HOLY MOTHER
“Rise”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

9.5/10

Holy Mother are a heavy metal band from the USA formed in the nineties, enjoying a three decade career in which the band has released seven albums – the seventh of which ‘Rise’, was released in 2024.

Featuring an immensely melodious, majestic and elegant style of heavy metal, Holy Mother return with probably their heaviest album to date ‘Rise’ – a ten song swagger of heavy come power come traditional metal! For forty minutes, the band lurch this way and that all across heavy metal territory, pleasing listeners with a sonic array of infectious songs – ‘Fire’ breathing life into the album with high levels of energy and oomph! Holy Mother ooze melodic metal, ‘Fire’ echoing everything great about the genre, the band capturing the attentions of a worldwide audience and never letting go.

Seven out of the ten songs on offer clock in at under four minutes in length, paving the way for a quick moving album, ‘The Elevator’ maintaining ‘Rise’s exciting opening, adding much more bombast and punch (than ‘Fire’). Shuddering the ground with immense force, ‘The Elevator’ is gonna shake walls and wobble buildings as it strides on by, ‘Rise’ offering two very different styles of metal across the albums first two songs – ‘Jeremiah’ strolling into view with a Southern rock swagger! The kinda swagger that hard rock icons Aerosmith made famous – yet in the shape of ‘Jeremiah’, Holy Mother metalize Aerosmith’s sound to make it fit their soundscape. And with more hustle and bustle than either of the three songs heard so far, ‘Power’ is a swashbuckling romp of raucous heavy metal – the American outfit blending power, and traditional metal elements to great effect.

The title song ‘Rise’ is the punchiest song heard up to this point, Holy Mother bringing a touch of the anthemic to the fore, a mighty foot stomping attitude descending upon the album. Even the rabble rousing chant style chorus is gonna garner the attentions of every listener, fan, follower and concert goer to sing along in hearty unison – so come on readers “Rise – everybody must rise, Rise – motherfucker let’s rise”. ‘Down’ returns the power metal influence heard earlier, not scorching pace but the immense power surge, Holy Mother maintaining a high energy level approach to their new album – the intensity not dropping one iota since the album began! And blending together every style of metal the band have in their vast locker, ‘Interventionist’ crosses borders and jumps boundary walls to attract a very wide audience – an audience that’s gonna fall in love with every song on offer.

There’s just no escaping the anthemic nature that’s woven into every song on ‘Rise’ (the album) – ‘Hex’ the next bombastic barrage to shudder the ground. The punch here is that of a heavyweight, the band going the full distance without the loss of any energy whatsoever! Incredible stuff from the American four-piece, who suddenly roar into life at top speed with the fastest song heard so far, ‘Live To Die’ (a re-recording of the song that first appeared on the bands 1998 album ‘Toxic Rain’) is a blistering cacophony of “foot on the monitor” metal to send mosh pits wild! The head bang ability right now is off the fucking charts, Holy Mother engaging every head banger around the world to vigorously rock their head back and forth. Bringing ‘Rise’ (the album) to a close, ‘Rain’ is full of mid tempo thunder, stomping the ground hard with a touch of balladry – only a touch though, for the band remain firmly and squarely rooted in metal territory.

Overall, ten songs of punchy, bombastic power come traditional metal ‘Rise’ is a highly infectious and head bang-able album.

TRACKLIST

Fire
The Elevator
Jeremiah
Power
Rise
Down
Interventionist
Hex
Live To Die
Rain

https://www.holymotherband.com/
https://www.facebook.com/holymotherband/

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