EP REVIEW: Heavy Sentence – Warriors Of Madness

British Heavy Metal stalwarts HEAVY SENTENCE return with a new 7″ cut of street-ready rockers. These three new songs will be unveiled on wax by Dying Victims Productions. Their debut LP and previous 7″ releases are some of my favourites from the English underground in many years, so let’s hope this rips just as hard.

Crusty and sleazy riffs drive a percussive force forward with snappy drums and those whisky-drenched vocals that are iconic to the band. Immediately, this feels like a Heavy Sentence song as crushing melodies and boot-stomping grooves entwine each other into a seductive serpentine slaughter. Of course the huge anthemic qualities of the music are present, but in a manner of gritty punk attitude, not stadium suck-up-ery. There is an emotive angle on some moments which add a chilling effect yet they never detract from that hard-hitting edge that comes down like the swing of the axe at all times. Their loyal attitude to the old ways and that tangible feeling of brotherhood stamped into these grooves makes sure you feel a part of the pack as Heavy Sentence rock out of your speakers at maximum volume.

Ending on the strongest song, “Give Yourself To The Night” takes all of the things I love about Heavy Sentence and cranks them ’til the tubes are burning hot, overdrive is on full and every element is belted out with ferocity. The maniacal vocals and pounding drums sit around molten hot riff and crisp bass lines, Everything about Heavy Sentence just screams authentic and in a world of polished bands taking away from the spirit of metallic passion, it’s moments like this that us underground maniacs can seize back what is ours. Unhindered by trend or any false modern nonsense, these Manchester hard-rockers give us a call to arms to bring back the ways of old that cannot be ignored. That feeling that Heavy Metal should give you (you know the one I mean) will coarse through your veins as liquid steel becomes your bloodstream, the hands involuntarily become fists and the neck begins to move.

Punchy, raw and unhindered by rules, these urchins fire all cylinders until you feel each piston blow pumping through your chest. The songs are killer and just leave one dying for a second record, but this 7″ will certainly help quell that appetite as the three pieces of punitive fury ecstatically rip over and over ’til you wear the thing out. These warriors of madness will never be in chains, for they play the true Heavy Metal gloriously and shatter all shackles (and the skulls of wimps) with an iron fist. Watch out, the Heavy Sentence are coming for you…

For further reading, check out my Heavy Sentence interview here!