3 Inches of Blood

Long Live Heavy Metal (Century Media)
By Mike Delano

I’m all for using heavy metal to celebrate heavy metal, as evidenced by the not insignificant amount of Manowar albums on my shelf. If metal wasn’t around, mine would be a much shittier existence. And who better to celebrate the greatest music on earth than 3 Inches of Blood, whose take on metal is a tribute to the form in and of itself? With Cam Pipe’s trademark high-pitched wail and the band’s polished thrash-meets-Priest/Maiden sound, they’re metal to the core. You’ll be fist-pumping your way through the early part of Long Live Heavy Metal, which has classics like “Metal Woman” and the fantastic “Leather Lord.” Problem is, 3 Inches fall victim to some classic metal pitfalls later on in the celebration, from the heartfelt but clumsy Dio tribute “Look Out” (“he slayed the dragon each and every night/it was his right”) to the eye-roll-inducing “Leave It On The Ice,” an ode to hockey that conjures best-forgotten memories of Megadeth’s “Crush ‘Em.” Those two minor missteps don’t derail an otherwise great album, though, filled as it is with blazing tracks like “Dark Messenger,” “4,000 Torches,” and the epic battle cry of “Men of Fortune.”
(www.centurymedia.com)