Warrior

Retro-spective Review: Warrior – Fighting for the Earth

Retro-spective Review: Warrior – Fighting for the Earth

I’m not sure why it took me so long to get around to this little gem of an album. It pretty much defines the term “forgotten classic” and I’m sure many never even heard of Warrior. They’ve had an extremely stop-start career, having released only four albums in 30 years, but their 1985 debut Fighting for the Earth is a classic piece of 80s metal loaded with top-notch, super memorable anthems that straddle the line between a classic, old school style and gritty hard rock. Sounding like a mix of early Savatage, Obsession and Armored Saint, it’s one of those platters that epitomized the early American metal sound and after this release they were often spoken of in the same breath as Queensryche as the “next big thing.” Steel Druhm grew up with this album and he’s always annoyed nobody knows about it. So…know about it!

Iron Savior – Rise of the Hero Review

Iron Savior – Rise of the Hero Review

Iron Savior is one of those “comfortable old shoe” kind of bands. Every album is essentially the same and the quality ratio is generally respectable. They were never much for shifting stylistic paradigms and it’s fair to call them the AC/DC of overblown sci-fi power metal, but as long as the music was good, it was all fine. Sure, their recent output hasn’t exactly rivaled their classic early period stuff, but they never dropped a total dud either and 2011s The Landing was plenty of fun in all it’s overproduced, studio-abusing bombast.” Those crazy Germans are back with more Gamma Ray-meets-Judas Priest power metal for the masses. Will this be your new metal savior? Steel Druhm opines.

Angels of Babylon – Thundergod Review

Angels of Babylon – Thundergod Review

“During my tenure at AMG Industries, I’ve made my opinion on super groups well known. For those who missed that memo (and shame on you), I’ve found that whenever various and sundry artists collaborate on some highfalutin side project, the results are often a mixed bag and prone to being weak and/or tepid. Even worse is when third or fourth tier artists get together to form pseudo-super groups. Angels of Babylon is one such minor league collective, featuring the likes of Kenny “Rhino” Earl (ex-Manowar, ex-Holy Hell), Steve Handel (Seventh Calling, Protest) and Diego Valdez (Skiltron, Helker). If you just thought “Who? Who? What? Who?’, I’m right there with you.” Okay, so we have a third tier project band. That doesn’t mean they can’t write some godly tunes, does it? Pack a lunch as Steel Druhm takes you cherry picking.