Blitzkrieg – Judge Not Album Review
By Adam McCann
Mighty Music/2018/Heavy Metal/NWBOHM
Brian Ross has been one busy man over the last few years, tours with both Blitzkrieg and Satan, alongside albums and EP’s has kept one of heavy metal’s most influential men exceptionally busy. With rumours abound of a new Satan album later this year, it was also surprising to see Blitzkrieg also release an album.
Although it has been five years since the band released ‘Back From Hell’; an album that didn’t quite live up to expectations, ‘Judge Not!’ has all the NWBOHM sounds that will make a teenager’s palms from 1980 with excessive air guitaring. Although some of tracks on ‘Judge Not!’ such as ‘Reign of Fire’ and ‘Judge Not Lest You Yourself Be Judged’ had already surfaced previously on last year’s ‘Reign of Fire’ EP, it served as a sweet taste of what to expect on this coming album.
For ‘Judge Not!’ Ross has pulled out all of the stops and the tracks already aforementioned, alongside the single ‘Forever In A Long Time’ stand out strong. Furthermore, it is the superb additions of the Dorian Gray inspired ‘Falling Into Darkness’ and the song which makes the album, an ode to necrophilia and decapitation ‘Wide Legged and Headless’. However, ‘Judge Not!’ is not without its patchy moments, ‘Without You’ is a horrible collection of rhyming couplets whilst ‘Loud And Proud’ is your typical cliché of ‘let’s use album and song titles to make a song’ coupled with an equally dull chorus. These two songs aside, Blitzkrieg have released a quiet stunner, Ross’ voice is superb and stands tall amongst excellent musicianship, it will be interesting how the upcoming Satan album compares.
Rating : 81/100
MHF Magazine/Adam McCann
