Metal Warriors

Holy shit, I forgot how stupid Revenge's vocalist could sound. Long after checking out most of the Colombians' discography, I could quite happily have passed on Esteban "Hellfire" Mejia's particular tone and pitch, though a fresh listen to Metal Warriors is bringing it all back. To summarize my problem, imagine someone tone deaf calling your name every now and then while their balls are being squeezed by a garlic press. Except you should add to your mental profile the fact that the garlic press is not being squeezed tightly, just enough to give Mejia that qualm in the pit of his stomach, like when you accidentally knock bollocks with a table when approaching it at low speed. If he sounded in pain or distraught, I think I would understand it better; it's just a weak wail though, without much volume and like that garlic press is making him sort of angry. Thankfully, he doesn't occupy too much time on the longer tracks here, allowing the four instrumentalists time to expand their ideas. The vocals would improve slightly in the future, but on Metal Warriors they form a significant obstacle to enjoyment.

Another notable difference between Revenge on this debut album and elsewhere is that the songs are much longer and more classic heavy metal in style. Speed metal became almost wearing on releases like Death Sentence, though here a couple of six minute songs and an eight minute opener allow for wandering introductions and more relaxed breaks alongside mostly up-tempo heavy riffing. The bass gets a good position in the mix, keeping a warm sound as it rumbles around right in the middle of things, while the drums are quiet and the cymbals sound annoyingly jangly, meaning that the pace is pretty quick yet there isn't much punch to the songs. Unfortunately, a good drumming performance could have really helped Metal Warriors, since the riffing tends to be repetitive and busy in a manner that allows me to tune out most of the cuts. Saying specifically that this is forgettable would be harsh, though it isn't memorable either.

A conundrum faces me regarding the final three songs, because I believe them to be taken straight from Revenge's demo Infernal Angels, where they appear with similar lengths. However, the recording seems to be almost the same as the other album tracks - horrible metallic cymbals aside - so it's a tough call. It's possible that they just wanted to flesh out an otherwise short album, despite having an introduction and a full instrumental already on the record. The longer instrumental in question, 'Hate and Treason', could have supported lyrics even if I'm glad it didn't give Mejía another chance to spoil my evening. It ends up somewhere in the Iron Maiden mould, not only suggested by the bass but also by the warmly swooping solos that thread through more than one section of the song and lay claim to being my favourite component of Revenge's sound.

I could probably take or leave Metal Warriors if the vocalist were changed over or just made to shut up, although that makes sure that I won't be coming back here again. The playing quality is passable and the songs all reasonably good, especially when the riffs build up some momentum and the guitarists let fly with a solo. On the other hand, rather irritating recording, slightly repetitive ideas, and those distracting vocals leave me thinking that this would be best left to desperate fans of Rocka Rollas and Axecuter who enjoy classic flavours in their metal.