01. Blind Wolf02. Heat Lightning03. Above The Law04. The Fight Of Your Life05. King Of Tidies06. Franklin County Line07. Let’s Spill Some Blood08. High Threshold For Pain09. When The Will Becomes The ChainWhile certain media outlets are clearly addicted to the illusion that old-school metal is something that happened in the past, the reality is that there has never been a more fruitful time for propagators of the old way of doing things. One of the most powerful and convincing retro bands around, SANHEDRIN, have been gaining momentum over the last decade with a series of albums that did such a strong job of evoking metal’s formative era that they could have easily been beamed here from 1981. Led by Brooklyn legend Erica Stolz (ex-HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE / AMBER ASYLUM),they are an incendiary power trio with an absurd amount of groove and swing, and songs that draw from proto-metal, doom and gleaming, classic metal. What, as they say, is not to like?After three widely acclaimed albums, “Heat Lightning” is the most concerted effort yet to propel SANHEDRIN up the metal ladder. Their second for Metal Blade, it has by far the best sound of any of their records to date. Wonderfully live and organic sounding, these nine songs cover a lot of dynamic ground, which gives Stolz’s magnificent voice the perfect nuanced but rugged backdrop. As indebted to classic rock as they are to straightforward heavy metal, SANHEDRIN are great songwriters, and these are some of the finest songs they have written to date. “Blind Wolf” is a suitably bombastic opener, fueled by the New Yorkers’ loose-limbed chemistry and possessed of a rousing, rough-hewn chorus, but it is the following title track that really hammers home this band’s mastery of their chosen form. Classily melodic, it sounds like the missing link between two decades, magically transported into a third and newly emboldened by metal’s enduring appeal. In contrast, “Above The Law” is a snotty, yob metal throwback, with a driving, lobotomized central riff and a vocal from Stolz that suggests she might quite like to drive a motorcycle through the front wall of your house for the sheer hell of it. Like some electrified counterpart to MONTROSE’s “Bad Motor Scooter”, “Above The Law” is indecently exciting and tougher than leather.Elsewhere, “The Fight Of Your Life” is like some long, lost outtake from UFO’s golden era, but with undercurrents of dirty, street metal, and a blistering solo from guitarist Jeremy Sosville. “What are you doing with that axe in your hand?” enquires Stolz, before noting an intention to do some throat-cutting: as elegant and imperious as this album is, it still has dirt under its fingernails and vitriol in its veins.An obvious centerpiece, “King Of Tides” is the album’s most adventurous conceit. Gently proggy and as bruised and brooding as anything from the last two AVATARIUM albums, it has echoes of certified classics like MAIDEN’s “Remember Tomorrow” and PRIEST’s “Beyond The Realms Of Death”, and a main riff that co-opts post-SABBATH cliches and turns them into something newly vital and vigorous. Again, Stolz commands the attention with another visceral but soulful vocal, and Sosville’s bluesy meanderings are undeniably lovely. Thereafter, SANHEDRIN knuckle down for more of their trademark revitalized nostalgia: “Franklin County Line” is fast, furious and subtly DIO-esque; “Let’s Spill Some Blood” is a chip off the old NWOBHM block, but as airy and nimble as the best ’80s radio-rock; “High Threshold For Pain” is defiant, dogged and knee deep in doom; and the closing “When The Will Becomes The Chain” is a macabre, seven-minute sprawl with a simmering sense of tension and portentous lyrics that Stolz spits out with great relish.Throughout it all, SANHEDRIN are a living, breathing, red-blooded three-piece heavy rock band with nothing to prove but the strength of their creative resolve. “Heat Lightning” is an uncomplicated listen, but one greatly enhanced by its creators’ obvious passion. This rocks. No discussion required.[embedded content]
