IGNITED
IGNITED “Cradle Of The Wicked”
By Dr. Abner Mality
WOW! Here’s a certified banger (to use the currently hip phrase) that kind of snuck up and blew my doors off. The band is an international mish-mash with members from Brazil, Sweden and England and they play a sizzling brand of traditional metal that sometimes borders on thrash. This has got as much energy and crunch as anything I’ve heard recently, even from more extreme realms.
It brings me back to how I felt the first time I heard PRIMAL FEAR. IGNITED is comparable but a little faster and heavier than even the Germans. The title track kicks your ass with blazing speed metal right away and the adrenaline is palpable. A great clear production makes ever instrument shine. It’s also your introduction to the screaming falsetto vocals of one Dennis Lima who brings me back to the days of SAVAGE GRACE and AGENT STEEL. His nasal screams might not be to everybody’s taste on this track, but as the album rolls on, he shows versatility, with a less strident but still impressive Dickinson-type vocal.
“The Overflow” proves the first track is not a fluke...in fact, it’s even better than the first cut, hitting with speed and power like PRIMAL FEAR at their best and also with similarity to BRUCE DICKINSON’s awesome “Chemical Wedding” album. The drumming of Mauricio Velasco slaps! The album shifts into a somewhat lower gear with the chugging crunch of “At The Damned’s Hall” and “Bloody Satisfied” where Lima’s lower register vocals pop. From there, we get more 100% METAL scorchers like the raging “Tear Down The Walls” and the METAL CHURCH-influenced “Abyss of Fear”. “Life Goes By” is the only ballad, but it’s a good one and Dalton Castro’s lead work totally shreds here….as it does on the album in general.
Could IGNITED be a new major force in the metal scene? I can only hope!