NO REMORSE NO RETREAT – To Glory We Ride

Heavy Metal, in general, always had an obsession with Warrior tales, especially when it was involving conquests, knights, and Vikings, or just other fictional stuff. No Remorse No Retreat march with sharpened swords and axes along the same themes plus extras on the way.

Originally named No Remorse, the band was formed in England in 2007. Since their arrival, the five chaps haven’t released any official material until To Glory We Ride was born and released not a while ago. The group’s style is rather unique, combining the old NWOBHM along with Viking / Folk Metal elements. In addition there are some minor Stoner Metal Ingredients a’la Motörhead and Alabama Thunderpussy. The Truth be told – these guys do it the old fashioned British way and that’s a guaranteed fact.

The production, on this piece, is no less than perfect for the band’s purposes. The sound production is good as well and it really gives the feeling of the early 80’s just with a more renewed sound and a whole different way of sound engineering. While analyzing the instruments, one can find that the guitar’s sound has a similar sound to the NWOBHM movement (between the years 1976-1983) and various forms of the sharper edges of 70’s Punk a’la Sex Pistols. Another thing that is amazing and, definitely, marks this band as pure old school British Heavy Metal, the drummer is not using any shred of double bass drums. This factor is something that is very rare in Heavy Metal today when the speed and rhythmic drumming has weight in the genre.

The material is basically, very simple for NWOBHM without any various complexities. The song’s structures are pretty solid based and one can easily recognize the role of every verse without knowing it. The riffs are simple, with a small sense of melody; there is the usage of Folk instruments such as a violin and a flute. The best example is the Folk song, “Pride” that opens the door to a different world full of ancient atmosphere. Inferring from the song, it sounds like old Celtic music that is mostly common in Irish bars.

Regarding the lyrical section, the songs, as expected, discuss bravery (Pride), invasion (Invade), hails for power (Hail The New Sunrise, Your Kingdoms Will Fall and Victory Or Valhalla) and features of warriors (Warrior Queen and Hammer Of Thor). There is one song that is excluded from the rest and that is the horrific, “We Are The Werewolves”. All these lyrical themes are well associated with bands such as Manowar, the German Wizard and many other Folk Metal groups like the Finnish Korpikklani.

However unique this release is there are some troubles with it. First, there is the musical part. If the band’s claim is to play it old school Heavy Metal, where are the solos? Almost all the songs are rhythm based without any breakpoints, the songs just keep on going with nothing amazing to happen. The most notable solos are on songs like:. “Warrior’s Call” and “Victory Or Valhalla”. Second, there is the repeating rhythm. As was mentioned before, the song’s structures are pretty solid based, but the problem starts when the structure has, in most songs, only one or maybe two rhythms. One plays the part as the lyrical verse rhythm and the other, if it’s around, plays as a chorus. For example: the song, “Invade”, is ruled only by one rhythm that is performed in different variations. The self titled song, “To Glory We Ride” joins the latter. “Hail The New Sunrise” is a great example for a two rhythm song, one as the main rhythm and the other as the chorus. The main result from all these faults is that these songs can bore listeners. The better way is to be more diverse. The old school Metallers of Britain were rather complex with their material, even Motörhead had some measure of complexity.

Turning on to the band, there is nothing too much to say about this group, that no info can be found on them, not even their names. These gents are performing with greatness and everybody knows his place. The one that is interesting is the vocalist that sings with a raspy toned voice with fluent British English with an accent. This guy is great in all the album’s songs. As one can notice, his vocal style is much more similar to Lemmy of Motörhead than any other NWOBHM singers from that time.

The songs of this release are just okay because of their lack of spiciness. There are several which have a way, potentially, to become real headbangers. The opener, “Victory Or Valhalla”, is a great song for opening the album, giving it a head start point with NWOBHM style riffs and a well done chorus that can be a great sing along. “To Glory Ride” is no more than a catchy song, it doesn’t have too much content but still makes the job done. “Hail The New Sunrise” is a well done song but it lacks a well done solo to go along with it. “Your Kingdom Will Fall” is the best song on this release, not as catchy as the opener, but it has more than two riffs in it and really sounds like an old school song.

No Remorse No Retreat can be proud of their debut. There aren’t many bands that would want to go to the earliest era of Metal as they did. This release can set an example for them on how to go forward and produce more than good releases. These guys have the flame and they can easily do it.