Ross The Boss - New Metal Leader

Published August 23 2008

*=Staff's pick	I. L. H. Blood Of Knives* I Got The Right Death & Glory* Plague Of Lies God Of Dying May The Gods Be With You Constantines Sword We Will Kill Matador Immortal Son

Genre	Heavy Metal	Patrick Fuchs	Vocals
Tracks	11	Patrick Fuchs	Guitar
Runningtime	48 Min.	Ross The Boss	Guitar
Label	AFM Records	Carsten Kettering	Bass
Release	22 August 2008	Matthias Mayer	Drums
Country	Germany/USA	-	Keyboard
Similar artists	Manowar, Majesty

According to promo statements this album is "the best "Manowar" album since Kings Of Metal" and the band is supposed to be "more Manowar than Manowar themselves". Noone would be happier than me if that would actually have been the case, since I love the style in general and bands like Manowar and Majesty in particular when they are writing good songs. Former Manowar guitarist and co-founder Ross The Boss has now teamed up with members of the german band Ivory Night in order to re-live and outdo Manowar classics like Battle Hymn, Hail To England and Sign Of The Hammer, which Ross The Boss was heavily involved in writing at the time.

The right riffs are many times there. Standard, classic, epic, groovy riffs packed in a masculine and battle like atmosphere, mixed with some more standard rock smokers (Plague Of Lies, May The Gods Be with You). Sometimes the latter works but just as many times it is kind of cheesy and sounds more like an enthusiastic demo from a garage band. Mostly due to the vocals that are sinking this ship completely. They are not powerful enough to give that extra touch to it and I find myself concentrating more on them, and trying to get rid of the annoyance I feel when hearing them, rather than focus on the music.

They want to capture the essence of the old Manowar classics previosusly mentioned, and sure, musically it works to some extent, both in the fast songs as well as in the slower and more epic ones. I personally think it sounds too weak all over with some garbage thrown in between, however. It never gets interesting enough to serve as anything else than a few good riffs for the moment while warming up for something better.

Trying to be the new metal leader is too big of a project to run when your material is not better than this. Persons with a Manowar logo tattooed on their upper arm might want to, or actually should, check this one out, though.