The amount of female-fronted bands in metal has grown over the years. And there are some bands who, after years of being all-male, add in one or two female members. I've been enjoying those kinds of bands lately. They're mostly symphonic metal though, and while I've had my on-off fondness for that genre, I felt up to exploring female-fronted bands of classic heavy metal. Seeing how well things turned out with listening to Benedictum, I shall have no problem with this band Tower...

Tower has released 3 albums and an EP. Vocalist Sarabeth Linden, guitarists James Danzo and Zak Penley, bassist Philippe Arman, and new drummer Keith Mikus have gathered together to perform their towering sound. Their 3rd album Let There Be Dark was recorded and produced by Arthur Rizk, with cover art made by Jared Fleming.

The album opens with "Under the Chapel", sounding punky in the guitars and drums, similar to NWOBHM. Sarabeth Linden's vocals can sound operatic while rocking out. The track also has a music video. Next up is the title track, with faster and more intense guitars and drums to mosh to. Sarabeth once again blows my mind with her singing. "Holy Water" has a creepy brief intro of a church sermon that then leads into another full-speed banger, having that US power metal vibe.

The incredible "And I Cry" begins sounding like a ballad, then they become more energetic in the second half and keep you hooked in no time. "The Well of Souls" is a short interlude. What follows is another hidden gem, "Book of the Hidden". And then one more half-minute interlude, "Legio X Fretensis".

You'll certainly be headbanging to "Iron Clad". Then "Don't You Say" is a slow yet brilliant track. The guitar duo sound so enthusiastic in the faster second half, and when they work together, they can prove their skills without problems. Sarabeth's vocal power shines the most in the impressive 6 and a half minute closing epic "The Hammer". The different melodies are so mesmerizing, and once it ends, you'll be begging for more.

So yeah, I enjoy Tower's contribution to the classic heavy metal revival. The different tempos work when placed right. The intense guitars and drums suit the unstoppable vocal force of Sarabeth and her talented greatness. The two interludes are a little disruptive, but every other track has given Tower a promising path in their career....

Favorites: "Let There Be Dark", "And I Cry", "Book of the Hidden", "Don't You Say", "The Hammer"

Mind Wars falls too heavily on the speed metal side of things to ever be eligible for me to be talking about it in excited tones of appreciation. It is not that I hate speed metal as such, more that in the grander scheme of the many sub-genres of metal, it often finds itself somewhere towards the back of the queue. This is also not to say that Mind Wars is without its merits. The guitar work here deserves commendation for sure. Whether it is the frantic riffing or the rich sounding leads, Alvord and Kilfelt (or Colfelt to give the former Agent Steel man his birth surname) give a solid acquittal of themselves. Equally, whilst far from being a virtuoso performance, Joe Mitchell’s drumming stands out on most tracks. The meddling bass of Floyd Flanary manages to make its presence known throughout the record, a characteristic that makes me recall Metal Church when pitched alongside the vocals of the late Keith Deen.

If I am honest, the vocals are my main issue with Mind Wars. Deen’s performance is very inconsistent for me, ranging from passable all the way down to “Oh my God, please make it stop!” I absolutely get the argument that the style is not only a good fit for the music, but also reminiscent of many other acts of the time. I just feel that perhaps Deen pushed his range further than it could stretch too. Sometimes he sounds nothing short of half-arsed and so I am doubly grateful of the rest of the band’s work to distract me from this at times overbearing detail. At times though there are even sloppy elements to the instrumentation, and the title track, for example, seems to suffer from this. Notwithstanding that the production of the record leaves some call for question with its heavy and suffocating atmosphere that does on occasion make proceedings sound like they were recorded behind linen.

The heart is most definitely there, even if the outcome may not always convince you of this in the moment, there is usually an upcoming positive to alleviate momentary concerns. On balance though, whilst I am entertained by this, it is hard to get too excited by it and I cannot see me returning to Mind Wars anytime soon.

Ah, Manowar eh? If we are talking about the early years of metal then I suppose we have to talk about Manowar. Loud, crass, bouyed on by a giant, unshakeable ego and somewhat comical, Manowar were the Donald Trump of heavy metal and, as such, were equally divisive inspiring adoration and loathing in equal measure. Also, if you were a metalhead in the 80's, very much like the orange one today, you certainly couldn't avoid them. They were everywhere in the metal press because, let's face it, they were a music magazine's dream with their bold statements and distinctive (some may say cartoonish) visual aesthetic. I was initially interested in Manowar not because of any of this press hype, but because of the involvement of Ross the Boss, who had been a member of US punk / hard rock band The Dictators of whom I was a big fan and whose "Bloodbrothers" album I still spin occasionally. I actually didn't take the plunge with the band until "Hail To England" was released when I finally succumbed to the marketing and got myself a copy from my local rock and metal shop. To be honest, I wasn't particularly impressed and I certainly didn't feel it lived up to the hype and that LP has lived in the nether regions of my collection ever since, hardly ever seeing the light of day.

