Ambush - Firestorm (2014)^{Release ID: 18211}

I hadn't heard much about Swedish heavy/speed metallers Ambush coming into their 2014 debut album "Firestorm" so I didn't have too many expectations although the obviously retro cover artwork & band logo certainly gave me a hint of what was in store. My first listen was a little tainted by the fact that I popped the record on immediately after listening to Japanese thrashers Ritual Carnage who are obviously a lot more extreme & are also far closer to my musical comfort zone which left "Firestorm" sounding very tame indeed by comparison. A couple of additional spins saw me shedding those initial impressions & finding myself in a better position to treat the album on its merit & I ended up quite enjoying "Firestorm" although it's very hard to ignore the fact that if you didn't know any better you'd swear it was 1978-1982 period Judas Priest. I mean I've rarely heard a more accurate emulation of a band's sound & I feel that there's very little doubt that this was the ambition here. Ambush's sound is perfectly constructed for the task though as they've got that authentic early 80's guitar tone down pat & leave plenty of space in the accessible song structures in order to enhance the melodic hooks & well constructed song structures. Front man Oskar Jacobsson has really spun me out because he's nailed absolutely every nuance of Rob Halford's delivery here. In fact, even Rob's own mother wouldn't know it wasn't him in all honesty.

The tracklisting starts off very nicely with four strong efforts but it does threaten to lose steam through the middle with a couple of flat, cowbell-driven choruses hinting at commercial hard rock (see "Close My Eyes" & "Molotov Cocktail"). Thankfully Ambush manage to pick it up again fairly quickly before dropping the ball again with comfortably the weakest track on the album in the very ordinary closer "Natural Born Killers" but overall there's enough high quality heavy metal here to keep me interested, particularly the two highlight tracks in the very "Exciter"-esque opener "Firestorm" & the dark & brooding "Master Of Pain" (my personal favourite). For those of you looking for speed metal, I wouldn't get your hopes up because Accept-worshipping "Don't Shoot (Let' Em Burn)" is really the only genuine example of that sound included here & I'd encourage you all to vote that genre tag down on the release page. I'm afraid the modern metal scene seems to have a very hard time understanding how to identify speed metal with far too many people throwing the label at anything with palm-muted tremolo-picking. I agree with Vinny's review statements about the lead guitar work as it's always welcome but isn't utilized as often as I would like. I'd also suggest that a shreddier modern approach would have been nice there too rather than simply trying to emulate a more restrained late 70's solo every time. Still... this was a pretty fun first-up effort from Ambush & if you live for early 80's Priest then you'll undoubtedly lap it up.

For fans of Judas Priest, Accept & Riot.

Sweden has this penchant for spitting out authentic and well-constructed heavy metal.  Looking at the likes of Screamer and Enforcer as well as the likes of Mystik, it is a country of many pairs of tight trousers and leather fingerless gloves it seems.  Despite having a dodgy band name, Ambush deliver an excellent bash down memory lane for anyone wanting to revisit the metal heyday of the eighties.  Big shiny band logo?  Check.  Galloping rhythms? Check.  Lot's of "horns up" band photos?  Check.  The list of reference points is virtually infinite.

Clearly raised on a healthy diet of Priest and Accept the band reinvent few wheels on their 2014 debut.  It never gets dull or repetitive though and there's more to this than just flogging a dead horse or paying tribute to days gone by.  They provide a high-energy and driven performance over nine tracks and structure an album full of anthemic and genuine heavy metal that sticks in the brain.

Opting for a consistently high-tempo to most tracks the album flows nicely and the lack of any ballads ensures the album never feels like it is straying into the hard rock territory I occasionally fear it is treading close to.  The lead work on the guitar feels measured and if honest I would like a bit more of it as although the power in the engine is the riffs there's a few licks missing for me to spice things up enough to make the album a truly standout release.  Overall though the instrumentation is solid and strong sounding giving a real sense of unison to the band's performance.

For a debut album it shows lots of promise and I am looking forward to seeing how the rest of their discography pans out as I explore it over the coming months.