adg211288 For the Love of Thugs & Fools is the sixth full-length studio album to be released by US heavy metal/hard rock group Bible of the Devil. Although since their 1999 formation they’ve built up quite a sizeable discography and have remained fairly active, For the Love of Thugs & Fools, released in 2012, in their first actual full-length album since 2008’s Freedom Metal.

For the Love of Thugs & Fools is a rocking heavy metal album featuring easy to get into compositions that make me think of how proper rock music is really supposed to sound rather compared to the majority of so called rock acts that have had some chart success in my country (the UK). It treads the fine line between hard rock and traditional metal, and as such should easily appeal to fans of both sounds in equal measure. It has the metal instrumentation but with a hard rock kind of attitude and delivery, especially vocally. I don’t think it will be a difficult album to enjoy for any fan of rock or metal music. Bible of the Devil has that ‘classic’ sort of sound going for them and the albums shows that they clearly know that they’re good at what they do and that make a solid release because of it.

At the same time though it’s not an album that is going to throw any surprises even in a small way. But that’s okay, I’ve said in my reviews before that it’s not an issue for an album to set out to do and job and get it done. The job here, to my ears at least, is to rock, and rock it does, pretty damn well and hard. I can’t honestly consider it a masterpiece, or even have it sitting on my higher two tiers of ratings, but as far as I’m concerned if you want an honest sounding heavy metal/hard rock album, where the passion and energy of the musicians is evident in the way they deliver their music track upon track, then you can’t go far wrong with For the Love of Thugs & Fools. A ‘great album’ rating is fully deserved.

7.7/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))