Here Waits Thy Doom

Leagues away from its most lackluster release, 3 Inches of Blood's Here Waits Thy Doom entails tighter half of retired British Columbians' so-called "second cannon" i.e. departure from dually screeched repertoire encompassing initial killer triptych of roughshod, albeit exquisitely shredding and vociferous, albums -- namely 2002's slapdash, yet stimulating, Battlecry Under A Winter Sun, 2004's explosive World scene groundbreaker, Advance & Vanquish, and, finally, 2007's kick-ass Fire Up The Blades - in my opinion, the most accomplished, or downright "old school heavy metal" in essence, of 3IOB's pentamerous, not to mention cut short, discography.

Details aside, Here Waits Thy Doom marks 3IOB's departure from a grittier, razor-sharp form of centrifugally ripped lambasting (think "Revenge Is A Vulture", "Wykydtron" and "Axes of Evil", from A&V, or latter-day steamrollers "Black Spire", "Assassins of the Light" and personal fav "The Hydra's Teeth", from FUtB), towards a more fluidic and modern, oft shimmering and vibrant, riffing approach, also evident on 2012 swan song Long Live Heavy Metal.

Iconic screecher Jaime Hooper is no longer around, leaving bulk of vocal work to Cam Pipes, whose gruff and growly, albeit oft understandable, mid/high range does breezy job of introducing (forever after) live staple/opener "Battles And Brotherhood" - a rather ho-hum or contrived, feudal blood anthem, of which last twenty seconds of hyped up, aggressive thrash riffing modus operandi is repeated, later on, particularly on short, three-minute crowd pummel-ers "Call of the Hammer"/"Snake Fighter".

From the pancake sounding drums, we already know the production, this time around, is no longer of grittily thickened and raw countenance, like it was on both A&V and FUtB - instead, they smack in a canned-out, brittle, pallid manner sure to give pause for thought. Also, Shane Clark and Justin Hagberg's guitar tones are a mite too strident and shrill, for my tastes. Don't get me wrong! Aside from a couple of heady, goodtime rockers in cheekily expunged "Rock In Hell" and "Preacher's Daughter", most of the material is as metal as it gets, even if, admittedly, sounds as though it would have remained "classic" i.e. unique and novel enough, had its total essence not been so reprised by said following band finale.

Rating Here Waits Thy Doom, on own merits, is more important to focus on: while not as intricate, depth or riff-wise, than prior fare, still retain fond memories of keeping this release on steady rotation - during gruelling cross-country bus ride (alongside pair of Cauldron and Clutch releases). For some reason, Clark & Hagberg's soloing arrangements took on a more colourful and, at times, downright jaunty and quirky, flavour. Perhaps, by then having proven themselves, individually, as musicians, as well as together, as a unit, could then afford luxury of taking steps towards experimentation.

Surely, Cam - and, to extent, back-up shrieker Justin - is allowed infinitesimal range; with Hooper out of picture, can fully maximize potential, to point where his (road) warrior charisma suitably behoves each track, especially urgent ones comprising knockout punch of "Silent Killer" and "Fierce Defender".

The former is first proper strong track, with an energetic chromatic main riff and slew of early, topsy-turvy leads culminating in evilly panoplied, scream-o verses, with stock, sanguinary lines akin to any decent, self-respecting slasher flick. "Fierce Defender", at first, was my preferred/go-to track, thanks to its rollicking drums, suspenseful power chords, apocalyptic, Zombie-plague lyrics and all-around, crashing "tidal wave of doom". (The eccentrically deployed solo at 02:29 perfectly encapsulates axemen's newfound rock-ish chutzpah.)

Here Waits Thy Doom's second half, however, is much heavier, or more in line with known, old school speed-meets-thrash-meets-USPM proclivities. "Call of the Hammer" is truly infectious, with its incrementally jarring momentum, triplet based harangue and sordid, intermediate riff licks. (The gang invariably "encores" it, more often than not, back-to-back; as in, six minutes of blackened, quiff parting seduction.) Same can be said about stoically mesmeric "Snake Fighter", which sounds exactly as one would expect, from title alone. Its swift, striking turn around at 02:03 and subsequent, starkly caliginous harmony/endgame sets ideal tone for frosty "At the Foot of the Great Glacier" -- a logical continuation to Fire Up The Blades' "The God of the Cold White Silence", if you will. (Neither are highlights, but fit both ensembles, without rancour or flare).

