DEFENDER - City Ad Mortis reissue
Hammerheart Records
Just for the record I think the good people at Hammerheart Records are killing it with their series of reissues. I mean if you're into cool sounding stuff from the past which was never properly recognized then here ya go. Obviously the people at this label know how to read the scene.
Case in point DEFENDER were a Dutch five piece speed metal band from the late 80's. Aside from their Tales of the Unexpected four song demo put out in 1985. The band's only vinyl output was this five song EP from 1987. Now for those of you who have read this blog for a long time (and frankly who doesn't?) you know that my heritage is Dutch. Add to that for decades I've always supported my Dutch Metal.
So in my not so humble opinion DEFENDER's City Ad Mortis EP is the holy grail of Dutch Metal. Go see how much an original copy of it is selling for on Ebay. But for me musically DEFENDER was a band that falls into that could've / should've been huge catagory. I mean they had all of the classic chops.
Sound-wise the band had a melodic touch to speed metal with the obvious NWOBHM / early MAIDEN influence. Simon Menting was a great vocalist who could do a killer "heavy metal" scream. Their songs were actually complex as far as randon speed metal was at the time. I mean you could say that DEFENDER were better than their contemporaries.
As well as the original EP cuts this reissue has three tracks which I believe were supposed to be part of a DEFENDER full length which never happened. These three cuts are more in the vein of early Euro Power Metal. Yeah go figure right. They're pretty cool but it also begs the question of what if? Be that as it may this reissue is a must have. Nuff Said!
LISTEN HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2fYB-YIKrE
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