OLYMP
“Olymp”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

9/10

Olymp are a heavy metal band from Germany formed in 2018, releasing to date one E.P. – ‘Olymp’ (2019) and one album – ‘Olymp’ (2023).

Four years ago, four musicians from Germany stormed onto the metal scene with four songs of rumbling traditional heavy metal. And now the foursome are back with their full length debut album offering twice as many songs – eight heavy hitters across an infectious forty minutes! Hailing from Augsburg, the four piece band – Sebastian Tolle (vocals, guitar), Armin Feigl (guitar), Andre Mobius (bass), and Dominik Rankl (drums) – plant their feet well and truly on the monitors, galloping hard and rhythmically banging heads from start to finish. The album gallops into life with the fast paced ‘Hades’, exhibiting the glorious guitar sound of the iconic NWOBHM evolution – the band displaying a little aggression too, especially the hollering come belting nature of the vocal delivery!

Adopting the more mid tempo power driven style of heavy metal, Olymp march on with ‘Death And Glory’ – pounding the ground hard ’til the minute mark when a blistering guitar shred changes the whole identity of ‘Death And Glory’, the band frequently changing gears and tempo. And the chorus too, echoing the chanting nature of anthemic metal, is gonna have listeners, fans and followers heartily singing along. A glorious opening one-two soon becomes a glorious one-two-three, ‘Olymp’ planting its feet firmly on the monitor and trotting forth with the old school metaller ‘Icarus’, doubling its speed as it gets going proper. The head bang ability since the album began has been sky high, and I can only see it getting higher – the band delivering a brand of heavy metal that every single mosh pit in the world are gonna go fucking mental for! Olymp may be over forty years and seven hundred miles away from where traditional heavy metal was born – that’s the UK for anyone who (still) doesn’t know – but boy have the band got the sound spot on, the album roaring on with the fastest song heard so far, ‘Hero’ blazing a fiery trail as it hurtles across the land. And four years ago where I mentioned in my review of the bands E.P. that it was a “plodding” display of heavy metal, the band are now displaying an electrifying turn of speed!

Introducing the mid tempo thunder stomping style of heavy metal, ‘City Of Gods’ is a mighty march of majestic metal – a cracking blend resembling a mix of Saxon and Judas Priest. Olymp bring anthemic and power driven metal to the fore, adding oomph in abundance, opening mouths and dropping jaws to the floor! The intensity of ‘Olymp’ has been top notch, the band not missing a step, adopting the classic Iron Maiden style gallop for ‘Pandora’. My head hasn’t stopped rocking back and forth since the album began, as I’m sure yours hasn’t either, the German outfit delivering infectious head bang-able heavy metal to please. And clocking in at nearly seven minutes in length, ‘Fire And Fury’ is the longest song on offer, maintaining the albums incredibly high intensity level. Not to mention the head bang ability – neck muscles stretched to their limits with every song that passes by.

Bringing the album to a close, the band deliver an amazing finale – ‘Metal Priest’ a fantastic tribute, or homage, to the mighty Judas Priest. Fifty years ago the metal gods were instrumental in creating the sound of heavy metal we all know and love today, Olymp’s music highly influenced by the British stalwarts. But why is ‘Metal Priest’ so fantastic I hear you all cry – for two reasons I cry back! Firstly, the sound has ‘Priest written all over it, and secondly, just take a look and listen to the lyrics – totally made up from titles of ‘Priest songs! Simply amazing, and a sparkling end to the album.

Overall, a fast paced, head bang-able gallop of infectious heavy metal to please every fan of traditional metal.

TRACKLIST

Hades
Death And Glory
Icarus
Hero
City Of Gods
Pandora
Fire And Fury
Metal Priest

https://olympmetal.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/OlympMetal

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 both 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

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