voila_la_scorie Last year I picked up my first Striker album, their sophomore album "Armed to the Teeth". Thinking it was a great album, I went ahead and bought "City of Gold". That was a great album as well, so next I got "Stand in the Fire". This pattern continued until I had all six albums.

Striker began as a speed metal band with vocalist Daniel Cleary sounding a bit like Bruce Dickenson back on their "Road Warrior" EP of 2009. It's my opinion that from "Armed to the Teeth" onwards, Striker has reached a consistency of producing excellent album one after the other while showing interest in expanding their style. Previous albums included speed metal, thrashy-sounding, intense tracks, trad-metal, and more recently songs with strong, catchy melodies such as "Heart of a Lion" from their self-titled album of 2017.

Their latest release of original songs (there was a live in studio album released in 2020) is 2018's "Play to Win" and this album shows the band embracing much more strongly the melody-driven approach. Though the opening track "Heart of Lies" sounds like the Striker we've come to know and love, it soon becomes apparent that there will be no intense, speedy songs of angst or fighting to stay ahead. This album gives us more slower songs (but no true ballads), more clean guitar, some synthesizer even (!), and loads of ear-worm melodies. Think back to the latter half of the eighties with bands like Warrant, TNT, Waysted ("Save Your Prayers"), Lee Aaron ("Bodyrock"), and other bands that came out of the glam metal era but without the cock rock approach to song-writing.

Songs like "Head First", "On the Run", "The Front", the title track, "Standing Alone", "Heavy Is the Heart", and "Hands of Time" - heck, nearly the whole album - have these great melodic choruses that just stick into your head and you wake up in the morning with them playing. In fact, the only track to really deviate form this is the heavy and ominous-sounding "Summoner".

If you're a fan of the more intense, speedy and aggressive Striker of past albums, this one will be a shock. I read that the band made a conscious decision to branch out with their repertoire and record an album of more melodic songs. For someone who went through high school with albums like "Whitesnake", "Dirty Rotten Filthy Sticking Rich", "The Great Radio Controversy" by Tesla, "Perfect Timing" by McAuley Schenker Group, and other bands that probably fit more into the melodic hard rock or melodic glam metal scene than the trad-metal scene, this album delivers a whole new selection of great songs to rock out with and sing along to.

When recently making a playlist of my favourite Striker songs, this album along with "Armed to the Teeth" had the most tracks selected. However, in the last couple of days I'm finding I like practically every track on here. In fact, I'm thinking to order this CD for my best friend who always loved this kind of metal more than the extreme stuff.

voila_la_scorie This album should be in the top 25 of any list of eighties heavy metal. No, you can leave out any of the more extreme kids like thrash, black, and death metal. But just straight forward heavy metal crossing early Great White, Dokken, and the most kick ass songs off Warrant's "Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinkin' Rich" at their most melodic moments, and going seriously into speed metal at moments of unbridled energy. This album has all the awesome riffing, the blazing lead guitar work, and the soaring vocals of the best heavy metal albums of the eighties. There's even a bit of early American power metal and a few almost Iron Maiden moments here and there.

And the band can throw down some really awesome riffs that catch you completely off guard! A song can seem like your standard heavy charger when suddenly they whack you with a sledgehammer riff. Catch one of the best examples in the final track, "Can't Stop the Rush" but watch for them because they crop up everywhere. "Land of the Lost" and "All the Way" also deliver some great ones.

On this album, Striker prove that they have some of the best heavy metal tricks in the book (to borrow a phrase). But there's one perfectly good reason why this album doesn't appear on any lists of eighties metal and that is because this album was recorded and released in 2012. Yes, Striker are one of those classic metal bands that are around these days, and this album here, "Armed to the Teeth" (sounds like an album by Savage or Omen) proves that a band in the 2010's can create an album that sounds like all the best things about eighties heavy metal. Vocalist Dan Cleary has got the soaring eighties metal vocal down perfectly. For someone like me who's musical tastes were largely founded upon the heavy metal and hard rock music released between 1983 and 1989, this album revitalizes my youthful love for metal and furthermore, it makes me want to smash beer bottles on hardwood tables all the while grinning widely!

Will I be checking out more from this band? Oh, yeah! Come the New Year when the holiday bills have been paid off, I'm aiming to bring home another Striker album. I sure hope it's as killer as this one!

Time Signature Out for blood...

Genre: heavy metal

Striker are mostly considered a speed metal band, but on this album, they seem to deviate somewhat from the speed metal course.

Rather than emphasizing speed, Striker take their music in a more melodic direction, exploring traditional metal to a large extent on this album. Most of the tracks evolve around classic metal styled riffage and guitar melodies, and 'Too Late' even features elements of melodic hard rock. Some tracks are fast, such as 'Stand in the Fire' and 'The Iron Never Lies', but, overall, these tracks still mostly emphasize melody. The latter features a nice melodic guitar solo.

Although musical scope has been focused on melody and traditional metal this time around, this is still a very strong album, and I, for one, actually like this musical direction very much. The musicianship is top notch as is the songwriting. There are some very good guitar solos on the album, and 'Out For Blood' even contains a brilliant saxophone solo.

Fans of traditional metal should definitely check this one out.

Time Signature Underground...

Genre: power-thrash

The third full-length effort by Canadian metal act Striker, City of Gold was released in August on Napalm Records.

On this album the Canadians strike a perfect balance between traditional metal and thrash metal, resulting in a solid power-thrash attack. The opening track 'Underground' is an uptempo thrasher, while the title track combines thrashy aggression with a catchy chorus that, for some reason, makes me think of Stormwitch. The listener is treated to both uptempo thrash metal aggression and old school Judas Priest-like riffage combined with Maidenesque guitar melodies. 'Bad Desicions' even takes the music in 80s hard rock territory akin to Whitesnake at their best, standing in a nice contrast to the following thrasher 'Crossroads'. So yes, this is a perfectly balanced power-thrash release. The guitar solos are absolute facemelters, and the soaring vocals are all out old school metal, and the musicianship is overall impeccable. What really appeals to me about this album is its eclectism which simply captures most of the elements that made the 80s metal and hard rock landscape so attractive and brings it up to date in terms of performance and production.

Being a fan of thrash metal and traditional heavy metal, I have a weak spot for both US power metal and power-thrash in general (while European power metal cheese generally does not sit well with me), I may be a bit biased here, but I think that City of Gold is a very well put together album which captures all that's great about power thrash. This album should appeal to fans of both traditional metal and thrash metal, and City of Gold is thus recommended to fans of Charred Walls of the Damned, Dark Empire, Paradox, Iced Earth, and Artillery as well as early Running Wild and early Anthrax.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)