Defender of the Crown

Man, this stuff rocks. Brocas Helm have been going for some 29 years now (as apparently, 1981 was a very long time ago); and while their earlier stuff’s outrageous and enjoyable, now they’ve matured into something even better: heavy metal’s dead-beat dads! Yes, while children may need clothing, feeding and protecting from diseases like Rickets - Brocas Helm just have to nail that ripping bass part and lay down another slab of epic, medieval metal. I’d be lying to you if I said I didn’t love what this represented: heavy metal, an ultimate expression of freedom, delivered with so much vigour that if you’re not sporting a shit-eating grin from the first seconds of ‘Cry of the Banshee’ you might as well be dead or don’t like metal (in which case you’re probably better off dead). No commerce, no pretentious pandering to the critics, no influences past 1986 - just sword-wielding metal for the die-hard!

Honestly, when first listening to this I was surprised to find it wasn’t a long-lost album that was scrapped due to yuppie-boy-money-grubbing record labels and their lack of interest, but rather that this was actually recorded in the 21st century. It’s difficult to comprehend at first, but Brocas Helm have aged so very little (if at all!) in the gap between this album and Black Death. Apparently releasing death metal that sounds like it came from 1995 can pass for old-fashioned these days, if that’s old-fashioned then this is positively archaic! Defender of the Crown could be easily passed off as “dated” or as a “relic of the time taste forgot” by some, but fuck them. This is timeless! It could have been released in 1982 or yesterday… the quality still stands up. Influences range from Thin Lizzy, to Maiden’s Killers, a smattering of the first Manowar album and maybe even a touch of Cirith Ungol or Anvil, even (though Lips and co wish they had something this good under those belts that barely contain their beer bellies). That’s right, heavy metal from a time before thrash, delivered with so much testosterone that it sounds like it’d kill several lesser bands in an explosion of blood and semen.

Again, it’s just striking to marvel that a band this old, this terminally unappreciated could put out something this powerful. Sure, some of the songs are old ones - which guarantees a certain amount of 80s authenticity - but you’d be hard pressed to tell them apart on a sonic level from any of the ‘newer’ ones. I’m glad Brocas Helm have really gone for a truly old-school sound - not to end up “Pagan Altar syndrome” where you (read: me) feel that the material’s great but could benefit from a rawer, uncluttered sound (let’s say for instance, if Alan Jones stopped dicking around with his Floyd Rose).

While, I do like the band’s 80s output a great deal - I feel this is the best record they’ve ever done. Even through 14 songs it’s just a relentless ball of pent-up energy finally breaking free after all these years: a fantastic release, not unlike some far off volcano that brings Europe’s air traffic to a grinding halt. It commands attention. ‘Cry of the Banshee’ is probably my favourite but it’s not really something worth splitting hairs over. At first I had a problem with the very upfront bass playing - but then again I’m no stranger to having odd first reactions to great bands (I think I sung “Dine well! In Hell!” when I first heard Manilla Road, and then promptly went back to listening to something shite). After all, upfront bass playing is no problem when your bass player is fantastic, and James Schumacher is a killer metal bassist - with his propulsive playing that really drives the songs along giving the band their signature high-energy rocking groove. It’s quite a mysterious, dark song for Brocas Helm - but it still is impossibly forceful… fuck, Brocas Helm must have discovered the Fountain of Youth or something, I’m sure most younger bands would be out of breath trying to keep up with this. It’s just undeniably metal!

The title-track, too, just seethes with excitement and vitality; those signature Brocas Helm melodies flow from your speakers and I’m just absolutely captivated by it all. You could say it’s the archetypal pre-historic heavy metal song; all about sword-fights and crying freedom against some anonymous, secreted bad guys. I really love that about the song; it doesn’t matter who these enemies are - they’re just fucking bad alright. What more do you need? The band runs the gamut from medieval battles to putting one’s penis into the eye’s of Maidens fair on Defender of the Crown, it’s no wonder they need a drink when they’re on the road.

Once more, it’s just the energy that carries this along - it’s the audio equivalent of spinning round too fast until you fall over. Pure, relentless driving metal, and it makes me giddy like a schoolgirl. Let’s hope it’s not the last we’ll hear from the mighty Helm.

Back in 2000, when I was getting into the more underground scene of metal, Baron_Von_K/Lando recommended Brocas Helm’s Black Death to me. I scouted down an actually copy of it for an outrageous amount of money, but luckily, I loved the 20 minute album of total chaos (see my review on Black Death). Recently, I heard they had re-united to create Defender of the Crown, their 2004 release. I was excited to hear this, as it actually had enough songs to be an actual full-length, and I wondered how their song-writing skills had progressed, and feared the decrease of their chaotic thrash sound I loved on BD.

