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Man,
this record rocks in ways I was sure new music wasn’t
capable of. To the thrash metal revival we can now add
a classic speed metal revival that just like the first
one seems to be spearheaded by no other than New York’s
Heavy Artillery Records. OK, maybe both genres share
more than a few traits but comparing Enforced to the
thrash of Merciless Death is like comparing the dynamics
of Dream Theater to those of Hellhammer. One is heavy
and jagged, the other one is so fluent it is ridiculous.
I should add, both are just as valid.
Anyways, Heavy
Artillery’s new Swedish signing Enforcer is so good it will have
you weeping at the first sight of denim jackets and slitting
your wrists in nostalgia after the first couple of guitar licks
spark off this record. Into the Night will either make
you remember the good ol’ classic metal or will make you wonder
why is that metal as you know it, has never sounded this light
on its feet, rapid fire banshee scream lead-crazy riff-orgasmic.
Damn right. If you feel like the latter chances are you are a
young pup, a little jerk, a tiny brat, a metal baby that may
have grown up on Korn and then moved onto the good stuff. If
that’s the case, you are hopefully anxious to learn about the
roots of metal and even though Enforce belong to a new
generation their style and album are so classic/vintage and
high-quality they are a course in classic metal all by itself.
Man, where are
all my Riot records? You know what? It don’t matter. Because
these Swedish quartet has it all. Vocalist Olof Wikstrand goes
for the high pitch. Dude can sing and in his classic vocal
chords one can find references ranging from 70’s hard rock to
the beginnings of thrash metal right before shitty singers
decided to growl and the NWOBHM before it went down the drain.
Where Enforcer rules is in the music though. All of Into the
Night slays because of its upbeat early heavy metal feel and
the masterful work of Adam Zaars, definitely a guitar hero if
there ever was one. So confident and cocky is this band of its
abilities that they dish out an amazing instrumental titled
“City Lights” in which Zaars solos and riffs with the ability of
three Adrian Smiths, the style of two Dave Murrays and the
presence of fifteen Janick Gers. Non-sense, sure, but you get my
point. When things can’t get any faster, Zaars accelerates and
gives George Lynch a humbling lesson in how to obscure the
vocalist of your band. Nice bazookas on the album cover too.
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