Albums That Will F*ck Your Face Off in 2013: Enforcer, Death By Fire

Enforcer
Death By Fire (Nuclear Blast)
Release date March 5 (USA); February 1 (EU)

This may sound familiar: For a period of a few years, u are totally into a style of metal. It might be black metal, glam metal, prog metal, hardcore, or whatever. Its sound, look, and vibe hits your ears in their sweet spot. But there are limits to your love, and u move on after thousands of hours spent listening to and talking about that genre. Cuz another vibe has come along and excited u anew.

But the story doesn’t end there: After a break of a few decades, your interest returns to that genre. For our purposes, let’s say ’80s New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. Re-immersed in that vibe, u take time to reassemble your formidable library, expand it to the stuff overlooked the first time around, and then exhaustively seek out its most obscure entries. But again there are limits: In this case, u find that there are only so many pumping, silly, boogie metal records released between Iron Maiden’s debut (1980) and Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All (1983). Wat do?

Welcome Enforcer, a band of dedicated youngs whose infectious NWOBHM jamz tie a lifeline to the genre and haul it up from history’s depths. Their 2010 sleeper classic Diamonds was um just as its title implies: a collection of hooky, energy-driven gems. And judging from the forthcoming Death By Fire‘s first jam, “Mesmerized By Fire” (below), we know that Enforcer is now a bigger and better rendering of the dumb, fun, not-so-heavy era before mega-distortion, blastbeats, bulging-veined no-fun types, and computer-tooled grooves — and this time, with appropriately juicy label support. No life ’til leather!

Free download of “Mesmerized By Fire” here. Pre-order Death By Fire here.