Stand In The Fire

           

We Want You: The Best of 2016

Muthas, 2016 has bit the dust and I’m back with a list of the best albums, live albums, reissues and album covers.  Enjoy!

The Best Albums of 2016

Bat – Wings Of Chains

Do you like greasy, dirty, raw thrash metal that sounds like Motorhead + Venom + Warfare?  If so, you will love this LP.  I previously reviewed their demo and this picks right up where that left off with a refreshing and fun blast of speedball metal.  Another great band from Ryan Waste.  Check out “Primitive Age.”  Raw future indeed!

Diamond Head – Diamond Head

Well what do you know? After releasing a couple of crappy albums that didn’t reflect their classic sound, Diamond Head comes roaring back with a cracking album that is replete with good songs.  Thankfully, the vocalist – Rasmus Bon Andersen – sounds a lot like Sean Harris, and Brian Tatler has penned some great songs. Check out “Bones.”

Grand Magus – Sword Songs

It seems that Grand Magus wanted to answer some of the complaints about their last album being too “epic” because Swords Songs is a return to more straight ahead, faster material.  It’s a very good album that features many anthemic cuts that will be sure to get your head banging.  Check out “Forged In Fire – Crowned In Iron.”

Gygax – Critical Hits

Arising from the ashes of the now sadly defunct Gypsyhawk is the excellent Gygax which play a tasty selection of heavy-70s metal that is heavily influenced by Thin Lizzy. Sinewy, twisting dual guitar leads are everywhere and the songs are catchy as all hell.  Oh, the splatter vinyl is quite simply the most stunning I have ever seen. Check out “Draw Breath.”

Metal Church – XI

The long awaited return of Mike Howe did not disappoint in the slightest!  XI is a phenomenal album that is one of the better comeback albums in the history Metaldom.  It’s great to hear Mike’s powerful voice ladled on top of choice power/thrash compositions once more.  The songs are excellent and Metal Church are back to reclaim their rightful throne!  Check out “Killing YourTime.”

Testament – Brotherhood Of The Snake

If you’ve liked the previous two Testament albums you will love this one.  It’s in the same vein as Formation and Dark Roots – Chuck Billy roaring over a superb rhythm section and great guitars.  There’s lots of thrashing to be heard here and several of the songs form a sort of concept album about lizard people?(!) The songs are heavy and catchy with several memorable choruses that will worm their way into your brain. (It’s probably because of unholy influence of the lizard people.)  Check out “Stronghold.”

Striker – Stand In The Fire

Fun! Fun! Fun!  Striker once again unleash an album that is just damn fun and high energy!  These guys know how to craft great power metal in the vein of Vicious Rumors or Leatherwolf and the cuts are full of great hooks.  The songs are very upbeat and positive and are sure to lift your spirits.  More people should be talking about these Canadians, so get out there and buy this album.  Check out “Too Late.”

Metal Massacre 14

A compilation in a best of list?  You’re damn right!  Metal Blade has finally released a worthy follow up to their classic 80s series of compilations by focusing on lesser- known traditional metal bands on small or independent labels.  If you are a fan of the NWOTHM many of these names will be familiar to you, but there are several gems here by Stone Dagger, Savage Master, Crypt Sermon, Gatekeeper and others.  Check out “The Demented Force” by Assassin’s Blade.  Buy or die!

Megadeth – Dystopia

Maybe the album of the year.  Full review here.  It’s so much better than the other Big Four releases it’s not even close.  What about Metallica you say?  It was a big pile of meh.  Not list worthy. 

  

Eternal Champion – The Armor Of Ire

Sweet Odin’s Raven this is good!  I’ve had a hard time listening to anything else for the last three months.  Eternal Champion is from Austin, Texas but they may as well have been born in the Hyborian Age because their music is a virtual soundtrack for Conan and Kull.  This is the way epic metal should be done – songs with fantasy based lyrics and killer music.  Thick, pummeling rhythms abound and the songs are very catchy.  I have nothing to criticize here – the artwork is great and there’s even a map included!  Album of the year?  Sure, why the hell not?  Check out “I Am The Hammer” and buy this album you knaves!

The Best Live Album

Dirkschneider – Live – Back To The Roots

Good old Udo is back with a live set of Accept classics and some not so classics to close the books on the Accept stage of his career.  Udo sounds great here and so does his backing band, and he even pulls out some tunes that haven’t been played in years - when was the last time you got to hear “Monsterman” or “T.V. War” live? Pick this up and you’ll be able to compare it to the soon-to-be-released Restless and Live from Accept. Check out "Breaker."

