“After hearing the chainsaws on a daily basis, we knew it was time to act”, says musician-turned-activist Sylvain Demercastel, “because the buzzing is only getting louder”.

It’s no secret that the rainforest is essential for us to live. It’s been referred to as the lungs of the Earth for very good reasons; but due to humans and our greed and hubris-centered minds, the rainforests are being obliterated at breakneck speed.

Raising awareness for anything isn’t easy these days, but thanks to determined folks like the members of Savage Lands, the word is being shared on festival stages across Europe: leave the rainforest alone!

Founded by Sylvain Demercastel and his buddy from Megadeth, Dirk Verbeuren in 2022. Savage Lands and the help of their music, the 501 © (3) non-profit has preserved 100,000 square feet of forest in high-risk areas along the Costa Rican coastline.

My favorite Heavy Metal album to raise awareness for anything is of course, Stars, the 1986 album from the  HearN’Aid project. The amount of talent contained in that album (it featured Dio among others) made it an attention grabber, to say the least. Savage Lands Army of the Trees is the best to way to raise awareness for the Costa Rican coastline.

How’s the music? “Black Rock Heart (feat Kai Uwe Faust, Chloe Trujillo)” is a pile driving force of nature, Black Metal vocals over a striding beat reminiscent of 90s mid-paced Black Metal. Army of the Trees is chock full of incredible names in the realm of Extreme Metal. The core band: Poun – Vocals, Sylvain Demercastel – Guitars, Etienne Treton – Bass and Florian Pons – Drums with “special member” Dirk Verbeuren (Drums on “Black Rock Heart”, “The Last Howl” and “Out of Breath). Oh yeah, there’s guests out the wazoo: Kai Uwe Faust – Vocals (Black Rock Heart), Chloe Trujillo – Vocals (“Black Rock Heart”, “Out of Breath”), Alissa White-Gluz – Vocals (“Ruling Queen”), Kenneth Andrews – Guitar (“Ruling Queen”), Andreas Kisser – Guitar (“The Last Howl”), John Tardy – Vocals (“The Last Howl”), Maria Franz – Vocals (“No Remedy”) and finally Lord Of The Lost – Vocals, Guitars (“Out of Breath”).

Army of Trees also features Steeven Corsini (Loco Muerte), Auré Jäger (Akiavel), David & Viber (Sidilarsen), Niko Jones (Tagada Jones), Julien Truchan (Benighted), Stéphane Buriez (Loudblast, Sinsaenum), Nils Courbaron (Bloodorn, Sirenia, DDC) and Aurelien Ouzoulias (The Beat Factory, Mörglbl).

Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Adair Daufembach at Daufembach Studio in Los Angeles, the sound is massive which adds to the hammering home of their message. “Ruling Queen” (featuring Alissa White-Gluz,and  Kenny Andrews) has an Alice in Chains feeling to it which takes the song to a sublime level that will catch your attention right away. It’s moments like that that make me enjoy this album even more after multiple listens and I mean multiple… all day. Needless to say it’s already one of my favorite releases this year.

“The Last Howl” (featuring John Tardy, Andreas Kisser) is hands down my favorite song on Army of the Trees. Tardy’s vocals are fucking vicious, this guy has only gotten better with age and combined with the legendary Sepultura guitarist make it a brutal gut punch that reaches in and rips your spine out, like a pissed off (insert deadly Costa Rican animal here).

“No Remedy” (featuring Maria Franz) and “Out of Breath” (featuring Lord Of The Lost, Chloe Trujillo) are center pieces. The former is a bit more of the Alice in Chains vibe while the latter is a fucking beat down, Chloe Trujillo has a voice that could soothe any savage beast and she’s on fire here.

“Better Man” has a nice chug to it and it sets up “Never Be Up” a sort of poppy (not the artist) Motorhead feeling, if you can believe that. It admittedly isn’t my favorite song, but that’s just me and it doesn’t take away from loving the rest of the album.

The title track has a significant Halestorm feel around the growling vocals. It’s one of those uplifting ones that make you feel all-powerful and the insane solo pushes it along. For some reason, I think about the Ents from Lord of the Rings… can’t really understand why that would be.

“Visions of Life” and “Addicted” are the final hits you get from Savage Lands Army of the Trees. The former is a quick thrasher while the final track brings a very radio-friendly tune. It builds towards the crescendo and while it’s not my style I still enjoy the hell out of this track.

At the end of the day Army of the Trees is an enormous album. Despite the tracks that I guess I didn’t really get; but within the flow of the record they make perfect sense. I don’t really see the need in a for fans of section, I mean if you like the performers featured here then you’ll eat this up.

If you’d like to donate, you can do that here https://savagelands.org/donation/

This is a noble cause. Protecting the earth is paramount as it’s the only home we have. I commend Savage Lands for undertaking this fight.

[Visit the band's website]

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