HEROD kick it hard. We are talkin’ an IRON MAIDEN sort of hard. Add to that some old school thrash and a dash of power metal. Like MAIDEN they have a badass bassist. Unlike MAIDEN they make use of double kick drums instead of the single bass boomer. This works for them. The guitars have very little originality to them. I would say this may a slight bit more than a minor quip, but the six string’s sonic shunts hardly attenuate the overall heroic HEROD hurrah. The band really reaches their potential on cuts such as “The Fire” and “The Ring”. Vocalist Jason Russo really peels the paint off the walls on “Grand Design”, although it’s not one their better compositions here. He keeps it up (hell he surpasses it) on the next and final (perhaps best) cut here “Journey of Creation”. The band puts in their best performance and end “Rich Man’s War…Poor Man’s Fight” with power and class.

Some of these tunes are better than others, but even HEROD’s weaker compositions are quite attractive. With a couple of brewskies and they are down right sexy as well. Maybe not quite as sexy as the female fronted WIDOW. That less serious camp-ridden ensemble shares a similar musical vision to HEROD, even if their songwriting skills are not quite as refined as these guys…yet. Here’s to a killer, no filler beer gurgles and goggles good time. I feel like I just scored and you will too if you believe in tha metal.

- Herring

OFFICIAL SITE: myspace.com/herod

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