{"id":67072,"date":"2018-02-23T00:00:37","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T00:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=67072"},"modified":"2018-03-07T17:12:26","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T17:12:26","slug":"album-review-spartan-warrior-hell-to-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-spartan-warrior-hell-to-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"SPARTAN WARRIOR – Hell To Pay (2018) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPARTAN WARRIOR
Hell To Pay<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nPure Steel (2018)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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I guess the record label name and album cover art kinda give this one away, Spartan Warrior being a traditional \/ power metal act from Sunderland in England. But this is no generic new band trying to sound old \u2013 Spartan Warrior have been around since the early 80s, and after splitting in 1985 they reformed in 2006.<\/p>\n

Hell To Pay<\/em> is the fourth record from this New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bunch of stalwarts, and emerges eight years after 2010\u2019s Behind Closed Doors<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Original vocalist Dave Wilkinson and his axe-playing brother Neil remain in the fold, and since 2011 have been joined by guitarist Daniel Rochester, bassist Tim Morton and drummer James Charlton. The result is wonderful heavy metal album which so many young upstarts could learn a lesson from, mostly due to those almost smooth yet convincing vocal snaps and those well-oiled riffs and silky song structures which bring songs such as \u2018Bad Attitude\u2019 and chugger \u2018Letting Go\u2019 alive.<\/p>\n

Throughout this ten-song affair there\u2019s such a nice, almost effortless feel; the band not marred by contemporary production values. Spartan Warrior\u2019s earthy 80s vibe still dominant as the title track opens proceedings as a racy rocker of rumbling bass, feisty drums and fizzing leads.<\/p>\n

\u2018Court Of Clowns\u2019 begins with a thrashy rumble. Hell, this one has a feel of a steelier, niftier Candlemass mixed with Iron Maiden, a charging NWOBHM composition that is contradicted by the subtle ballad \u2018Something To Believe\u2019, which is a stirring mix of acoustic and electric soulfulness and Dave Wilkinson\u2019s authentic, soulful crooning as the drum plods with gorgeous yet understated steadiness. And like all classy metal ballads it builds to an earth-shattering crescendo of swirling soloing and weightier, metallic intentions before \u2018Walls Full Down\u2019 gets the blood flowing again as a galloping thrasher.<\/p>\n

However, for me the mightiest track on the opus is closer \u2018In Memoriam\u2019, a pacey headbanger featuring devastating riffage and sturdy percussive taps, nods and jabs. A slower, more menacing chug interrupts the track to provide further moodiness before the gallop resumes.<\/p>\n

\u2018Covered In Lust\u2019 is another heavy charger hinting at times at M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce\u2019s \u2018Looks That Kill\u2019 in its riffage before that classy and yet nostalgic lead comes worming its way through. Meanwhile, \u2018Fallen\u2019 is even steelier, beginning with metallic rage as the bass clunks and clatters like an iron horse. But it\u2019s a song symbolic of Spartan Warrior\u2019s sound with those silky vocalisations coating the thrashier climes.<\/p>\n

I was a big fan of the band\u2019s last record, but Hell To Pay<\/em> has really taken things up a notch. Spartan Warrior are proving that the elder statesman of this much used and at times abused genre are still rulers of the wasteland.<\/p>\n

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

SPARTAN WARRIORHell To Pay Pure Steel (2018)Rating: 8\/10 I guess the record label name and album cover art kinda give this one away, Spartan Warrior being a traditional \/ power metal act from Sunderland in England. But this is no generic new band trying to sound old \u2013 Spartan Warrior have been around since the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,3880],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-spartan-warrior"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67072","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=67072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67073,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67072\/revisions\/67073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}