Was super excited to find this, as NWOTHM tends to be scarce in the bargain bin, and it looked quite promising. I had never heard of the band before, and unfortunately it's kind of obvious why they didn't generate the amount of buzz that other bands from around the same general time like Ambush, Witch Blade, etc. did. It often feels unfocused and sometimes reaches WAY too far into the overground. Just to be clear, I don't need every band to just emulate obscure NWOBHM and USPM, and I actually find well done Priest/Maiden/etc. worship to be extremely enjoyable. But I'm not talking about a case of just having some more "rockin'" tracks--a lot of the overly poppy and saccharine choruses here whip this right into hair band-sounding territory. It just feels weird in tracks like "Satisfaction Heaven," where proper heavy metal just segues into a chorus that sounds like Steel Panther sans humor. "One Man Army" also feels out of place--I think they were going for a slower, grittier Accept/Priest type anthem, but the riff ends up sounding more like '90s groove.
On the plus side, the cover of Ozzy's "I Don't Know" is very solid. The band are at their best doing the speedy or mid-paced late '70s/early '80s Priest-influenced stuff, like in "Fatal Race," but the overly sappy stuff just feels weird. Not awful, but just kind of disappointing given my high expectations. Still worth the 2 bucks for the Ozzy cover and the good parts, though.
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