Elegant Weapons - Horns For A Halo.

Elegant Weapons

Horns For A Halo

(Nuclear Blast)

By Paul Davies

            When it comes to creating a band with a group of famous musicians, it’s an immutable fact that expectations will be sky high. Plus, if the right calibre of players sparks a creative reaction from each other then, surely, the end results must be as good as the sum of their fiery parts. Fans need not worry. This is as spectacular a record as one can hope to expect from the combination of Judas Priest’s Richie Faulkner and Scott Travis; Pantera bassist Rex Brown; and ex Rainbow frontman Ronnie Romero. By weaponising these compositions, from Bitter Pill's starting gun, with a scudding sonic attack, there’s an almighty nuclear blast in the fusion of quality songwriting and their sizzling execution. Initial single, Blind Leading The Blind, alerted the metal masses to this formidable army of songs arranging themselves on their listening horizon.
            Horns For A Halo is an emblematic album title, and as a title track it’s a saintly slab of feral metal, for the extremely good heavyweight serried rank of songs delivered with a hefty measure of menaces. The brainchild of Judas Priest guitarist, Richie Faulkner, he leads this pack with adrenalised power as former Rainbow singer, Ronnie Romero, reveals his best studio album vocal performance yet across these ten tracks. As Downfall Rising, Dirty Pig and the smouldering slower paced The Ghost Of You adds a touch of class and further proof to there being plenty of live bangers waiting to explode in venues across the globe There’s no sign of snagging as they swiftly move up through the gears throughout this wild ride. A snarling cover of UFO’s Lights Out confirms this and EW’s well-chosen influences and unrivalled metal supergroup provenance.