REIGN OF FURY - Death Be Thy Shepherd review

 REIGN OF FURY - Death Be Thy Shepherd

Independent

http://www.reignoffury.co.uk/

I have already stated in my review of their debut album titled “World Detonation” that I am happy to see bands from the United Kingdom that have returned to the traditional metal sound, which after all is an invention of this country. REIGN OF FURY in particular have blown my head away with their previous releases and I mean their debut album and their EP and I bought them immediately (actually I have the “World Detonation” CD in 2 different versions the one the band has released and the one released by Stormspell Records). I think that you have already understood that I am a fan of the band and fans can never be objective, but I will try to do my best.

THE COVER: Once again their cover has this comic book feeling and it shows a priest in a church that tears his face apart with his right hand and in his left hand holds a baby that looks human but instead of feet it has tentacles. I think that the whole image has a Lovecraft touch. In a few words it is a cool cover that fits to an aggressive heavy metal album. 

MUSICAL STYLE: Their sound is a mixture of N.W.O.B.H.M. and U.S. thrash metal. I think that the term heavy/thrash metal fits them perfectly since in their compositions you can listen to both thrash metal riffs (and trust me they are great ones) and classic heavy metal melodies. Also REIGN OF FURY manage to create an old school musical style and they underline it with a modern clear and dynamic sound production.

COMPOSITIONS: The new album of REIGN OF FURY comes with 8 compositions and all of them are over 5 minutes long. The characteristic element of the band is the good balance they have between traditional metal and thrash metal. They manage to combine in all of their songs the classic heavy metal sound with thrash metal riffs that bring to mind bands like IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST, SLAYER, OVERKILL, METALLICA, ANTHRAX and SLAYER. Also there are moments like in the song “Hypnotized the Masses” that the voice of Bison Steed (singer) sounds like the voice of VOLBEAT’s singer Michael Poulsen and other times like Matt Barlow. All the songs here are very good and also impressive is the over 10 minute long composition under the title “Death Be Thy Shepherd” (same with the album title) which is really epic.

CONCLUSION: Things are quite simple here my friends, REIGN OF FURY once again have released a great album and have justified me when in my previous release I was talking about a band that is meant to do great things in the heavy/thrash metal scene. This is a release that is full of great riffs, high technical skills and melodies that will haunt you. This is an album that bands like ICEAD EARTH could have released in their past glorious days.

Nick “Verkaim” Parastatidis