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PATXA
Just Heavy Metal

Maldito (2024)
Rating: 6/10

Now, this is what I call a self explanatory album title, Just Heavy Metal. Patxa is a dose of pure steel from the Basque Country, and this is their debut full-length album. The record features song titles like ‘Children Of Metal’, ‘New Metal Blood’ and ‘Steel Soul’, so if any album out there is going to prompt you to raise the horns and rock then surely it’s going to be this one.

Named after vocalist Patxa (aka Francisco Javier Navarro Ramos), the five-piece only formed last year so I was interested to see how this album panned out. ‘Children Of Metal’ opens up proceedings and it’s immediately apparent that the production is a bit thin. Where I expected beef I got wafer thin chicken which results in a rather mechanical sound, meaning the instruments seem compressed and bereft of warmth.

Even so, the Spanish band throws in a glistening mix of speed and power metal, at times bordering on the emphatic with ‘Sacred Elf’ which acts as a tribute to Ronnie James Dio and is built upon a foundation of stormy percussion. ‘New Metal Blood’ is as equally bombastic, trudging with its strong spine of bass and drum, but again the guitars refuse to catch fire, somewhat drowned in a frozen, colourless lake. I do, however, enjoy some of the mid-tempo moodiness, particularly the chugging Gothic atmosphere on ‘My Spirit Ablaze’ where the vocals boom like thunder.

The galloping title track boasts the traditional vim and vigour you would associate with Iron Maiden and the likes before shifting gear towards a thrashier segment. It’s all very clear and concise heavy metal that comes coated in a layer of sometimes unwelcoming ice that bridges the gap between classic heavy metal and Teutonic power, circa Grave Digger et al.

A song such as ‘Honey Drops’ showcases the band’s melodious streaks, although the vocals maintain their grit, and the same could also be said for ‘Where Dreams Take Wing’ which fuses Manowar with a less convincing Dio and Iron Maiden. It’s still the usual galloping scenarios, brisk but formulaic, although how main man Patxa didn’t start laughing during the music video for ‘Steel Soul’ is beyond me; just him in a dark misty room is the epitome of a cheap video, and it’s a shame because it’s a reasonably strong track in spite of the mechanical sound.

This debut offering will no doubt pull in the crowds who like pure, if somewhat anaemic heavy metal. The power is here but just not as dominant in certain aspects, although if you can put that aside then Patxa may appeal.

Neil Arnold

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