RECEIVER
RECEIVER “Whispers of Lore”
By Dr. Abner Mality
Man, if ever a band was perfectly designed to play the “Keep It True” festival, it has to be this bunch from the sun-drenched island of Cyprus. You like your metal so classic it hurts? Hunt no more, for RECEIVER are dripping with the influence of IRON MAIDEN and DIO as well as the epic moments of OMEN and MANILLA ROAD. Toss a bit of folkishness and a dash of prog and the recipe is complete.
This is power packed metal that either gallops along in Steve Harris approved fashion or slowly stalks along like the slower OMEN. Speaking of OMEN, the song “Trespasser” has some of the best stately metal riffing since “Teeth of the Hydra”, it’s that good. The female vocals of Nikoletta Kyprianou are quite unique compared to most other woman warriors of metal, but I really like them myself and the quavering, reedy quality perfectly matches these tales of ancient warriors and mythical heroes. RECEIVER has a very “Greek” sound to its music that has to be heard to be understood.
All the tracks are worthing checking out, but I’d say “Starchaser”, the aforementioned “Trespasser” and the fist-pumping final track “Prowess and Decay” are the best of RECEIVER’s output. What’s great about the band is how they manage to be epic and even progressive, yet none of the tracks drag on, with “Arrow” being the longest at just 6:39. And believe it or not, they even cover the theme to the old “Golden Axe” video game! Now how true can you get?
If you like any of those bands I mentioned in the first paragraph, you just have to check out “Whispers of Lore”.