The Best Reissues

Banshee – Cry In The Night + Race Against Time

Divebomb Records thankfully released the debut EP and LP from Banshee with beautiful remastering and a nice, thick booklet.  This is top notch USPM that was mostly lost in the shuffle back in the day and deserves to be heard by the metal faithful.  Definitely pick up this absolute gem of a two CD set.  Check out “We Want You.”

Skol Records NWOBHM CD Replica Single Series

Great idea from Skol Records and Bart Gabriel to release these cd replicas of NWOBHM singles.  Each CD has the original cover art and tracks from the vinyl singles, and they haven’t picked totally obvious singles either - who thought Hellrazer would ever be reissued for instance?  I hope they continue with this series in the future!

The Biggest Disappointment

Anthrax – For All Kings

What a mess.  I had high hopes, but they crapped the bed.  Full review here.

The Best Album Cover

Megadeth – Dystopia

Robot Samurai Vic Rattlehead in a dystopian future? Yes please!  Stunning cover art for an excellent album.  Kudos!

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That’s it muthas! Thanks for reading and I’ll see you back here in 2017.

As always, MAKE MINE METAL!

You're The Best Around (No, Not You, But Fourteen Albums Are)

Muthas, 2014 is in the books and once again we’ve picked the top fourteen Metal albums of the year. We’ve also picked the best live albums, best reissues, best live shows, and the biggest disappointment of the year. Read on!

The Fourteen Best Albums of 2014

2014 offered up tons of quality Heavy Metal for your listening pleasure and here are the fourteen releases that dominated our turntables, CD players and mp3 players at The Metal Blog of Metal.

Grand Magus – Triumph and Power

The Magus cranks out yet another rock solid album that is loaded with epic tunes.  Drink some mead and crank this up! Read the full review here.

Overkill – White Devil Armory

The Wrecking Crew delivers another stellar Thrash opus. Read the full review here.

Judas Priest – Redeemer of Souls

The Priest is back!  An unexpectedly good album that manages to overcome a weird mix.  Check out the full review here.

Orange Goblin – Back From The Abyss

A bludgeoning masterpiece of burly, manly, beardy Metal!  Orange Goblin serves up a disc that may just be best of their career.  If we gave out a best of the year, this may have been it.  So damn good! BUY, BUY, BUY!!!

The Dagger – The Dagger

Sweden strikes again with an album that’s full of excellent 70s style Metal.  Imagine a tasty brew composed mostly of Rainbow and sprinkled liberally with Thin Lizzy, and Judas Priest.  It’s a very impressive album especially considering ¾ of the band is composed of former members of Dismember.  Highly recommended!

Striker – City of Gold

The first of three awesome Canadian releases in our best of 2014. Striker’s third album is a smashing combo of Speed Metal and Traditional Metal.  The band they most recall is the godly Vicious Rumors.  All of their albums are excellent and this is as good a place as any to start.  Buy or die! 

Midnight Malice – Proving Grounds

Canadian band number two on our list crushed 2014 with a killer Traditional Metal disc that is hooky as all hell.  They completely delivered the goods after being mostly silent since their 2010 demo Pray For Death.  The only negative is they advertise this as a CD on their website, but it’s actually a CDR.  That’s kind of shitty, but the quality of the music more than offsets this minor disappointment.  If you dig Riot and other good Traditional Metal bands you need to add this to your collection post-haste.

Bullet – Storm of Blades

If you don’t know about Bullet by now here’s their obvious description - take one part Accept and one part AC/DC and mix in a metric shit-ton of fun.   Storm of Blades is a focused and blistering offering, and it's a definite step up from the average Full Pull.  Don’t miss this one.  Killer Anvil-esque album cover too! 

Skull Fist – Chasing The Dream

The last of our Canadian trio, Skull Fist brought out their best album yet in 2014.  They cranked back on Jackie Slaughter’s insane vocals a tiny bit, but kept the excellent songwriting and hooks.  Some complain that his vocals are (possibly?) auto-tuned, but we didn’t because the album kicks all kinds of ass.  Hail Canada! 

Stallion – Rise and Ride

German bangers Stallion’s first full album is a cool combo of Heavy Metal, Speed Metal and a bit of a Sleaze Metal edge.  Fun. Fun. Fun.  They completely embrace the early 80s Heavy Metal aesthetic  of songwriting and fashion.  Tiger stripes and bandanas ahoy!  They even have a song called “Wild Stallions.”  Party on dudes!

