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Whoa... Does it get more metal than this? Probably, but not much! It had been a while since I had last listened to this album, and I've been playing it quite regularly for the past couple of weeks - very addictive. King Fowley and Co. deliver a nice slab of very catchy US heavy metal, 80's style, split in the middle by an ass-kicking cover of Saxon's "Power and the Glory" (I even happen to like this version as much, if not more than the original.) The first four tracks are instant grabs, very catchy and they stick in your head for a long time. The guitar melodies and solos and the highlights here, coupled with King's vocals (and who was also still handling the drumming duties at the time.) Some may not like his rough, somewhat raucous voice, but I find it fits the band's material perfectly. Technically he's definitely not the best singer out there, but the emotion that emanates from just about every word more than makes up for it. Despite the catchy melodies, this is not wimpified metal, far from that - the guitar shredding remains aggressive and the lyrical content is pretty dark as well. As mentioned before, the band delivers a great cover of "Power and the Glory" which sounds as good on vinyl as it does in their live performance. The cover is quite faithful to the original, although October 31 cranked up the aggressivity a notch or two. The remaining songs are not as catchy, but just as good if not better from a strictly songwriting standpoint. Very emotional both musically and vocally, but then again the same can be said of the whole album. The highlight of the album for me is "For There Is War!", a good war-themed epic with provocating lyrical content and with some great, punchy vocal lines.

No matter what I write, I don't think I could do this album justice. To put it simply, there should be more metal albums like this one. Highly recommended, just like the rest of the band's catalogue.

Additional Information

There are at least three versions of this album, including a vinyl version and a 2CD re-issue with several bonus tracks. The vinyl version is reviewed here.