{"id":17511,"date":"2013-11-29T00:00:17","date_gmt":"2013-11-29T00:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=17511"},"modified":"2014-02-04T22:21:14","modified_gmt":"2014-02-04T22:21:14","slug":"album-review-switchblade-heavy-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-switchblade-heavy-weapons\/","title":{"rendered":"SWITCHBLADE – Heavy Weapons (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SWITCHBLADE
Heavy Weapons<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nKiller Metal (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Israeli heavy metal doesn\u2019t come any more Iron Maiden-influenced than Switchblade. This four-piece began life back in Haifa in 2005 and despite a batch of demos and singles it\u2019s taken them eight years to put out their debut full-length album, Heavy Weapons<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Switchblade consist of vocalist Lior \u201cSteinmetal\u201d Stein, guitarist Federico Taich, bassist Sascha Latman and drummer Moshe Sabah, and the album boasts nine tracks which run for a total almost 40 minutes. <\/p>\n

I recall a time back in the 80s when so many bands were trying to sound either like Metallica or Iron Maiden. Over the years this has altered slightly with countless bands aping Slayer<\/a> and Black Sabbath<\/a>, but it seems we\u2019ve come full circle because however much I try to get it out of my head, there\u2019s no denying that Switchblade have a rather unhealthy fascination with Iron Maiden. This is made nowhere more evident than with Stein\u2019s vocals which are Bruce Dickinson almost to a tee, and for me this guy has clearly spent too much time in front of the mirror mimicking the great Maiden man.<\/p>\n

The press release for this album states that: \u201cSwitchblade\u2019s aim was not to reinvent the vintage steel, but they made it come alive while keeping the old fires burning for all the metal maniacs all over the world\u201d<\/em>. Personally, there\u2019s only so much I can put up with when it comes to bands aping that traditional metal sound; the galloping rhythms are one thing, the lyrics another, but for Stein to so clearly imitate Dickinson and be proud of it seems a tad irritating.<\/p>\n

One listen to \u2018Infernal Paradise\u2019 and we\u2019re transported back to Iron Maiden\u2019s heyday, the only difference being that Switchblade are nowhere in that sort of class. Yes, the riffs are driving and the immediate snarls of Stein are intriguing, but the higher notes are pure Bruce Dickinson mimicry, and for me it makes this type of metal almost unlistenable. Again I\u2019m reminded of the countless number of current bands that are attempting to bring back the glory days of heavy metal, but time after time such acts of nostalgia have me reaching for the originals.<\/p>\n

Maybe if Switchblade and the likes concentrated on their own style it wouldn\u2019t be such a bad thing because there are modern bands that have an eye for the nostalgia as well as fusing it with their own energy, but on Heavy Weapons<\/em> Switchblade spend too much time paying homage not just to Iron Maiden, but also the likes of Accept. Although throughout the guitars have an almost slick feel to them, and the drums are as solid as a rock, there is also the strong feeling of the recycled, although the cover of UFO\u2019s \u2018Lights Out\u2019 is half-decent even if for the fact that Stein doesn\u2019t revert to his Bruce-isms.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, there\u2019s the pounding energy of \u2018The Lost Kingdom\u2019, a pounding instrumental if ever there was one, while the steady \u2018Lost Lovers Unite\u2019 almost evokes a sense of the anthemic. However, the traditional ramblings of, say, the title track or \u2018Metalista\u2019 are extremely generic.<\/p>\n

Those who disagree with me will no doubt argue that this is a fist-pumping slab of revival metal that ticks all the boxes when it comes to resurrecting some of the 80s best metal bands, but for me those great bands have never died, and so to hear something so clearly inferior and dull just turns my stomach, such is its average nature.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SWITCHBLADEHeavy Weapons Killer Metal (2013)Rating: 5\/10 Israeli heavy metal doesn\u2019t come any more Iron Maiden-influenced than Switchblade. This four-piece began life back in Haifa in 2005 and despite a batch of demos and singles it\u2019s taken them eight years to put out their debut full-length album, Heavy Weapons. Switchblade consist of vocalist Lior \u201cSteinmetal\u201d Stein, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1079],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-switchblade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17511"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17520,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17511\/revisions\/17520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}