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Godiva? Am I seeing that? If I hadn't got this for free, I never would have listened to it, as this has got to be the stupidest name for a metal band ever. Couldn't they just get a generic "Steel Something" name? Would it kill them? Even that would have been better. I at least hope they don't perform naked.

Anyway, what we have here is total Udo/Judas Priest worship, to the point where you will swear you have heard these songs before. Actually, the serious déjà vu brought on by this disc is due to the fact that most of these songs sound a lot alike. Godiva are pretty simplistic songwriters, and most of these tunes coast along on one riff per track. Now the guitar sound is excellent, with a tremendously visceral kick that imparts a lot of energy to the sound, unfortunately they almost always kill the momentum with repetitive songwriting and uninspired vocals. If you listen to the first half of any song here, you have heard the whole song, as they never do anything different. Verse/chorus/verse/chorus/solo/chorus/chorus. That's about it. They do get credit for having some dynamic here and there, and not every song blares away at hyperspeed. But I really wish they had put more work into the songs overall, as they have the right idea. They just don't know what to do with a song besides just repeat repeat repeat until it's been beaten into the ground.

The vocals here are adequate, as they alternate between a midranged Udo-esque monotone that sounds like a guy with a head cold, and a Halforian upper-range squall. Neither of these vocal approaches (I think it's two different guys) sounds even remotely excited about what they're doing. Overall the vocals don't really hurt the music much, but they don't do much to enhance it either. Lyrics range from stupid "Rock and Roll never dies" anthems to utterly generic "I love bullet razorblade rides through time" stuff highly typical of this kind of metal.

So of you are a big fan of Judas Priest clone bands then this has to be on your list. If Godiva could get the rest of their songwriting on a par with their riff-writing they'd be a first rate band. (If they could just get their vocals improved a little bit.) Until then they will remain a fun, but ultimately second-rate act, too derivative to join the ranks of the best.