NWOTHM

Sweden’s Ambush is an interesting band, probably, better than most of their newer wave trad metallist pals that worships in the altar of Priest and Maiden. But these kids also seem to be mixing more melodic stuff, ie Dokken, Riot (the hard rock side) and Scorpions to the mix.
 
On their third album they seem to be running in parallel to their countrymen in Enforcer, trying to clean their act up, showing of as much versatility as the genre and it’s rather dumb crowd may afford them.
 

I had the chance to watch Burning Witches perform, at Sweden Rock Fest, but I decided to pass the chance of watching their performance in full. I might be big on classic metal, but taking a quintet of nice looking ladies who feel like they jumped out of a Stryper or Bon Jovi video, fashion wise, who want to sound like Priest and Warlock, but end up sounding more like Crystal Viper and the like, is not exactly my definition of a fun day.
 

Ironflame have been a going concern for the past few years, the brainchild of well-traveled multi-talented instrumentalist and vocalist Andrew D’Cagna (newly minted in Icarus Witch but also member of a myriad of other bands), who seems to be a real one man band, with an ensemble of musicians helping out with live performances and a quick succession of some three albums since their conception in 2016 including the current one “Blood Red Victory”.
 

I was so highly unimpressed by the over the top cos-play power “metal” of Sweden’s Brothers Of Metal, that I easily decided to give em a pass at Sweden Rock fest after a momentary pass by their stage proved to be a futile experience and as another band that I actually wanted to watch was performing at a different stage. I thought they were exactly the type of band that Napalm would sign and cherish. Ohh Napalm.

A couple of weeks ago I was whining as usual, discussing with our dear editor in chief about newest releases while getting links to them and also exchanging gossip about the scene when he sent me a link to this – of all things Chinese Speed Metal combo… I sort of dismissed the notion, going like – a Chinese speed metal band – wtf… but intrigued; I sort of went to their bandcamp page and pressed play… I was expecting some really mediocre result and while Dressed To Kill didn’t set my world on fire, all the way, I was left thinking wtf… these guys are a