ASSASSIN’S BLADE
“AGENTS OF MYSTIFICATION”
Album Review By Rick Tilley
7.5/10
Back in the 1980’s two of the places I was lucky enough to visit regularly were the legendary Marquee Club in Wardour Street, where at one point I was going to two or maybe three gigs a week, and Shades Records which was just around the corner occupying a dingy basement in St Anne’s Court. Shades was quite easily the best place in the UK to get hold of hundreds of new Heavy Metal and Rock releases (many on import) long before you saw them reviewed in a magazine. As a teenager the bands I saw and the LP’s I bought at these two establishments paved the way for pretty much my whole musical life, they were indispensable and, in the days before the internet, (along with Kerrang! and Hammersmith Odeon) were the old fashioned equivalent of Facebook, YouTube and Amazon all rolled into one!
You might ask why I am reminiscing about these places when reviewing a debut album from a band that has only been a going concern for a couple of years, but there are two very good reasons. Firstly, upon initially seeing the Assassin’s Blade logo and artwork for ‘Agents Of Mystification’ I was immediately transported back to those happy days where I spent hour upon hour searching racks of vinyl containing all manner of brand new releases. Its style is so old school that, if I didn’t know better, it could be a long lost album from 1983. Secondly, one of the many bands I saw early on at The Marquee was Canadian Thrash/Speed legends Exciter. Although the line-up I saw was the original one, between 1996 – 2006 Exciter’s lead vocalist was Jacques Bélanger and he is also the vocalist of Assassin’s Blade.
With all of these memories flooding back I was hoping that the musical output of Assassin’s Blade had an old school sound too and they don’t disappoint. If the three albums that Bélanger made with Exciter are your cup of tea then you’ll want to check out Assassin’s Blade. My ears are also picking up references to Helstar, Agent Steel, Manilla Road, Iron Angel and Mercyful Fate. Thanks to the high pitched vocals there are also elements of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. This is about as authentic as it gets but with the more modern production it also fits in quite nicely with many of the newer NWOTHM bands that are currently around.
Also on a more modern footing is the makeup of the personnel involved. Whilst Bélanger lives in Canada the other three members of Assassin’s Blade are from Sweden. During my research for this review it appears that they haven’t actually met each other as yet with the music being recorded in one country and then sent via file for the vocals to be added. You certainly wouldn’t think that this was the case though. This sounds like four guys together in a studio and bodes very well for when they do meet up to rehearse for live shows because there is quite obviously chemistry between them.
If I have one small criticism, it’s that a majority of the songs are medium paced and can feel a little samey but Dreadnought, Frosthammer and the title track are three of the better ones. Jacques Bélanger’s voice is as powerful and full of range as it always has been, although he might be an acquired taste to some and David Stranderud’s guitar solos are definitely worth a mention. ‘Agents Of Mystification’ is a very good debut album from a band that manages to straddle old and new extremely well. If they can inject a couple of killer songs into album number two, all of them being in one rehearsal space at the same time might achieve that, then they could be onto something special. I’m going to be keeping a keen eye on Assassin’s Blade and their development!
TRACKLIST
Agents of Mystification
Herostratos
The Demented Force
Dreadnought
Autumn Serenade
Transgression
Nowhere Riders
Crucible of War
Frosthammer
League of the Divine Wind
Prophet’s Urn
Line-up
Jacques Bélanger – Vocals
David Stranderud – Guitar
Peter Svensson – Bass
Marcus Rosenkvist – Drums
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