So, forty years on, it is time for a revisit and to see how it sits with me now, so much water having flown under that particular bridge. The thing that jumps out at me most about "Hail to England" is that it is more mid-tempo than the hi-octane riffing of the comtemporary USPM that it is usually associated with. There are few headlong charges, but rather a more hulking throb, emphasised by Joey DeMaio's basslines which, when coupled with Scott Columbus's uncomplicated, pounding drumming, provide most of the album's forward momentum. "Kill with Power" is the only track that comes close to hitting the turbo chargers, but even that wasn't going to leave the upcoming Slayers and Metallicas of the world in the dust. However, that is fine because that isn't the point here. In a metal world that was becoming obsessed with playing faster and faster with speed and thrash metal gaining in popularity daily, the title hints at Manowar's intention to pay homage to the early progenitors of metal such as Black Sabbath rather than the up and coming young bucks from their own side of the Atlantic. The opening brace of tracks, especially "Each Dawn I Die" even have a tribal-sounding rhythm track that feels almost like a native american raindance or some such ritualistic backdrop. Eric Adams is a pretty solid vocalist and he is quite adept at delivering some really cool vocal melodies, although some of his higher reaches do grind on my ears a bit.

I have to say that in revisiting this I may have been unduly harsh on Manowar in the past. Sure, I still think their whole "real men play on 10" and "death to false metal" schtick was cringeworthy, but listening to this now and with the distance of time putting all that PR bullshit to rest, this is actually a solid album of epic and melodic metal tunes that are as anthemic as they are simple, this uncomplicated infectiousness being the album's real heart and strength. I used to think that Manowar were just embarrassing metal cliches, a pantomime metal band, but truth is they were actually skilled at writing memorable metal tunes that crowds could belt out at full volume with the band at their live shows. In other words, Manowar were a band who were out to have a good time and to let their live crowds have a good time with them, presenting themselves with tongue firmly in cheek and playing with a determination to entertain. Sometimes that is enough and I stand here now, head bowed and admit I was probably wrong about them all along. "Black Arrows" is still a load of bollocks though and is the only real fly in the ointment here.

If I am going to listen to power metal, which I have started doing a bit more than I used to, then it is invariably the USPM version I turn to. I have come round to USPM rather late in life as I have spent an awful long time concentrating on extreme metal genres like doom and black metal, so I haven’t really got any contemporary history with the early USPM classics. The latter part of the eighties having saw me diving down the thrash metal rabbit hole and quickly abandoning traditional heavy metal styles almost completely. This is a great shame because there is a lot that appeals to me in any number of the earlier classics of the genre.

Standing tall amongst the formative USPM releases is Jag Panzer's debut full-length, “Ample Destruction”. It took the more uptempo riffs of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden and, taking its cues from the energetic, fast-emerging thrash metal scene, cranked it all up to 11 and delivered an exuberant celebration of heavy metal thunder as a result. Any vestige of hard rock that had survived into the NWOBHM era had been well and truly exorcised by the Americans in this fresh new take on the traditional style, giving it a more epic, harder and just downright more metal edge as a result. The riffs come thick and fast and are generally memorable, fist-pumping bangers. When these riffs are then complemented by some electrifying and exhilarating solos and an effusive vocal performance by Harry Conklin, it is surely impossible for anyone with a true metal heart not to be stirred into headbanging ecstasy.

 Coming to this after decades of being immersed in the extreme metal scene feels kind of liberating in a life-affirming way with the rediscovery that metal doesn’t always have to be po-faced and depressing or just so damned intense, but can actually be joyful and celebratory too, with absolutely no loss of integrity. It may sound a bit hyperbolic, but I am finding albums like “Ample Destruction” to be revelatory, their sheer infectious effusiveness providing some degree of relief from the daily assaults on mental wellbeing that modern living entails.

Thrash is not a genre I spend a lot of time with these days. The favour continues to grow thinner with each passing year. But every so often, an album will pop up, whether it be through Metal Academy's featured releases, or a record that just continuously gets rammed down my throat by the online algorithm. And just so we're clear, if that later option happens, you certainly would not be seeing a review for an album, but rather a concerted effort by myself to push it as far away from my vision as possible!

I come from a background where my appreciation of crossover thrash comes from the punk family tree. I absolutely fell in love with the Black Flag's, Husker Du's and Rites of Spring during my exploration of the genre many years ago. So crossover thrash had an appeal to it that was novel, but really had an appeal to me; traditional thrash was always too long with not enough substance. Modern outputs like Power Trip were punchy, relentless, and straight-to-the-point. And while Zerre show promise of that here with Rotting on a Golden Throne, it feels lacking in other aspects. My main criticism towards thrash is how bloated it becomes, and I was worried at first glance as "Pigs will be Pigs" storms out with riff swapping, guitar solos after every stanza, and a hard to follow through line. Ironically, "Mental Vacation", the albums longest song, is far more connected. There were a few times while listening to this where I was surprised just how quickly and smoothly the album was passing by. Songs like "Rotting on a Golden Throne" and "Concrete Hell" were so easily digested that I lost track of how much time had passed; I thought for sure there was supposed to be another four minute guitar solo after!

Alas, it can't all be good. The mixing is very much in the style of the old thrash giants like Exodus and Slayer with tons of reverb, along with high treble and not a lot of bass. The riffs themselves are sporadically solid, but without that thud of a foundational bass line, the album just sits there. This is most egregious during the guitar solos where the lead is not allowed to build and transform into the Kerry King/Jeff Hannenman solo it desperately wants to be. If Zerre could tighten up their mixing, or find a new producer altogether who values those sweet bass tones, while continuing in the same vein as Rotting on a Golden Throne, they very well could be on their way to ascending to the top.

Best Songs: Deception of the Weak, Mental Vacation, Rotting on a Golden Throne, Killing Taste

For Fans Of: Power Trip, Exodus, early Kreator