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TRAVELER
Prequel To Madness

No Remorse (2024)
Rating: 7/10

Back with a cosmically crap album cover, the Calgary, Canada-formed metallers Traveler return with their third full-length studio album to attempt to enchant my eardrums. They succeed, partly, because it’s a rather airy opus boasting crystal clear baritone vocals and a sound that’s tighter than the lycra I tried to get back into recently, but failed miserably.

Traveler are what they are, glossy metallic and high energy new wave rockers that drift along with a fiery buoyancy akin to some lithe stellar craft elegantly gliding through the clouds. Of course, it’s not lightweight rocking; Traveler still hits hard with its riffage and pierces the skull with the solos. Streaks of thrash merge with energetic contemporary nuances, and this time Traveler sounds more brisk and efficient, mainly because the songs are shorter this time around.

‘Rebels Of Earth’ is a rip-roaring standout song, as is the emphatic closing title track which speeds and screams like a fighter jet glinting in the sun. Naturally Rob Halford of Judas Priest springs to mind with the vocal highs, and you will also get flashes of bands like Riot City. ‘Dark Skull’ is a barnstorming track, as is ‘No Fate’ and the boisterous ‘Heavy Hearts’, and yet with every chug, every fizzing solo and every vocal cry I’m still left with an icy chill.

I just tar Traveler with the same dismissive brush as so many contemporary metal acts which come and go like draughts in the night air. This is effective heavy metal, thunderous at times, but my attention begins to wander with every screech.

Neil Arnold

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