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FRENZY
Of Hoods And Masks

Fighter (2023)
Rating: 7/10

With its eye-catching cover artwork, Of Hoods And Masks emerges strong out of the traps and signals the return of Spanish heavy metal act Frenzy, who released their debut full-length opus, Blind Justice, in 2019. This latest effort contains nine tracks, including a conceptual story spread across the first seven songs inspired by the Watchmen graphic novel.

Very much pure heavy metal rich with excellent axe work, Of Hoods And Masks is soulful in the vocal department thanks to Anthony Stephen, but musically is does feel a touch tinny due to its production which means that the sound in general feels a touch restrained.

Thankfully, the record is rather short at 35 minutes and so it remains rather entertaining even with the cover of Rick Springfield’s ‘Living In Oz’. Even so, if you like straight up metal that has a contemporary feel then it’s certainly worth giving this one a go, more so for the crafty axe work from Luis Pinedo and Alex Gabasa. There are a lot of catchy choruses on offer too. ‘Where Is The Joke?’ strikes immediately, but the band seems to come into its own on the far heavier and slower tracks such as ‘Fear The Hood’ which really does boast a menace in its riffs and extra meat in the vocal delivery.

Elsewhere, the clean, crisp and subtle ‘Spectre Of Love’ boasts power and fragility in equal measure and ‘Uncompromised’ sizzles on the edge of power metal with its hefty gallop. This is solid metal bolstered by that axe wizardry and that’s as much as I can say.

Neil Arnold

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