Blitzkrieg - 'Unholy Trinity'

(Metal Nation)

Blitzkrieg may not be household names like their NWOBHM brethren Judas Priest, Saxon and Iron Maiden, but they have built up a strong and loyal fanbase over the course of a long career dating right back to 1980! I would say this long out of print album is essential for fans of the band who missed its original release.

After listening to this re-issue of Blitzkrieg’s 1995 album ‘Unholy Trinity’ it makes me wonder if this album was ten years too late or ten years too early. Given the musical landscape in the mid nineties this brand of old school NWOBHM wasn’t exactly as popular as it once was and indeed it was a good while before this style would have accrued a steadier fanbase after the turn of the millennium.

It feels like an album out of its time, even in 1995 this would have felt extremely retro. It has lots of Iron Maiden touches to it, but also has a lot of other strong similarities to bands like Judas Priest, Saxon and The Sisters of Mercy. ‘Taking Care of Business’ is taken from the Judas Priest book of song writing but there are some varied styles on display and I actually prefer the hard rock feeling songs than the metallic ones.

There’s no surprise their choice of cover song on this album is Venom’s ‘Countess Bathory’ (complete with guest vocals from Cronos) as this album contains a lot of goth style song writing. One of my personal favourites is the highly melodic ‘Field of Dreams’ which is one of the tracks that highlight’s their goth song writing most clearly.

I’m sure guitarist Tony J Liddle had a field day writing and performing these tracks as there are plenty of solos and strong metallic guitar work for him to get his teeth into. Vocalist Brian Ross might not have the greatest range or vocal versatility but I did quite like his tone and approach, and while he doesn’t have that deep tone that goes well with goth like Andrew Eldritch (The Sisters of Mercy) he does do that ethereal goth style well within his own vocal tone.

‘Unholy Trinity’ is nothing special in the grand scheme of things but it is an extremely solid and entertaining example of very old school heavy metal and as such I highly recommend it to hardcore fans of the style.

7/10

Essential Track - 'Field Of Dreams'

Review by Woody