Of note, bass duties are handled, since unfortunate passing of Brian Redman (RIP) in 2009, by the guitarists, while Revocation/Zimmer's Hole drummer Ash Pearson (replacing Alexei Rodriguez) aptly survives, not only via unorthodox, over-the-top bashing in "Rock In Hell" or "Preacher's Daughter", but also throughout seven minute, growing gem "All Them Witches", easily the most innovative and original track, onsite.

Instrumental "12:34" provides clean, folksy guitar for a spell before piece-de-resistance/closer "Execution Tank" seals the deal. At 7.5 minutes, mixes healthy doses of progressive thrash and doom-y traditional metal, reminiscent of a stentorian, fanatic cross between Dream Theatre, Eternal Champion and RAM. No fooling, a good quarter of the album's riffs lay in this rolling behemoth. To wit, following an unhurried and diplomatic entrance lasting a couple of minutes, the riff transitions prove smooth and effective; they've depth, valour and mania, wrapped into one. (If anything, it's suitably named!)

Looking back, I gleaned enjoyment from Here Waits Thy Doom, due to 3 Inches of Blood discovery, and was riding high on wave of anticipation, amplified by manifest enrapture of previous high-grade weaponry - that is, killer Kanadian "noughties" fare.

Whenever I used to be in a 3 Inches of Blood mood I would turn on "Here Waits Thy Doom". For some reason I always felt like this album was the pinnacle of their career. I also would just put it on in the background and not really pay attention to anything. The occasional chorus would come up, like in "Battles and Brotherhood" and I would tap my foot and nod my head. It wasn't until now that I started paying attention to 3 Inches of Blood's career and noticed that they have so much to say, but don't really know a good way to say it. I wish the entire album could be like the song, "Battles and Brotherhood" or "Rock in Hell", but it's not and I have to accept that.

From what I have gathered listening to their last three albums is that 3 Inches of Blood is a talented band at its core. Their instrumentals are usually on point and the vocals are obviously unique. The only problem I have, and this seems to be with every album, is the song writing. These guys have so many lyrics and have a brutal time trying to make it sound interesting. The only thing I can really compare it to is Iron Maiden. If you go back on my reviews you'll notice that one of my main gripes with Maiden is that they have minimal interesting lyrics and often repeat themselves too much, riding on the coattails of their choruses to make a song stand out. 3 Inches of Blood has the opposite problem where they don't have enough choruses in their songs and it just comes across as boring. I'm sure they want it to sound epic, with these sort-of long tales, but I could only really remember the songs that are catchy. They actually improved on this with their previous album, "Fire Up the Blades". They took a better writing stance and the songs stood out a bit more. On here, I feel like they just went back to the same problems they faced on "Advance and Vanquish". Maybe that previous album stood out more because it was co-written by Joey from Slipknot, I don't know.

I know there is a pretty big lineup change this time around. It seems to me musicians drop off this band from album to album, but I'm cool with it if they keep trying to push a different sound. This time there is no Jamie Hooper. As I previously mentioned, talking about Fire Up the Blades, that his vocals were a real weak point there. It seems now that Justin Hagberg, the guitarist and multi-instrumentalist on these albums, has taken the reigns to provide harsh vocals. It's much better than Hooper in my opinion. His vocal style fits the songs well and he provides backup vocals instead of a duel vocal thing that 3 Inches of Blood usually has. It's refreshing and helps the songs in a proper way. Also, Nick Cates and Alexei Rodriguez are gone. Justin Hagberg took over bass duties and Ash Pearson (who's currently the phenomenal drummer in Revocation) is now on drums. Both drums and bass have been watered down here. In "Advance and Vanquish" the drums were hardly noticeable and then brought back with "Fire Up the Blades". You could hear the technicality of Alexei and the drumming overall was more thunderous. Here, it's a step back and really the only standouts is when Ash performs double bass. It's more like a "double bass works here, cool" and then I immediately forget about it. Same thing goes for the bass. I'm surprised on this because I always enjoyed the bass playing in 3 Inches of Blood and now it's kind of just there. I know Justin is performing double, or triple and quadruple, duty on this record, but man it does not have that same oomph.

