70%
Man of the Hour—Skull Orchard (2004)
Details
Produced by Matt Justice and Man of the Hour. Engineered by Matt Maguire. Recorded at Studio 24, Edinburgh in sporadic bursts from April to July 2004.
Band
- Tommy Concrete—Vocals
- Stevie Power—Lead guitar
- Matt Justice—Lead guitar
- Soo C Diamond—Bass
- Engine—Drums
Tracks
- Friendship through steel
- Hey baby
- Enter the drug fuelled domain
- They’re never gonna take away our voice
- The crawling chaos suite part 1 — skull orchard
- The crawling chaos suite part 2 — beware the unseen
- The crawling chaos suite part 3 — quest for the unknown
- Spinal pressure
- Terminate / dominate
- Whip of fire (come lash me)
- The death throws (of choice)
- We all hail
Review
Judging by the “R.I.P.” on their MySpace page it’s probably safe to say that Edinburgh heavy metal band Man of the Hour’s hour has come and gone. Their legacy consists of two full length albums, this one and Destroy the Machines of Slaughter (2007), which I’ll review next week.
Man of the Hour is a band that knows their heavy metal heritage: crushing riffs, screaming Rob Halford-style vocals, and lyrical tales of drinking, sex and fantastic mediaeval battles.
Many of the lyrics are very much tongue-in-cheek, from the Spinal Tap-esque innuendo of “Hey baby” (track 2) and the Carry On style “We all hail” (track 12). But they are clearly written with a great deal of respect and love for the genre.
Metallum Encyclopaedia categorises Man of the Hour as “Doom/stoner metal”. They certainly have a bass-heavy, sludgy sound but there is huge dollop of new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM). Think Judas Priest meets Saxon meets Manowar meets Black Label Society meets Down.
Derivative it may be, but it’s written and played very well. They were clearly having a great deal of fun while writing and recording this.
Conclusion
This is the kind of old school heavy metal album that requires you to always write ‘heavy metal’ rather than just ‘metal’. It generates visions of grown men banging their head in sweaty clubs, adorned in denim and leather, singing suggestive songs of conquests (either romantic or against dragons and castles).
It’s the epitome of what many people think they understand heavy metal to be. They’re wrong. But it’s certainly a small part of it. And in this small corner of the heavy metal kingdom Man of the Hour have a self-prophesying name.
Review score: 70%