DEJA VU
“EJECTED”
Album Review By Iron Mathew
10/10
Deja Vu are a power metal band from Germany formed in 1986 who released a limited to 500 copies single in 1990. The band played many gigs and a following began but the band never really solidified with the band members choosing their own paths until 2000 when the band “reunited” with a new outlook and released their debut album in 2005. Well received, the band went on to release a second album in 2008 and in 2016 their third album ‘Ejected’ was released.
German power metal has such a distinctive sound: hard hitting, sharp edged, urgent and fast paced, yet melodic, with powerful clean and clear vocals. Deja Vu display all these traits with their new album ‘Ejected’. Opening with the grand epic ‘Hell Or High Water’ smacking you around your head with its barrage of bombastic riffs and catchy chorus line, Deja Vu are back and mean business. Screaming guitar solos and a high energy tempo ‘Hell Or High Water’ is a cracking start. ‘Step Into The Fire’ bludgeons its way out of the speakers and chops and chugs relentlessly through brutal riff after riff. The melodic side of ‘Step Into The Fire’ does lean towards Iron Maiden (the iconic British heavy metallers). No such leaning as ‘Inferior’ explodes into life and rockets off like a drag racer. Pulsating rhythms and rampant guitars keeps ‘Inferior’ up tempo, fast paced and urgent. Melodic and hard hitting ‘Run For The Light’ foot stomps majestically with an infectious rhythm and a catchy chorus. Deja Vu have all the ability to play hard and fast, yet all the time keeping it catchy and very addictive.
‘Rainmaker’ is raucous, rampant and rules the airwaves with its bludgeoning riffing and thunderous rhythm. Much more in your face than what has been heard so far ‘Rainmaker’ has aggression and an energetic urgency stamped all over it. Picking up the pace and racing on ‘Midnight Rider’ is a superb example of how power and speed can be combined to produce a fast, yet melodic heavy metal song. Blistering guitars and galloping rhythms ‘Midnight Rider’ is a major highlight on the album. Dropping the pace to a more mid tempo stomp, ‘Unbreaker’ pounds relentlessly with an unrelenting rhythm, that just begs for feet stomping and head banging. ‘Ejected’ is beginning to sound like one of the best albums of the year. Aggression and attitude return in the shape of ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, mixing mid tempo with up tempo. Bombastic and furious ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ is a brutal barrage of head banging addictiveness. Increasing the pace, urgency and energy ‘Made In Hell’ is a furious blast of speed metal that will make you head bang so hard that your head may just fly off your shoulders.
With absolutely no let up in pace or power, ‘Say Your Prayers’ chugs into life and is a hard hitting slab of melodic hard rock with sparkling guitars and cracking rhythms. Recent releases by fellow countrymen Helloween, Iron Savior and Sinbreed seem polished whereas the brand of power metal Deja Vu deliver is more raw, raucous and urgent, very similar in style to Thunder Head (German power metallers from the late eighties and early nineties). ‘Rise From Within’ proves this…blistering and screaming guitars with rhythms of thunderous proportions, keep the urgency flowing and will have you violently head banging. ‘Lethal Heroes’ drops the pace, yet is ruthless as it stomps and stamps a path of destruction, with its heavy guitars and thunderous drums. Anthemic in a style similar to legends Manowar, ‘Lethal Heroes’ is an epic journey. Chugging endlessly ‘Ruthless’ is a foot stomper out of the top drawer. Powerful vocals, NWOBHM sounding guitar riffing and catchy rhythms ‘Ruthless’ will bang heads wherever it is heard. All good things come to an end, and so does this album, but not without one last explosive song…’Wild Flower’ rumbles and rattles relentlessly through a brutal barrage of riffs and thunderous rhythms. If you are not left breathless by this album, you haven’t been head banging hard enough.
Overall, fast paced, hard hitting heavy metal, played with an unrelenting urgency and energy that will leave you breathless.
This review was written for Frenzy Fire [http://www.frenzyfire.co.uk/fa_dejavureviews.htm]
TRACKLIST
Hell Or High Water
Step Into The Fire
Inferior
Run For The Light
Rainmaker
Midnight Rider
Unbreaker
Keep Yourself Alive
Made In Hell
Say Your Prayers
Rise From Within
Lethal Heroes
Ruthless
Wild Flower
www.dejavumetal.com
This review is the property of Iron Mathew, Frenzy Fire, and Metal Gods TV. It is strictly prohibited to copy any part of this review, unless you have all of the parties’ permission, or are the band/record label/PR company in question. Failure to adhere to these instructions will be considered as Plagiarism and you will be reported to the appropriate authorities.