Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 01:17 PM by Lilliana Tseka
Genre: Heavy Metal
Country: United States
Label: Blood And Iron Records
Year: 2015
Tyrant’s “Too Late To Pray” album of 1987 is definitely the toughest, unworldly, pernicious, classic heavy metal album with, yes you read correctly …, White metal lyrics. The gloomy atmosphere of this malevolent creation makes some of the ultra black metal records sound like music for children. I do not deal with religions (let alone the scourge of Christianity) and generally do not like to see such approaches in the lyrics by heavy metal bands. But there are exceptions such as Warlord, Candlemass, Tyrant, Sacred Warrior, Trouble, Thunder Rider etc. who of course have clear messages in their lyrics but anyone has to be deaf to not understand the magnificence of their music.
So two years after their very strong debut album “Legions Of The Dead”, Tyrant compose the soundtrack of the real revelation. They took the idea from the song “Tyrants Revelation” of the first album and grappled with the theme of the eternal conflict between good and evil and the final outcome on earth. In contrast to their previous effort, the sound here is gigantic, the songs are greater in every aspect and the epic elements, combined with the themes and the synthetic style of Tyrant, contribute to the creation of a masterpiece, a monument of U.S “in your face” heavy metal as also heard by great bands such as Ruthless, Omen, Cirith Ungol, Tyrant’s Reign, Stormtrooper and many others.
Demonic whispers, mournful bells, a bass player (Greg May) that splits the earth in two and a drummer (G. Stanley Burtis) whose unmerciful playing echoes to the heavens, giving the signal for the descent of the archangels on the battlefield. The atmosphere, the rhythm alternations, the haunting melodies and guitar outbursts are the main ingredients of this album’s success. “Too Late To Pray” begins and the power and majesty of US Heavy / epic unfolds once again. The voice of Glen May is one of the most powerful in the genre, screaming, reciting, throwing curses and growling, giving everything he got. Listen to mellow introduction of the eight-minute opus “Valley Of Death” for example, with the great keyboard parts that can hardly be heard in the beginning, giving the necessary mystical tone and wait until the third minute to descent into Hades with the resounding DIEEEE by Glen with Rocky Rockwell unleashing the terror of his guitar in all directions. No song that speaks about Jesus sounded as monstrous and aggressive as “The Nazarene”. This kind of rage on guitars and vocals hasn’t been seen for many years in heavy metal. The great riff of “Babylon” swallows demons. Feel the paranoia in the “Beginning Of The End” with the incredible part in the middle that makes you want to turn your head around like a maniac. The revelation concludes with the stormy rhythm of “Eve Of Destruction”. Attack on all fronts. There is nothing left standing. Fierce rhythm, bass and drums destroyng everything with the guitar feasting on the flesh of the sinners. It is not by chance that they had signed to Metal Blade back then. The quality of this band is non-negotiable. We are not dealing with just another American band of the 80s. We are talking about pure metal madness here.
The re-release of this great record contains as bonus their fantastic demo of 1982 and a song recorded in 1983 called “Battle Of Armageddon”. The production was handed by the one and only, the great Bill Metoyer (Omen, Helstar, Cirith Ungol, Warlord, Anacrusis, Atrophy, Dark Angel, Lizzy Borden, Sacred Steel, Trouble, Morbid Angel, Armored Saint, Slayer, Fates Warning, Sacred Reich, Flotsam And Jetsam, Wasp and much, much more ….) in cooperation with Tyrant.
If we consider the bonus songs and the booklet full of biography notes and pictures, this release is a must have, even for the ones that have the original vinyl. Congratulations to Blood And Iron Records for their excellent work. “Too Late To Pray” is a great US underground legacy. A magnificent release that stood the test of time.
5,5/6
