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No Remorse No Retreat - To Glory We Ride review



Reviewer:
7.3

1 user:
7
Band: No Remorse No Retreat
Album: To Glory We Ride
Release date: June 2008


01. Victory Or Valhalla
02. Invade
03. To Glory We Ride
04. Pride
05. Hail The New Sunrise
06. Warriors Call
07. Warrior Queen
08. Hammer Of Thor
09. We Are The Werewolves
10. Your Kingdoms Will Fall
11. Pride [Instrumenal version]

No Remorse No Retreat (they started out as just No Remorse, but changed the name after realizing that multiple bands with that name already exist) is a five-man troupe from Wales, England. And by the looks of it they like to keep their identities secret. There are no pictures of the band and the band members are secret as well, the only thing we know, is that one of the bandmembers currently lives in Japan. The wonderful cover art for To Glory We Ride was done by Jan "Darkgrove" who already worked for bands like Elvenking and Manowar.

No Remorse No Retreat plays "battle metal". But not in the same way as Turisas do. Let's say that Turisas play the folk version of battle metal while these guys play the old-school heavy metal version of it. Obvious influences are NWoBHM bands, Manowar and Motorhead. Lyrically these Britons chose war and Vikingism as their favourite topics.

As for the music; basically all the songs are pretty similar. They all consist of one or two riffs which are all similar to each other as well and the choruses, which are all more or less catchy, sound the same too. The only exception is "Pride" (which is a folk heavy metal song). Surprisingly it works pretty well though! This whole concept would be pretty bad if the album were a bit longer, and actually I still think it would be even better if it were only 35 minutes long instead of 45 minutes. As it is it's a nice album to listen to, but not for two times in a row because after a while the repetitiveness becomes a bit too much to bear, for an occasional listen it's really good if you like this kind of music though! The choruses are catchy (most of the time) and some of the riffs are great as well.

Further I should also add that the production has a very important role here. It makes the whole album sound a bit "unpolished". This makes the whole sound a lot more authentic in my opinion. Recommended to fans of classic (English) heavy metal!

Favourite track: Victory Or Valhalla


Rating breakdown
Performance: 7
Songwriting: 7
Originality: 5
Production: 8

Written by Bas | 20.12.2008




Comments

Comments: 2   Visited by: 67 users
20.12.2008 - 10:02
Doc G.
Full Grown Hoser
When I first saw the name, I was scared it was going to be another silly folk metal band drowned in synths. But your review is pretty accurate about the NWOBHM part (at least from what I can tell of the stuff on the myspace). It sounds nice but your right, I could see this being one you couldn't listen to for extended periods of time. Why does their myspace say they are Black Metal/Goth?
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"I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck."
- George Carlin
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29.12.2008 - 22:46
Rating: 7
Bas
Retired Staff
Written by Doc G. on 20.12.2008 at 10:02

Why does their myspace say they are Black Metal/Goth?

I don't have a clue but as you can hear the music doesnt have the slightest trace of either style...
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BAS - Beautifully Accented Sexiness
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