The only thing that really does stand out is Cam's vocals. Honestly, I feel like it doesn't match the music on this record. I couldn't figure out what was missing before, but I feel like I got it now. On "Advance and Vanquish" lyrics dominated over instrumentals. That's completely fine and I'm down for bands doing that. Unfortunately, Pipes is so high pitched the entire time that it becomes extremely annoying, at least to me. This was sort of fixed on "Fire Up the Blades" because he switched his performance up a little bit. On some songs he would go lower or higher meeting certain demands from the rest of the musicians. This album mimics "Advance and Vanquish" where his vocals don't really change much and he has a certain tone throughout the entire album. They tried to mix up the songs between choruses and story songs, but on those story-driven tunes his vocals are almost unbearable. I almost think that Pipes would be better off as a backup vocalist rather than the front man. It sucks to say that because I obviously don't have the talent he does, but I feel like sitting through this album was really hell on my ears. Also, another 50 minute run time. Literally the last three songs, "All of Them Witches", "12:34", and "Execution Tank" could have been cut from this album. Two of them were over six minutes, one of them being closer to eight, and there was one instrumental. It was definitely a chore to get through.

Overall, I'm kind of upset writing this review. I don't have nearly the talent these guys have and I butchered it. I'm sure these are great guys that wanted nothing but the best for this band, but I honestly couldn't find too many redeeming qualities in this record. The first half of the album has these decently catchy songs. The last half suffers because they chose to concentrate on lyrics over style again. I'm sure there are tons of people out there that love that sort of thing. Unfortunately it's not up my alley and I think the album suffers because of it. Cam Pipes is once again a bit whiny on here and doesn't really change up his vocal style like on the last album. The absence of Hooper helps drastically, but I feel like we just got more Pipes and that didn't really help anything. If this album had the last three long songs cut out, it would have made the album more approachable. These guys have a reputation with me for starting out an album great and then having the final half be a bore. This rings true here as well.

Recs: "Battles and Brotherhood", "Rock in Hell", "Fierce Defender", "Preacher's Daughter"

Imagine the situation: You are in a power metal band and you are already 3 full-lengths into your career. The first album wasn't refined enough, but the sophomore is a cult classic. On the latest album, you were experimenting with your sound, but it wasn't even close to being as good as you wanted it to be. Where do you go from here? Well, the ideal choice would be going back to the 2nd album's sound. Luckily the guys at 3 Inches of Blood were thinking logically and tried their best to make an album sound like Advance and Vanquish did, but there is one TINY bit of problem. Jamie Hooper, the sound of the band's unique take on power metal has left the band.

The only way I can imagine the way they replaced him is that they weren't even trying to find a worthy replacement and just pointed at each other asking if they could do harsh vocals for more than 10 seconds or not and somehow the guitarist managed to pull out an astonishing 13.8 seconds thus he got the role of the new vocalist. So the fact that the replacement isn't even half as good Hooper was is obvious, but they probably figured it out pretty soon and realized they can't replicate Advance and Vanquish so they tried something different.

The metalcore elements that were present on the previous full-length are nowhere to be found. This is a good sign in my book already, but the empty gaps that they created were quickly filled in with some classic heavy metal and hard rock elements. The perfect example for this would be Preacher's Daughter which if it wasn't for Cam Pipes's sharp voice would sound like a Deep Purple song straight from the 70s with some extras.

If there is one thing that the band has been good at for the past 3 full-lengths (yes, even on the otherwise trash debut) is making an absolutely monstrous opening track. Battles and Brotherhood is everything you would want a 3 Inches of Blood song to be. The riff is catchy yet it doesn't go easy on your neck. I found myself constantly headbanging even before the chorus (which is probably the best chant-along kind of chorus that the band has ever written).

What I really like about this album is the fact that they clearly knew that they can't use harsh vocals as often as they used to since it would sound nothing like they did previously. So instead of having the harsh vocals duel with the clean vocals delivered from Cam Pipes, they function as backing vocals with a few brief moments to shine on their own.

