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BANDIT
Metal Infantry

Self-released (2023)
Rating: 4/10

If you find a spare half an hour then why not immerse yourself in the debut full-length album from Bandit. This is the brainchild of Slovenian musician Robert Balordo who is joined by drummer Anže Kamen for what is essentially a straight-up metal offering doused in speed.

Unfortunately, this outing wears thin after just a few listens, a bit like one of those low-budget indie releases I was thrilled to find and spent too much money on back in 1987. What really lets this opus down is the vocals which lack tune and sound as if Balordo is out of breath.

Musically, it’s your standard racing metal that gets the mind conjuring images of rusty fortress gates guarded by knights in glinting armour. The subjects most certainly haven’t changed since the 80s and the metal revival scene just gets more and more prevalent, but in the case here not necessarily stronger.

The track ‘Heavy Metal’ is pretty atrocious, and again it’s those terrible warbles that will defecate in the ears. Balordo does okay with his steely axe work, but this sort of attempt at iron-clad metal shouldn’t have really made its way past the demo stages. ‘Iron Hand’, ‘Surrender Or Die!’ and ‘Shadow Of The Night’ sound like they were recorded by a bunch of frustrated teenagers, while on ‘Hellburner’ Bandit sounds like a bog standard European metal act dismally covering thrashers Vio-lence.

Bandit is somewhat of a curio for the avid metal collector. However, I cannot help but dismiss such a tepid and tuneless wreck.

Neil Arnold

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