The folks over at the RMR review desk are big fans of Heavy Metal. Yes, THAT genre again. The one that’s refusing to die with age-old bands still thriving on it to this day. And some of them are still stadium fillers, believe it or not. But there’s not only the old geezers still out there, you also find pretty good young guns hard at work to keep things alive.
Those bands – old or young – still draw on the mana from the first waves of Heavy Metal and definitely the NWOBHM1 era. And many of today’s activists blaze their way through their metal with a vengeance. Evil metal screams, mad riffing, and solos to burn your ears straight off yer sweaty skulls. That’s the HM style that goes straight for the jugular. Meaning, it’ll go for likes, clicks, sweaty crowded music halls, and stellar review ratings. Roaring excitement’s everything these days. Short-lived, super-intense, loud, and over at a moment’s notice.2
And that was pretty much the norm recently until Trespass‘ newest album Wolf at the Door came a-knockin’. The band started back in 1979 and surfed on NWOBHM’s mighty waves back in time. They’ve been out and about ever since for the last 44 years or so. But – in turn – they only produced four full-length records in total. And that finally explains why on the wide metal earth nobody heard of them over here.
Wolf at the Door sports a more moderate Heavy Metal brand than the usual high-pitched metal we get from other folks on an extended treble trip. You’ll find a lot of the mid-tempo wares bands that the likes of Rainbow or – again – Whitesnake were famous for. Meaning, the record won’t be pvre Heavy Metal but mingle with a fair dose of Hard and – yes – some nods to Heavy Rock. Most notable is the rock-solid and down-to-earth guitar work, though. Mark Sutcliffe and Joe Fawcett often play tag team and that undoubtedly adds some much-needed spice to an otherwise overly docile metal record. Need examples? Ghost Pilot – the one track with oomph to spare – hides one absolutely stellar dual solo. Or head over to Force of Nature and enjoy at least two of them.
Thus, Trespass here come fully aligned with the good ol’ Heavy Metal movement. Vocals, lead and a solid rhythm guitar, bass, and drums. That’s pretty much it – and rightly so. And as I said before, you won’t find any crazy hollering or obnoxious shenanigans other bands sometimes indulge in. In other words, you’ll get those delightful vibes straight from the ’80s that we often crave but seldom get. That warm fuzzy feeling when those meaty riffs with that Whitesnake-esque flavor roll in. And that will allow for some keys to creep into the delivery at some moments.
And whilst all technicalities fit, some impurities leaked into the production nonetheless. First, a serious culling of non-essentials might have done a world of good (Back To The Woods, for example). Second, Wolf at the Door contains a score or so of licks and riffs that we kinda heard before. And they’re usually well disguised – it’s that plausible deniability thing all over again. Like the AC/DC ripoff at the start of Force of Nature, followed by something we already heard from Rainbow’s Dio era.3 All of the above goes hand in hand with some – unimaginative songwriting full of endless repetitions (Dagger’s Drawn, for instance). True, some of that is due to this genre’s inner workings and Trespass‘ focus on ’80s metal. But some burlier effort beyond throwing in a solo or two to save otherwise listless songs would have worked wonders.
The above notwithstanding, Wolf at the Door contains a lot to love for fans of metal nostalgia. The band fashioned a record that gives you that eerie feeling of being back in the last millennium all over again. Times when rock and metal were fun and unencumbered by modern woes of bending-over-backward music management. A period in rock history when it was just that – straightforward rock and metal with bands having a ball doing it.
Ed’s note: Fancy something in the same vain? Try Receiver for a change.
Record Rating: 6/10 | Label: From The Vaults | Web: Facebook (band)
Release Date: 25 May 2023