Bringing out the bullet belts and true metal shapes are Armour from Finland. A Band that I have tried to get into for ages, just seems like their stuff is hard to get and sometimes expensive. Is the hunt worth it? Damn right! After numerous EP’s and split releases, the world is now ready for their first full-length album.
Folks may not recognise vocalist “Werewolf” in this guise aka Nazgul, the Satanic Warmaster mainman and original Horna vocalist. Armour is as far as you can get from those quality black metal bands. Fans of traditional metal will revel in these tunes on offer. Vocally Werewolf gives us a UDO and Steve Whiteman (from KIX) styling. Musically, they appear to avoid the labelling of US glam bands, but some of the less pure metal tunes lend themselves to the hard rock styling of the said Kix and Tesla in places with plenty of NWOBHM influences. For me the album really kicks in when you get mid-way to ‘Satan’s Knights’ and ‘Hellfire’. These are much more metallic like Accept, Exciter (as their PR material states); general fast-paced old Canadian metal for one or fellow countrymen Cast Iron secondly for that Running Wild influence. There is much more of a NWOBHM flavour about these tunes, much improved from the first half of the album. ‘Magik Armour’ and ‘Ready to Attack’ (with the latter having a very similar ‘Denim & Leather’ melody!) make up the most outstanding tunes on the album, my mp3 review files do however omit the final listed track and the artwork from the jpeg images looks quite stunning and “proper ‘eavy metal”! A representation that can only be destined for vinyl release one hopes, this would bring out the full impact of the cover art.
As far as “don’t call us retro” releases go, this is better than some of the dross I have heard, but for me this could have been an EP, as I just did not connect with 50% of this album. But rest assured, the remainder are killer heavy metal tracks pure and simple. So whilst there is no longer a satanic slant to these band members’ work of late, homage to proper heavy metal makes up for it in more ways than you can imagine. A worthy purchase all-in-all.
http://www.myspace.com/metalarmour
http://www.hellsheadbangers.com/
