EVIL UNITED - EVIL UNITED
MVD Audio

You wouldn’t expect power ballads from a band called Evil United, and sure enough, this is thunderous, fast, furious metal that takes no prisoners. Jason McMaster avoids current metal clichés with his high-pitched vocals closer to the old school sounds of Rob Halford than the Cookie Monster growling more commonly heard today. I’m not suggesting one style is better than the other – and sometimes the falsetto screaming becomes a bit much – but at least the band are daring to buck trends.

With a distinctly ant-religion theme running through tracks like Blasphemer and occult, mythical imagery in tracks like Dawn of Armaggedon, Wargod and Hexorcism this feels like the metal you used to hear – part thrash, part NWOBHM, heavy with riffs and belting along as if the band were racing the clock. And it’s all solid stuff, tight as a gnat’s arse and if it doesn’t exactly break any new ground, that’s fine. As metal as things come, Evil United have offered up a slab of blistering, brain-battering traditional HM that does exactly what it sets out to without any pretensions.

DAVID FLINT

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