Savage Master: Myth, Magic and Steel (2019)

Just one look at the album cover here and you can pretty much guess what this album is going to sound like.  How a band like this came about in Louisville, Kentucky is the only real question.  Kentucky is not exactly a metal hot spot, and certainly not for the kind of swords-and-sorcery classic heavy metal that Savage Master represents.

Savage Master is a traditional heavy metal band with one foot planted firmly in the early 1980's.  Think groups like Manilla Road, Cirith Ungol, Omen, Manowar, Dio and more.  They are fronted by a ferocious female singer, so the obvious comparisons to Warlock, Chastain and Bitch will be made.  Stacey Savage has a strong voice, not necessarily a pretty one, but it works to her advantage in this style of metal.  It fits in quite well with the raw, traditional metal riffs.

The songs all have an epic traditional metal feel to them, with elements of doom metal sneaking through at times.  Many of the choruses are anthemic ear-worms that will be stuck in the head for a long time after the album is over.  This is especially true of "Flyer in the Night" and the title track.  The best song on the album is "Lady of Steel" which features guest appearances from two more female metal singers who trade off verses through the song.

This album does not really reinvent the wheel for traditional metal.  Everything here has been done before, but this is a highly competent and enjoyable release nonetheless.  Just do not go into it expecting anything original and it will be fine. 

Haunt: If Icarus Could Fly (2019)

Moving away from death metal releases from 2019, here we have a good old traditional metal release from 2019.  I discussed Haunt not all that long ago with their 2019 EP Mosaic Vision.  The band has been very prolific already in their young careers, also releasing this full-length and two splits this year alone.  And, their 2020 full-length has already been announced (and I have it on pre-order). 

As much as I enjoyed the EP, I think this release is even better.  The riffs are a little harder-edged on this release than the previous one, without sacrificing any of the catchiness and infectious hooks.  The songs are aggressive, yet melodic with incendiary solos.  The vocals are dry, yet soar over the riffs.

This is something of a loose concept piece about Greek myths including that of Icarus.  I am sure most are familiar with that storyline.  Icarus and his father became trapped in the labyrinth with a minotaur and attempted to leave by building themselves wings out of wax and feathers.  They flew out of the labyrinth, but Icarus flew too close to the sun, melting the wax and his wings fell apart with Icarus plummeting to his death.  Of course the story of Icarus was also the subject of the Iron Maiden classic "Flight of Icarus". 

This is a damn good album.  It is one of the better traditional metal albums of the year and even surpasses the band's EP from this year.  I will be keeping up with Haunt in the future, which may prove difficult, as prolific as they are.

Troll: Legend Master (2019)

Troll is yet another recent band to form in the metal hotbed that is Portland, Oregon. The band has been around for some time, but only released their debut album in 2016. After that album, some lineup unrest made the band's future murky. But the band was able to patch things up with their vocalist Rainbo, which is definitely a good thing for the band for reasons I will lay out.

This is Troll's second full-length, and my first experience with the band. Troll is a doom metal band with some stoner influences. The music is slow and mellow, for the most part. Troll has much more in common with groups like Pallbearer than My Dying Bride or Cathedral. Their sound is melancholic and melodic, but with something of an epic feel and lyrics dealing with fantasy themes. The music is decent, but it never really grabs the listener's attention. The musicianship is impressive, but ultimately, musically, there is nothing much here that has not been heard before.

But there is one element of this album that truly causes it to stand out above so many of the other doom metal bands out there. That is the vocals. Rainbo's voice is, quite simply, incredible. Sounding like some sort of mix between Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder, Rainbo croons along with the music and has an amazing range. There are times when his delivery is actually spine-tingling. His vocals take the album from being a good, but fairly standard album, to a memorable one.

If not for Rainbo's vocals, this album would probably be fairly forgettable. But the album stands out due to the incredible vocal performance. Rainbo is a vocalist to watch in the future. As for the rest of the band, I guess we will see.

Sins of the Damned: Striking the Bell of Death (2019)

Well, that name is a mouthful.  Not to be confused with gothic metal band The Sins of Thy Beloved, Sins of the Damned is a relatively new band out of Chile who plays tried and true speed metal with blackened metal vocals. 

The album starts off with some ominous bell-ringing, that most likely being the titular "Bell of Death".  It then kicks off into "They Fall and Never Rise Again", one of the better songs on the album.  Most of the song titles are a little lengthy, just like the album title and the band's name.  The songs are also a little long, with only two songs being less than five minutes, and one of those is the intro track (also the title track). 

The music is mostly fast-paced, as is normal in speed metal.  The band seems to take some major influence from the likes of Helloween, among other bands, playing traditional speed metal with a barrage of riffs and drums.  The high speed riffs often repeat ad nauseam and are mostly clean, stopping just short of edgier riffs that would take the music into thrash metal territory. 

The main element that distinguishes this band from so many other traditional-minded speed metal bands is the harsh vocals.  They often veer into black metal-style rasping and growling, adding a threatening tone to the otherwise mostly melodic metal.  It is a unique idea, somewhat similar to the blackened power metal of Satan's Host, but it never quite works as well.

This is an interesting album with some off-kilter elements, but it never quite comes together.  Granted, this is the band's debut album and there is plenty of time to flesh out the ideas.  This is a fun album to listen to, but it never really grabs the listener's attention as much as an album of this style should.

Bewitcher: Under the Witching Cross (2019)

Bewitcher is yet another great metal band from the Pacific Northwest, and in particular, the recent metal hotbed of Portland, Oregon.  But unlike a lot of the other bands from the region, Bewitcher blends their black metal with speed and thrash metal.  The band's debut was a very good, if somewhat unoriginal, release.  But the infectiousness of it stood out far more than the lack of innovation.  And so, I was interested in how the follow-up would turn out.

The band has gotten more melodic on this release, honing their NWOBHM chops and oftentimes sounding more like a more blackened version of Venom.  Throw in some Riot and Iron Maiden riffs and you basically have Bewitcher.  Nowhere is this more evident than in second track "Hexenkrieg" which features a number of moments that could almost be mistaken for Venom references.  And tracks like "Heathen Women" are almost anthemic with a fist-pumping chorus and pedal-to-the-metal riffs.  And the thrash break toward the end is definitely going to snap some necks.

Far from being one-note and boring, Bewitcher is able to switch things up as needed.  "In the Sign of the Goat" is a far more deliberate song, slowing things down just enough to truly stand out from the rest of the songs.  It also features the catchiest chorus of all of the catchy choruses on this release.  That is saying something.  And the solo toward the end is face-melting.

This is a terrific album from yet another terrific Portland-based band.  There is definitely something in the water up there because the city continues to churn out amazing metal bands all the time.