Denied: Let Them Burn

With ex-Therion bassist Fredrik Isaksson onboard, Denied have been doing the rounds for around ten years now, releasing between 2005 and 2008 two solid albums of power metal with a strong hint of traditional thrash values. However it is the arrival of Johan Fahlberg - the frontman of German melodic hard rockers Jaded Heart - that finds the quintet (completed by drummer Pete Dolls and guitarists Chris Vowden (Hydrogen) and Andreas Carlsson), stepping things up a gear, with album number three Let Them Burn revealing their true potential.
The plan is simple, take elements of some Metal giants – Judas Priest, Metallica, Metal Church, Vicious Rumors – and add a slight Euro twist ala Primal Fear. Then put the foot to the floor and hammer through ten songs of high octane metal majesty that doesn't pretend to be anything it's not. But then it doesn't need to.

Lead track from the pre-album EP of the same name released last year, "Judas Kiss" hits the ground at full pelt. No warning, no flouncy intro, just simply plug in, turn the amps up to eleven and get the kick drums battering at maximum warp. How refreshing! Fahlberg is a real find considering his far more melodic past, with a real power and passion spitting out through every word, before he proves that he can also mix the smoothness he's known for with altogether fierier outbursts on mid-paced stomper "Dead Messiah". Dolls nails every beat to the floor allowing the bass lines from Isaksson to have a freedom and fluency, although there's no denying that it is Carlsson and Vowden who take this album by the scruff of the neck and give it a violent shake. "Garden Of Stone" eases back on the ferocity, while "Constant Rage" heads in the other direction, but both still somehow manage to have the same intensity and end result - throwing shapes and banging heads as they do so. Then bring to the party the sledgehammer stomp of "Lesser Son", the fret burning "Seven Times Your Sin", where a clever tempo change marks out a cool chorus, "The Black Room" which sounds like less intense Pantera with Zakk Wylde howling and screaming on guitar and the thrust and parry of "In Hell" which closes things triumphantly, making Let Them Burn a beast of an album from start to finish.

Some will point out that not much on the third offering from Denied, which in many cases actually (very successfully) reworks tracks from the band's first two releases, could be considered new, or innovative. However every now and then a band comes along who operate at such a convincing level, that the fact they work within an already well plundered field matters not a jot. No one can deny that Denied are one such band.

Stack the fire high and Let Them Burn!!!

Track Listing
1. Judas Kiss
2. Dead Messiah
3. Garden Of Stone
4. Constant Rage
5. Until The End Of Time
6. Lesser Son
7. Seven Times Your Sin
8. Nothing Is Sacred
9. The Black Room
10. In Hell

Added: March 29th 2013
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Denied on facebook
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Language: english

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