{"id":20481,"date":"2014-05-30T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T00:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=20481"},"modified":"2014-07-22T17:23:19","modified_gmt":"2014-07-22T17:23:19","slug":"album-review-dragons-kiss-barbarians-of-the-wasteland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-dragons-kiss-barbarians-of-the-wasteland\/","title":{"rendered":"DRAGON\u2019S KISS – Barbarians Of The Wasteland (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

DRAGON\u2019S KISS
Barbarians Of The Wasteland<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nKiller Metal (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 4\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

So it looks like \u201ccontemporary\u201d metal has hit a brick wall in its attempts to revive the past. Portuguese-based metal maniacs Dragon\u2019s Kiss is another run-of-the-mill band featuring ex-Nashville Pussy man Adam Neal, who \u2013 alongside Hugo Conim (Dawnrider, Leather Synn) \u2013 has constructed an eight-track slab of metal mediocrity which is archetypal metal-by-numbers. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that it\u2019s all bad, but those of you who have the attention span of a gnat may find that this album is beyond the realms of formulaic. There\u2019s nothing wrong of course in paying homage to the days of old, but sometimes it can be quite a dull exercise trawling through the countless clones who in leather-clad fury attempt to dredge up the likes of W.A.S.P. and a hint of New Wave Of British Heavy Metal flavour. <\/p>\n

The problem is of course is that as the duo churns out the likes of \u2018Ride For Revenge\u2019, \u2018Wild Pack Of Dogs\u2019 and \u2018Castle Of The Witch\u2019, I\u2019m not actually reminded of heavy metal\u2019s heyday but instead have echoes of metal parody, something which spoof acts such as England\u2019s Bad News were keen to exploit. This is so standard in its stance that it could only probably be appreciated if one had never heard of heavy metal before. <\/p>\n

The lyrics are the same clich\u00e9d stuff, the music is generic and the vocals a barking shout, and not once do the fires of mayhem rise above a barbecue. I still get the impression that those in attendance have been dressed by the record company in order to look \u201cmetal\u201d. <\/p>\n

Sorry to be so sceptical. In fact, these guys are probably decent fellas, but the only snippets of entertainment come in the shape of two cover versions \u2013 The New Order\u2019s \u2018Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll Soldiers\u2019 and Marquis De Sade\u2019s \u2018Somewhere Up In The Mountains\u2019, which is probably the best track on the album. Other than that it\u2019s copy and paste heavy metal which tries in vain to resurrect the vintage sounds that excited us so much as kids back in the 80s. <\/p>\n

Of all the original tracks thrown at us like custard pies, only the opener \u2018Barbarians Of The Wasteland\u2019 comes away with its head held high, and that\u2019s only because of its driving riff. Lyrically though, it\u2019s nigh on atrocious \u2013 \u201cRape, torture and kill… just for thrills\u201d<\/em>; really guys? Is that all you could come up with? <\/p>\n

Metal of this ilk and quality is two-a-penny today, but I guess it always has been. Whereas some of the cheesier bands of the 80s may nowadays be considered as cult, however, groups such as Dragon\u2019s Kiss won\u2019t fare as well.<\/p>\n

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

DRAGON\u2019S KISSBarbarians Of The Wasteland Killer Metal (2014)Rating: 4\/10 So it looks like \u201ccontemporary\u201d metal has hit a brick wall in its attempts to revive the past. Portuguese-based metal maniacs Dragon\u2019s Kiss is another run-of-the-mill band featuring ex-Nashville Pussy man Adam Neal, who \u2013 alongside Hugo Conim (Dawnrider, Leather Synn) \u2013 has constructed an eight-track […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1328],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-dragons-kiss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20481","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=20481"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20486,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20481\/revisions\/20486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}