Stallion – Rise And Ride.

Hailing from Southern Germany barely 12 months ago, 5 piece band Stallion already have a set full of strong songs. Their 1st demo was recorded in June 2013, a 6 track EP was released in October and in September 2014 their 10 track thrashtastic debut album Rise And Ride will be available via High Roller Records. For such a young band this a very strong debut and any fan of power/thrash metal will not be disappointed.

The title track blasts in with a buzzing intro guitar riff and the demonic spoken word piece is joined by an ear splitting scream (the 1st of many) from the iron lungs of lead vocalist Pauly. His range is astonishing and Stallion’s live videos on Youtube show he can reproduce his vocals onstage with ease. A chugging riff follows with heavy hitting dynamics right behind it with big backing vocals on the choruses and some neat Maidenesque twin lead breaks midway. A very impressive opener! Without pause for breath, ‘Wild Stallions’ jumps out of the speakers with it’s  raging thrash metal intensity crossed with NWOBHM overtones which speed nicely along until the band  take their foot off the pedal briefly midway with some thumping grooves. ‘Streets Of Sin’ has a vintage mid paced heavy metal Accept like main riff with the vocals almost like Vince Neal only with a much higher range.

The opening riff of ‘Stigmatized’ takes us to ‘Gung Ho’ era Anthrax in an adrenaline rush but switches to hard rocking riffs in the verses with some fast footwork from drummer Aaron. ‘Canadian Steele’ is all headbanging heaven as the main ‘It’s Electric’ like main riff is backed up by some intense, driving rhythms. ‘Bill To Pay’ sounds heavily influenced by early WASP with Pauly capturing Blackie’s infectious vocal rasp. Some molten melodic guitar solos midway lead into a pummeling breakdown  as the main riff ends another high octane number. ‘Watch Out’ is another killer anthem with a fist in the air chorus with touches of Thin Lizzy in the harmony guitar lines.

‘The Right One’ courses along on  early Annihilator like intense riffing over yet more thunderous drum work. Some of Pauly’s screams on this number are his highest on the album. ‘The Devil Never Sleeps’ is probably the weakest track for me on Rise And Ride but the ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ main riff gives it a solid base.  ‘Wooden Horse’ is a strong closing track as it hurtles along like a slower ‘Painkiller’ and ends in over the top guitar solos from Axxl and Oli, competing against  more banshee screams from Pauly! Hopefully Stallion will tour the UK very very soon.

Stallion band line up :-

Pauly – Lead vocals.

Axxl – Guitars.

Oli G. – Guitars.

Niki – Bass guitar.

Aaron – Drums.

Album track listing :-

Rise And Ride.

Wild Stallions.

Streets Of Sin.

Stigmatized.

Canadian Steele.

Bill To Pay.

Watch Out.

The Right One.

The Devil Never Sleeps.

Wooden Horse.