Blood Hails Steel - Steel Hails Fire

Nearly a year to the day after their debut EP (Niralet), Switzerland's Megaton Sword are back with their first full-length album, Blood Hails Steel—Steel Hails Fire. Epic metal is still this band's stock-in-trade and every song is gloriously old school. There is nothing remotely "commercial," no attempts to round off rough edges, just thundering drums, crisp guitars, and unique vocals. Speaking of the singing, Uzzy Unchained has improved quite a bit from Niralet, where he was all over the place. On Blood Hails Steel—Steel Hails Fire, he's still gifted with a voice that is rather distinct but has worked out his vocal lines to be more complimentary to the music. His soaring shouts combine with the music to create images of grand vistas and epic battlefields. There are no bad tracks here, but I have to say that the closer, "The Giver's Embrace" is Megaton Sword's best song yet. It runs the gamut from quiet and pensive to the marching rhythm of legions on the march to bombast in a tidy six-and-a-half-minutes. This is an excellent album that fans of epic and traditional metal should be investigating posthaste as Megaton Sword is rapidly making a name for themselves in the traditional metal genre.