Primal Fear – Delivering The Black

Something of a comeback for these Power Metal veterans, with great songs and a real sense of urgency to the writing.  Read the full review here.

Grave Digger – Return of the Reaper

Speaking of Germany, these stalwarts have brought out a killer album that’s NOT a concept album!  Hooray!  It’s a pummeling platter of muscular Power Metal.  Also, the album cover is amazing.  Highly recommended!

Stone Dagger – The Siege of Jerusalem

A little bit of cheating here, but were adding this to our 2014 list because the original 2013 release was very limited to a few cassettes and it didn't get a wide release until 2014.  This two-tracker recalls all of the best of the NWOBHM and is an absolute must buy.  Go get this now. Seriously.  NOW!

Wolf – Devil Seed

Wolf are one of the bands that kicked off the whole NWOTHM movement way back in 1999 and they are still going strong today.  They always seem to get lost in the shuffle, but Devil Seed is another great addition to their legacy of high quality Traditional Metal.  It’s definitely worth your coin if you dig music that doesn’t suck.  

Live – After Death! – The Best Live Albums of 2014

Satan – Trail Of Fire – Live In North American

Documenting NWOBHM legends Satan’s first tour of North America, Trail Of Fire is a very good set of classics that will please any fan of the band or the genre. The band sounds great with Brian Ross's vocals being just as good now as their were way back in the 80s.  The crowds are very excited to hear them which makes this a really special live album.  Pick it up.

Whitesnake – Live In ’84 – Back To The Bone

Here’s a song for ya!! This is a deluxe CD + DVD package that showcases Whitesnake’s killer 1984 lineup at Super-Rock Japan.  Also included are several other live tracks from the same time period as well as Jon Lord’s final show with the band.  This is Whitesnake at their peak with John Sykes before 1987’s “Whitesnake” album.  Just get it.

Born Again – The Best Reissues of 2014

Revered – Reverend EP, World Won’t Miss You, Play God, Live EP

Divebomb Records deluxe reissues of the entire Reverend Caroline Records catalog.  These are mandatory for any Metal Church fan or fans of Power Thrash in general.  Get ‘em before their gone.

Picture – Picture 1, Heavy Metal Ears, Diamond Dreamer, Eternal Dark

Divebomb Records strikes again with four albums from the Netherlands own Picture!  Superb Traditional Heavy Metal that will please fans of 70s and early 80s Judas Priest.  Pitch those shitty Greek bootlegs and pick these deluxe editions up.  Great stuff!

S.A. Slayer – Prepare To Die, Go For The Throat

Finally!  A legit 2 on 1 reissue of the legendary “other Slayer” from San Antonio, Texas.  This is from the excellent Polish label Skol Records and is very nicely done – just like all of their reissues.  Buy!

Satan’s Host – Metal From Hell, Midnight Wind

It’s another excellent, finally legit reissue from the good folks at Skol Records. Get this and see where it all began for Leviathan Thisiren and company way back in 1986.  By the hands of the devil indeed!

Black Conventicles – The Best Concerts of 2014

Metal Church – March 7^th, The Rex Theater, Pittsburgh, PA

A great set of classics and very little new material from Metal Church on a Friday night in the Steel City.  They were filming a concert video so we actually got to hear “Start The Fire” and “Ton of Bricks” twice back to back!  Very cool.  Unfortunately, this proved to be the last tour with Ronny Munroe, as he left the band shortly thereafter.  Here’s hoping they can continue with another vocalist before they lose the momentum built up from their return. 

Black Label Society/Down – May 15^th, Stage A.E., Pittsburgh, PA

It was nice to see BLS, but the real attraction was finally getting to see Down and Phil Anselmo.  Phil and the boys belted out a great set of Down classics and left us wanting more.  This is the fourth or fifth time that we’ve seen BLS and Zakk always delivers his guitar hero antics with style and flash.  A fun time was had by all.

Primal Fear – May 24^th, The Altar Bar, Pittsburgh, PA

It was quite unexpected when Primal Fear announced a United States tour and that it would be hitting Pittsburgh.  Seeing as this was their second-to-last show in the States, their performance was excellent and they band was tight as hell.  They delivered song after song of top-notch German Power Metal to the faithful that ventured out that night.  It was a damn good set that showcased a band thats far from running in the dust.  Hailz!

