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Metal/Prog Metal CD Reviews

Détente History I Review by Gary Hill For those who think female fronted metal bands are a feature that started in the current day I can point first to Warlock. But if you want to talk more extreme bands, then let’s discuss Détente. I have to admit I never heard this band before – in fact, this was the first I’d heard of them. That said, this underground act was pretty amazing. Don’t get me wrong. The production quality here is typical of underground metal from the 1980’s – raw and drastically under produced. This band created some killer metal, though. I’d highly recommend this to anyone with a taste for this genre of metal. This was a killer outfit and I like the disc a lot. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2008 Volume 6 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Holy War This raw and quite potent. It’s frantic and built on a killer riff structure. There’s a healthy amount of punk in the metal structure of this. Mid track they power it out into a smoking instrumental section. The guitar soloing is incendiary and it just plain rocks.

Widow's Walk This thrasher reminds me a lot of Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics. The vocals here are still raw and hardcore punk like, but they are also extremely powerful. The frantic metal jam later is just plain scorching.

Shattered Illusions As this comes in it feels a lot different. The opening riff sounds less raw. It almost reminds me of Ozzy Osbourne. When they scream out into the song proper, though, we’re in more familiar territory. Parts of this remind me WASP.

Vultures in the Sky They open this with a news cast over their music. This is better produced than the earlier stuff, but no one would confuse it with a major label recording. The thing is, this really rocks. I like this track a lot and it has an exceptionally tasty guitar solo.

An Offering Somehow this jam reminds me of early Warlock. There’s some tasty instrumental work in this.

Obituary Fear They don’t change any big things here, but this is another smoking slab of stripped and raw metal.

Evil Within Here we are off again on some killer metal with no frills. I like the chorus on this one and it’s got some very tasty riffing.

Under the Influence Wow, this feels like a stripped down British Steel era Judas Priest. In many ways the production is even worse than the rest of the disc, but this completely different sound makes it a nice touch.

Who Can You Trust There be thrash here. This is a frantic rough and tumble number. Somehow the vocals remind me of The Dead Kennedys meet Judas Priest. The guitar solo on this is weird, but also quite tasty.

Law and Disorder Perhaps the recording here is the strongest on the CD. This has a tasty riff driven motif, too. There are moments that make me think of Judas Priest, but certainly Anthrax comes to mind, too.

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