Written by: Gareth Endean
Band:
Album Title:
Release Date:
Defender
Dying To Live
Out Now
Young German up and comers Defender describe themselves as one of the sharpest spearheads of the new generation of ‘True Metal’ bands. It is a bold claim and one they do their level best to back up on their debut album Dying to Live, but can they live up to their own hype?
The confidence of their press release is matched by their music, Defender demonstrate a laudable and exuberant commitment to the classic metal sound but despite the steady growth of the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal across the globe, it is a style that has always played better in continental Europe than on these shores. However, Tailgunner’s rapid ascent shows there is definitely a hunger for old school metal over here and Dying to Live is perfectly poised to sate that hunger.
The band set out their stall early in the piece, the opening title track has a brief, atmosphere building intro before it bursts into life with full throttle guitars and drums almost daring you not to start windmilling your what’s left of your hair. This is followed by the introduction of powerful, urgent vocals racing towards the inevitable big chorus. Yes, it’s formulaic and yes anyone who has listened to late seventies or early eighties metal will be able to see what’s coming from a mile off, but it’s also a truly glorious celebration of all the things that made heavy metal fun in the first place.
And it keeps on coming, as Dying to Live ends, Survivor starts and it’s back into the breakneck riffing with barely a pause for breath. And again, you know what to expect, to the point that you could probably sing along to the chorus before you’ve even heard it, but again you’re unlikely to care as the grin spreads across your face. And then they go again for the third track and the fourth and…well you get the picture. Riffs riff, solos solo, drums batter you insensible and your head keeps banging along.
Defender write music to break the speed limit to, pedal pushed firmly to the floor and no slowing down for corners. It is heady stuff – you can almost smell the sweat-stained denim of it all – but the unrelenting and repetitive nature of the music means that a few of the songs in the middle of the album do get lost amongst the maelstrom. It’s not that there is any appreciable drop off in quality it’s more that an element of fatigue sets in – for the listener, the band remain resolutely indefatigable – and it is not until the Scorpions-meets-Black Album strains of Neverland kick in on track six, that we get some much-needed respite. The song itself is middling at best, a fairly standard ballad that never really gets going, but it acts as a firebreak, resetting your brain so that when Granite Heart comes barging in with it’s big fist pumping vocals and whirling solos you’re ready to dive back in. Suddenly you’re spotting the nuance in the songs that you’d perhaps missed in the initial rush and it all makes so much sense. They stick resolutely to the traditional speed metal template, never straying into the dungeons and dragons excesses of power metal, and there is no hint of parody or pastiche that is seen in many modern bands of this ilk. Defender play it straight and do a damn fine job of it. They’re not aiming for any kind of intellectual response, seeking only a pure, visceral reaction. The adrenalin-fueled, feelgood nature of the music is impossible to sit still to and their sheer swagger helps paper over the fact that you’d be hard pushed to say what any of the lyrics really mean other than they all sound very metal indeed. And honestly by the end of the album you probably won’t care, like a rollercoaster ride it’s all about the thrill of the moment and you don’t need to dig much deeper than that. And this is all on an album, imagine how it must feel live!
Dying to Live is far from perfect but what it sets out to do it does in spades, you would have to be a pretty hard-hearted music snob not to enjoy its old-fashioned charms. But if Defender really want to keep the true metal flame alive they may need to add a few new twists to their faithful recreation of the old school sound because although it’s all very enjoyable while it lasts, there is not quite enough here to make it stand out from what has gone before. You probably won’t be unstitching the Maiden back patch from your battle vest just yet but that’s not to say you won’t be trying to find a little bit of space to squeeze a small Defender one in somewhere…