Regardless of all the positive things about this album, this is nowhere near the quality of the sophomore release. While it starts out really strong, it slowly goes downhill. While the album until Preacher's Daughter goes on a full-on frenzy with its insanely catchy riffs (dare I say that Fierce Defender is actually that good that it wouldn't be out of place next to Advance and Vanquish songs?), but then you get 3 filler songs. While all of them have their moments they fail to stand out enough that I would go back for them after a few listens. All of Them Witches is a song with slightly worse quality than the first 5, but it still managed to be a great song with the all-around more power metal than Deep Purple approach. The last 2 songs on the album (the instrumental and Executon Tank) are just all around too much of something that we had enough of. They end up being boring. Even though the last song has some pretty nice riffs and licks, the chemistry between the vocals and the instruments are nowhere to be found.

Overall this album improves a lot of things if we compare it to the previous one. It takes the right direction but doesn't execute the ideas flawlessly. Luckily at the moment of me writing this (a decade later), I can safely say that the band still had something up their sleeves. A little something called Long Live Heavy Metal, but I am getting ahead of myself...

The highlights of the album are Battles and Brotherhood, Rock in Hell, and Fierce Defender.

Before I start, I'd like to point out that I'm a big fan of 3IOB and have all of their albums. That being said, this one was a big disappointment. I've always loved their style and sound, which to me was a perfect blend of newer metals and older metal like the '80s. But after all of their other albums and even the current album, Long Live Heavy Metal, this one just left a bland taste in my mouth.

For starters, the recording quality itself sounds so much worse than the last 2 albums by quite a bit, which to me is odd since usually bands make more money as they go and can afford better quality sound. The production just sounds like its straight out of the era of Black Sabbath while their previous records sound much cleaner and clearer. The vocals especially sound recorded and sung much worse, and it almost sounds like he's singing through a fan instead of belting out those crisp, clear highs that I'm used to. The guitars and drums are much more "outdated" and somewhat muffled, making the whole album less heavy and crushing by several notches. Even the heaviest song on the album, "Call of the Hammer", is less heavy than almost any other song they have to date.

Secondly, the songwriting itself has the same "outdated" feel to it as the recording quality. Like I already stated, I always felt they had a perfect mix of old and new sounds of metal, but this album was just pushed 90% over to the old metal side and there's very little new metal sound mixed in to balance it out. The drums are often pretty plain and even have tambourine in a couple places to get more of a feel for the old days. The guitars are pretty bland as well if you ask me, sounding like it could have been written by a rock band like Jet. Other than a few moments of newer metal, I wouldn't be surprised to even hear this on some rock radio station.

Lastly are the lyrics. While some are okay and tolerable, the rest seem cringe-worthy and very cliche. Lyric-wise, this album seems almost like a tribute to the old days instead of something new. Compared to their previous works with grand storytelling and epic tales woven into songs, this album just is pretty boring and cliche in most cases, and comes complete with a rock anthem called "Rock In Hell".

Overall, I am very disappointed and am considering trading this album back in for store credit at the record store.

Highlights:
-All of Them Witches
-Fierce Defender (mainly because it was the only song that really had storytelling in it).

Could do with out:
-Pretty much this whole album.

If you like their previous works as much as I do, this album may not be your cup of tea. If you're new to 3IOB, I'd recommend "Advance and Vanquish" or "Fire Up The Blades", personally.

To just come right out and say it, 3 Inches Of Blood and Roadrunner Records parting ways was the greatest thing that could have happened to the former. Not only did it end what could have been a disastrous trend of continuing the latent metalcore tendencies that were creeping into their sound on “Fire Up The Blades”, but it also removed a false impression that many had due to the associations that came with that label that they were a closet metalcore band. Having said this, there are still a handful of issues that are still dogging the band to this day, but by the time 2009 rolled around, despite losing the last co-founding member of the band Jamie Hooper and his hardcore shouts, this band found itself back on track to fight the battle at Helm’s Deep all over again.

The first noticeable change from previous efforts that leaps out of “Here Waits Thy Doom” is a much more ambitious song set. Up until this point, most of this band’s work had consisted of parroting the short, radio-friendly character of the very early NWOBHM outfits, often times coming in well under the 3 minute mark and keeping the song structures quite limited. Here the band embraces the epic aspects of Dickinson era Iron Maiden to its fullest extent, while also continuing to explore the faster, more frenzied influences that certain bands were taking up that transitioned them into speed and thrash territory. But catchiness is still the band’s aim, as the likes of “Rock In Hell” and “Preacher’s Daughter” (the latter sounding dangerously close to the more rock infused work of early Saxon) have unavoidable sing along value, though perhaps not to the point of inspiring most to make a failed attempt at channeling the shriek-drenched, King Diamond meets Udo character of Cam Pipes’ vocal style.

