The Road Vikings
Requiem of an Outlaw Biker
SLPT Records
2016
For some reason as of late, I’m particularly anti “poseurs” in metal. And I don’t mean the pretty boy, hair metal variety that when it’s bad, it doesn’t even need someone to point out how ridiculous it can be or sound, when executed poorly, but I hate the “cosplay” metal, the metal that it’s pushed as a gimmick, the outlaw/desperado BS, the fake bravado shit, the hillbilly macho BS, anything… but particularly “Viking” metal. So you can imagine how much the title of this album, checked all the “wrong” boxes… I had to even question my editor in chief, asking him, if he was joking or expecting me to roast the band…
Bizarrely enough this is a project of one time live Cacophony as well as Hexx’s “Under the Spell” vocalist Dan Bryant, who here also handles guitars… while a lady called Lisa Torna provides the grooves and a dude, by the name of Dave Dab drums away. Funnily on current pics, the band appears as a sextet, unless I was blind drunk, so I dunno what’s happening here. It however is supposed to be the band’s second release.
The overall style is a “biker” true metal/heavy rock sort of hybrid, more refined than say BLS, but still quite heavier than straightforward power metal. It’s actually not bad at all and as soon, as I reached halfway through the album, I didn’t mind at all the moniker and everything. Dongs like “I Burn in Hell”, “The Ballad of Evel Knievel”, “Road to Valhalla”, “Black Magic Nights”, “Full Moon” are quite worthwhile and the whole thing feels authentic and not pretentious, despite being cliché ridden, (excuse the pun, riders!). If you like that beard-ed, beer drinking hellraising sort of heavy rock with a touch of Southern, The Road Vikings, might be a gang you might wanna check…
Bizarrely enough this is a project of one time live Cacophony as well as Hexx’s “Under the Spell” vocalist Dan Bryant, who here also handles guitars… while a lady called Lisa Torna provides the grooves and a dude, by the name of Dave Dab drums away. Funnily on current pics, the band appears as a sextet, unless I was blind drunk, so I dunno what’s happening here. It however is supposed to be the band’s second release.
The overall style is a “biker” true metal/heavy rock sort of hybrid, more refined than say BLS, but still quite heavier than straightforward power metal. It’s actually not bad at all and as soon, as I reached halfway through the album, I didn’t mind at all the moniker and everything. Dongs like “I Burn in Hell”, “The Ballad of Evel Knievel”, “Road to Valhalla”, “Black Magic Nights”, “Full Moon” are quite worthwhile and the whole thing feels authentic and not pretentious, despite being cliché ridden, (excuse the pun, riders!). If you like that beard-ed, beer drinking hellraising sort of heavy rock with a touch of Southern, The Road Vikings, might be a gang you might wanna check…