The third full-length effort by Canadian metal act Striker, City of Gold was released in August on Napalm Records.
On this album the Canadians strike a perfect balance between traditional metal and thrash metal, resulting in a solid power-thrash attack. The opening track 'Underground' is an uptempo thrasher, while the title track combines thrashy aggression with a catchy chorus that, for some reason, makes me think of Stormwitch. The listener is treated to both uptempo thrash metal aggression and old school Judas Priest-like riffage combined with Maidenesque guitar melodies. 'Bad Desicions' even takes the music in 80s hard rock territory akin to Whitesnake at their best, standing in a nice contrast to the following thrasher 'Crossroads'. So yes, this is a perfectly balanced power-thrash release. The guitar solos are absolute facemelters, and the soaring vocals are all out old school metal, and the musicianship is overall impeccable. What really appeals to me about this album is its eclectism which simply captures most of the elements that made the 80s metal and hard rock landscape so attractive and brings it up to date in terms of performance and production.
Being a fan of thrash metal and traditional heavy metal, I have a weak spot for both US power metal and power-thrash in general (while European power metal cheese generally does not sit well with me), I may be a bit biased here, but I think that City of Gold is a very well put together album which captures all that's great about power thrash. This album should appeal to fans of both traditional metal and thrash metal, and City of Gold is thus recommended to fans of Charred Walls of the Damned, Dark Empire, Paradox, Iced Earth, and Artillery as well as early Running Wild and early Anthrax.
Tracklist
1. Underground
2. City Of Gold
3. Start Again
4. Bad Decisions
5. Crossroads
6. All For One
7. Mind Control
8. Second Attack
9. All I Want
10. Rise Up
11. Taken By Time
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