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Night Dances

      
         
         
         
     
             
HI-GH are a thrash/speed metal band from Italy formed in 2012, releasing their debut E.P. 'Loud Frequencies On Planet Jupiter' later the same year, and debut full length album 'Night Dances' in 2013.    
             
With twelve songs on offer across fifty minutes, 'Night Dances' has a lot to offer - 'Das Boot' opening with a few ominous "pings" and a menacing doom heavy crescendo that's so full of tension and anticipation the hairs on the back of your neck is gonna stand up tall! 'Das Boot' never really gets going until after two minutes when the band hit the accelerator to race off at top speed, an air of thunder coming to the fore! And maintaining the pace, 'Faster! Faster! Faster!' does exactly what it says - the band getting faster and faster, setting the mosh pits on fire with a furious head banging assault. The title song 'Night Dance', is a heavy riff driven hard rocking metaller, spanning the thrash, rock and traditional heavy metal genres. Opening up the bands music to a very wide audience, HI-GH deliver one of those unique genre breaking border hopping songs. Brave for a new band on their first album!    
             
The curiously named 'Zig Zag Shaped', shows signs of the bands punk influence, melding a raw feel with the early eighties sound of bands such as Motorhead, Girlschool and Rock Goddess - HI-GH displaying a varied range of influences. Swerving back in the direction of thrash metal, '501st Legion' ups the tempo and speed to new levels, powering on at high velocity to bang the head of every metalhead in the world! The blistering pace is red hot here, the band maintaining it with 'Hydra', featuring one of the best guitar solo's on the album. There's also tension and varying moods across 'Hydra', the Italian outfit keeping a tight grip on listeners attentions.    
             
Stretching their musical horizons more than at any other point on the album so far, 'Let Me Know' boasts a bluesy hard rock feel to it! Yes readers - bluesy hard rock! On a thrash metal album! Not unheard of, just uncommon, HI-GH once again widening their audience to new widths. The band show their punk influence once more with 'Unleash The Beast', a fast paced fury of all out speed and attitude, and if it wasn't for the clean vocal delivery, you might be forgiven for thinking 'Unleash The Beast' was a Motorhead song. But if 'Unleash The Beast' was Motorhead, the instantly recognisable voice of frontman Lemmy would give the game away! Landing fairly and squarely right in the heart of thrash metal territory, 'Freeway Madness' is frenetic and fierce with the most aggressive vocal performance heard so far!    
             
And with HI-GH thrashing harder than ever, 'Night Dances' storms on with the fastest song on offer, 'You're Going Down (Under The Ground)' roaring down the motorway at full throttle to wreck the necks of every single head banger around the world! No-one is safe from the bands blistering turn of speed right now, 'HI-GH (You Can Roll It For Me)' returning the hard rocking nature of earlier and mixing it with punk overtones - all the while keeping the pedal firmly pressed to the metal. Probably the fastest song the album has to offer, 'HI-GH (You Can Roll It For Me)' is a superb song for head banging to! And bringing the album to a close, 'Mind's War And Peace' clocks in at over eleven minutes in length, featuring err, erm, something! Not sure what the bands intention was here, but the song never seems to get going, doesn't appear to have any rhythm, and is loaded with so many special effects, it's really difficult to distinguish what the song is actually trying to achieve.    
             
Overall, a mix of thrash, punk and hard rock resulting in an album of fast paced rock songs that will please many and disappoint few.    
             
             
Review by Iron Mathew Collins    
             
Reviewed for Vlad Promotion    
             
             
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