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SAVAGED
Rising

No Remorse (2025)
Rating: 6.5/10

Spain is burnin’ up again as 80s metal worshippers Savaged unleash their latest full-length album Rising, which comes hot on the heels of last year’s Night Stealer.

Featuring members of Raptore (who I like) and playing the likes of Enforcer at their own game, Barcelona’s Savaged is the sort of band who, if they were around 40 years ago, would probably feature on the soundtrack to a horror movie, especially the song ‘The Conqueror’. Even so, Rising is quite polished in sound which tends to dampen the fires a bit, resulting in an album that’s far more restrained than it should be. It still enchants and entertains, although Jamie Killhead has a strong but unremarkable voice that leads this invasion into the realms of second division heavy metal.

‘Fire It Up’ is a potent way to kick off the album as there’s solid melody and engaging guitar work. Hints of Dokken are sprinkled throughout; that sort of driving heavy rock which is easily accessible and nods towards power metal but without quite getting there. I also hear shades of Helloween, especially on the closing title track, and there are streaks of Riot, Scorpions and Judas Priest too.

So what you’re essentially getting here is a reliable outing entrenched in the glistening auras of the 80s, more so with standout song ‘Stars Are Falling’, a scintillating and uplifting sizzler that reminds me of Icon and could’ve easily been an accidental hit if released in the 80s. I guess at their most boisterous Savaged approaches a latter day Lizzy Borden-style of theatre but without the theatre.

Tracks such as ‘Texas (Bloody Texas)’ hit the more energetic end of the scale where the vocals are rich and the instruments drive hard. ‘The Long Walk’ opens with a chord not too far removed from W.A.S.P., before galloping nicely. That can also be said for ‘Queen Of My Salvation’, another exuberant and buoyant number with a brisk air, while ‘Across The Burning Fields’ is pacey and delivered with Teutonic passion.

This is all formulaic but there’s an obvious thirst for traditional metal and I do believe that Savaged will draw a decent amount of attention from metalheads across Europe at the very least.

Neil Arnold

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