The only really overt Persian flaw to hold this thing back a bit is the drum work of the newly recruited Ash Pearson, whose metalcore background comes through primarily in the sound of his snare drum. I’ve never fully gotten the appeal of that popping, overly sustained sound that so many bands in the current metalcore scene love so much, but it doesn’t fit in very well with what is otherwise a very traditional sounding NWOBHM with a bit of speed/thrash that could have been released in 1986. It only becomes an annoyance whenever there’s a snare roll, which is only moderately frequent occurrence. This is offset a bit by the fact that new toneless growler and guitarist Justin Hagberg has a more reserved vocal style, reminiscent of a number of occasional barkers that chime in on power metal albums from the late 90s that incorporated them.

All in all, this is largely a pretty enjoyable listen, one that isn’t quite as obvious in its worship of the past as a number of newer old school metal revivalists like White Wizzard and Battle Beast, but still very much a band that will often remind of those days where faded jeans and leather was the staple of a rebel. A few songs actually punch through the mist of mere adequacy such as “Call Of The Hammer” in its speeding, thrash infused glory, and “At The Foot Of The Great Glacier” for a similarly wicked yet somewhat slower riff set, and qualify as new classics, but most of what is on here generally tends to be less outwardly impressive and more towing the line. But hey, if they just got their drummer to loosen the snare a bit for a slightly flatter sound that is more conducive to their faster material, they’d be in even greater shape.

After I listened to 3IOB's album "Advance and Vanquish" I hungered for more, I needed more of the intensity, the raw power and the classic Lord of the Rings vibe. After searching for a while I finally found it: Here Waits Thy Doom! I was thrilled beyond belief, I was ready to get fucking pumped, and then the happy moment comes to an end right after the first two songs. It was like biting into a very stale piece of bread, bland and unpredictable. I'm not saying it was a complete disappointment, 3IOB fans, bear with me because there's more. I was completely stumped for a while: what happened to Jamie Hooper? Where was the old fashioned power? The intensity?

I later learned that the line-up had changed, Jamie Hooper was no longer the secondary vocalist and their bad ass drummer from "Vanquish" was gone as well, the bassist died and most of their band power was gone. It was the same band but a different style. After listening to "Battles and Brotherhood" (a cheesy, dungeons and dragons-like song) and "Rock in Hell", the next song came in: "Silent Killer", this wasn't that bad either, it had some juicy riffs in there, and I still had my hopes up. Then came "Fierce Defender", and then I was like: "okay, what is this?"

Think of it this way: 3 Inches of Blood is there, the skill is there but the intensity like you'd find on "Vanquish" had completely disappeared, as if it never existed on the album. In terms of distortion in power (I'm talking about the album sound as a whole here) it's very weak and flat, nothing exciting really, just an album you can listen to and go: "meh, whatever". Simply put, it's nothing special. Sure, Cam Pipes delivers the same old vocals and I must admit Justin Hagberg is an awesome guitarist as much as that other guy, Shane Clark. It's just not the same 3IOB I'd expected them to be, they seem to be deteriorating from their original sound into something else, something softer. The distortion is weak from the guitars, the drums...hell, it's weak on everything except Pipes' vocals and that's just about it.

I'll admit that this album is fun to listen to once in a while, "All Of Them Witches" seems to be the only powerful song on this album in its entirety and it's good for an occasional listen, but not for a full-on weekly mosh. If you want this album then go ahead, no one's stopping you, however if you want my recommendation then listen to their previous albums like "Vanquish" and "Blades", you'll find power there, that's a guarantee. This album is basically a cake that's meant to be perfect, but just as it's served it slips and hits the floor.

Well, well, I bet most of this bands detractors must be now biting their bragging tongues. And if they’re not, they fucking should! For the canadian ensemble has proven to be one of the (if not THE) most powerful revivalist bands out there. I mean, why do bands like White Wizzard or Cauldron have received so much praise and attention when we have this guys doing it way better and showing album per album that they’re the real deal? However they’ve been mercilessly criticized for playing and glorifying the music they love and even tagged of being “core”. Bullshit I say! But now that they’ve got ridden of their most bitched-about flaw, the voice of founding member Jamie Hooper, there shouldn’t be anything keeping them from achieving the acclaim they deserve. And this, they’re fourth full-length, testifies that.

