SPLIT HEAVEN – Street Law

Old School Metal knows the rules of the streets, and some of its honored servants include Mexico’s Split Heaven. After three years since their last studio record, these muchachos are back with their third release of Classic Metal meets Speed Metal in the image of Street Law. As it seems to be, Split Heaven may live up to be the North American Enforcer.

You can say that Street Law practically has the same merits as their earlier release, Psycho Samurai. Split Heaven remains loyal to what makes Old School Metal kicking, and their decision to preserve their way of writing music in such an order is a cause for admiration. The energy is still there and there is still the smell of youth, just like back in the 80s. Split Heaven has their way of sounding wild, young, and free.

Vocalist Valenzuela still high pitches with glory and slowly he reinserts himself as one of the top vocalists of the sub-genre. The guitar duo Zelbohr & Ramos is something else as they generate yet another line of amazing NWOBHM melodies along with solos in the line of early Priest and Maiden. Hernández is like the Steve Harris on the album, even if he isn’t in front, and Mr. Roitman didn’t bother to show mercy with his awesome ’80s-oriented speeding & pounding.

In a way the sound production was a little better their previous album, and boy it sure sounded like 1986.  However, there were a few things that should be worked on so the next release sounds even better. Mostly the issues surrounded the mixing process — hopefully the sound engineer will take heed and make necessary improvements.

Split Heaven are very talented as performers, however, they should have taken originality under consideration. Songs like “Red Light District”, “Time Warrior”, “Lonewolf” and “Street Law” are good and brought back memories of better periods of Metal. Nevertheless, Split Heaven should try to infuse their admiration of Old School Metal with elements that would make their music a lot more original than it is now. They don’t even have to undergo a change that would send them to a different Metal realm, like Modern Metal for instance. Overall, Street Law received a “lower” grade than maybe it would have received otherwise, because the album just didn’t “excite” as much as their previous one did.

On the other hand, whether original or not, it is good to have a band in the mix such as Split Heaven. Their material in general is good and it has some great moments. With their talents and Old School motivation, perhaps one day they will be striking gold.

Tracklist

1. Time Warrior
2. The Devil Isn’t Fool
3. Night Of The Jaguar
4. Street Law
5. Servants Of The Light
6. Lonewolf
7. Road To Nowhere
8. Red Light District
9. Nightfall
10. The Obscure

Lineup

Eligio Valenzuela – Vocals
Pedro Zelbohr – Guitar
Armand “Hank” Ramos – Guitar
Tommy “Drumdestroyer” Roitman – Drums
Taii Hernández – Bass