EP Review. Incursion - The Hunter (2020, Trad Metal)

A traditional metal release that reminds me of classic Judas Priest days (Screaming for vengeance) with slight thrash metal riffs every here and there.

This one goes in straight, grooves out a lot. It's not too hard soundwise so the listening is more of joy than having to fight through rough notes. Yet in all the riff-blasting there are breaks every here and there that bring in some fresh wind into the direct sound. It's mostly guitar-driven with a slighty edge on playing the six strings. "Warrior of Destruction" is a good example for this.

"Guiding Faith" shows the band's ability to go for more epic songwriting. The opening riff is already bolder and the song changes far more in it's duration. But don't worry the next track "Fade to black" already pumps in more heavyness and goes in straighter with more speed. It's high vocal screams are outstanding! 

"Kingdom of the dead" is a riff-hacker and speed-run. This spreads out a lot of fun and feels like a reminder to thrash days. It doesn't fiddle around and that's what I love so much. Sounds great!  
 
All in all this feels like a journey that has many stations in it. A travel through a rich landescape of metal riffs.

Metal lovers need to have this - but make sure to be a friend of the high notes. They occur often so you need to feel fine with them. It's available on Bandcamp as download, CD and vinyl (sadly the orange one is already sold out).

Neal Schon reveals new track and free download from upcoming album Vortex

Instrumental band give the listener a lot in my eyes. Compared to other bands they cannot work with the classic structures of a song like intro, 1st verse, bridge refrain and so on but have to find other ways of giving the listener a thrill to keep them on the speakers. That's a heavy task in my eyes. Just take a look at how long a minute of instrumental music is and how hard it is to put something inside that's worth listening without making the song sounding monotone.

Recently a brand new track from Neal Schon (guitarist of the famous band Journey) came across my desk and it gave me a lot of positive freezin' chills as well as it shows the superb musical abilities of Schon with it's blistering guitar work and variations. The solo section is held very extensive while the basics of the music constantly keep the song going. Besides playing the guitars Neal Schon also laid down the bass guitar tracks as well as he produced the whole songs on this and all other songs of the album that is yet to come.

(c) by Kaley Nelson, used with kind permission

The track "Tortured Souls" is a first glimpse into the new double album "Vortex" that is set for release on June 22 in Europe and one day later in UK and North America through the Mascot Label Group.

Stream the song in the widget below. And in case you like what you hear why not pick up a free download of the track? Just push the button underneath the picture and enter your email in the box to receive a download link to a full quality wave (!) file of the song.



If you'd like to keep updated on the further release activities make sure to see Neal Schon's Homepage or connect with him through Facebook.