The US certainly ain’t the first place that springs to mind when thinking of true heavy or power metal. Alright, so thrash metal wouldn’t have got very far without the Bay Area, and Florida of course did great things for the death metal scene and, well, as for Iowa, let’s not even go there (*cough* Slipknot *cough*). I’ve been quite the fan of Cage since hearing their 2007 release Hell Destroyer, and in my opinion they are one of the more underrated power metal bands around. They have what I would consider to be a very European sound and as such, I can’t help but think they would get far more recognition for what they are doing if they were based somewhere like Germany, but then again, sometimes it is better for a band to stay underground. You have your Premiership players in the field; your Primal Fears and Hammerfalls and as far as I’m concerned Cage crush them all into the ground.
While those aforementioned bands plod along in the lower ranks of the mainstream, persistently watering down their sound to even greater extents on each passing album Cage are going at it strong and showing no signs of slowing down. Alright, so it’s early days and Cage are still young pups compared to those bands but there always comes a time for the torch to be passed down to the younger, more agile athlete. With Science Of Annihilation you know exactly what you’re going to get and it isn’t compromising for anyone. To put it bluntly, this is meatier than a 14oz steak, sharper than the knife used to cut it with and as heavy as the lard arse who ate the fucker! ‘Planet Crusher’ comes bounding in with a truly devastating bit of riffage, delivering an instant crushing blow before continuing to give a thorough pounding.
Vocalist Sean Peck really, really wants to be Halford, but he at least pulls it off with power and conviction and it would be churlish to fault him for that. It’s the final nailing in of the main message on ‘Scarlet Witch’ that really has me under a spell as it really bangs home the point of being ‘Taken by a scarlet witch!’ With its hurtling drums and adrenaline fuelled vocals this is easily one of my favourite tracks on the album, along with the King Diamond-esque ‘Black River Falls.’ This one comes around half way into the album and with its tales of little children being lured by evil it puts across that vibe of being a rather sinister fairy tale.
‘Speed Kills;’ well if it’s true them this track would surely need a yellow hazard sign over it to warn one to stay away. This hurtles forth at a lightning fast speed, which if you got in the way of, you’d be knocked straight into next week! The same could be said for most of this album and if you’re like me and despise those cringeworthy ballads that constantly crop up on power metal records then you’ll be delighted to know there’s none of that wimpy nonsense on here; just wall to wall metal! If you even have the slightest penchant for power metal then I urge you to listen to this; it’s about as good as the genre has to offer.
http://www.cageheavymetal.com
http://www.myspace.com/cageheavymetal
