ANGEL MARTYR – Black Book: Chapter One Review

ANGEL MARTYR – Black Book: Chapter One

Iron Shield Records

Bandcamp

There is quite an adventurous story behind this band. ANGEL MARTYR was formed in 2006 and its founding members were Tiziano Hammerhead Sbaragli (ETRUSGRAVE) and Tiziano Atreiu Chater (ORMGARTH former IMPERIUM). The founders of the band wanted to create straight forward heavy metal music with catchy melodies in the vein of the 80’s sound. At that period they had composed the song “Angel Martyr” which gave the band its name and also you can find it here in their debut album. The two founding musicians a few months after the birth of ANGEL MARTYR realized that they had some artistic differences and so Tiziano Sbaragli was left to continue the band. After many adventures the band found a stable line –up and it is here to present us its debut album.

It is natural in your debut album to show which your influences are and I think that ANGEL MARTYR’s main influence comes from IRON MAIDEN and secondarily someone can find influences from the N.W.O.B.H.M. sound along with some RUNNING WILD and MANOWAR touches. Besides these huge names of the metal scene, personally ANGEL MARTYR brought to my mind another band from Italy that I love, DRAKKAR. The compositions that are included here move in the traditional metal sound and they have melodies that stay in your mind supported by a strong and stable rhythm section. I think that the one song that is closer to the epic metal sound and for me one of the best in this album is the one that has the title “Eric the Conqueror”.

All in all, ANGEL MARTYR show that it is a band made by fans of the heavy metal sound and they love what they do. You won’t find something groundbreaking here, but if you decide to check them out, then you will enjoy this release, especially if you are into the 80’s heavy metal.

Nick “Verkaim” Parastatidis