GLORY DAZE - Octavirus
(S/R - 2016)
German metallers, Glory Daze should rightly be mistaken for have been moving pawns about since about 1984, to listen to a minute of this album.
The five members making up the Munich outfit have made their own respective - and respected - noises in their native scene in the preceding decades, most notably lead singer Many Sturner's previous act, Avalon who got across the Atlantic on more then one occasion. Nattering aside (at last, Dave) this debut album is a diamond cut monster of old fashioned metal proportions from the start and to the end of its fifty-eight minute span.
'Nightmare' is pure pub metal bliss - classic metal riff ripping into old fashioned verse-chorus-verse with a slightly bluesy taste in the solos. 'Believe' is a bright, mid paced melodic number with a large ode to other outfits of their country currently making waves in the subgenre. Standout cut 'Dark Daze' stomps and pounds across all of its six minute space, in a startlingly accurate olde worlde set of metal boots, with a slight sidestep over at both Priest's 'Metal Gods' and Slayer's 'Skeletons of Society'.
'Thunder' storms behind with a brash and slightly pinky power metal number, wherein vocalist Sturner rigorously showcases his impeccably Halford-like range. 'So Close' shows their great skills at the soft side with a swishy ballad including greatly applied lead solo bends before a loud ballbreaking chorus takes over with the twin rhythm guitars of Wendlandt and Krause chugging back into life. The empowering eight minute-twenty-second title track absorbs most elements of its predecessor, a lot of Priest and applies a little twitch of prog amidst its trampolining, triple-step attack.
Opening with a rather rattling, stop-start build, 'Point of No Return' takes a little time to pick up but sails into another slick mid-tempo hard rocker and a resonant chorus melody. As indicated by the name, 'Icarus' is an epic with a hugely Iron Maiden taste which lingers in and out across the verses and then assaults you straight in the face once you reach the solo break while the rhythm backing lines weighing up the vocal parts smells pleasantly of eighties favourites Dokken and Kick Axe. Although I shouldn't keep name dropping these likenesses with each single 'Jetset Beauty' is the hardest not to, with the plagiaristic intro - I'll let you hear it for yourself.
Being the least immediate song of the ten, it eventually manages to take off although still sounds a little watered down 'Tales of Mystery' is a magnificent, triple beat metal fist pumper with a powerhouse chorus to end proceedings and some sweet/though-short lead pieces arranged in and out. A totally unforseen metal treat, Germany's reputation for reeling out rock hard product such is sent a further level higher by this monster.
'Octavirus' should deservedly see Glory Daze's name plastered across every European metal fest in 2017.
9.5/10
By Dave Attrill
RECOMMENDED IF YOU LIKE (as well as J***s P****t): Metallica, Black Sabbath, Gamma Ray, Annihilator, Diamond Head, Scorpions & AC/DC.
