Citadels on Fire

Coming to write this review was the first I'd heard of a reissue of this killer EP, which is good news, to be sure. That being said, I have not heard any of the bonus tracks on that recent reissue (I plan to before long, though, of course). However, i can't speak to the quality of anything but the original EP itself, so I'll be sticking to that here.

Obscene Jester were, like so many promising bands in the USPM scene, short-lived and relatively unsuccessful, but their sole collection of songs to make it to an official release, 1989's Citadels on Fire (or Citadel's on Fire, as the title is written on the cover of the reissue, at least), is a meaty slab of savage, no-nonsense Texan power metal. It enjoys a very solid production (at least for most 80s USPM) and a ballsy, commanding vocal performance from vocalist Sammy Stovall, who recalls to mind a somewhat less sneering David Wayne. The riffs are relatively simple and catchy, but never so simple as to become dull; rather, they hit the sweet spot between generic monotony and convoluted cacophony. They stay largely at a medium pace, though occasionally there will be a faster passage, or in the case of "Insomnia," pretty much the entire song. There is some thrash influence present but not so much that any one musical idea or song could be pointed to as pure thrash; rather, it's integrated rather organically.

At five songs, the release never manages to lose your interest, with no single track going much over the 5-minute mark. If you're a fan of the more aggressive, straightforward, blue-collar side of USPM/heavy metal, such as early Metal Church, Nasty Savage, Hexx's Under the Spell, or Chastain, this is definitely worth a listen; while hardly a classic of the genre, veterans looking for something more would do well to check out Citadels on Fire.