Review 9

Ok, guys in PAGAN ALTAR, thanks a lot, you hear! Here I go, putting my Top 10 for 2004 up on the site and then I finally get this disc in the mail, listen to it, get blown away and….Well, no biggie really, it was my fault anyway, having taken so long to getting around to hearing this and also, who gives a damn anyway! If you read the review, you’ll end up knowing what I think. So should we make this simple? Yeah, why not. You like Legend (Channel Islands), Manilla Road, Omega etc. The kind of stuff that combines ‘70’s heavy rock, early metal, folk and some prog, stirs it into a Roger Bain pastoral production, then caps it off with lengthy guitar solos anywhere they can go. You know what I’m talking about….killer folk-like vocals of the Mike Lezala-style carry the dark, poetic lyrics and titles like “The Interlude,” “The Aftermath” & “The Masquerade” rear up in Olde English text on the back cover. This is special stuff, the kind of thing that will never come out on a major label and you’re just as happy it doesn’t, as probably not every Tom, Dick or Harry is really worthy of knowing about it anyway. Just listen to the 10+ minute “Armageddon” & dig Alan Jones wicked Shelton-like soloing throughout the record, not to mention his brother Terry’s killer vox. I’m still tripping over the fact that I got one of this band’s early demos back in like 1981 or something and they are still cranking out music that is 10x more vital than most of the heavy stuff done 20 years since then. Heavy, deep, warm, dynamic and full of feeling and guitar solos! How the hell can you beat this? Oh, and how many metal albums do you know that include a solo banjo piece (“The Devil Came Down To Brockley”). Essential, man!