Album Review: Blazon Rite – Endless Halls of Golden Totem (Gates of Hell Records)

A year after the release of their Dulce Bellum Inexpertis EP, Philadelphia’s Blazon Rite returns with their first full-length, Endless Halls of Golden Totem, a triumph of true metal power!

The album is out on May 28th 2021 via Gates of Hell Records.

Unashamedly paying tribute to the heady classic days of heavy metal, Blazon Rite saddle up and come bearing down upon the world like harbingers of the apocalypse. Endless Halls of Golden Totem is all about dusting off the tight leather, head-banging until the crack of dawn while raising a fist in the air in a defiant way. Blazon Rite are championing ‘true’ heavy metal and all they require is for you to worship at the altar of it.

You’ll find it very hard to not give them what they want. Especially if heavy metal runs through your veins in the same way it does them.

A very no-nonsense approach, Blazon Rite bring grand riffing, intense bursts of speed and soloing. Alongside clean and epic vocals, backed up by noisy bass hooks and thumping drums. It’s a blast and a lot of fun. That being said, it’s just that. A fun throwback that is not going to have much longevity about it regardless of how talented Blazon Rite are.

That might sound harsh but it’s not meant to be. It’s simply that Endless Halls of Golden Totem is purposefully old-school and while traditional heavy metal never dies, it has certainly got a bit creaky these days. There’s no innovation here, it’s simply eight head-bangers and that’s never a bad thing even if it’s not exactly exciting.

Blazon Rite – Endless Halls of Golden Totem Full Track Listing:

1. Legends of Time and Eidolon
2. Put Down Your Steel (Only for the Night)
3. The Executioner’s Woe
4. Endless Halls of Golden Totem
5. Alchemist’s Brute
6. The Night Watchmen of Starfall Tower
7. Consumed by Glory Light
8. Into Shore of Blood

Links

Bandcamp | Facebook | Gates of Hell Records