After rekindling the flame back in the depths of 2008 after a seven-year break, the London based pedal to the metal five-piece Heavy Metallers Airforce bring forth their first ever live release with a strong wave of attitude, intense determination and a purely heavy grit that incredibly sets off the noises of air raid sirens with a sublime ease. Consisting of the Steve Harris heavily influenced bass player Tony Hatton, lead axeman Chop Pitman, the vocal soaring Portuguese frontman Flavio Lino (Master Spy) and the legendary Doug Sampson (ex-Iron Maiden, Ides of March) on the tubs; Airforce do not take any inches of time to mess around and they produce an elegant amount of quality throughout the duration of musicality on offer on the strength by strength Live Locked N’ Loaded in Poland Lublin Radio.
With only two records of material released from the Brits, there are so many hidden gems dwelling amongst this enlightening twelve-track playlist and they are most definitely hard ‘n’ heavy that simply work wonders to spread a consistency of pleasure into the pits of the crowd. Moving forward with the solidified tracks like the catchy mid-tempo grinder ‘Son of the Damned’ and the tasty riff explosion of the wonderfully constructed ‘The Fine Line’; they comfortably hit all the right marks to make this a very good quality outing indeed. Everything here neatly gels so well together and it is coming across like a warmly welcomed affair that for me from just listening to the whole of this live debut it leaves me undeniably shocked in how such a quality range of Heavy Metal anthems are delivered to this standard from the guys in Airforce ever so gracefully and smartly.
Crashing through the barricades, muscular entries like the phenomenal face Melter ‘Why Has it Come to this?’ and the fiercely disjointed rhythmic drive of the coolly-crafted ‘Heroes’ steers the ship into the classic New Wave of British Heavy Metal territory, and that for me is the gift that just keeps on giving to make this collection of unruly episodes to be a group of real winners from the offset. Other highlights come in the shape of the strikingly groovy effort ‘Band of Brothers’, the unique presence of the slower emotive ride of ‘Lost Forever’ rising from the abyss of ‘The Black Box Recordings: Volume 2’ and furthermore, the crunchy chop smothered spectacle ‘Life Has Turned to Dust’ that chargingly hails from the 2020 album ultimately known as ‘Strike Hard’.
On the whole, Airforce take no prisoners from the word go and they together have launched a splendid offering from the roots of a live performance perspective that commandingly works wonders for them as a unit and for those fans who love this genre of music. Moreover, I really hope these guys release some more records in the near future and I must state that it makes me even happier listening back to this because I was already familiar with some of these numbers prior to hearing this new gathering of tunes as I was lucky to catch them back in December on tour with Steve Harris’ (Iron Maiden) British Lion in Bristol, England - and let me tell you this, they were absolutely superb live and I must notably add that Flavio is a fantastic frontman that suits the band immensely well!
Track Listing
1. Fight
2. Life Turns to Dust
3. Fine Line
4. The Reaper
5. Heroes
6. War Games
7. Son of the Damned
8. Band of Brothers
9. Lost Forever
10. Why Has it Come to This?
11. Finest Hour
12. Sniper
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