All for Metal are such a fun band to review. Their passion for Metal music is so, but so present in their music and fans can feel it perfectly. Their debut album 2023’s “Legends” showed this with very bright colors. This “Gods of Metal (Year of the Dragon)” follows the same natural musical path even though the lyrical thematic drifts to the east, more notably to Japan and its samurai legends and mithology.
With all the pros and cons most fans can find in the album, “Gods of Metal (Year of the Dragon)” is a perfect picture of what Old School Heavy Metal is today. From modern Extreme Metal features comes the vocal duos with a clean voice plus a harsh one. Truth is All for Metal managed a way to update Manowar and Dio’s music. The guitar lead in “When Monsters Roar” sounds too near Vivian Campbell’s in “Holy Diver” era. Following the will to update their music, “Path of the Brave” adds to their cauldron some Folk Metal ingredients in a very emotioned ballad. Well, what isn’t emotioned in an All for Metal album?
“Gods of Metal (Year of the Dragon)” commences with a Conan driven speech so used by Power Metal bands everywhere in this sad and lonely and pathetic little planet. Conan driven is the way I found to explain the atmosphere of the album. I mean all the cape and sword stuff. “Gods of Metal” is one of the most high energetic and adrenalized tracks I’ve heard this year. Plus the fun of listening to it. Though the Japanese drift, the band hasn’t forgotten their Norse origins with tracks as “Like Thor and Loki” and “Valkyries In The Sky,” this one with some classical music hints. The fun of this album is that all tracks may sound as a battle hymn or, at least, a battle cry with hooky choruses as the press release says. I couldn’t agree more to that.
To some “Gods of Metal (Year of the Dragon)” might sound as a joke. I don’t concur. All the heart and passion of Metal is here. All for Metal are one of the most Metal passionate bands there is today. There is no way of denying it like it or not. This album is a perfect image of all this passion. It’s impossible to listen to it and don’t get even an yellow grim from the most hardcore and hardheaded Extreme Metal fan. Impossible!
All for Metal “Gods of Metal (Year of the Dragon)” was released on August 23rd via Reigning Phoenix Music.
Track Listing:
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Cry For Help (Intro)
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The Way of the Samurai
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Temple of Silence
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Path of the Brave
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Like Thor and Loki
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Valkyries In The Sky (feat. Laura Guldemond & Tim Kanoa Hansen)
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Welcome
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Who Wants to Live Forever
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The Journey Will Not End (Outro)
Watch “Year of the Dragon” official music video here:
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!