{"id":26713,"date":"2013-02-09T18:37:21","date_gmt":"2013-02-09T23:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=26713"},"modified":"2014-01-24T09:06:31","modified_gmt":"2014-01-24T14:06:31","slug":"deadly-assassin-the-metal-knights-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/deadly-assassin-the-metal-knights-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadly Assassin | The Metal Knights<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– News Editor \/ Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"DeadlyBriefly known as Assassin, Minnesota based heavy\/speed metal band Deadly Assassin was active in the mid \u201880s, delivering high-speed heavy metal with high-pitched vocals and a Christian message. The band released a 10 song demo cassette (as Assassin) in 1987, and recorded some later songs as Deadly Assassin, but they, like so many other metal bands, did not survive the \u201880s. Now thanks to Stormspell\u2019s collection The Metal Knights<\/em>, we have all of the Assassin\/Deadly Assassin recordings collected on CD for the first time.<\/p>\n

The very idea of a Christian version of King Diamond seems impossible to imagine, but that\u2019s not too far removed from Deadly Assassin\u2019s sound, at least on the vocal side, where Tony Santine goes from a gruff, thrashier style to a (very) high-pitched wail in a heartbeat. Musically, the band was somewhere between the typical NWOBHM-inspired traditional heavy metal sound and the emerging thrash sound. Exciter and Savage Grace come to mind. It\u2019s pretty interesting stuff, and very, very metal. You get a few repeats on this collection, as they demoed some songs both as Assassin and Deadly Assassin, but even with that there are a lot of vintage metal tunes to take in here, including a cool cover of the early Anthrax song \u201cMetal Thrashing Mad.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the lyrical content, it is obvious (more so on some songs than others) that Deadly Assassin was a Christian band, but they don\u2019t get too carried away with it. It\u2019s mostly Revelations-inspired apocalyptic themes, and that\u2019s something plenty of bands of the era took on. The average metal fan can listen to this collection without getting a full on Sunday school session.<\/p>\n

Since this is part of Stormspell\u2019s Red, White and Heavy series, The Metal Knights<\/em> disc is a) limited to 500 copies, and b) not as good sound-wise as the usual Stormspell release due to the limitations of the source material. This is the tradeoff though. You sacrifice on sound quality (quite a bit on some tracks), but we at least get to hear these vintage metal songs that otherwise would be lost to history. It does have the usual high quality visual presentation Stormspell is known for, including rare photos and band info.<\/p>\n

Stormspell markets their Red, White and Heavy series to \u201cthe initiated,\u201d and that\u2019s exactly who will get the most out of this collection. The Metal Knights<\/em> is a release that is really only going to appeal to the most dedicated and die-hard collectors of cult \u201880s heavy metal. Those collectors are going to love discovering (or rediscovering) Deadly Assassin after all these years.<\/p>\n

Genre: Heavy Metal, Speed Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nSteven Aguirre (b)
\nRick Bunce (d)
\nJoe Aguirre (g)
\nBrian Aguirre (g)
\nTony Santine (v)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tA Warning from Heavens
\n2.\tSatan\u2019s Imprisoned
\n3.\tMetal Knights
\n4.\tPremonition
\n5.\tSpirit of the Night
\n6.\tBy the Fire of Your Grave
\n7.\tA Warning from Heavens
\n8.\tSatan\u2019s Imprisoned
\n9.\tSoldiers of the Lord
\n10.\tTyrants of Evil
\n11.\tMetal Knights
\n12.\tPremonition
\n13.\tSpirit of the Night
\n14.\tDark Evil Forces
\n15.\tAssassin
\n16.\tMetal Thrashing Mad
\n17.\tUnchained Angel<\/p>\n

Label: StormSpell Records<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 8\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – News Editor \/ Senior Columnist — Briefly known as Assassin, Minnesota based heavy\/speed metal band Deadly Assassin was active in the mid \u201880s, delivering high-speed heavy metal with high-pitched vocals and […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[336,2491,334,1099,5930],"class_list":{"0":"post-26713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arcrvws2013","7":"tag-cd","8":"tag-heavy-metal","9":"tag-review","10":"tag-speed-metal","11":"tag-stormspell-records"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26713\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}