Killing Machine

(Candlelight)
by Martin Popoff

It’s usually a cool thing when grizzled veterans of the metal wars collide and try their hand at the power metal they themselves had a hand in creating back in the ’80s. Killing Machine is one such assemblage (of convenience?), featuring Mike Duda and Stet Howland from WASP, German gad-about-town Peter Scheithauer (Belladonna, Stream) in the all-important guitar slot (which is why this sounds like Primal Fear), and even more pertinently, Mike Vescera of Obsession, Loudness and Yngwie semi-fame in the twangy/tangy vocal slot.

What they do is predictably combative and lively old man’s metal, traditional power fare the way it was fashioned between the cracks of the industry on labels like Metal Blade, Shrapnel, Under One Flag, Steamhammer and Roadrunner by acts looking to improve on the more manic riffing within Priest and Accept. The most interesting aspect is this live and garagey production tone which lends the album both urgency and integrity and a certain aging quality that makes you ponder pleasurably on the days when Metal Church was a major label signing. A fresh blast of power metal, fresh because it sounds so traveled, trampled, stomped, and war-torn.
(PO Box 29459 Philadelphia, PA 19125)