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BLACK ROSE
WTF

Pure Steel (2022)
Rating: 9/10

I never saw this one coming and I’m all the better for it. Black Rose has been around for what us Brits like to call donkeys’ years. They formed as Ice out of Middlesbrough, England in 1976 and kept that moniker for four years before changing to Black Rose. The 80s were relatively kind to them although only two full-length albums emerged, first being 1984’s Boys Will Be Boys which was followed three years later by Walk It How You Talk It. The band split in 1989 but returned in 2003 but by that point I’d lost them to the fog of time, not realising that in 2010 their third opus, Cure For Your Disease, was issued.

Like a lot of re-emerging bands, the Black Rose line-up does feature original members in Steve Bardsley (vocals / guitar) and Kerry Nicholson (guitar), while Paul Fowler (drums) who initially joined the band 1987 before leaving two years later has been on board again since 2016, and Kiko Rivers (bass) was recruited in 2003. Earlier in 2022 saw the addition of lead singer Ash Robertson with Bardsley taking more of a backseat vocally, although Robertson doesn’t appear on this latest album.

Now, Black Rose remind me somewhat of fellow New Wave Of British Heavy Metal monsters Holocaust in that while extremely important to the genre they’ve been somewhat overlooked over the years, while bands such Judas Priest, Saxon and obviously Iron Maiden have marched on through the decades. However, this new Black Rose opus – and the last few Holocaust releases – should go some way in showing that there’s still a lot of great UK metal out there and it shouldn’t be missed.

WTF is more than just a sterling effort, and just one spin of opening track ‘Crazy Mental Bad’ reveals a band that hasn’t lost any heaviness. In fact, they are a far heavier band now than they’ve ever been. There’s also a dark, brooding streak that runs through this release as well as some fine lead work and a juddering percussive display from Fowler. Forget all this new wave glossy imitation crap, Black Rose lays waste to all the pretenders in just one swoop with this mighty metal opus. ‘Crazy Mental Bad’ may have an almost glammy chorus with its shouts, but it’s essentially a gargantuan headbanger that just stomps.

‘Devil’s Candy’ combines a traditional rock glide with a modern day, high-octane dynamic brim-full of tumbling percussion and weighty bass. Damn, if this had been released around the same time as, say, Skid Row’s Slave To The Grind (1991) we’d be singing its praises decades later, but as it stands this is fearsome contemporary heavy metal riddled with heavyweight rhythms.

And the quality keeps on coming. The title track is streetwise and swaggering with angry vocally snarls, ‘Pain’ is gloriously melodic and nifty but always hefty at its core, and ‘Innocence’ chugs like a Testament track sparring with modern day Saxon while the vocals have a sleazy edge.

As this album unravels you start to realise just how juddering it is, and in whatever tone it takes it never sacrifices fire and steel. ‘Twist The Knife’ is one of the albums fastest tracks and again I refer to the killer axe work as the band borders on Teutonic power metal with those soaring vocals, while ‘Tattoos & Lipstick’ is just downright crushing in its approach, and ‘Never Take Me Alive’ has a ballsier, struttin’ groove.

There’s just so much kick and attitude throughout this opus. Sure, it’s a world away from the band’s 80s platters, but this is evolution in the making with a track such as ‘Broken’ hinting at a grungier vibe and I can only marvel at its structure as Black Rose flirt with glittery 90s Mötley Crüe. And as ‘Armageddon’ rings out with sirens to close the album I’m scorched by another galloping ball of rampant steel.

WTF doesn’t care for nostalgia, instead it pummels and demands and leaves you utterly blitzed and transfixed by its assuredness.

Neil Arnold

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