King Diamond – October 19^th, Stage A.E., Pittsburgh, PA

It was a definite treat seeing the revitalized King Diamond and his theatrical stage show of evil awesomeness right before Halloween!  It was pure chance that had him book a show here in the Steel City, and everyone there was glad to see him back in action.  Here’s hoping that more tours and albums follow.  A new Mercyful Fate album and tour would be great too!

Message In Blood – The Best Album Cover of 2014

Grave Digger – Return of the Reaper

Now that’s an awesome cover!  The Grim Reaper, a graveyard, fire, a casket, and ravens all presented as if they are coming right at you as they bust out of the graveyard.  Sweet! Looks exceptionally good on vinyl.

The System Has Failed – The Biggest Disappointments of 2014

Sebastian Bach – Give ‘Em Hell

We keep waiting for Baz to unleash a worthy follow up to the smoking Angel Down and he’s never gotten close.  The album sounds uninspired and his vocals are weirdly strained on much of the material.  WTF?  Also, the album cover is an abomination. Boo!!!!  Get Metal Mike Chlasciak back and write some better material.  We'll be waiting. 

Accept – Blind Fury

It’s a pile of meh.  Full review here.

The 124^th Annual The Metal Blog of Metal 

Comeback Of The Year Award

Chromium Dioxide Magazine

If you don’t read this Canadian Metal ‘zine I pity your shallow, colorless existence.  It’s packed full of hilarity, Metal, VHS bargain bin treasures, and everything else the 1990 version of me thought was great. Main men Philthy Chromium and Dave Slimer hadn’t been able to put out an issue since 2011 due to various fires, health scares, and other shittiness, but now they are back for the attack!  Buy it here and know what it is to live life to the fullest as a man should do.  Hoist a midnight champagne with me in celebration!  Cheers! 

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Have a great 2015 and as always, MAKE MINE METAL!

Disturbing The Priest

Reverend - Reverend

Caroline Records 1989

Bangers: back in June, The Metal Blog of Metal reviewed Heretic’s 1988 album Breaking Point, and in that review we pointed out that Heretic, Metal Church, and Reverend were all tied together by common personnel. When David Wayne left Metal Church, his replacement was Mike Howe from Heretic. Wayne decided to form his own band, and recruited three members of Heretic! In essence, Metal Church and Heretic swapped lead singers, which has to be a first in the world of Metal.

Reverend kicked off their recording career in 1989 with the superb Reverend EP. The EP consists of four tracks of excellent power-thrash with David Wayne’s gritty, powerful vocals and riffs a-plenty. This is primo, crunchy Metal of the highest order. We here at The Metal Blog Of Metal consider this EP to be the best release of Reverend’s career.

The EP roars to life with “Power of Persuasion” which chugs along like a Sherman tank with Lemmy at the wheel. Wayne’s vocals are fantastic as he hits plenty of high notes effortlessly. Lyrically, the song explores the corruption of politicians. Chris Goss of Masters of Reality appears on the song but the liner notes don’t say what he did on the track. “Dimensional Confusion” grinds along at mid-pace with staccato riffs and more of Wayne’s commanding vocals. The quirky, stop-start structure of this cut is very cool and the guitar solo is superb.

The third track, “Wretched Excess,” is a molten slab of power-thrash, featuring an absolutely ripping solo. This song is the thrashiest of the four and is very reminiscent of something that Overkill would have cranked out in the 90s. The final cut is “The Ritual” - it’s the best song on the EP, and thus is the best song that Reverend ever put out. It's five minutes and 41 seconds of Metal perfection that even the mighty Metal Church had difficulty achieving. Truly this is an epic track with Wayne really stretching his vocals when he sings “there’s nothing left sacred.” Amazing. Check it out below:

Unfortunately, Caroline Records has never reissued this disc and it’s very hard to locate. In fact, this EP is the most expensive item in The Metal Blog Of Metal's vaults with a per track cost of $12.50! However, the EP is now available for download on iTunes for a mere $3.96, which is clearly preferable to $50.

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The Bottom Line: If you like Heretic and Metal Church, you will love the Reverend EP, so track it down or download it. You won’t be disappointed.

As always, MAKE MINE METAL.

Swedish Skull Crushers

Wolf – Legions Of Bastards

Century Media – 2011

My fellow Heavy Metal enthusiasts, I am sure you are aware of the New Wave Of Traditional Heavy Metal (NWOTHM.) The NWOTHM tag is essentially a marketing gimmick that was invented by Earache Records in 2009 to categorize all the up and coming traditional metal bands. Bands such as Cauldron, Portrait, White Wizzard, Holy Grail, Armour, Volture, Enforcer, and Skull Fist were all lumped together in the NWOTHM whether they considered themselves part of this group or not.

