Frontiers [release date 9.12.22]
Third album from Polish Metal band, Scream Maker.
Bloodking begins where 2016′s Backs Against The World left off.
This is a band who’ve spent much of their pre and post pandemic time on tour (Europe and China) – gigging with Saxon, Judas Priest, Primal Fear, Black Label Society and numerous other influential heavy metal luminaries.
And so we get a strong indication of what lies within from the company they keep.
After the hi-speed bpms and air raid siren, foot-on-the-monitor vocals that open the album on the explosive ‘Mirror, Mirror’, the rapid deceleration in the unexpectedly melodic title track, ‘Bloodking’ comes as a welcome surprise. And then it just takes off again, accelerating into an uncertain future… before again spinning down to a stop. You might well have moved to the edge of your seat by now.
As well as the established giants they toured with, we get whiffs of other bands too. ‘When Our Fight Is Over’ has a distict Queensryche feel in among the beefy hard rock, and catchy, ironclad riffing. Sebastien Stodolak’s skyscraping vocals propell upwards at every opportunity, never losing traction on the upper slopes.
A flavour of Accept here too in the way that ‘End Of The World’ locks onto a heavy metal groove and stays tight to the finish, with Stodolak and axeman Ziolkowski lifting the song into epic territory.
That said, ‘Join The Mob’ mights just be the album’s standout. It’s hard to come up with something original and sustaining within the narrow parameters of traditional metal. So Scream Maker do what others have done successfully before them . . . they drill down into the DNA of the genre and cook up some melodic metal chemistry of their own.
Not too often nowadays that heavy metal can be quite so refreshing. ****
Review by Brian McGowan
Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK
Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.
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Power Plays w/c 29 April 2024
BRIGITTE PURDY Sugar Fried Candy (Dirtshack Records)
ATTIC THEORY The Legacy (indie)
THE HOWLERS I Need Your Love (indie)
VELVETEEN QUEEN Bad Reputation (indie)
WILLS AND THE WILLING Scuffed Knees (Smash & Grab Music Ltd)
READY THE PRINCE Still Believe (indie)
Featured Albums w/c 29 April 2024
09:00-12:00 PRAYING MANTIS Defiance (Frontiers)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023
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