Charred Walls of the Damned - Self Titled (3/5)

01. Ghost Town 04:56 02. From the Abyss 04:25 03. Creating Our Machine 02:53 04. Blood on Wood 03:26 05. In A World So Cruel 03:31 06. Manifestations 03:06 07. Voices Within The Walls 03:48 08. The Darkest Eyes 03:37 09. Fear In The Sky 05:43

Hey, remember that guy Richard Christy? Used to be the drummer in Death and then Iced Earth, before effectively dropped off the metal radar and went off to be a celebrity on the Howard Stern Show in the USA? Well, he’s back. Charred Walls of the Damned is Christy’s heavy metal supergroup, and after almost five years away from music, this self-titled debut album provides a pretty strong reminder of the man.

Of course, it’s a risky business, the Supergroup - they often fail to live up to expectations, and inevitably fall apart when the parent bands have reunions. Attempting to break this trend by working not only with the very best, but with former band-mates, Christy has brought along former Iced Earth colleague Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens, who really begs no introduction. Just in case you need one, though, he used to be in Judas Priest too and currently tours with Yngwie Malmsteen. Yeah, he’s quite good.

Former Death, Iced Earth and Testament fretless bass-master Steve DiGiorgio and guitarist/producer Jason Suecof fill out the lineup; if you haven’t heard of Suecof, he produced the last two Trivium albums, and DevilDriver’s (*cough* best *cough*) album ‘The Last Kind Words’. Going on the evidence on this album, he’s also a pretty amazing guitarist - the shredding that he, Christy and DiGiorgio embark upon in opening track “Ghost Town” should win over anyone who’s still wondering who they are. So, yeah, this really is a Super-Group, looking at the individuals involved…how does the music pan out, though?

The answer is…pretty well. It is quite predictable, I’ll concede - you’re always going to know exactly what to expect from a band featuring three former members of Iced Earth, really. It’s fairly straight-forward heavy/power metal, with plenty of ludicrously high-pitched vocals, frantic, galloping drumming and riffs, and a selection of wild guitar solos. Only the absence of keyboards (and, yes, duelling keyboard/guitar solos) and perhaps some veiled references to Lord of the Rings stop this from falling perfectly into the cheesy power metal bracket.

Christy is on the kind of form you’d expect from a drummer of his pedigree throughout, providing a staggeringly precise hailstorm of double-bass and fills. While it’s steeped in the classic galloping double-bass style, Christy keeps his playing reasonably varied and interesting - nothing distracting or jazzy, obviously enough, but nothing monotonous or repetitive either. The ‘Ripper’, too, puts in his usual performance, never missing a note nor beat, and reaching levels of pitch that mortal men never approach without trapping vital parts of themselves in zippers.

“Ghost Town” serves as a perfect introduction both to the album and the band in general - it’s a microcosm of an album which lives and dies by the “ain’t broke/don’t fix” code, wall-to-wall breakneck riffs and drumming, wailing guitar melodies and wild solos, and even-more-wailing vocals. While there are some slight variations in pace, there are few in tone - the biggest change-up would be a song being led by the bass rather than the guitar, but that’s about as far as Charred Walls of the Damned are willing to experiment.

At only 35 minutes and nine songs long, the album is a bit on the short side - but hey, so is ‘Reign in Blood’. And you don’t hear many complaints about that. In the end, I reckon it’s just about the right length, really - as fun as cheesy heavy/power metal is, you need a strong stomach to take it in for very long. And being as there’s not a huge amount of variation present here (to put it lightly), it actually helps that things don’t drag on at all - Charred Walls of the Damned simply do what they do, and bugger off before you’ve got a chance to get tired of them.

This is a pretty simple one; if you really liked Iced Earth, you’re going to really like Charred Walls of the Damned. By the same token, if you can’t stand Iced Earth, you’re not going to find anything to love here… All in all though, Christy - and indeed Owens, DiGiorgio and Suecof for that matter - has come up with a storming return to the musical scene, and this is even a rare good advert for the concept of the Supergroup. The level of experience throughout the band ensures that the album is a solid, professional effort, and even if it’s not the most imaginative thing you’ll ever listen to, if the Iced Earth style is your cup of tea then ‘Charred Walls of the Damned’ certainly won’t disappoint.

Charred Walls of the Damned is available to buy or download at Play.com

Genre : Power Metal

Article by Phil Sim