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Weapon (now Weapon UK) was one of the early NWOBHM bands and like so many of their peers, had a brief but very bright run before splitting up. The B-side of their "Mad, Mad World" single, the song "Set the Stage Alight" is a seminal NWOBHM anthem and after Lars Ulrich's New Wave of British Heavy Metal '79 Revisited compilation exposed a wider audience to Weapon's music, the band released their early works as well as a new album, Rising from the Ashes in 2014. Pure Steel Records is now re-releasing Rising (as well as the band's early material) on vinyl.

Like most of their contemporaries, Weapon were at heart, a rock and roll band, just one that played heavy, guitar-driven music that also featured a lot of melody in the mold of '70s hard rock legends like Uriah Heep, Deep Purple, Hawkwind, etc. Rising from the Ashes is more polished than Weapon's early material, though the NWOBHM spirit is obvious in the more metallic cuts like "Ride the Mariah!" and "Burning Skies." Original vocalist Danny Hynes still has a fine voice and guitarist Jeff Summers can still write a catchy riff that will put your fist in the air. Weapon also scratch their melodic, commercial itch with some songs that would certainly have made terrestrial radio playlists had they been released in the '80s. "Fountain of Paradise" has the up-tempo, bluesy feel of a Great White track, "Alamein" is a poignant ballad and "Wonderland" has vocal melodies and harmonies lifted from Boston with a main riff that would fit in just fine on Motley Crue's Theater of Pain.

Rising from the Ashes is a fitting continuation of Weapon's sound, especially if you have heard the Anthology album, where the distribution between heavy metal and hard rock is similar. If you love the NWOBHM like I do, this is a nice additional to the collection, especially for the vinyl aficionados out there, and a fine, if not quite as exciting companion to the band's 80s material.