Lethal Saint: Lethal Saint

As the demand, or at the least the volume of bands producing music inspired by the NWOBHM seems to grow and grow, so does the variety of locations from which it comes. Lethal Saint are a young group (their average age is around 20) from Cyprus and this is their self titled debut. Packing a sound that is firmly based in Iron Maiden bombast, Saxon head banging and Judas Priest shrieking, the band have written some reasonably smart, although completely derivative retro sounding late seventies metal.

Unfortunately the problems with Lethal Saint lie elsewhere. In this day and age of pro tools, it is slightly misfortunate and unusual to hear a group of musicians as overtly exposed by their lack of experience. To be completely honest it is a little confusing as to how a band that so blatantly need more time rehearsing and honing their skills on stage, should come to be releasing an album in first place. Almost everything about this disc screams unprofessional, and from the very first moment you clap eyes on the hand drawn cover that looks like the scribbling of a proud five year old, you are left wondering if what is contained inside will be ironic or incompetent. Sadly there is definitely none of the former and all too often bags of the latter in evidence here. There's the odd bum note during the guitar solos, a drummer that from time to time sounds like he's forgotten which song he is playing and a singer who is as likely to be flat as he is sharp employs a bizarre and at times simply laughable vibrato.

Considering the genre that the band are attempting to work within and the fact that English is undoubtedly not their first language, the clichéd and direct lyrics can easily be forgiven and forgotten, however when they are wrapped around such a confused and sloppy musical backdrop it just adds to the general feeling of shambolic execution and under prepared songs.

Being fair, and the reason for the two marks awarded below, the actual riffs and rhythm guitar work aren't too bad and in the hands of a more adept band, songs such as "Heavy Metal Nights" and "Midnight Warriors" could be enjoyable metal romps. Hopefully the plan for Lethal Saint is to hit the road and stay on it as long as possible so they can work on the basic skills needed to cut it in an extremely crowded market. Otherwise album number two could and possibly should, be a long way off.

Track Listing
01. Chains of the Devil
02. Final Prayer
03. Thunder Strikes
04. Evil Inside
05. Heavy Metal Knights
06. You're a Sinner
07. Night of the Sin
08. Rock 'N' Roll Survivor
09. Visions in the Night
10. Midnight Warriors
11. Wild in the Night
12. Lethal Saint

Added: June 24th 2010
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Band's MySpace Page
Hits: 2223
Language: english

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