Mythra. One of my personal favourites from the original New Wave of British Heavy Metal days hit us hard with Warriors of Time, the Anthology. A wonderful album containing remastered versions of thirteen of their cuts from the good old days plus five snappy sounding new songs as the band continue their reformation.
It is one of my long-time regrets that my copy of the classic Death and Destiny EP was lost many years ago. Now all the songs from that are here on Warriors of Time including the fist-pumping huge chorused brutality of UFO and the remarkable Death and Destiny itself.
Mythra “rock” hard. Top class NWOBH back then and still sounds fresh and relevant forty or so years later. The rifferama general bone-crunchingness (I think I’m making words up now…..) are terrific. I may have to call my dentist to have a few fillings put back in.
Fast paced heavy hitting mostly short and snappy songs with proper bite and some very tasty, frenetic guitar work. Check out Heaven Lies above, New Life, the aforementioned UFO and Vicious B*stards for example. Then check your fillings too.
Here’s another example. The video for At Least I Tried. Fast and furious indeed.
Mythra can do the more sensitive stuff too. The slightly soulful and sensitive Together Forever has a moody feel to it with some nice changes of pace and hefty soloing followed by the strangely prophetic Machine and how technology has won the day. We’re probably not far off it today but Mythra saw it coming years ago…..
And so it goes showing how good Mythra were back in the NWOBH heyday and posing the question why a band with such chops didn’t get the breaks. They are not unique in that respect – many are on “should have been bigger” list though at least we can all now enjoy what they boys offered up here on Warriors of Time which is perhaps best personified by Death and Destiny which closes out the old stuff.
Then the five new songs. Excellent stuff. Listen to “You” as Vince spits out the chorus and The Best is Yet to Come. And perhaps it is for Mythra. Let’s hope so.
You old NWOBHM fans like your author will not want to miss this. You younger bucks should, I recommend, snap it up too and learn what a proper band sounds like and how influential NWOBHM was and still is.
>> MYTHRA WARRIORS OF TIME ON AMAZON HERE <<
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