Wow, this is fucking great epic metal. With epic metal, most people envision bands that actually take themselves serious like Bal Sagoth or Rhapsody, creating mounds of cheese, but Brocas Helm doesn’t pretend to be serious music with songs like Skullfucker and Drink and Drive. The first song RIPS through your head with a blazing (slightly sloppy) bass intro, reminding me of a tapping intro by Steve DiGiorgio on his Dark Hall project (although not even close as technical). These guys have definitely improved the song structures of their songs, but the organized chaos is still very evident. It is clear these guys have a serious punk influence and don’t shy away from using very clear hooks to catch your ear. The bass is loud, the guitar mid-ranged and biting. The drummer must be on speed on EVERY SONG, because he fills in almost every measure, but not annoy-ingly so, because it adds to the chaos that you grow to love throughout the album. There is always one instrument playing something weird. In the song Juggernaut for example, during the chorus, the guitars may play a straight power chord scheme, with particularly easy drums behind it, but the bass goes all over the place. Another beautiful bass intro shines in the next song, Time of the Dark, with silent bass and pounding drums, building tension for the galloping middle section of the song. Yeah, I might focus a lot on the bass in this album, but it is so evident, it cannot be ignored. The vocals are slightly distorted with a delay effect, giving it a slightly underwater feel to it, fitting perfectly in the slightly wavery music. Folk influences are also all over this album, especially near the end of Time of The Dark.

These guys have learned in the years of their absence, and created a hilarious under-ground metal masterpiece, fusing thrash, NWOBHM, punk, chaos and alcohol in a blend of awesomeness.

Brocas Helm has been around for over twenty years, and this is only their third album. The fact that they're still unsigned while countless lesser metal acts are being snapped up and marketted as if they were the next best thing since poutine seems almost criminal. "Defender of the Crown" actually consists of material that spans the years of Brocas Helm's career: material that has only seen the light of day on demos and various 7 inch vinyls until this year.

I actually think this band has improved a hell of a lot since "Into Battle". I like that album, as my review I wrote of it here will testify, but there were certain elements that I felt didn't quite jell with the band's over all sound. The vocals seemed a bit weak to me, and some of the more "rock n' roll" tracks felt rather uninspired. However, even back then the true atmosphere and sound of the band: grand, somewhat folk inspired metal that somehow managed to be epic without containing any lengthy songs, shone through. This is all even more evident on their latest opus. The folk-isms are stronger, the songs are huge, epic and intricate, yet surprisingly the longest track on here is less than five and a half minutes long! I'd say it's remarkable that Brocas Helm has managed to achieve this level of complexity and scope of songwriting without even touching the sprawling lengths of some of their contemporaries' tracks. The key here is, I think, that the band's songs are so involved and there's so much going on that it's almost as if the listener completely loses track of time. At the end of each song, you'll probably be saying to yourself, "damn, that was only four minutes of music?" Sometimes I do wish the band would play around with ideas a little more though. For example, the title track is a highlight, but it just seems so short that one can't help but want more! It's a minor quibble, though, all the same.

The rock n' rollisms from "Into Battle" are still somewhat present, but they're handled better, and the stronger vocals of Bobby Wright certainly help out a great deal. The vocals are all over the place on many of these songs, and often multi-tracked at various unexpected points within each song. They're not really spectacular as such, but they have personality to them and help the songs gain some much needed catchiness. There's even several slightly processed deep spoken parts, that remind me of Byron Roberts from Bal-Sagoth. no moreso is this evident than on the absolutely mighty "Ghost Story", where the celtic folk influences this band has always subtly wore on their sleeves make their presence most felt. This track is far superior to anything I've heard from so-called folk metal bands, and thankfully, it doesn't have fiddles! Yet, it will have you prancing madly around to the Irish-sounding syncopated rhythm and the complex and intricate melodies weaved by Wright's guitar. There's even a nice, vaguely waltzy sounding organ intro to this one.

Other highlights include the opening cut "Cry of the Banshee"< which is played so fast it will take your breath away. Seriously, this is a heavy metal song with the intricacy of the most complex of Iron Maiden tracks but played at near thrash speed and with dizzying, trebbly, quick-fingered bass taking the lead through much of the song's length. Then there's the nasty "Skullfucker", which is just one of the most fun songs I've heard in a long time. "Children of the Nova Dawn" is slow and pounding, and features some of the album's catchiest vocal melodies and a strong chorus. Then there's "Defender of the crown", which is just barely three minutes of furious riffing and is guaranteed to have you headbanging like a maniac.

If you can't tell, I really like this. It's probably not for everyone, as it frankly doesn't have the catchiness and easy hooks that makes heavy metal accessible to "the masses". However, if you can digest Brocas Helm's intricate and frantic style of playing, and like your metal delivered with 100% conviction and integrity, you simply must have this in your collection.