Tag Archives: NWOBHM

Friday Morning Metal – Aquilla – Battalion 31

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HELL YES! HEAVY METAL WITH A TANK! Today we’re bringing you Battalion 31 by Warsaw’s on Aquilla. This is off their recently released album Sentinels of New Dawn, which sounds like a Twilight spin off. Google’s doofy AI drained one of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes to tell me “Aquilla band” could refer to a Canadian metalcore band from Hamilton Ontario (go Hammer!) or a 1970’s Welsh art rock band. This band is clearly neither metalcore nor art rock, so thanks for that, Google!

Angry Metal Guy shared “Creed of Fire” in their review, which is a banger of a speed metal track. But there’s a music video for Battalion 31 and, while it’s not quite as fast, it’s still pretty great. The guitarists provide some solid noodling to kick the song off, on top of a good steady driving beat. I’m digging the vocals, he’s not trying to push too high or too low, and it fits in the tone of the song really well. Kicking off the guitar solo with a solid metal scream is fantastic. He gets a couple bites at the apple in the solo before an epic metal breakdown. The breakdown pivots into a more ballady refrain, with vocals that beg to be shouted by a whole arena of metalheads.

As I said up above, the video is the band gearing up for battle and then riding around in a big truck with space laser guns. I guess they’re Battalion 31, and they’re fighting to kill. Is a little funny there’s a “die by the sword” line in a video where they’re chucking grenades and riding tanks and stuff. It’s also interspersed with the band playing in a quarry and HOLY CRAP SOLO ON TOP OF A HILL! It’s not quite a mesa but it’s still pretty great. Seeing the whole band just standing around while the solo shreds was just a cherry on top. After the breakdown, I guess we’re seeing the aftermath of Battalion 31, torches blazing.

Friday Morning Metal – Venator – Steal the Night

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Oooh throwback metal from Austria. Venator’s Steal the Night sounds straight out of NWoBHM. Or I guess classic heavy metal at this point. These guys have been around since 2016 and have a good sound. Also apparently their themes are Fighting, Rebellion, and Horror. Encyclopedia Metallum has a lot of detail about bands. Including themes.

The song is off their album Psychodrome, which I think is the drome that Krang’s cousin used in Ninja Turtles. They didn’t show it in the cartoon because it was way more psychotic than the Technodrome. The song itself is pretty down the fairway chugga guitars and driving drums. The vocals have a bit of edge but fit in well, gives the song a lot of its classic feel. There’s a kickass not too wild solo 3/4 of the way through the song, definitely had the same feel as something you’d hear in 1983.

There’s a live version of the song so you can see just how well these guys time traveled from the 80s. Leather pants, high tops, they’ve got it all! But also they look like they’d be fun to see live so maybe they’ll come to the US at some point! So dust off your battle jacket, put one your fingerless gloves, and hop into your camaro! It’s time to rock.

And if you want to hear the album version, they got that too. Drums sound a lot better than the live one.

Friday Morning Metal – Century – Breakthrough

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Now this is some good classic metal. Century is from Stockholm Sweden, and are not the Century band from Marseille in 1979. That’s a different Century. They’ve got a new album out, Sign of the Storm, but I struggled finding a good video for it, so instead you’ll get Breakthrough, from their debut album. Sign of the Storm clocks in at 10 songs for 37 minutes, which is a fantastic play length, be tee dubs.

The video seems interspersed between them rocking out at the studio and fartin around town. Oh and skateboarding in a church. Also I think tour footage from last time they were in the US. Looks like they had a good time, lotta staring at creeks and drinking beer in the forest, seems like. Can’t go wrong with drinking a beer and staring at a creek, it settles the humors.

The song is pretty rollicking, kinda reminds me of NWOBHM acts like Angel Witch or Saxon. It’s got a solid chugga rhythm throughout, and the vocal harmonies are pretty cool. Oh dip they have a lefthanded bassist! The guitar solo is sufficiently noodly without getting too soaring. At 2:49, the song doesn’t waste time and gets out before one can get bored. I like that, also it’s pretty close to the perfect song length, according to this paywalled Wired article from 2008.

