Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Striker
Label: Napalm Records
Release: 2014
Length: 63:05
Rating: 4.5/5
This time the bomb went off in Canada. Striker, from Edmonton in the Canadian province of Alberta, are back with their third album »City of Gold«. Active since 2007, the band is considered one of the boldest old-school »copycats«, drawing inspiration from the wide metal pool but with hefty detours back to the pioneering days of (especially American) thrash and speed metal. Striker are definitely not planting flowers. This is an unstoppable, demolishing march that aggressively smashes and tramples everything in its path. With blazing fury. No keyboards, no sampling and none of the other »kitsch« that would sneak in any hint of symphonic flavor or anything you could slap the adjective “power” on.
When you hear an album like »City of Gold«, it instantly becomes clear that the fear was totally unnecessary. The fear that the new generation wouldn’t be able to properly pick up the legacy of the old school and effectively “stamp” it into new times through its own musical perception. Obviously the wave of “revival” bands leaning hard on elements of the NWOBHM, or on the retro vibe of the old-school American speed/thrash metal, has set off a proper wildfire that keeps spawning plenty of excellent »copycats«. Striker are among them, just like their countrymen 3 Inches of Blood or Priestess, who foretold this trend years ago. So Striker are legit heirs to the old school of Canadian metal, which rode on the coattails of the eighties pioneers, like the short-lived but unforgettable Sword, or the unexpectedly viciously jagged Razor! With a brilliance of masterfully crafted embellishments (watching over the riffs), especially polished middle-eight passages, which keeps a sensible link to these virtues in yet another of their countrymen of an older vintage, the unforgettable Annihilator. The urge of the unbridled speed rush that Striker tempt out through inventive, instantly igniting guitar phrases, resting safely on the scorching suspension of a venomously rolling rhythm armor, is comparable to the mocking audacity of the old-school character-driven metal culture of American thrash/speed metal acts like Toxik, Realm, Hexx and Holy Terror. The occasional melodic “fix”, with its definition, even lets them flirt with Grim Reaper and Leatherwolf.
Speaking of Grim Reaper, the vocals deserve a spotlight. The vocal performance is beyond superb! It works as an independent entity, commanding the songs with exceptional confidence. The polished vocal form carries its well-developed mid-range power into the highest registers and back with feather-light ease! With a mix of screaming aggression and a clean, melodically bombastic stance, a polished transfer of power from the mids up to the highest registers and a lived-in way of taking the verses, it recalls Steve Grimmett, and also Ronnie James Dio. Check out his phenomenal in-the-studio form in Bad Decision, where the band squeezes out the album’s biggest touch of melody and pomp, which could stir even fans of hard-rock-leaning Canadian bands like Von Groove or Helix. In the highest ranges, where he gets sharply jagged, he comes close to the late David Wayne (Metal Church).
Already with the album »Armed to the Teeth« (2012), Striker secured a spot in the metal universe as one of the most promising newly arrived metal revival acts on the planet right now! With that album they joined the category of bands you’ll have to seriously reckon with going forward. And the new album »City of Gold« only cements that position. The excitement about the new release isn’t quite as sky-high as it was two years ago when »Armed to the Teeth« came out, but the new album is in no way worse. It keeps up the band’s huge creative inspiration, forging exceptional guitar phrases with loads of heart and dedication, seasoning the arrangements with hair-splittingly crafted embellishments and an exceptional middle-eight wrapper. The songs sustain extraordinary drama, jerking around a few times in the dynamics of their motif reversals. With the new album too, Striker pull out the best of the old school and effectively translate the old-school heritage into their own language of metal philosophy, while delivering a top-notch production that embodies all the current trends in studio sound treatment. Of course, the basic starting point in this department remains the contrast with the liveliness of the record!
»City of Gold« won’t let you breathe. This is exactly how a heavy metal album should sound: it effectively draws inspiration from the old-school textbooks of metal pioneering and ravenously translates it into a statement for a new era. The Swedes of Bullet, as the main attraction, will have no small trouble on their upcoming European tour keeping Striker, in the support slot, from »stealing« the concert nights.
Those of you curious about the album can also check out four extra tracks, including a newly re-recorded Fuck Volcanoes, in which the band recalls its odyssey in April 2010, when Striker were flying to the Keep It True festival in Germany and got thoroughly enraged by volcanic ash in Spain, which of course stalled their trip toward Germany..
Lineup
Dan Cleary – vocals
Chris Segger – guitar
Timothy Brown – guitar
Wild Bill – bass
Adam Brown – drums
Production
Fredrik Nordström
Tracklist
1. Underground (03:01)
2. City of Gold (04:51)
3. Start Again (04:26)
4. Bad Decisions (03:58)
5. Crossroads (04:23)
6. All for One (03:25)
7. Mind Control (03:21)
8. Second Attack (03:40)
9. All I Want (04:18)
10. Rise Up (03:28)
11. Taken by Time (05:00)
12. Two Minutes to Midnight* (06:02)
13. Watching You* (03:56)
14. Roll with the Punches* (03:58)
15. Fuck Volcanoes* (05:18)
