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Alloy Czar: Awaken the Metal King

Melodic/Heavy Metal

4.0/5.0

Website (Label)
Arkeyn Steel Records
by Craig Hartranft,  04.12.2013

Arkeyn Steel Records once more revisits American heavy metal's past, resurrecting another obscure regional phenomena. This time it's Denver's Alloy Czar with a compilation of their extant demos packaged as Awaken the Metal King.

Alloy Czar:: making hair stylists rich.

Frankly, these demos are surprisingly good. They're fine examples of (very) early Eighties metal, much like an American version of the NWOBHM sound. The songs are marked by strong guitar work, a beefy rhythm section, and clean melodic, sometimes soaring (when trying to do his best Halford), vocals from Bob Parduba. All the songs feature a keyboard layer that ranges from subtle to prominent.

Perhaps the reason that the songs sound so good is that the were recorded one or two at a time over a longer period of time. The band had more time and thought to put into each composition. Regardless, the result is simply eight for good classic melodic heavy metal songs. Sometimes, like with Taking the Lead and Stalker, the pace is faster, but not quite up to the pace of speed metal. Reflecting on that observation of British Metal of the day, you can hear more than a little Judas Priest in the song Slayer. As history would have it, for many bands, Alloy Czar never caught on beyond their regional sphere of influence and band dissolved. But we still have this fine collection of demos in Awaken the Metal King. Get yours today as their only pressing 1000 hand-numbered CDs. Recommended.

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

Alloy Steel's Awaken the Metal King offers another glimpse into early Eighties American heavy metal history with this fine collection well crafted, played and produced demos.

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