8/10
Throaty vocals, muscular, fast-paced riffing and a sequence that more bands could take notes from, this is indeed a throwback to a bygone era––think classic Saxon, Accept and about 150 anonymous bands from the 1980s that recorded albums then gained immortality to clammy-handed headbangers who collected Iron Maiden picture discs and worshipped Armored Saint as the next great hope. Littered with as many clichés as a library full of 12 Step literature, the lyrics still empower the listener with a sense of normalcy and a larger than normal manliness. While this won’t launch a thousand new bands it may send a few kids to the woodshed to hone their grasp of real metal guitar solos. (For once it sounds like somebody remembers what it was like to hunker down with some Ace Frehley solos and a bottle of cold gin.) Delightful if not thoroughly original.––––––––––––––––––––––Jedd Beaudoin
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