Band: STALLION
Title: Slaves Of Time
Label: High Roller Records
Country: Germany
Release date: February 28, 2020
Format reviewed: (high-rate) mp3 promo
STALLION keeps the mighty flame of traditional heavy metal burning high and bright with the release of their third full-length effort, on February 28, 2020. This album is a clear statement of to what placed the band into the higher tiers in a relatively short period of time. With new blood from the band's two new members, bassist Christian Stämpfe (since 2017) and guitarist Clode Savage (Claudio Hürlimann), joining in 2019 (prior to the band recording “Slaves Of Time”), STALLION built and improved upon their previous work, delivering a body of music that is guaranteed to satisfy their fanbase and to also welcome additional troopers into the fold.
“Slaves Of Time” is uncompromisingly old school in every aspect, but at no time the album can be deemed outdated or stale … Far from it! On all ten tracks on the album we witness a band willing to take the listener on a journey through all traditional varieties of Heavy Metal. STALLION is not afraid to fully explore the realm of heavy metal (in its’ purest sense) and its’ relative proximities - freely moving from classic speed metal to groovy hard rock riffing and merciless thrash attacks! Influences are worn on the sleeves: from the high octane guitar riffs and solo exchanges of the opening track, “Waking The Demons”, leading to the strong Whiplash like speed demon of “No Mercy”, to the main hook on “Time To Reload” lifted from AC/DC’s playbook, continuing as a harder edge Cinderella on “All In”, and arriving to the thrash raving mad (in the vein of Judas Priest “Painkiller” era) of “Brain Dead”! For good measures, a new fixture makes debut on this album, the classic German leaning power ballad: “Die With Me” - sang in English. The speed/thrash attributes immediately resurfacing on the remaining four tracks on the record: “Merchants of Fear”, “Dynamiter”, “Kill the Beast”, and the closer “Meltdown”. Although the record was once again produced and engineered by STALLION themselves, they hired Marco Brinkmann (Hellforge Studio) for the mix, who provided an additional old school vibe and a lush and warm sound.
On “Slaves Of Time”, STALLION fucking plows thru the heavy metal dominion with poise and aplomb, delivering a first class studio effort deserving high mark acclaims! Here’s mine - 10/10.
Connect with STALLION:
High Roller Records links:
© 2020 by Emil Chiru