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Review: Roxxcalibur - Lords of the NWOBHM
Roxxcalibur
www.roxxcalibur.com
Lords of the NWOBHM

Label: Limb Music Products
Year released: 2011
Duration: 60:00
Tracks: 15
Genre: Heavy Metal

Rating:
3.75/5


Review online: July 20, 2011
Reviewed by: MetalMike
Readers' Rating
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Rated 3.67/5 (73.33%) (3 Votes)
Review

I will say this for Roxxcalibur; they've got the classic sound of the NWOBHM nailed. Their second album, Lords of the NWOBHM, continues the trend of re-recording classic NWOBHM songs, mostly from lesser known bands of the era. The band uses modern recording studio but foregoes the usual studio aides like click tracks and ProTools. As a result, they capture not only the charm of the songs, staying true to the original arrangements, but the sound of the recordings themselves. Those recordings featured a loose, in-your-face sound that made it sound like the band probably recorded on their boombox in the garage down the street. That isn't to say the sound on Lords of the NWOBHM is bad, as it certainly isn't. The legendary Chris Tsangarides handled the production and did a fine job of balancing the old and the new. Lords of the NWOBHM is pure 80s Hard Rock/Heavy Metal.

For a NWOBHM fan like me, the first challenge is identifying the songs and artists by sound without the help of the CD booklet. I picked out Tokyo Blade's "If Heaven Is Hell," Tygers of Pan Tang's "Hellbound" and Venom's "At War With Satan (Preview)" with no problem (honestly, if you can't identify that last one, you've not done your homework). These are also the highlights of the album, as Roxxcalibur does a great job with each. Other notable bands are covered, including Satan, Saxon (an originally unfinished song Biff Byford gave to Roxxcalibur to finish), Quartz and Witchfynde, but I was unfamiliar with these songs as well as the other bands covered. Roxxcalibur purposely chose to stay away from more familiar bands and songs, and admirably so, but there is a reason some of this stuff never received much attention. The songs are just not as well written as others.

Roxxcalibur has hit on a cool idea here and, given the fact that the album has a few really good songs along with several OK ones, has pretty faithfully recreated the experience of listening to many of those classic NWOBHM albums. Fans of the NWOBHM and 80s Metal in general would do well to check out Lords of the NWOBHM.

More about Roxxcalibur...
Review: Gems of the NWOBHM (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: NWOBHM For Muthas (reviewed by Hermer Arroyo)
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