VALKYRIE’S CRY – Valkyrie’s Cry

This is a Canadian band of four strong warriors: the theatrical screaming phantom – Dip Evil, the crazy guitar hero and songwriter – Lord Justin Godin, the lord of the bass – Lord Killian and the mighty drum machine – Kaveh. These guys don’t mess around and they will do everything within their power to take the throne of Metal.

If it’s connected to Viking stories of bloodied wars, valor in battle and the untamed human rage of the warrior, it belongs to not just a Valkyrie but to the Valkyrie’s Cry. The warrior Vikings of the Metal state in Canada, Ontario, have been fighting and killing with their Traditional Heavy / Speed Metal music since 2004. Ever since the group was formed, it’s members tried their best to present common Heavy Metal of the 1980s in a somewhat different light. Valkyrie’s Cry came out with attempts to create a rather complex sort of Heavy Metal while not stepping into the Progressive world of Metal. That aspect is a true quality to be proud of.

This self-titled debut album, which was released by Pure Steel Records, is necessary for any 80s Metal fan or collector out there. The question is why is the album only given 7.5 on this review? With all of Valkyrie’s Cry’s excellent features as a professional group with wonderful players, who made wonders with the raw material, there were a few pieces which were left out or ignored. The main matter is the production. As an 80s lover and a huge fan, this production style is amazing, it truly shows the roots of all that is Heavy Metal and the greatest example on the making of the old sound and that special mood in the music. Nevertheless, the band and its producer should have checked themselves out before printing this one.

As a famous issue within productions, there is the consistency matter. During the album, there are more than a few markers that clearly indicate that the mixing and mastering works weren’t perfect – which means almost total inconsistency. Whether the aim was to create an old influenced album or something else, mixing and mastering are important. To be more exact, the drums occasionally shadow the guitar, the bass overwhelms almost every instrument (besides the vocalist that is the commanding feature all around the release as it was in the 80s) and sometimes the snare is all but gone or as if it was non-existent in the first place. Everyone knows that you just cannot ignore this kind of stuff, which is why mixing and mastering are taking a huge length out of the total recording / finalizing schedule. It’s sad to say, but in many ways, the album sounds as if it was a live recording session with a poor overall work by the producer. It’s almost unnecessary to say that this kind of a recording, with these kinds of flaws, ruins the listening experience in a way, especially when one knows how 80s Heavy Metal sounded like.

Nevertheless, the band’s members are high-quality players and when it comes to the material itself, with all the production problems aside, there is something to be excited and proud of. With the paramount hard work, this self-titled album shows complex and different structured Heavy Metal full of energy and supremacy, you can say that it was forged of steel and blood altogether under Dip Evil’s amazing screams and Godin’s excellent writing skillfulness. In a general view, the attacking and composite riffs, the fanatical drumming, passionate bass line and maniacal vocals create a Heavy Metal heaven, yet not everything is cherry. There is a repetitive sense within the material such as the unstopping arpeggios, as if there are no other technical passages left but them. In addition, not all of the songs are great, partly because of the inability to hear some of their attributes because of the dire production work.

Largely, you can enjoy the album and you can get used to the production flaws in time. There are several pleasurable tracks like the cracking “Iron Sword”, the Heavy Metal outbreak of “Black Knight”, the complex like tune of “Jotunheim”, the traditional “Berserker”, the Speed Metal fest of “Ride Of Sleipnir” and the inner strength of the self-titled track.