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Play With Fire
Raise The Shield
Fast guitars, aggressive attitudes. Power metal and thrash combine into songs about sex, rebellion, death and destruction.
Collection Contents
| # | Title | Length | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Fight Ourselves | 3:34 | Play |
| 2 |
|
Play With Fire | 3:45 | Play |
| 3 |
|
Born A Liar | 4:27 | Play |
| 4 |
|
Life Run Cold | 3:34 | Play |
| 5 |
|
Dream | 3:58 | Play |
| 6 |
|
Gods | 3:53 | Play |
| 7 |
|
Darkness | 4:18 | Play |
| 8 |
|
Deathwish | 4:22 | Play |
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Description
Fast, aggresive, and shamelessly balls out metal, Raise The Shield is back for more action with their first full Album, Play With Fire! Raise The Shield take some Metallica, Megadeth and Strapping Young Lad, douse it with import beer and serve it up to the metal masses. If you want a slab of heavy metal to bang your head on, you've arrived.
Raise The Shield is based in Indianapolis, Indiana - an unlikely place for this brand of metal to be born. The bands mix of power metal and thrash is reminiscent of Megadeth, Metallica, Strapping Young Lad and Children of Bodom with an emphasis on big solos and heavy riffs.
Formed in early 2006, The band released its first EP, Shocked Awake in September to strong reviews. Soon after, work began on writing the tracks that appear on Play With Fire. Play With Fire was written and recorded entirely by Dave Cardwell (vocals, guitars, drum, bass and synth programming). Dave has already begun preliminary work for the next Raise The Shield CD which can be expected to be released March of 2007.
Here is a review from Harm.US Thank you Eyeless Sentry!
From the sleepy burg of Indianapolis (i'm assuming it is, Dave Letterman always bags it out on his show) comes an thrilling debut demo album (full-length demo, whatever floats your boat) written, performed and produced by one immensely talented individual, Mr. Dave Cardwell. Mr. Cardwell's success is and will be attributed to his ear for rousing melody and penmanship for thumping rhythms that metalheads crave.
The opener Fight Ourselves is a knockabout thrasher, taking cues from the raucous Metallica of old, fusing together Accept style speed and melody with a strong sing-a-long gang chorus. Excellent. The muscular Play With Fire, laden with some interesting imagery is straightfoward balls to the wall Euro-styled power metal with a strong bass line that Mr. Dave Ellefson would nod his head to. The instrumental section is chock-full of wizardry and as for the chorus - one of the best I've heard in such a long time! The forcefully belted "You want to play with me...Play with fire!" is so simple yet so addictive, nine times out of ten it prevents the next track from being played...at all. Brilliant. Not to say that isn't bad either, Born a Liar is drenched in the spirit of early Megadeth (He does share a first name with Mr. Mustaine after all!) and a hint of the flashier side of British New Wave, captivating from start to finish. Phenomenal. He references old school Kreator and Iron Maiden in Life Run Cold, still maintaining that fervor for vivid songwriting.
Apart from Mr. Cardwell's obvious talents in songwriting and musicianship his vocals are also of great note, since he can jump into a bear suit and growl like a grizzly then into smooth and unhindered clean vocals with a quite impressive range all showcased on Dream. Mr. Cardwell hits the high registers with ease while thrashing out some Helloweenish rhythms and solos. The rest of the album is unfettered in it's creativity and passion for making the old new again, like the L.A. hard rock style Gods, cheeky yet melancholy at the same time - impossible to conceptualize but pulled off with finesse by Mr. Cardwell. Fortunately, the rest of the album remains on a similar inimitable course of excellence with some aggressive Pantera shining through in Darkness and what would have been the song if Dave Mustaine stayed with Metallica in Deathwish; and it's all rollicking and fun to boot!
This is a one-man powerhouse that isn't signed to a major label, and as such has worked within the limitations of self-reliance and has done exceptionally well. The production is of a demo quality but it doesn't interfere too much with the sonic gems found on this disc, allowing the songwriting to speak for itself. What's also so unbelievable is that he composed and played the bass, rhythm/harmony guitars and programmed the drums as well as effects and keyboards without denigrating into self-indulgence, yielding to ouevres of filler to pad up the disc or the all important "staying true" to genre repetitions. He transcends the traditional scope of traditional metal proving it's still a style that with the right fixtures of creativity to it's creaky frame can shine like new again in the 21st century. If you like the old school styles, then Raise the Shield is for you. (Even if it isn't, you should still give it a few spins!) Mr. Cardwell has produced an consistently outstanding album on debut. Hopefully, I suspect with a proper touring band and slicker production they'll light up smiles on major labels' faces. Well done!
Rating: 8.9 / 10
Standout tracks: All!
11/26/2006 Eyeless Sentry