Sometimes a band falls out of nowhere like a ton of bricks and your senses are left shaken and stirred. Well, that’s sort of the reaction I got and the ton of bricks happened to be called No Remorse No Retreat.

‘Battle Metal’ is how the band describes its music, though, apart from the lyrics and imagery, it’s not the typical Battle Metal associated with more well-known bands of the genre such as Finntroll, Turisas or even Manowar. The style of No Remorse No Retreat comes across as Metal stripped down to its basics and consequentially has a old-school vibe to it. What’s certain is that “Warbringer”, the band’s 2^nd album, is as cathartic as Battle Metal gets.

Harmonised and anguished vocals, downtuned instruments and riffs as heavy as fuck characterise the album. And boy, I do mean heavy – in particular, opener ‘Will Of Iron’ contains the most stunning riffing I’ve heard since ‘Fighting The World’.

While the production is great – the drums sound particularly good – I found the mixing inconsistent, particularly the vocals which at times seemed to need a bit more focus. Bonus points go to the excellent artwork, courtesy of Singaporean dude Jumali Katani.

For many years, British (true) Metal was virtually comatose as labels and media obstinately insisted on pushing a whole bunch of insipid bands. It’s great to know that there are now guys like No Remorse No Retreat amongst the resurgence of British Metal.