Review: Death Dealer - Conquered Lands | |||||||
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Conquered Lands | |||||||
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Label: Steel Cartel Records Year released: 2020 Duration: 45:24 Tracks: 11 Genre: Heavy/Power Metal Rating: Review online: November 10, 2020 Reviewed by: Luxi Lahtinen |
Readers' Rating How do you rate this release? Rated 4.4/5 (88%) (5 Votes)
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Review | |||||||
Death Dealer hardly needs any introduction from me. They're essentially a project band from guitar legend Ross the Boss that exists solely to create classic, masculine Heavy/Power Metal that's as much about chest-pounding epics as it is Dragonforce-esque hyperspeed onslaughts, and their previous two albums are first-class examples of the style. Their third full-length, Conquered Lands, is unsurprisingly just more of that, which, on the one hand, means it isn't all that different from the rest of their output, but, on the other hand, means we get more of all the things this band does best: aggressive, hooky compositions, intense riffs, tasty solos, and powerful wailing vocals, all in service to songs about celebrating the glory days of the '80s when all a band needed to do was write about fantasy topics and kick ass while doing it. This album differs a bit by having the bass more up front in the mix, mostly because when you have someone like Mike LePont as a replacement for your last bassist, you fucking use him to his fullest, and his first-rate performance really adds an extra punch to the proceedings. That's not to say the other members are slouching, of course, as the twin-ax prowess of Marshall and Ross and the strong, versatile voice of Sean Peck give incredible life to songs like the title track, "Hail to the Kings", and the surprisingly poignant ballad "22 Gone", which shows Peck stretching his abilities and going from melodic singing to piercing screams on a dime. Even weaker tunes like the Accept-esque "Running with the Wolves" have killer riffs and adrenaline-fueled ownage to spare, making for an album that's 45 minutes of pure testosterone and energy from start to finish. They may not be changing the Metal world as we know it, but if they keep releasing albums this good, Death Dealer will be conquering it in no time. |
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More about Death Dealer... | |||||||
Review: War Master (reviewed by MetalMike) Interview with vocalist Sean Peck on May 29, 2020 (Interviewed by Luxi Lahtinen) | |||||||
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