Long before these bands were put axe to the wax other traditional metal bands soldiered on such as Twisted Tower Dire, Cage, and Widow. Another band that has been playing rib crunching, spine cracking, traditional Metal for years is Wolf from Orebro, Sweden. Imagine the galloping music of Iron Maiden melded with the high pitched vocals of King Diamond and you’ll have a fairly good idea of the band’s sound.

Wolf has been putting out consistently great albums since the release of their eponymous debut in 2000. Their 2004 release Evil Star is a favorite of The Metal Blog Of Metal, the title track a crushing sledge of metallic greatness. Unfortunately, their 2006 follow up The Black Flame, was a letdown with too many average tracks and poor sequencing which resulted in most of the excellent cuts being at the end of the album. Wolf quickly recovered in 2009 with the fantastic Ravenous which featured the superb tracks “Speed On,” “Hail Caesar,” and “Voodoo.”

This year Wolf has blessed the Metal world with Legions Of Bastards and it’s a cracking album of pure chromium plated steel. Picking right up where the last album left off, the band offers up 11 tracks on vinyl, 12 on digital download and standard CD, and 13 on the deluxe digipak CD. Wolf has in no way back loaded this disc; the album kicks off with three hooky burners in “Vicious Companions,” “Skull Crusher,” and “Full Moon Possession.” Any of these three cuts would make a great lead single or video but right now all I can find online is a live performance of “Skull Crusher.” Check it out:

“Jeckyll and Hyde” is a longer multi-tempo track with crushing riffs and a very cool chorus. “Absinthe” is a tribute to everyone’s favorite extract of wormwood, and it will have you banging your head at the 1:40 minute mark. “Tales From The Crypt” is the album's epic centerpiece and features such jolly lyrics as “Tomorrow is just another word for misery.” It’s another fantastic song with noodly Maiden guitar parts. “Nocturnal Rites” starts with an intro similar to either “E5150” or “The Dark” by Black Sabbath and then develops into a mid-paced grinder with sweet, sweet gang vocals in the choruses.

It’s at this point that the album hits a bit of a snag due to poor sequencing. On the digital download and CD the songs “Road To Hell” and “False Preacher” are back to back and both have the same lyrical content – the perils of organized religion. The tracks are actually separated on the vinyl and the album flows much better as a result. Wolf should have followed the vinyl sequencing in other formats or ditched one of these tracks and used it as a bonus song on different versions.

“Hope To Die” is another fast song with strong solos and riffs and lyrics about spooky rituals and the occult. The last track on the vinyl and standard CD is “K-141 Kursk” and deals with the accidental sinking of a Russian submarine and the subsequent death of all hands on board. It’s a decent song but it has a particularly effective outro as the song fades and all that can be heard is a mournful sonar ping. It conjures up visions of doomed submariners waiting to die in the dark as their vessel takes on water.

The Deluxe edition CD features the track “6 Steps” which was the bonus track on the Japanese edition of Ravenous. It’s a mid-paced number with a crunchy guitar tone that lyrically is reminiscent of Maiden’s “Fear Of The Dark.” Both the Deluxe CD and the digital download end with a cover of Metal Church’s “Method To Your Madness.” Wolf is particularly adept at cover songs, and in the past has produced excellent covers of Mercyful Fate, Blue Oyster Cult, Slayer and The Ramones songs. “Method To Your Madness” is no exception and is well worth the listen.

If you can’t decide which version of the album to purchase, I suggest the vinyl because not only do you get a nice piece red vinyl, but you also get the Deluxe Edition of the CD tucked into one of the gatefolds. That’s a very cool way for labels to entice people to purchase vinyl. You can see the pictures of this version at the top of this review.

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The Bottom Line: Wolf once again delivers the Metal with Legions Of Bastards and they deserve your support. They were NWOTHM long before the NWOTHM was cool so go out there and buy something from them. Here’s hoping that some day they make it to the States for a tour.

As always, MAKE MINE METAL.

Reverend of a Metal Church

Heretic – Breaking Point

Metal Blade Records – 1988

Lost and Found Records – 2009 reissue

Alright muthas, let’s go back to that golden year of 1988 when Metal Blade released a crushing blast of power/thrash metal by Los Angelinos Heretic called Breaking Point. Heretic had first been featured on Metal Massacre VII with the track “Impulse” which had Julian Mendez on vocals. In 1986, the band released the EP Torture Knows No Boundary but Mendez had been replaced by Mike Torres on the mike. Torture was an excellent slice of power/thrash with high pitched vocals and included a great cover of the Russ Ballard song “Riding With The Angels.”

