NOVA SKELLIS
“Life Amongst The Damned”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

9/10

Nova Skellis are a power metal band from the USA formed in 2018 by singer/bass player Edward Green – the band completed by guitarist Alex Spalvieri and drummer Jorg Qualquil. ‘Life Amongst The Damned’ is the bands debut album, and was released in 2023…

…featuring ten songs of power come traditional heavy metal! For nigh on fifty minutes, Nova Skellis pound and pummel listeners with a brand of metal that’s infectious and addictive, exploring every corner of both the power, and heavy metal genres. The album storms outta the gate with the title song ‘Life Amongst The Damned’ – galloping forth as if it’s the early eighties once again! The bands sound is heavily influenced by the NWOBHM evolution, with bands such as Iron Maiden and Grim Reaper top of the list. The barnstorming opening is quickly followed by the rumbling romp that goes by the name ‘Gods To Strike You Down’. Delivered at a much quicker pace than the opening song, ‘Gods To Strike You Down’ displays a touch of the bands power metal roots, while bludgeoning you with crushing riffs and devastating drums!

What a storming double salvo to open your debut album – Nova Skellis hitting the ground running. And running hard! ‘Fall In Line’ marches into sight, adopting a majestic swagger alongside its hustle and bustle attitude, the band giving every metalhead exactly what they crave – total head bang ability! And head bang you will, for the band thunder on like Black Sabbath clones with ‘Wicked Child’ – a doom laden heavy hitting stomp of incredible mid tempo heavy metal. Maintaining the slower tempo of the previous song, the band march on with the heavier yet more melodic ‘Morrigan’s Rede’ – Nova Skellis roaring from one end of the heavy metal genre to the other! Not forgetting their frequent trips over the wall to power metal land and back!

The two minute ‘Skull Full Of Bees’ is the most raucous offering from the band – blending a punk attitude with heavy metal bluster to deliver a fast paced and highly head bang-able furore. Every song so far has offered something different, after all, variation is the key. And variation continues to pile forward, ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ the next exploration of differing styles – taking in a little blues swagger and Southern rock flavour too. Now then – there are a number of songs around with the “something wicked this way comes” title, although I do believe this version by Nova Skellis is not a cover. I’ve not been able to find a match, so I presume ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ is a Nova Skellis original. Correct me if I’m wrong!

And now we have the band returning to the doom laden style of legends Black Sabbath for ‘All The Comfort Of The Graveyard’ – a lumbering heavy hitter that baulks the bands power metal tag. In fact, for me, the band are a straight up heavy metal outfit, with very few touches of power metal. Certainly the album up to this point sits firmly and squarely in the heavy metal genre – ‘Mother, May I’ doing nothing to change my mind! Nova Skellis increase the pace, tempo and energy, planting one foot firmly on the monitor, as heads start to nod back and forth at an increasing rate of knots! Bringing a very good debut album to a close, ‘Once Upon A Time’ chimes in at over eight minutes in length – the longest song on offer! And what a song! It has it all – atmosphere, tension, an infectious guitar riff, and a majestic swagger to light up the faces of every listener, fan and follower from all around the world. An epic ending effort very much in the vein of Iron Maiden.

Overall, a barnstorming album of hard hitting heavy metal, one hundred percent infectious and immensely head bang-able.

TRACKLIST

Life Amongst The Damned
Gods To Strike You Down
Fall In Line
Wicked Child
Morrigan’s Rede
Skull Full Of Bees
Something Wicked This Way Comes
All The Comfort Of The Graveyard
Mother, May I
Once Upon A Time

https://novaskellis.bandcamp.com/

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