Sometimes, all the person needs to do is take one glance at an album cover and know that madness lies within. What do we have here… a cyborg Tyrannosaurs Rex standing atop a pyramid with some scantily dressed ladies tied to stakes amidst a thunderstorm? But wait… there’s more! Amazonian women dressed in next to nothing whilst some dudes launch a… spaceship? This is exactly what Ültra Raptör have achieved with their debut album ‘Tyrants’.
There’s a lot to take in with that cover alone and that’s before the listener even gets to the music, but with a cover that good, how can it be bad? What Ültra Raptör deliver here is actually an excellent album of heavy metal with enough speed to make Lemmy grin like the Cheshire Cat. This is Canadian trad metal to its fucking core as tracks such as ‘Gale Runner’, ‘Take Me Back’ and ‘The Quest for Relics’ ooze the panache of the likes of Exciter, Skull Fist and Riot V whilst touching on a European sound with Evil Invaders and even Running Wild as each track delivers pedal to the floor and fist in the air traditional heavy fucking metal.
For those well versed in the trad metal scene, they’ll know what ‘Tyrants’ sounds like and there are no sonic surprises here. But, for a debut album, Ültra Raptör knock it right out of the park and hopefully the band can keep that momentum going into their next release.
