Helstar

A combination old style Maiden metal band crossed with a faster, technical Slayer variant hailing from Houston, Texas. Amazingly played and intensely composed; wonder why in my years growing up there I never heard of this band. -- My loss, certainly.

Nosferatu

Production: Relatively clear in an eighties metal sort of way: you can hear the voices and the guitars, and in the background are the drums with the bass tucked up into the second guitar track.

Review: This is powerful stuff: a maidenesque structure built strong with fine elements of speed and death metal, a merging of the modern and the classic. i'm tempted to call it a 'more progressive Painkiller' (Painkiller, by Judas Priest, is their album of modern metal styles merged with their older vocabulary) but that's not fair.

The guitar work on this is intricate and beautiful while not being effete and hard-rock like most so-called 'progressive metal' bands. There is rare understanding of composition and guitar playing on this album.