{"id":22979,"date":"2014-10-07T00:00:06","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T00:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=22979"},"modified":"2015-01-08T01:21:47","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T01:21:47","slug":"album-review-convent-guilt-guns-for-hire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-convent-guilt-guns-for-hire\/","title":{"rendered":"CONVENT GUILT – Guns For Hire (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

CONVENT GUILT
Guns For Hire<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nCruz Del Sur Music (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 6.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019m not sure the amateurish cover art does this Australian metal combo any good, but with a horde of bands eager to revisit traditional heavy metal I\u2019m sure many will see such artwork as typical of a time when all was acceptable.<\/p>\n

Convent Guilt are very much of that New Wave Of British Heavy Metal slant \u2013 evoking strains of Saxon, Iron Maiden, Witchfynde, Judas Priest et al \u2013 but as is the case with so much of this stuff, it sort of feels rather tepid as it rumbles by all too inoffensively. <\/p>\n

I get the impression with a lot of this stuff that the guys in the bands have only just discovered what early 80s metal is all about \u2013 I dunno, maybe the labels are eager to jump on the bandwagon and force this retro metal down the throats of upcoming bands \u2013 but it just feels so forced from the opening strains of the bland \u2018Angels In Black Leather\u2019 to the closing speed metal fury of \u2018Stockade\u2019. <\/p>\n

The problem is, it\u2019s okay revisiting your dad\u2019s record collection but you have to appreciate rather than merely replicate, and Convent Guilt \u2013 who try so hard to bring back the glories of the past \u2013 just do not have the ability or the bite to carry the banner. <\/p>\n

The music is rather flat, albeit catchy; the result being a sort of boozy, half-baked rock that attempts Mot\u00f6rhead but falls incredibly short, yet it\u2019s not for the want of trying. Like so many bands of this ilk today, Convent Guilt also falls short in the vocal department. We\u2019re treated to an almost watery warble which in a sense brings the music down too; if one lends an ear to the infectious snap of \u2018Don\u2019t Close Your Eyes\u2019 then we can certainly hear the potential of this band, but vocally it\u2019s a miserable wail that seems at unease with itself and secondly seems to be battling with the AC\/DC-styled riff rather than complementing it. <\/p>\n

I will admit to liking the raw, punky flair of the record which comes to the fore with tracks such as \u2018Perverse Altar\u2019, while the doomy, yet drunken rant of \u2018They Took Her Away\u2019 also makes for interesting listening. For every swerve into the realms of mediocrity there appears to be a band eager to experiment, but sadly all too bogged down by its fascination with the denim and rust of 80s Brit metal. The title track is another harmless trek into low-budget revival metal; it sort of plods without menace and rarely peeps out from its demo feel, but the bass-lead drive of \u2018Desert Brat\u2019 does up the ante as far as aggression and attitude goes. <\/p>\n

Guns For Hire<\/em> is an album that leaves me unfulfilled but somehow eager for more. With such an air of unprofessionalism and lo-fi tepidness though, I\u2019m left thinking that Convent Guilt probably needed another year or so in the studio to truly form their sound because this is one patchy affair that never really gets off the ground but at times offers glints of hope.<\/p>\n

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

CONVENT GUILTGuns For Hire Cruz Del Sur Music (2014)Rating: 6.5\/10 I\u2019m not sure the amateurish cover art does this Australian metal combo any good, but with a horde of bands eager to revisit traditional heavy metal I\u2019m sure many will see such artwork as typical of a time when all was acceptable. Convent Guilt are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1572],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-convent-guilt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22979","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=22979"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22983,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22979\/revisions\/22983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}