Friday, 5 October 2012

Reign Of Fire



Reign Of Fury
“World Detonation”
Heavy Metal
Mosh Tuneage (PHD / Plastic Head Music ) & Goodlife Recordings
Released 13th August 2012

 
                Reign Of Fury originally hails from the mean streets of Cheltenham. Prowling the stages of the English South West and Midlands for the last fifteen years, the band has honed its groove; a surprisingly authentic sounding Bay Area thrash/metal hybrid, until it is now in a position to release this, its debut album.

                If you like your metal a la Priest, Maiden and old(ish) Metallica then you are gonna love Reign Of Fury’s “World Detonation”. It is a hugely produced, thrashed up harmonised dual guitar meat fest that furls its homage to metal’s old guard in a chain mailed, if fading, youthful exuberance.

The opening one-two of “Infernal Conflict” and instrumental “Goodbye Mother Earth” nail the album’s colours to the mast in no uncertain terms. The Metallica-meets-power-metal mix is a combo on which the rest of this album comfortably sits with the occasional death grunt thrown in to break up the otherwise clean soaring vocal.

Other than a few quiet intros, “Heaven Waits, Hell Takes” and “Vile Submission” for instance, there is not a lot that distinguishes the songs from each other. “World Detonation “ lacks enough light and shade to give the individual tracks something that makes them memorable and with three tracks weighing in at over eight minutes, the boundaries of the already limited and fragile attention span of today’s youth might be tested beyond destruction.

Until the closing track, “The Hound” that is, because here we have a nine minute dose of heavy metal that is the result of the best of the album being distilled and filtered until only the very essence of perfection is left. If “The Hound” does not become a darling of the mosh pit then there really is no hope for us.

New, “World Detonation” certainly isn’t; you will be lucky to find it being described anywhere as inventive, innovative or creative. It is an album that you will be almost instantly familiar with, accompanied as it is by the ghosts of thrash’s big hitters. Yet Reign Of Fury does the Bay Area thrash/power metal thing very well.

Despite the originality issues, there is no denying the album has considerable commercial potential. “World Detonation” has the accessibility of the likes of Trivium and Dragonforce; an ease of use that whilst not necessarily being substantial enough to satisfy the needs of the older members of the metal fraternity, will almost certainly appeal to the younger, less patient metal head who demands instant gratification; immediate fulfilment.

To release this sort of metal album now must have taken nuts of iron being as some of the biggest names of the genre have released albums recently into an already engorged market place. In this instance however, the quality of the album is such that the ploy might well pay off and Reign In Fury might just be able to justify hitching a ride on the tail of this particular thrash comet.

For metal heads in the know “World Detonation” will either verge on the parody or prove a nice welcoming album to get into. For those, however, who know not where they step then perhaps this album is the perfect introduction to the genre.

The track ‘World Detonation‘ is available as a free download at www.reverbnation.com/reignoffury
Check them out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGe3jWr84p8

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