Friday Morning Metal -Blitzkrieg – The Spider

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Woo more songs about spiders! This time from Blitzkrieg, another NWoBHM band that’s been kicking it since 1980. Coupled with Satan’s new album, and I think Accept had a new album too(?), apparently 2024 is the year for older bands to knock the dust off their stacks and put together shredfests. Also apparently this is the same singer from Satan. Maybe he needs to buy a boat so releasing two albums gets him closer to his dream of sailing the seas in Yeah Buoy.

The song knocks it down the fairway with a good chugga riff coupled with some noodly lead guitaring. I do like the vocals, but I also like Satan the band (don’t wanna get that taken out of context, amirite?), and they fit really well with the band. Though he does sing about the spider’s sting. Maybe he’s thinking of a bee. Maybe there are arachnid bees in the UK and I managed to avoid them, because that seems like nightmare fuel.

The double solo at the 3/4 point is soaring and noodly and all you expect from a good heavy metal track. All in all it’s a solid track, and it’s great to hear bands shredding nearly 50 years going.

I’d be remiss to share a song about spiders without sharing Nekrogoblikon’s magic spider. Because that spider makes your wishes come true!

Friday Morning Metal – Satan – Turn the Tide

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Oh dang Satan has a new album coming out in September, so they have a video for Turn the Tide available! These guys have been shredding NWOBHM since 1979, so it’s great to see them keeping at it.

This is a fun track, right in the wheelhouse of Satan’s speedy verses and more harmonic choruses. There’s even some fun wah wah in the intro! Brian Ross has solid pipes that fit in really well with the band, glad he’s able to keep at it for 40 years, especially with his falsettos! There’s a quite shreddy dueling solo at the 3-minute mark, complete with the knee slide that shows off a good guitar solo.

The youtube description says it an allegory to jingoistic brits who think they can change the course of history by yelling at it. Like a dumb king yelling at the tide to stop coming in. So that’s pretty cool.

It’s a pretty straightforward “shot in a church” type video. They do some weird visualization elements on the musicians themselves, like a weird dream or the video is buffering really poorly. Some of this looks like they used AI to make the visuals, which is kinda lame. Just pay someone to draw stuff. Or use actual footage. I don’t need to see weird trippy blendy stuff that keeps changing what it is because AI is weird. And it’s supposed to be a king shouting at the sea while the tide comes in. That seems easy as hell to shoot practically. There are plenty of old dudes in England who could look like a king.

All in all it’s a pretty solid song and I look forward to the rest of the album on September 13th!

Friday Morning Metal – Satan – Time to Die

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I keep learning about NWOBHM bands that are still plugging away. This time it’s Satan, who got their start in 1979 and went by a few different names over the years, including Blind Fury, The Kindred, and Pariah. I enjoy they named their band after a movie with Rutger Hauer playing a blind sword fighter badass. And I feel like they probably didn’t blow up in the US because of their name. Which is a shame, these guys wail.

Anyway, they have a new album, Life Sentence, and it has the fast drums, guitarmonies, and kickass vocals you’ve come to expect from NWOBHM.

Here’s the lead track, Time To Die. The guitar work on the intro is terrific. Terrific.

Friday Morning Metal – Judas Priest – Breakin the Law

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I’m really digging deep for this one. And why not, this is the 100th post. Judas Priest’s Breakin the Law is a masterpiece of the new wave of British heavy metal and a fantastic song if you’re learning guitar. That solo is pretty tricky, however.

The song is such an anthem that the last time I saw Judas Priest perform the song, Halford didn’t even sing. He just held the mic over the crowd and had all of us do it for him. It was pretty amazing, those screaming metal heads sounded kind of in tune.

As for the video, I didn’t know you could rob a bank with metal back in the early 80’s, but there you go.

Oh and here’s Beavis & Butthead doing it too: