666sharon666 Austin, Texas based US heavy metal band Eternal Champion sound like a band out of time, bringing old school metal sounds into the present day. They've been around for a few years now and released a demo called The Last King of Pictdom in 2013, but now they're ready to really make their mark with The Armor of Ire, their debut full-length album released in 2016. It's not a long album, being a little short of thirty-five minutes, much like many albums from the time this sounds like in ought to be from.

Touches of traditional doom metal flavour the album opener I Am the Hammer, which introduces us to Eternal Champion's epic heavy metal sound. Things quickly change with the following title track though which is a much faster song more akin to speed metal/early power metal. The songs are generally more the pace of the former though. Everything about the band says old school metal and comparisons to big name US heavy metal bands like Manilla Road and Cirith Ungol aren't out of line. For a more recent comparison if you enjoyed last year's Visigoth debut The Revenant King you'll probably want to give these guys a listen too. For my part I think I actually prefer The Armor of Ire though. Eternal Champion know how to deliver great track after great track. I could do without over five minutes of the already short running time given over to instrumentals (Blood Ice and Shade Gate) that don't really add much to the experience though.

The Armor of Ire comfortably stands as one of my best traditional metal finds for 2016, alongside the newest one from the UK's Dark Forest of course. This is classic sounding metal as it was supposed to sound. No modernisms like unnecessary harsh vocals in ear shot and not too over-polished either. I think that's what makes this one sound that much more genuine and passionate. I'm eager to here what they'll come up with to follow it up.