Thanks to Nikhil Talwar, one half of Death Valley Knights twin guitar attack, for getting in touch and sending me a copy of their Nothing Left To Steal EP to review. According to their Facebook page, Death Valley Knights is a London based heavy metal band, channelling the sound of Motorhead, Judas Priest, Metallica, and Iron maiden into a crushing attack of modern metal. Oh, and apparently they like “Rock, Beer, Rock, Beer… long walks on the beach…”
So what’s the EP all about then? Big sound, big drums, big everything really. Five very powerful cuts of right between the eyes heavy metal with a bit of a retro feel (not hard to confirm those influences) and quite some considerable skill. It’s not loud for the sake of being loud.
Did I mention the drums are big? I did and they are. Booming indeed. Sets the tone for the skull-crushing. Steve Brill punches out some very powerful staccato drumming. For those of you who like to (ahem) “play along” you’ll be happy here. Drums to the fore….
Tongue of Fire has an infectious riff which sticks with guitar breaks a-la Sin After Sin Judas Priest. Very Downing/Tipton. Very good too. DVK and Before the End rip it up too with that big, ballsy sound and those drums again. One could almost compare it to a Saxon/Motorhead hybrid with some of the riffing and soloing not entirely unlike “Fast” Eddie Clarke.
The title track is waiting to become the stage classic. Straight ahead powerful fist raising sing along ode to the genre: “there’s only one constant in my life and that’s the need to rock out constantly…….bang your heads and throw the horns, down your beers and rock together. Shakespeare it is not. A great listen it is. Once in your head, never out.
The closer, Promises, starts off all nice and (relatively) quietly with a spot of rumbling bass and gentle guitar twanging. Perhaps it’s going to be the token love song/hit single attempt……………..oh no it’s not…………BOOM in come the guitars properly with a killer riff backed up by those big drums and rattling bass. Monster, monster sound and some fine vocal histrionics too from Jake Thorsen. A very well put together almost seven-minuter full of venom and excellent guitarrrrrring. Fast, skilful, changes of pace with feeling. A bit prog-metal. Megadeth even. Awsome.
Listening to this a time or seven one picks up on different things. It’s far more than a wall of sound (first listen). Death Valley Knights have a fine EP here with nods more than a little back to the NWOBHM days (all today’s proper British metal/rock can be traced back to NWOBHM, right folks?) but with a modern feel, a huge sound and very skilful musicianship.
If you like your metal, you’ll like this. It’s proper stuff.
Check out the band’s Facebook page and do the right thing (that’s buy the EP by the way….)