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Metal Sword > Harder than Steel > Reviews > DeathRiderDoom
Metal Sword - Harder than Steel

A little Lacking in Dynamism... - 63%

DeathRiderDoom, November 17th, 2009

Metal Sword – Harder Than Steel


*Written for the 9th MA reviews challenge

What we have here is pretty decent Germanic speed metal in the vain of Living Death. It’s okay but not overly great. We start off here with a pretty hilariously titled band name – album title combo, and take a romp through some pretty rockin tracks like ‘The Exorcist’, where we draw some possible comparisons to Exciter, Backwater, and others. Some stuff is kinda nasty and rough, and other tracks like ‘March For the Damned’ are pretty gallopy traditional metal, akin to NWOBHM. Overall its of a fairly high caliber, not top-tier, but has a certain charm. The strongest point of comparison is Living Death, a fellow German band that I for one enjoy to the extent of making a t shirt of em.

‘Stormriders’ is one of my favorites on this album. A pretty-attitude laden cut, this one has tough lyrics, and some decent riffery, though it is a slower cut than some of the other cuts. Guitars, along with vocals, as per the bands style are nasty and rough. There’s a pretty ripping guitar solo in this one, and drums pound along nicely under the squealy, pick sliding riffage in that classic speed metal way. A catchy chorus laden with gang vocals is pretty cool here. Elsewhere ‘Take Off’ kicks off with a motorcycle revving up, before scorching the blacktop with some simplistic, rough edged speed metal riffage. Guitars in this one, as I guess they are throughout the album, are sort of mixed down, drowned out a little it seems; production isn’t great, but that’s not really what you expect with this sort of band, now is it? Elsewhere, I guess ‘Dying for the Sword’ is probably a highlight.

Though this album is good, and does rock out a bit – it doesn’t totally blow you away. In fact, I’d have to say I prefer Living Death, and the Belgian mid 80’s speed metal like Target, Crossfire et al a bit to this. Don’t get me wrong, ‘Dying for the Sword’ is a pretty killer track, but I feel there’s sorta something missing. Like it lacks a certain pizzazz if you will. Just a couple more dynamic touches here and there and this one would be a sure fire winner. The solos are pretty ripping, but I guess the overall songwriting could just be a bit more exciting. Give one of the tracks a listen on Youtube – they should be on there – pretty much every album in the world seems to be these days, and see what you think. You should be able to track this one down on one of the better 80’s metal blogs, if it interests you. It won’t be winning any ‘best album find of the year’ contests, but it’s certainly not too bad.

-DeathRiderDoom