SIGN OF THE JACKAL – Heavy Metal Survivors

vote
6.5

• Bands:
  SIGN OF THE JACKAL
• Duration: 00:39:22
• Available from: 11/22/2024
• Label:

• Dying Victims Productions

Although, as we will see, this third album by Sign Of The Jackal from Trentino is anything but difficult to digest and understand – starting from the title which immediately gives us a certain idea of ​​the proposal – it must be said that at the first listens we were rather cold in comparisons of this “Heavy Metal Survivors”, compared to what then happened after the album found its place in the world of our playlists.
Not at all difficult to digest, as we were saying, as the music of the Rovereto band falls into a heavy metal that couldn't be more classic, proudly 80s and comparable to the so-called NWOTHM.
In fact, the quintet religiously refers to a musical and visual imaginary, which recalls teased hair, falsetto voices and patches on the vest, and takes up – in a perhaps not too personal but certainly genuine way – a bit of everything that can be done by many grand act of that decade so extraordinary for all of us; obviously this involves a certain conformism, which is evident from the first turn on the player, but if we overcome the first impressions of the band as a 'photocopy' of many others, in the end what remains is an album that is quite pleasant to listen to, certainly not capable of shaking who knows how much but which we don't even mind having as a background.
In some cases the quotationism is very evident, among refrains that seem stolen from Motley Crue or Metallica in “Kill'Em All” (such as in “Breaking The Spell” or in “Slaves Of Hell”), but the examples could continue; it also shines through in the use of Laura Coller's voice, which harks back to a somewhat dated and typical way of singing of the bands of the time, a voice which, however, becomes almost characteristic in its being almost dated compared to many current bands.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing, if we take the project for what it is, that is, a robust tribute to a musical genre, passionate and genuine, certainly enjoyable in the live version, played and interpreted in a technically impeccable manner, with some successful moments (“Shocker ”, “Buio Omega”) and others a little less memorable. Formally, in short, “Heavy Metal Survivors”, although a little less wild than it would like to seem, cuts a dignified figure without exaggerating, is pleasantly gritty but never bites at the throat as it would like, and ultimately travels on a decorous sufficiency, which will certainly increase, we imagine, live.