REVENGE – Harder than Steel review

 

REVENGE – Harder than Steel

Iron Shield Records

http://www.revengespeedmetal.com/

“Harder than Steel” is the sixth official studio album for the Colombian speed/heavy metal band REVENGE; a band that has a very productive life so far with singles, EP and full lengths. Also REVENGE is a band that stays faithful to its sound and somehow manages to refresh it in each release.

THE COVER: Looks really great and aggressive. I think it is the kind of cover that passes the message straight forward to the listener. It shows a Cerberus which is ridden by a demonic – vampire figure that holds a shield with an R. The figure, which is a kind of a mascot for the band, at least in its last releases, reminded me a bit of the character Kain of The Legacy Of Kain games.

MUSICAL STYLE: Their sound from their first release up to now remains faithful to the 80’s heavy/speed metal sound. The band was always balancing between the American (bands like EXCITER, RAZOR, PILEDRIVER etc) and the European sound. In their new album, though, I think that they emphasize on the European sound and they have strong references to bands like early RUNNING WILD, GRAVE DIGGER and WARRANT. They also have in their new album a lot of N.W.O.B.H.M. elements and all these are given under the characteristic sound of the band.    

COMPOSITIONS: The album consists of 10 compositions from which the one is a cover to RUNNING WILD’s masterpiece “Chains and Leather” and it is quite good and close to the original. Also on the vinyl edition you will get one more song as a bonus and it is the live recording of the composition “Metal & Wild”. All the compositions here are very good with their strong elements being the memorable melodic leads and of course the harsh speed metal parts. They have achieved to give to their compositions an 80’s metal touch and yet they sound fresh and new. My favorite songs from this album are: “Harder than Steel”, “Gravestone”, “At the Gates of Hell”, and “Motorider”.

CONCLUSION: I know that there are many bands out there that are trying to bring back the 80’s sound, but they do it in such a way that seems like someone tries to revive a dead body. REVENGE approach 80’s metal as a vivid sound that can still give you inspiration to write good songs and because of that they sound like coming from the 80’s, but also they have something fresh to give to the listener. “Harder than Steel” is one of their best and most mature releases and an album that I can recommend without any hesitation to every fan of the 80’s metal out there, especially if he likes bands like RUNNING WILD and EXCITER.

Nick “Verkaim” Parastatidis