Holocaust – Elder Gods
Album Review By Adam McCann
Sleaszy Rider Records/NWOBHM/Progressive Metal
The second half of this decade has seen somewhat of a resurgence in NWOBHM bands not just reappearing on the music radar as nostalgia acts, but also delivering albums of their career. Bands like Satan, Diamond Head and Tygers of Pan Tang have released not just released strong albums, but these albums are powerful enough to be talked about when compiling the best of their respective years. However, not all NWOBHM bands managed to reach this pinnacle, Scottish pioneers Holocaust had a false start with 2015’s lacklustre ‘Predator’ album, but would their latest album ‘Elder Gods’ be the catalyst the band needed?
Well, first off, ‘Elder Gods’ charges out of the blocks, it appears that Holocaust have returned to the drawing board to reassess what caused the previous album to stutter so dearly. This album has the classic Holocaust sound, that driving drone that owes as much to heavy metal as it does to post-punk, tracks such as ‘Eon of Horus’, ‘Ishtar’ and ‘Children of the Great Central Sun’ are more than decent as they hark back to the band in their prime, whilst the former track and the albums opening title track would more than likely fit in well with fans of Killing Joke. However, ‘Elder Gods’ does have a tendency to meander and this unfortunately means that there are more forgettable parts to this album than memorable. Furthermore, the albums closing track ‘Natural State’ dabbles in a progressive rock sound that stands out from the collective like a sore thumb and doesn’t quite fit the overall sound.
‘Elders Gods’ is a nice addition to the Holocaust catalogue, it does stand above its predecessor, but admittedly that is not exactly difficult. There are some excellent tracks here and when this album is good, it is decent, but more often than not it is relatively unmemorable.
Rating : 60/100
MHF Magazine/Adam McCann
