily weak track to lead with, having the opposite problem of being a bit too sincere—and it’s actually slightly out of keeping with the dystopian themes of the rest of the album. The mixing and production are also rather low-rent affairs, which is again understandable given the restrictions under which they presumably made and released it.

Still, it’s Lords of the Trident are still a band that’s coming strongly into their own on Chains of Fire—and (spoiler alert) the future yet holds for them the stellar albums Frostburn and The Offering. Raise your fists and bare your blades, for tonight we drink the blood of our enemies! … and all that.

15 / 20

Humor and Metal in a Good Way - 80%

Paralyzer2010, April 10th, 2011

I received a message about these guys from one of the operators of the Warriors of Metal fest that takes place in Ohio annually and with these he gave me a video of Lords of the Trident. I watched the video the first time and it really turned me off because of all their wacky costumes and that’s the only clip I watched. A few weeks later I received their album and gave it a skeptical listen.

I popped the cd in and what I got from this band impressed me, a great mix of traditional and power metal. Their appearance turned me off but the music they play blew me away and completely changed my views on them. All these men are incredibly talented on their instrument, and vocalist Fang Vonkillenstein has an incredible voice.

After hearing this album you begin to realize that their dress is the type of humor of the genre that they are portraying. This is quality metal here, no joke to these guys, but they enjoy showing the humor found within the genre.

Songs that really stood out to me were Skyforce, Chains on Fire, Followers of Set, and Wicked Touch. These songs gave me a great feeling and made me really dig their music. That being said there was also 2 songs I didn’t enjoy, Fighting For Love and The Metal Sea. Fighting For Love was just too ballady for me (however I did enjoy the solo) and The Metal Sea I just did not enjoy. Except for those 2 songs the rest of the album was solid. At some points though I did feel like this album just kept going and going and never had an end. At about 70 minutes, it might just be too long for some to be able to keep attention to it throughout.

The artwork of the album doesn’t do this album justice. I understand the humor in it but I think it is a turn off. If I saw this on a cd shelf in a record store I honestly wouldn’t pick it up, it’s just that much of a turn off to me. And the track listing on the back is very difficult to read unless you are in a bright room.

Overall, I really enjoyed the sophomore album from these Wisconsin metallers. Like (almost) every album it has its ups and downs, strong points and weak points. But Lords of the Trident outweigh the weak points with the strong points in this album, Chains on Fire. If you can appreciate good humor with your metal then I think you’ll enjoy this album, but if you take everything so serious then I’d say stay away. These guys are playing metal and having fun doing it, and that’s what it’s all about or at least should be. Keep it up guys!


-Mike Mendyk
Steel & Fire Records
www.steelandfirerecords.webs.com

Lords of the Trident - Chains on Fire - 75%

Radagast, February 1st, 2011

From what I understand about Lords of the Trident, their colourful comedic stage show is an important part of the overall package. Similar to German funsters Grailknights though, the music itself is played more or less straight, sturdy traditional metal with plenty of tongue-in-cheek lyrics, but no overly broad attempts at making the listener laugh at every turn.

Deadpanning it like this is a technique too many so-called comedy or parody bands can’t seem to grasp the concept of, not realising that the best way to gently mock the absurdities of a genre’s conventions is to simply play them out as slightly more cartoonish caricatures of themselves. Or to put it in simpler terms, who’s funnier, the late, great Leslie Nielsen or Vince bloody Vaughn?

The exposure to the band I’d had prior to this album was limited to streaming a few songs from their roughly produced debut album online, and they had me wondering with some trepidation what I was going to be in store for here. The metal songs sounded just fine, thanks, but a couple of wimpy rock ballads had me questioning the band’s credentials.

Thankfully my doubts were unfounded, as not only has the production been conspicuously improved upon, but also there is only really one decidedly iffy moment of balladeering to contend with. Fighting for Love is the name of the offender, an out-and-out AOR song completely out of sync with the rest of the album and throwing things off balance a little as it shows up as early as fourth in the tracklist.

If the band are happy playing this style then fair enough to them, it’s their party, but the problem with such a sudden shift in style is that it interrupts the flow of the album and yanks you out of the listening experience. Far more appropriate ballads crops up later in the album, and enjoy greater success as they are more in line with the band’s traditional heavy metal style; the dark Beauty of the Blade retains a nice heaviness while Wicked Touch marries some Screaming For Vengeance sensibilities with a huge, poppy chorus.

There are a great deal of bands at present adopting a throwback approach of course, but while the likes of White Wizzard and Striker are more knowingly replicating 80s speed metal, LotT’s approach has a little more of it’s own character and has a more organic vibe about it, without the feel of a convenient “scene” or “movement” tag being attached.

The album is quite long at 68 minutes and 13 songs, and they make good use of the time with quite a varied approach to their craft. On the whole though Chains on Fire is generally a healthy mixture of Priest’s rocking early 80s antics and traditional US power metal. Fast songs crop up occasionally and are very welcome, but the playing time is largely made up of mid-paced songs that go back and forth between melodic and catchy and more crushing and doomy.

The ominous Followers of Set is the best example of the power/doom style, while The Enforcer is more of an epic, building from an acoustic opening to eventually burst into a near-full gallop via a stunning chorus. It won’t be an album that will please the speed freaks out there, but that doesn’t mean Chains on Fire is a sluggish affair, and although the band never quite get to maximum velocity, when they feel like it they are just as comfortable moving at a higher pace. Opening track Skyforce is unsurprisingly among the most nimble and is as good an example of any as to the skill of the guitarists, who enliven the songs considerably with their sparkling prowess.

If the band have an area that could be a point of contention for some it could be vocalist Fang Von Killenstein (I know, I know…) who is a bit of an oddity – certainly a good singer, but his ultra-melodic tones are a little at odds with his bandmates’ rough and ready approach. He at times sounds like he would be more at home in a prog metal or melodic rock band to be honest, but it only takes a bit of getting used to and he generally does mesh well enough with the music that it’s more of a quirk than an annoyance. To his credit he does boast a pretty nifty falsetto which adds a bit more of a metallic touch and gives plenty of the songs a lift, done especially well on Stranded which is another of the faster efforts and is boosted nicely by the vocal stabs.

Just as the slightly unusual style of their vocalist mixes well with the music around it, Lords of the Trident have managed to take a long and fairly varied batch of songs and bring them together in a commendably cohesive whole. It may not the sort of traditional metal that is making the magazine covers at the minute, but that’s clearly not the point. No matter how daft their onstage antics may be, the strength of the songs on Chains on Fire shows that these guys clearly mean business when it comes to the music.

(Originally written for http://www.rockontheweb.co.uk)