Here Waits Thy Doom could have been more aptly named: “Here Waits Thy Old School Power/Thrash (With a Great Deal of NWOBHM)”. Ok, that’s quite a long and ridiculous title. Anyway, it describes the sounds you’ll discover here. And when I say “old school” it actually means pretty old, right from the time when the power and thrash genres where in diapers. So if you’re expecting some unlikely mixture of Angra and Overkill you might end up disappointed. However, if your looking for an tasty brew of Maiden or Tygers of Pan Tang melodies, proto-thrash riffage ala Diamond Head, a fast but not hyper-fast rhythmic section, and extremely stand-out soaring vocals, this might just be for you. Original? Not quite. Done before? Well, yes. But not quite like this.

First of all, let my state that is my belief (backed up by the blessing of the Metal God, Mr. Rob Halford) that Cam Pipes is a helluva singer, and a criminally underrated one. His high-pitched vocals, with its slightly strange and particular reverb, make him tremendously recognizable. He easily stands-out amongst the crowds of classic metal, clean-singing frontmen out there. And like the Metal God himself, I just can’t think of anyone that sounds like Pipes, not even remotely close. That’s such an advantage this band possesses. Many consider his style over-the-top and cheesy. I agree with those accusations, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t kicks enormous ass. His voice alone is reason enough for listening to this band. Though not the only one.

Justin Hagberg and Shane Clark are the guitar team since 2004, and as usual they do a pretty decent job here. It’s not particularly original, but at this stage of the game we know that we’re not looking for originality here. Otherwise, we should be looking elsewhere. Anyway, for this record they provide us a vast array of good ol’ headbangeable riffs and melodic soloing. They’re melodies range from good and memorable (“Rock in Hell”, “Fierce Defender”) to a bit repetitive, like the melodic break on “Silent Killer” which drags on for a little to long perhaps and loses punch because of that. Both musicians also share bass duties here, and while it doesn’t stands out, it is done in an efficient way, and its pretty audible.

Also worth mentioning is that Hagberg also replaced the greatly loathed Hooper at the harsh vocals department. He uses a gruffer growl, a bit lower than his predecessor. Not a big deal anyway, since he only accentuates some of the lyrics, while Pipes is the focal point. But that’s not a bad thing also, since a small dosage of harsh vocals is, and has always been, part of this band signature features.

Ash Pearson did a great job too for Here Waits Thy Doom. No easy task, since he had to fill Alexei’s Rodriguez shoes. And while Ash is perhaps not as fast or flashy as Alexei, he is a more than capable drummer. He does play in a more traditional, classic heavy/power metal fashion, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t knows how to thrash the hell out of his kit. From time to time he’ll surprise us with quite fast double bass patterns, but even his slow, simple patterns are quite enjoyable.

Another change 3 Inches of Blood made for this album, well, is that they switched to Century Media, leaving Roadrunner, and this is most evident in the production. Here Waits Thy Doom has a true vintage feel, unlike any of their previous albums. The drums and bass sound really organic. Perhaps they wanted to move away from all the criticism they received for letting Joey Jordison produce “Fire Up the Blades”. And though personally I think Jordison work wasn’t that bad, maybe a bit too crispy and modern, this production here better suits the band, and pushes them closer to the aesthetics of their NWOBHM heroes of old.

So the songs, yeah! Well, we have a few three minute thrashing ragers, the best of which is “The Call of the Hammer”, one of the first songs released as a teaser for this album. Power/thrash straight to the jugular! Then, we also can enjoy some 4 to 5 minute metal rocking anthems; of which my favorites are the magnificent “Fierce Defender” with its charging battle riffs and the ballsy, soon-to-be metal classic “Rock in Hell”. Will you be there to rock in Hell? Well, goddamn it I will!

I also totally rock to the three “epics” of the album, “Preacher’s Daughter” with its hard rocking chorus, almost Deep Purple-esque feel, organ included (I love when this guys add an organ, like in the previous album’s “Trial of Champions”), “The Execution Tank”, the seven minute thrashing closer, and one of my 3”OB tracks, the superb “All of Them Witches”, a full-on NWOBHM worship with great vocals (including a bone-chilling Pipes Witch scream!) and melodic riffs that will be forever embedded in your brain. There’s also a brief acoustic interlude, nice but ultimately irrelevant as these interludes usually are.

