Rating:

(Indica, 2005) If Priestess are trying to put their best foot forward, they must think their best foot is sheer volume and velocity, because “I Am The Night, Colour Me Black” doesn’t waste any time in presenting an aggressive four-man attack. Things lighten up a bit on “Lay Down”, and it’s here that we see their true best quality: vocalist Mikey Heppner. Not only do Heppner’s range and timbre perfectly carry Priestess’s ’70s-influenced, hook-laden brand of metal, but he has a real knack for the subtleties of vocal performance that draw a listener in. That, and his lyrics never veer into the cringe-inducing territory so common among heavy metal. Backing Heppner’s vocals is a stellar twin guitar attack and a rhythm section as content to show off in 4/4 as they are to accent the odd shifts in meter the band employs (most noticeably in the chorus of “Time Will Cut You Down”). Overall, Hello Master is an album that successfully sneaks the pop back into metal; stay through the pounding appeal-to-the-metal-heads opener and you’ll be treated to the catchiest rock ‘n’ roll this side of, well, Zeppelin’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll”.

 1. I Am The Night, Colour Me Black
 2. Lay Down
 3. Run Home
 4. Two Kids
 5. Talk To Her
 6. Time Will Cut You Down
 7. Everything That You Are
 8. The Shakes
 9. Performance
10. Living Like a Dog
11. No Real Pain
12. Blood

Buy album

– Quinton

This 4-beetsreview was posted on April 18th, 2006. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.