By Jim Rowland
Dying Victim Productions are experts at unearthing obscure metal nuggets from the mists of metal time to give an album worthy of our attention a second chance. That’s the case here as they take the short trip back in time to 2009 and the sole album from Michigan’s Harbinger, entitled ‘Doom On You’. Originally released on the Planet Metal label on CD only, here it gets a worthy vinyl release for the first time.
Around the time of this album’s original release, there were quite a few young bands both in Europe and North America taking inspiration from the original NWoBHM blueprint, injecting a touch of speed metal, and producing cracking albums of raw, fast and furious old school heavy metal with complete authenticity. It’s not too surprising then that at one point Harbinger were sharing stages with some of those bands, notably Sweden’s Enforcer and Canada’s Cauldron, two bands they had a lot in common with. So, if you liked the likes of Enforcer, RAM, Cauldron and Bullet at the time, ‘Doom On You’ is an album you should definitely be checking out.
‘Drivers To Hell’, ‘Poser Patrol’ and ‘Iron Rulers’ all put the foot down on the metal accelerator for a full velocity, punchy metal onslaught, whilst the likes of ‘The Dark Ages’, ‘Black Hearted Woman’ and ‘The Blood Of Heroes’ aren’t quite as speedy but still deliver quality heavy, pounding old school heavy metal. The early Maiden-inspired twin guitar attack is prevalent throughout the album, with the Maiden influence particularly strong on ‘Mourningstar’ and ‘Die For Metal Live For Death’.
Several of the album’s nine tracks start with some sort of dialogue taken from films or TV shows, all metal related, with the best of the bunch being the intro to ‘Harbinger’ which starts with some of the classic lines taken from the original ‘Bad News’ Comic Strip episode, which shows that while Harbinger rocked hard, there was a sense of fun in there too. The track itself if perhaps the most catchy and melodic moment of the album.
Fairly soon after the release of ‘Doom On You’, Harbinger called it a day and laid the band to rest, with all the various members going on to different bands and projects, but collectively they left behind one stonking slice of high energy, fierce old school heavy metal they can all be proud of.
- ‘Doom On You’ is released on 22 April. You can get your copy HERE.
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