Heed not the naysayers! This is pure and unadulterated metal for true metalheads that can see beyond the misleading accusations of this being “core”, “mainstream”, “a joke band” or whatever. Seek it, enjoy it, and embrace it! The High Inquisitor has decreed!

3 Inches of Blood, for me, were always a band that were a source of frustration, an example of unfulfilled potential. Since I got into them after hearing their first single - the stupidly excellent Destroy the Orcs - on Bruce Dickinson's radio show back in 2003, I was continually hoping they would improve, almost willing them to get better after the subsequent albums failed to completely live up to my initial excitement.

They always suffered from two big stumbling blocks, of course, the first of which was a basic lack of songwriting chops. Their albums, regardless of the ever-rotating personnel, tended to each spawn a couple of real metal masterclasses which kept the company of a lot of other more modest songs. Though yet to write a bad song, the constant high-speed galloping style they rigorously adhered to resulted in many of the less inspired tracks, cut off from a voice of their own, simply folding into one another.

The most common criticism 3IOB ever faced though, was an obvious one; Jamie Hooper. Despite being one of the founders, his presence in the band always seemed a bit hard to fathom, a bit like an experiment that somehow found its way into the world at large, and managed to hang around despite making not a great deal of sense.

His yelping hardcore vocal style is obviously very much at odds with the more traditional approach of the rest of the crew, but despite his voice generally being just plain annoying, there were times when his exchanges with falsetto wailer Cam Pipes added and extra bit of depth to a fairly limited band.

Of course, they couldn't just have him standing in the background barking every now and again as a point of emphasis, and the band's efforts to give him and Pipes an equal share of the spotlight led to continuous, chaotic vocal duelling that only went on to futher worsen their problem with variation, robbing the songs of any hooks

This lack of diversity was only intensified by the production job on their last album, Fire Up the Blades. Their then-label, Roadrunner, had always seemed to want the street cred of having an 'old skool' band on their books but weren't keen on the sticky problem of actually trying to market a traditional metal band to their target teenymosher audience. Always keen to big up how X-TREEM 3IOB were, they pushed things even further on that album by putting one of their golden boys, Joey Jordison, in the producer's chair (even sitting in on the writing process), and the pro-tools happy, everything-flatter-than-everything-else sound he inflicted smothered the album into an exhausting drag.

But then everything seemed to change all at once - all of a sudden they were free from Roadrunner's oily mits, and Hooper - sitting out touring after doing in his vocal chords - was out of the band permanently with very little fanfare, guitarist Justin Hagberg taking over the throat-splitting duties.

With new hosts Century Media - not always known for being the most caring, sharing of labels, it has to be said - apparently giving them free reign to record whatever the hell they wanted, the remaining members have finally tapped a vein of creativity, and in Here Waits Thy Doom have produced a fourth album that at long last makes it look like the potential they once showed may be fulfilled.

Under the weathered eye of Jack Endino, Pipes, Hagberg and Shane Clark have explored their newfound freedom by writing a crop of songs that delve further back into their influences (the 70s being namechecked along with the 80s now) and can stand on their own two feet as individual tunes with their own distinct identites.

Hooper's departure, and the decision to replace him from within their own ranks, has led to a bigger change in the way things are run than would superficially appear to be the case - Pipes is now very much the frontman, and with Hagberg keeping himself busy on guitar duties they have a harsh vocalist content to perform a secondary role to the main man.

This new arrangment is as much a breath of fresh air for the band as it is for the weary listener - gone are the clamouring vocal battles that cluttered the songs, and the music benefits endlessly from being given more room to express itself when Pipes isn't singing. The songs now boast that elusive variety, with styles that wouldn't suit the screeching vocals of the erstwhile Hooper now properly explored.

Opener Battles and Brotherhood is fairly standard (though no less good for it) power metal, but right from the second track, Rock in Hell - a NWOBHM-ish effort that features some Saxon boogie on the upbeat riffs - the difference is apparent.

On top of all that, Hagberg's vocals are quite simply a vast improvement over his predecessor, rolling, fluid growls that fit surprisingly well with the music (though this is also down to their more sparing, careful use).

