Hands up (or should that be devil horns?) who remembers that glorious sound of 80’s heavy metal. A sound popularised by bands such as Saxon, Priest (yes I know, they started in the 70’s), Holy Diver era Dio. Music which laid the foundations of the genre as we know it these days. Then one day it was gone, splintered into a hundred different sub-genres, some more extreme than others.
Fear not, as Venger have all your classic metal needs fulfilled on this quite splendid album Times Of Legend. Even right down to the dodgy album cover, through nine glorious tales of myths and legends, it’s as if heavy metal music stopped in 1984. It would all be a little over nostalgic if it wasn’t for the fact that these musicians actually know what they are doing through the sheer fact that they lived it first time round. Seasoned heavy metal pro’s doing what they do best.
It’s all here. Tales of ancient Egypt in ‘Pharaoh’s Curse’, exploration of the occult in ‘Seance’, and good old demonic slaughter in ‘Impaler Of Souls’. Taking the classic storytelling approach that bands like Maiden and Dio did so well, and marrying it to such invigorating music which has you reaching for the air guitar, it really is a faultless album.
With interest high in classic heavy metal once again, Venger may just hit a zeitgeist. Failing that, they are sure to be blasting out on metal festival stages in the near future, and we will be right there, at the front, worshipping to the sound of real metal. A truly great album.
