BATTLERAGE – Blood, Fire, Steel

Battlerage from Chile embraces Heavy Metal with true love and dedication. As other bands similar to them like Manowar, Wizard, Majesty and lots of other Metal groups that sing, fight and kill for the one thing that is more important than life itself.

Five years after their debut album, Steel Supremacy, and through a live album and a compilation of “Best Of”, Battlerage raged on and released its second album, Blood, Fire, Steel. The album held the same story of Metal praising, fighting for freedom and free will, steel and battles.

The reason that Blood, Fire, Steel receives such a low mark is because of the overall view. Unlike Metal praising or war Metal songs of Manowar and Wizard, it seemed hard for Battlerage to inflict the same electricity that runs through the former mentioned bands.

Here is an example for you: take “Hail And Kill”, one of Manowar’s classics, and do a contrast with “Black Hordes Arise!” of Battlerage. Battlerage tries to be catchy with their choruses because the message is rather simple on those kinds of songs, yet the mass feelings derived from “Hail And Kill” can be felt strongly within a Metal heart. However, the latter just can’t deliver the same feelings of power. Nevertheless, it has a basic structure (not something too complicated to comprehend) and it flows (here and there).

You can do another contrast between Wizard’s “The Head Of The Deceiver” or “Heavy Metal Will Never Die” to Battlerage’s “Wine Of The Wicked” or “True Metal Victory”, and the feeling will remain the same. Experience is not the issue here because various bands, a bit older or younger than Battlerage, were able to uphold the Metal law with success.

The fact that Battlerage had a hard time to inflict the Metal spirit, meets with another factor of their music. It’s unknown if a pair of words like “overly generic” is a strong comment, because that is the best description for Battlerage’s music. However, simpler riffs, especially in Heavy Metal, are rather fun to listen to. Nevertheless, a band just can’t over use them. Battlerage has a wicked knack of playing the same riff, whether it’s a verse or solo rhythm or even a chorus, on most of their songs. Although several of the riffs are cool, especially with their 80s like character (handled by a good sound production), the repetitiveness is killing them and their so called uniqueness. Is the riff arsenal empty in Battlerage’s weapon shop? These guys know how to write songs, however they haven’t displayed their knowledge here as they did on Steel Supremacy.

Blood, Fire, Steel began with a promise in the image of “The Devil’s Wings Bring Fire From Hell”, starts to fall on its middle and drops down to its knees with “True Metal Victory”. This listening experience could have been better because it had a promise within like “The Devil’s Wings Bring Fire From Hell”, “Battlefield Belongs To Me” and the solid “Die By The Power Of The Axe”.