SAVAGE ‘Sons Of Malice’ cd

With the ubiquitous resurfacing of N.W.O.B.H.M bands during the past few years, helped largely I feel by the HardRockHell festival who have been bringing these bands to the stage for the past four years, we’re they find them from I’ll never know, but find them they do.
So here’s another band who’ve returned with a brand new album after a decade-long hiatus, and that band is Savage. Savage in their heyday where right up there with the best of them, Iron Maiden, Saxon, and Diamond Head to name a few, spearheading the N.W.O.B.H.M movement as it took the world by storm . Their early works receiving great acclaim and well deserved media coverage. Now after a ten year break the band is back with this, their new studio release ‘Sons of Malice’.

‘Sons Of Malice’ is just their sixth studio album since they burst onto the scene with ‘Loose And Lethal’ back in 1983, The twenty-first century Savage still features Chris Bradley on vocals/bass and Andy Dawson on guitar, but these days Dawson’s six-string partner is one Kristian Bradley (Chris’s son and Andy’s nephew) with Mark Nelson behind the drumkit.
‘The Rage Within’ kicks of this opus, 13 tracks of pure British metal, and there’s nothing better than a twin guitar attack, and Savage use there’s to great effect, matching this with a contemporary twist in the sound to bring things bang up to date. So what we have here could be the dawn of a new era for Savage, as this is by far the best record they have ever made. There are some nice touches on this cd, some mellow passage’s, and a nod to Clint Eastwood’s ‘For A Few Dollars More’ chiming watch accompanying the spaghetti-western tinged intro on ‘The Hanging Tree’, but overall it’s the sheer scale of the song writing that’s going to break new ground for Savage.
Raw, yet polished Intelligent riffs, and a superb vocal performance from Chris proves that British rock is not dead, and indeed Savage could be the gateway for a new generation of rock fans who missed the NWOBHM the first time around.

This is the sound of a band proving they’ve still got what it takes and ‘Sons of Malice’ should be the start of a whole new chapter in this bands career, and I for one cannot wait.
A hard hitting 8/10

TRACK LISTING
01) The Rage Within
02) Black N Blue
03) Sons of Malice
04) The Hanging Tree
05) Monkey on My Back
06) Junkyard Dogs
07) Blow
08) Waking the Dead
09) Choose Revolution
10) Now;
11) Look At Yourself
12) Master of War;
13) Fallen Idols

myspace.com/savageuk
reverbnation.com/savagemusicuk
facebook.com/savageuk

About David Farrell

General Manager and 'THE' competition guy at planetmosh.com. Manager of The Goddanm Electric www.thegde.co.uk, Tour manager for Serpentine, and ex-general Dogsbody at Hammerfest.co.uk. Media partner to numerous bands. Also takes photos, writes reviews and likes classic rock, with a touch of thrash to get the blood flowing.