Following this release, the vocal slot changed again but this time in stepped the diminutive but golden throated Mike Howe. With Howe on vocals the band released Breaking Point but before they could really exploit this album Howe had left to be the front man for the mighty Metal Church. Oddly enough, bass player Dennis O’Hara and guitarist Brian Korban teamed up with former Metal Church vocalist David Wayne to form Reverend.

The Metal Church connections don’t end there because the co-producer on the album was none other than Kurt Vanderhoof - the guitarist, songwriter, and founder of Metal Church! The Metal Blog Of Metal is sure that Vanderhoof put in the word for Howe to get the job with Metal Church which turned out to be very beneficial for all parties involved, except Heretic who were quickly forgotten and consigned to the slag heap of metal history.

Enough with the history, let’s get on with the review of Breaking Point already. If you like Mike Howe era Metal Church you are going to love this album. It’s got that not quite power metal - not quite thrash metal vibe that Metal Church could pull off with aplomb. The songwriting is hooky and memorable without a crap cut on the entire album.

The first track “Heretic” starts off with a short acoustic part and then we’re off to the races with up tempo speed metal. Howe is in fine voice here and effortlessly is hitting the high notes. Also of note is that the bass is right up front and not lost in the mix like on most thrash albums.

“And Kingdoms Fall” is up next and it’s another speedy number with just superb vocals. Howe hits the highs and lows with power and grit. The soloing is excellent here as are the gang vocals in the chorus. The “Circle” starts at a mid-pace and just keeps building until the cut ends with Howe screaming for what seems like 10 minutes.

I defy any non-deaf person to not play “Enemy Within” over and over again on repeat. It’s just so hooky that it requires repeated plays. This is a stand out track on an album comprised of nothing but fantastic songs. Chuga-Chuga-CHUGA!!!

“Time Runs Short” is one of two almost seven minute songs on the album. It starts out with a little bass intro like Megadeth’s “Dawn Patrol” and then it’s time to crank it into overdrive for a bit until it’s back to mid-pace skull crushing. Excellent variation in one song that asks, “Is there no love left in the world?” Answer = no.

”Pale Shelter” is a short acoustic interlude before the speed and power of “Shifting Fire” which is chock full of tasty riffage. This is followed by the even faster “Let ‘Em Bleed” which slays. The chuga-chuga is back in full force on “Evil For Evil” which also has most excellent solos.

Closing out the album is “The Search” which is the other 7 minute long song. Howe puts on a vocal clinic here as the song winds its way through multiple tempo changes in the style of “Watch The Children Pray.”

Lyrically this album deals with common themes in thrash such as drugs, war, violence, hypocrisy, government corruption, etc. No dragons, battle, brotherhood, fighting the world or uplifting songs here. Remember, in 1988 thrash was king and Dio was uncool so lyrically you couldn’t sing about Viking warlords and be cutting edge. I believe assholes call these types of lyrics “thought provoking” as they flit off to a Death Cab For Cutie Concert.

In 2009, Lost And Found Records reissued the album with a nice remastering and a bonus track – the aforementioned “Impulse” from Metal Massacre VII. Before that, this was one of the most expensive metal CDs out there and very rare. The Metal Blog Of Metal tracked one down years ago for the princely sum of $75 which represents the most expensive disc in the vast archives. For the sake of heaviness er, I mean completeness, the reissue was also added to the archives. Unfortunately the reissue is itself now out of print and rising in price. Grab one while you can.

The good news is that if you really want the album you can download it from iTunes or get it on vinyl because it’s now available in a wax reissue from JDC records.

The final piece of great news is that Heretic have gotten back together with original members Dennis O’Hara, Brian Korban, Julian Mendez, as well as new members Federico Dupay on drums and Glenn Rogers (Viking, Hirax, Steel Vengeance, etc…) on guitars. Check them out on Facebook. I know they are working on getting a Torture Knows No Boundary reissue out if they can get Metal Blade to go along and they are playing a show with Bitch and Malice. Hell yes!!!!

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The Bottom Line: Seek out this rarity and add it to your collection. It’s a prime slab of metal and holds an honored place in the pantheon of great albums. All the tracks are fantastic - the vocals slay, the riffs are a flyin’ and the bass is chugging. Come on man, what the hell else do you want? This is a desert island LP of the highest order. Buy or Die.

As always, MAKE MINE METAL.