AIRSTRIKE
AIRSTRIKE "Power In Your Hand"
By Dr. Abner Mality
AIRSTRIKE is four metalheads from Poland playing what they like and what they grew up on. There are some clunky moments on "Power In Your Hand" but I found this album to be really endearing. AIRSTRIKE wear their hearts on their sleeves and their tunes are bursting with the flavor of old METALLICA, older SLAYER and 80's German heavy metal. Self produced and self released, it's got the honest scent of diehard fans just plugging in and banging their heads.
"First To Fight" comes ripping off the tarmac with the roar of the first two METALLICA albums, brash and lusty. Over the course of the album, this is perhaps the influence that sticks out the most, but AIRSTRIKE don't stick to that alone. "It's a Trap" for all the world sounds like an out-take from OVERKILL's "Horrorscope"...specifically "Thanx For Nothing"...and shows blatantly that singer Daniel Zub's first language is not English, as he pronounces "trap" as "trup".. Zub is not a really skilled vocalist but he's an earnest one and he reminds me a lot of somebody I just can't place.
"You Got To Go" slows the intensity and is much more of a hard rock song, complete with bluesy guitar solo. It breaks up the middle of the album nicely, as does the steady chug of "Don't You Dare". This is where AIRSTRIKE's debt to old German bands like CUTTY SARK is paid in full. Following this, the album lumbers to the finish line with longer cuts like the title track and "Keep Them Away". These run a little long for my taste and Zub's breathless vocals become awkward, but damn, these songs just have riffs for days, especially "Keep Them Away" which starts with full on SLAYER worship.
What metalhead could hate stuff like this? AIRSTRIKE just hearken back to the glory days of metal and it's such an honest, unpolished recording of metal fans playing what they like...go grab it if you see it!