WILD - Sin Piedad

Released August 22/18 (Fighter Records)

This is the third full length from Spain's Wild. For those reading who are fans of old school heavy metal and power metal, this Spanish language effort is for you. The quality of the writing, recording and playing on this album is nothing short of excellent. Sin Piedad ("Without Mercy") starts, continues and ends with songs that move easily from grinding Judas Priest-style heavy metal to Helloween-style speed metal.

Javier Pastor and Jaime Nunez's guitar work is stellar throughout, and is the backbone of this album. Jose Garcia's vocals have just enough of a hint of gravel in them to avoid a totally clean sound. Heavy metal vocals should sound a little dirty and Garcia does have a good set of pipes.

Two minor complaints are that the Juanma Castaño's bass is too low in the otherwise excellent mix, and Niko Fernández's drums are over-produced, as often happens in albums with speed metal influences. Why is it that really fast metal drummers sound more like drum machines than humans these days?

Stand out tracks include the title track and Venganza. Bad tracks include....none of them!

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