Reviews: Those Damn Crows, Hollentor, Hellpass, Zebedy (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

Those Damn Crows - Inhale/Exhale (Earache Records)

Is it luck? Is it talent? Is it a bit of both? The latter is most likely as Welsh rockers Those Damn Crows return with their third album after rapidly gaining cult-like status in their home country and expanding into the rest of the UK and beyond. It's certainly a lot to do with talent as the band cherry pick the best bits of other successful bands. 

Their music pulling no punches about being radio friendly rock, but with a emotionally conscious vein and a love of experimenting with the most modern of soundscapes. It's no wonder they have mass appeal, with anyone from your metal loving younger brother to your strictly pop listening mum will be able to enjoy Inhale/Exhale without any complaint. 

So musically they pitch themselves in an ideal spot but there's more to Those Damn Crows than that, they are clearly working hard on cultivating their preferred is image where emotional intelligence meets blue collar passion. Using things like their podcast and social media to increase their interactions and build their fanbase. 

They also have a lot of merch opportunities to expand their brand (they have their own beers to accompany this album) and of course being signed to Earache Records, the leading light in the NWOCR movement is also a benefit. Having watched this band play small stages to the point that they are now, there's no doubting that they have worked their asses off to get to where they are today. 

A well drilled fully formed arena rock band made for bigger stages and this maturity is reflected on Inhale/Exhale an album that is designed to make you think about yourself and your connection to the wider world, it's all about how you're breathing can change a situation and the band have managed to capture various shifts in tone and pace on these nine songs but with a consistency of a pair of lungs breathing. 

The tracks all feel linked even when they aren't obviously the production, mix/mastering and most importantly sequencing critical for get the full effect. Producer Dan Weller and mixer Phil Gornell both using their experience with the most modern acts around to make this record fizz, bringing a broad sonic scope that incorporates extensive use of atmospheric electronics along with pianos and some strings to accompany the traditional rock sound.

Greenhall describes this album as a combination of the previous two records and he's not wrong, his vocal the best he's delivered so far, incorporating that drawl that Brent Smith of Shinedown uses to join his own heart-on-sleeve delivery, it's passionate and pervasive, catching you off guard at time but always welcoming you in. 

Of course no vocalist worth his salt can be considered great without a superior outfit behind him and as Ronnie Huxford lays down the percussive propulsion for these songs you can't help but stomp your feet or clap your hands to the rockers, Huxford dialing down the power for deftness on the ballads. With him in the boiler room is Lloyd Wood who's earth shaking rhythms will either rattle your teeth or your ass. 

Building on thes rhythmical impulses is the axe slinging tag team of Ian 'Shiner' Thomas and David Winchurch who carve out cavernous riffs of glorious volume one minute and evocative overtones the next, augmented by the additional piano and synths for a  cinematic sound. 

I could carry on an name every track and what it's like but an bum like this needs to be heard. So in closing of this review, they are the next rock superstars, this third album confirms it, they are arena ready and they are pretty much unstoppable. To paraphrase Shane Greenhall's clarion call when the band play live: They Are Those Damn Crows and you better get ready! 9/10

Hollentor - Divergency (Self Released)

Glen Poland is the sole writer of Hollentor, German for "Gates Of Hell", despite being a relative unknown (to me anyway) he seems to have the biggest metal Rolodex around. Poland is a guitarist so he has a massive load of guests on each record, including on this third album. He is aided by Glen Drover (ex-Megadeth) who engineers, mixes, masters and also performs on the record. He is joined by drummer brother Shawn, while the instrumental team also features Rudy Sarzo (x-Ozzy/Whitesnake), James MacDonough (x-Megadeth/Iced Earth), James LoMenzo (x-Black Label Society/current-Megadeth), George Lynch (x-Dokken/current-Lynch Mob) and Eric Peterson (Testament). 

They all augment Poland's writing style with Tim Ripper Owens (x-Judas Priest) and Henning Basse, (ex-Firewind) taking the mic. Hollentor's music is modern heavy metal with classic metal vibe to it, the riffs of Poland underpinning everything in a similar way that 'he who shall not be named' did in Iced Earth. Kicking off with Behind The Wall, you get an instant idea of Hollentor as a band. Mid-paced riffers like Judgement Day and the stomping Lotus Eater are joined by thrashers like Seize The Day and the folk metal of Vikings Pride. Divergency is a another addition to the modern heavy metal discography of Hollentor, if you like your riffs loud and an all star cast of metal musicians then you'll enjoy it. 7/10 

Hellpass - Gates Of War (Self Released)

Founded by Alexandros Koliousios (drums), Aggelos Mouratidis (guitars) and Vasilis Iakinthos (vocals/formerly bass) Hellpass are classic/heavy metal band from Thessaloniki Greece. Having recently added Nikos Paraskevopoulos on bass, Gates Of War is their debut album and it does a good job of emulating the classic sound of 80's British metal, Bay Area thrash and American power metal without becoming a pastiche.

American power metal over European as Hellpass bring that more muscular, distorted style of power metal of Sanctuary, Metal Church but with some European touches of Grave Digger and Edguy. With a gruffer vocal style than most Vasilis has the touches of Warrell Dane on Fade Away as the Sanctuary references move into Nevermore style maudlin. The darker tone is set from the rough riff of Alter Nation as the stomping title track packed with American metal muscle. Inspired by turbulent times we face, Gates Of War simmers with frustration but never fully unleashes it.

They occasionally veer into the trad metal realms but I personally think they do the more atmospheric style with a more honest conviction, Oath To The Metal Gods especially is jarring change of lyricism. Still other than that Gates Of War is a decent metal album if you're a fan of the American power/thrash metal sound. 7/10

Zebedy - Waiting For The Tide (Self Released)

One of my colleagues was supposed to review this album from North Wales band but due to some outside factors he couldn't do it. So dear reader it has fallen to me and I'm ambivalent if I'm honest. 

Produced by Dan Weller who has worked with SikTh, Enter Shikari, Young Guns and Holding Absence, Zebedy are a band that have a lot in common with all of these other acts but unfortunately they have too much in common with them, vocals from Enter Shikari and even Fightstar, mathcore riffs from SikTh and a lot of the record just comes from lots of generic djent/prog metalcore, with shifts to quirkiness that seem to be there for the hell of it. 

Now this is been over two years in the making and there's a lot of talent on show, but with vocals that grate on my ears, the songwrting feels a little limited and why they called themselves after a character in The Magic Roundabout or indded the porn director, I have no idea. I didn't get much out of it, you might. 5/10