ETERNAL CHAMPION - The Armor of Ire
Label: No Remorse Records
Released: 2016
After listening to this Texas' band's debut full length I'm thinking MANILLA ROAD, CIRITH UNGOL, Conan the Barbarian, etc. ETERNAL CHAMPION are conjuring up the ghosts of traditional heavy metal musically and artistically if you look at the cd cover. Years ago once the whole thrash revival peetered out, the next big revival became the new wave of traditional heavy metal. There were a lot of cool bands that came from that and these Texans continue the fight. Now with many of those acts they chose the high road, playing in the old style but bringing it up to date in sound and production. ETERNAL CHAMPION chose to go for authenticity.
The Armor of Ire could easily have been some newly discovered gem from the 80s that labels like Heaven & Hell or Shadow Kingdom found the original tapes to and decided to reissue. Of course afterwards you'd have a flurry of ebay activity by collector scum all trying to get their dirty cheeto stained fingers on a copy of the original release. Yeah that happens.
When I say ETERNAL CHAMPION chose the authentic path I mean they nail it. The band named themselves after a fictional charactor from English fantasy and science fiction writer Michael Moorcock. The songs are basically the tales of the Eternal Champion. You could call this a concept album of sorts. But this band's essence is always going to be it's adherance to classic American heavy metal whether it's the muffled vocals, the guitar harmonies, the cool no nonsense guitar solos, etc. As far as the genre goes I love this. I am the Hammer, Hails.
Rating: 5/5
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