{"id":51956,"date":"2016-05-20T07:07:23","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T12:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=51956"},"modified":"2016-05-20T07:07:23","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T12:07:23","slug":"roxxcalibur-gems-of-the-nwobhm-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2016\/roxxcalibur-gems-of-the-nwobhm-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Roxxcalibur | Gems of the NWOBHM<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Sr. Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Roxxcalibur\"German Heavy Metal band Roxxcalibur is back with another tribute to the legendary New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) era. Their latest offering is called Gems of the NWOBHM<\/em>, and once again they\u2019ve enlisted famed cover artist Rodney Matthews (Praying Mantis) to provide artwork for this new batch of NWOBHM covers.<\/p>\n

Roxxcalibur dug pretty deep for this installment. Their first two albums hit some of the era\u2019s key songs as well as some deep cuts. On Gems of the NWOBHM<\/em>, it\u2019s almost all covers of obscure players in the scene (or bands like Budgie that are only kind of-sort of connected to the NWOBHM). Roxxcalibur takes on some more familiar bands here, like Trespass, White Spirit and Fist, but digging into singles by Legend, Bashful Alley, Taurus and Mythra shows just how deep the band\u2019s affection for the NWOBHM goes.<\/p>\n

As with the first two Roxxcalibur albums, the band sounds incredible here, putting an almost Power Metal finish on these songs. Alex Stahl shines in particular, sounding so much like Steve Grimmett with his power and range. Highlights are the band\u2019s versions of Bashful Alley\u2019s \u201cRunning Blind,\u201d Virtue\u2019s \u201cFool\u2019s Gold,\u201d White Spirit\u2019s \u201cMidnight Chaser\u201d and the high-speed Aragorn single \u201cBlack Ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once again, Roxxcalibur has delivered an electrifying collection of cover songs that breathe new life into some lost (but not forgotten) classics. If you’re a fan of the NWOBHM sound, Gems of the NWOBHM<\/em> is a must-have release. Even if you\u2019re not already familiar with the original artists, the quality of these songs alone makes this a worthwhile buy for fans of the classic heavy metal sound.<\/p>\n

Edition Notes: The limited edition physical release of Gems of the NWOBHM<\/em> comes in a slipcase with a poster and the bonus track \u201cRip Off\u201d (originally by Smokin\u2019 Roadie). It also has a fantastic booklet with notes on where each song originally appeared as well as notes on the songs from some of the original artists. It may be the digital age, but this is definitely a case where the physical release is the best way to experience the album.<\/p>\n

Genre: Heavy Metal<\/p>\n

Lineup:<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tWhy Don\u2019t You Kill Me (Legend)
\n2.\tSoldiers of War (Satan\u2019s Empire)
\n3.\tPaper Chaser (Taurus)
\n4.\tRunning Blind (Bashful Alley)
\n5.\tFool\u2019s Gold (Virtue)
\n6.\tStormchild (Trespass)
\n7.\t(The Age of) Machine (Mythra)
\n8.\tHounds of Hell (Split Beaver)
\n9.\tSomewhere Up in the Mountains (Marquis de Sade)
\n10.\tMidnight Chaser (White Spirit)
\n11.\tBlack Ice (Aragorn)
\n12.\tPanzer Division Destroyed (Budgie)
\n13.\tRip Off (Smokin\u2019 Roadie)
\n14.\tName, Rank & Serial Number (Fist)<\/p>\n

Label: Limb Music<\/p>\n

Website: www.roxxcalibur.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven Rating: 8.75\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Sr. Columnist — German Heavy Metal band Roxxcalibur is back with another tribute to the legendary New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) era. Their latest offering is called Gems of […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":51957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13652],"tags":[2317,12340,2491,1022,12339],"class_list":{"0":"post-51956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2016","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-gems-of-the-nwobhm","10":"tag-heavy-metal","11":"tag-limb-music","12":"tag-roxxcalibur"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51956","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=51956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}