---

An interesting band this Battlecross. I already rewarded their 2011 album 'Pursuit of Honor' with a nice rating and was very curious if they were able to top that one. Well, I'm not sure yet, but it surely has the same high level. In general the songs are a bit slower and sound groovier. Again singer Kyle Gunther uses different singing styles like growls, grunts and screams.

What makes this band different from the lot are the guitar soli. Tony Asta and Hiran Deraniyagala play classic soli in Iron Maiden style. The band Children of Bodom passes by in the song "Never Coming Back", but fortunately the other songs have an identity of their own. Take a song like "Flesh and Bone", with 80's thrash elements and excellent guitar work. The grunting sometimes makes you wonder if this is a death metal band, but they surely are not. There are melo-death elements, but in fact Battlecross is a thrash band that uses some death metal influences now and then and combines that with early eighties twin soli and a certain contagious groove.

I advice you to listen to the bass guitar lines ("Wage of War") and you will discover that Don Slater is a very important  member in this band. In my opinion there are a couple of not so great songs like "Never Coming Back" and "The Will to Overcome" that bring the rating down a bit, but lucky enough there are enough songs that please me a lot.

Thrash mixed with kind of Maiden harmonies and soli on a bed of melo-death.

---