Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Battleaxe
Label: SPV Records
Released: 2014
Runtime: 47:07
Rating: 4.5/5
Battleaxe are yet another comeback story on the scene of the endless horizons of the venerable metal universe. These guys of »biblical« standing formed in 1979 in Newcastle, England, on the River Tyne. With their look, their work and their presence on the scene, they belong to the movement called »New Wave of British Heavy Metal«, which raised hell across the planet at the turn of the seventies into the eighties. Thanks to the trend we’ve been witnessing the last few years, with new generations enthusiastically digging through the roots of metal pioneering and spawning a heap of excellent revival bands and studio records, the dinosaurs who committed original sin back in the eighties are waking from their long sleep too. Plenty of bands went quiet during the eighties and called it a career. It looked like the silence would last forever. But in the new millennium they got back together and fired up again. Simple as that. Interest in them had grown again.
The short Battleaxe story goes something like this. In 1983 and 1984 the band put out two studio albums: the breakthrough debut »Burn This Town«, which some of you may remember for one of the most grotesque covers the metal era ever produced, followed a year later by »Power from the Universe«. At their peak, Battleaxe opened shows for Saxon in the mid-eighties, then quietly called it quits in 1988. In 1987 the band had recorded a new album that never saw the light of day, because Battleaxe found themselves without a label deal to release it. They gave this aborted album the title »Mean Machine«.
In 2005, while the band was still dormant, an EP came out with 4 tracks that were supposed to appear on the 1987 album. They confirmed once more that the band’s debut was a good deal more potent than anything Battleaxe managed to create later in the eighties.
The band reactivated in 2010, and of the original members only singer Dave King and bassist Brian Smith remain in the lineup today. Since in rock and metal it’s usually the guitarists who »make or break it«, the key figure on »Heavy Metal Sanctuary« and in the revamped Battleaxe is new guitarist Mick Percy. He did a great job, and with him Battleaxe have saved their skin! That means they’ve kept all their credibility with the new album, since they’ve sensibly built a bridge leading the reborn band straight into the bosom of its eighties discography. Dave King has held on to his great vocal character into his later years. With his raspy, throaty and piercingly sharp voice he sounds now a bit like Nicky Moore (Samson), now like all three singers of Accept’s career, and of course, with those hints, also something for those of you who put your money on AC/DC. When King drops the throatiness, he can pull off a Biff Byford (Saxon). That’s what you get in a track like Hail to the King, or in Kingdom Come, seasoned with a pompous big-drama moment and counted among the best songs on the new album, and also in the verse of the »Accept-y« The Legions Unite. Speaking of pomp, it has to be said that Battleaxe don’t necessarily push for it. At the points on the album where they want to build a certain mood, they reach for a theatrical intro, like the villainous prelude in Give it Mine, which then goes back to trading in old-school Accept riffing. The band builds such a moment of pomp right at the start of the album (the title track) and in the middle with Prelude to Battle, which flows into the aforementioned The Legions Unite
The production is, logically, updated. »Heavy Metal Sanctuary« is a stacked record, made by a legendary lineup with great distinction! It’s »kicked into gear« on the rustic levers of loads of experience and compositional mastery. The guitar phrases are simple, yet they effectively capture a concise, expressive charisma. The »middle-eight« passages have the typical run through ornaments of guitar harmonies in thirds up to a solo escapade (crescendo) and a quick return to the verse. Classic arrangement, in other words. But with great definition that effectively ramps up the dramatic atmosphere of the songs! »Heavy Metal Sanctuary« steers successfully through the creation of evil spells, gloomy occultism, and charts a well-proven course through the typical phrases of metal poetry (about the heroism of the metal heart), and the band doesn’t skimp on social criticism either. Rebellious attitude in abundance.
In forging the riffs for the new album, Battleaxe have built an effective bridge between the legacy of the eighties and the present day. They’ve kept the elemental character of their classic musical vision from the past and effectively updated it. Alongside a predictable compositional form, the album has a varied pool of motifs and therefore an effective dynamic flow! It doesn’t lack atmospheric gloom and apocalyptic vistas straight out of the last march of death! The track Romeo, with its added rock ‘n’ roll element, is the only stylistic deviation on the album. That’s why it’s tacked on at the very end. It has a lucid lyric that fits together with the rock-minded arrangement! The song is dispensable, but the band felt it had to be part of this album, so they put it on. Otherwise, »Heavy Metal Sanctuary« would have closed with Kingdom Come, a proper mini epic suite and definitely one of the artistic peaks of this very high-quality comeback album! This is an album tailor-made for all sworn devotees of the classic school of rustic, defiant heavy metal that is typical of the NWOBHM era! The riff configuration of the new album also draws sensible stylistic parallels with bands of the old German metal school, like Accept, Victory or even the earliest Grave Digger (the main guitar phrase of Hail to the King pulls incredibly close to the Grave Digger track Heavy Metal Breakdown). There are of course kinships with Britain’s Saxon, as well as with Samson from the band’s final period, when Nicky Moore was singing for them. Enough already. I’m off to give "Heavy Metal Sanctuary" another "spin".
Lineup
Dave King – vocals
Mick Percy – guitar
Brian Smith – bass
Paul Atkinson – drums
Production
Fred Purser & Brian Smith
Tracklist
01. Heavy Metal Sanctuary
02. Shock and Awe
03. Hail to the King
04. Rebel With a Cause
05. Give it More
06. Too Hot For Hell
07. Revolution
08. A Prelude to Battle
09. The Legions Unite
10. Spirits of the Fallen
11. Devil Calls
12. Kingdom Come
13. Romeo
