Blitzkrieg

Judge Not!

They’re all revved up and ready to go. Was there ever a better name for a heavy metal band than Blitzkrieg? ‘A military term describing use of overwhelming force and rapid speed.’ Sheesh, that sums up the music of these Newkie veterans in a nuclearpowered nutshell.

These days it seems every band from the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal era claims to have influenced Metallica.

But the truth is that Lars and co. were judicious in their choice of inspiration – and Blitzkrieg were one of a select NWOBHM pack. Does this heavyweight heritage weigh on the shoulders of veteran singer Brian Ross and his grizzled cohorts? Does it fuck. Blitzkrieg’s first recorded new material since 2013 is oldfashioned thrash metal at its foulest, summed up perfectly by the title of track five of 11:

All Hell Is Breaking Loose. But dig deeper and you’ll discover intelligence glimmering behind the all-out mayhem, with thought-provoking songs about modern-day terrorism, Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat, Dorian Gray and, er… Mario, the great bird of Armageddon.

Can we survive the blitzkrieg? Yes - only barely.

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geoff Barton