There are still plainly visible limitations to be observed - mainly that Pipes constant falsetto remains a little tiring, when a more restrained approach would benefit some of the songs, but the band do well with what they have. His shrieking on the groovy 70s-flavoured Preacher's Daughter is pretty ridiculous, but the song is good enough to survive it, the organ playing from Hagberg and a silly gang vocal section among the highlights.

Elsewhere, Call of the Hammer is a short, sharp burst of thrash metal where Hagberg's vocals are cleverly utilised on a sparse chorus, and Execution Tank, the longest song they have yet written, finally encapsulates that 'evil' vibe they have often tried and failed to latch onto in the past. The long, instrumental intro builds suitable menace, and Pipes' vocals are a perfect fit for ever-escalating chorus.

In between the more rock-centric songs and the galloping power/speed metal they are most known for, a bit of room has also been left for a venture into more epic territory. The spirit of adventure is palpable in the swaying chorus to At the Foot of the Great Glacier, while the despairing lead melodies of All of them Witches imbue a forboding atmosphere.

Being so different to the album that predeced it, this new beginning for 3 Inches of Blood is almost like a second debut for the band. New label, new vocalist, new approach to songs and even a strange bit of cover art that gives a wide bearth to the cartoonish style expected of them, it is a clean break in every sense.

With no intereference from a label trying to force a square peg into a round hole and a leaner line-up that isn't sabotaging itself in the name of fairness, 3 Inches of Blood may finally be ready for the great leap forward. Certainly this is their strongest, most varied and all-round listenable record to date, and after several years of flirting with the idea, it may at long last be time to prove themselves as serious contenders.

(Originally written for http://www.rockontheweb.co.uk)

We all know this story. Major member of a band leaves. Band is forced to cope without him. Sometimes, they recruit someone else to feel the void, other times they just find it within themselves-that spark..release the next record and the rest, as they as, is fucking history. Here Waits Thy Doom (HWTD) is one of those records the only difference being; 3 Inches of Blood have been without Hooper for quite sometime now. Actually, dating back to the bands touring in order to support their previous record-Fire Up The Blades, Jamie Hooper was forced to sit out the whole tour cause of his voice. He is no longer with the band but 3 Inches of Blood have had ample time to reflect on their next course of action prior to and also during the recording of HWTD as whether to continue with the harsh vocals or scrap them entirely from their music.

Unlike most band who have or would have gone out in search for a replacement vocalist, this band did not. They assigned the part of Jamie to Justin-the band's guitarist, tweaked their sound a bit and voila! Here Waits Thy Doom!

While previously one would be somewhat confused with the kind of metal-subgenre 3IoB play, on this one, it is pretty straight forward. Unabashedly power metal..the kind Manowar would be proud of. Why, even some of the themes are so Manowar-ish. Kill for Metal, Die for Metal, Metal, Metal..METAL!! Given the circumstances, more room has obviously opened up in the vocal department for Cam Pipes to explore and boy, does he utilize this to the maximum. Of course it also helps having magnificently written riffs and solos to sing too. The first 3 songs on this are simply classics. Shane and Justin relentlessly churn out riff after riff and solo after solo. The riffs are raw, more melodic than their previous effort but also extremely enjoyable and catchy too.

In Here Waits Thy Doom, there seems to be a special consideration given to riff construction. No repetitive riffs here which is saying a lot on an album that is saturated with them. Each song seems to have a distinct riff. A well crafted riff played to perfection. Even the solos, follow this kind of trend and I fear going into details might render this review way too long.

Justin is obviously no Jamie but that doesn't mean that this album lacks the aggression that the band have been known for..Call of the Hammer and At the Foot of the Great Glacier..anybody?!(with the later being one of my favorites off this album). Rather than the duels that we have been accustomed to having, on this one, Justin seems more of, if I may say, complimenting Pipes. Hes vocals are not as harsh as those of Jamie, actually, his vocals sound more like those of Miland Petrozza. He though does chip in with the harsh lines where you felt Pipes vocals where becoming a bit too monotonous.

I bet, fans of 3IoB, when listening to this will always kinda anticipate Jamie's harsh vocals around the corner. Only that they don't surface (trust me, I waited). But thats just a small bummer cause these guys have outdone themselves, defied critics and made possibly the record of their lives and probably the power metal record of 2009 in Here Waits Thy Doom!