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Somewhere around I still have a school diary dating back to the mid-1980s that is replete with hand-drawn band logos scribbled on during endlessly boring lessons. Well, I'm pretty sure one of those logos is that of Overdrive. A very long time had passed since I last heard the Swedes - so much so that I reckoned "Angelmaker" might as well be an album from a new band. Naaaah, not really!

The music is raw, heavy, melodic and with distinctive old-school dynamics. And by 'old-school' I refer to the way European bands forged Metal 3 decades ago - I'm thinking of bands such as Grave Digger, Samson, early Iron Maiden and Warlock. There's even a song called 'The Wavebreaker' which sounds like a photocopy of 'Beyond the Realms of Death' (by Judas Priest). So zero marks for originality. But you know....who cares! This new Overdrive album is actually great fun and, again on a personal level, the aforementioned Priest song happens to be one of my faves so I wasn't too much bothered by that or any other obvious similarities the songs exhibit.

The rating given is an attempt to put this album on the same line of fire as any disparately-sounding Metal album. If, however, you've got any affinity with the brash Metal of yesteryear then you might not want to miss "Angelmaker".

Note: not to be confused with the NWOBHM band of the same name.

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