Are you tired of the great thrash revival that is going on these days? If you answered yes then I would say avoid this record like the plague. However, if you’re more like me and miss The Crown with a vengeance then this isn’t such a bad thing.

Stronghold of Men is probably an unnecessary record given the glut of bands that do this sort of thing a lot better but I still dig it. Every convention of the genre is found here, raspy but not quite death metal vocals, and plenty of Bay Area/German riffs. I have no pictures of the band but I assume they all wear bullet belts at all times. They even throw in the odd Tom Warrior grunt but to be honest this doesn’t stack up all that well compared to Municipal Waste, Toxic Holocaust, Fueled by Fire etc. This is a pretty short album too with eleven songs in thirty-six minutes. They only really have one song that they recorded eleven times, but you get the point. I like the many solos throughout, though they aren’t a technical masterpiece, but they do fit the material quite well.

That said, The Batallion have plenty of blueprints to draw this album from. This would probably get hammered by just about anyone else but I am a sucker for thrash so I’m giving them a pass here. It’s not an incredible or original album, but I liked it. Then again I’m the addictive type who must have all of anything he likes, this includes thrash metal. Unless you have this personality defect you should probably stay away from this.

[Visit the band's website]

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