Hidden Gems & Guilty Pleasures: Heavy Sentence (UK)
Heavy Sentence (Heavy Metal // UK)
One of the hottest propositions in the UK’s resurgent traditional metal scene, Heavy Sentence have kept the emphasis on quality over quantity since their formation in the mid-2010s. Just like the early days of the NWOBHM, Heavy Sentence made their recorded debut with a two-song 7” in 2017, followed a year later by another two-song 7”. Both graced with stark, gritty, but endearingly basement-level cover art, these two singles evinced an ageless verve and vivacity in stark contrast with the band’s meager years. And yet, Heavy Sentence include among their ranks scene veterans who do or have done time in labelmates Aggressive Perfector, Wode, Exxxekutioner, Sump, and Wóddréa Mylenstede among others, so perhaps that inherent wisdom should be no surprise…. Either way, with just four songs to their name and a clutch of raucous live gigs, anticipation has been feverish for a full-length.
In 2021, finally arrives bearing the call-to-arms title »Bang To Rights«. Tight and taut at 10 songs in 37 minutes, Heavy Sentence’s debut album is a well-oiled machine of absolute anthems destined for classic status. No more but certainly no less, »Bang To Rights« is everything Heavy Sentence have been since the very beginning: deceptively energetic mid-tempo heavy metal roughened up by the spectre of punk, much like (again) those early days of the NWOBHM. Of course, the band are apt to kick into a gallop from time to time, but the emphasis is always on go-for-the-throat songwriting that only street-walking cheetahs with hearts full of napalm can produce. Of course, Motörhead’s glorious works of the 1980s loom large here – from »Iron Fist« to »Rock ‘N’ Roll«, and even »Another Perfect Day« – but it’s Heavy Sentence’s attitude and charisma which triumph over all. Equally back-alley belligerent and high-adventure fantastical, »Bang To Rights« is informed by early ‘80s Thin Lizzy as equally as prime Saxon, with Heavy Sentence here continuing the lineal dots connecting Heavy Load, Omen, Lord Weird Slough Feg, and October 31 onward to the metalpunk revolution fostered by Midnight. In short, timeless and eternal and fucking unyielding.
It’s been nearly three years from their celebrated »Bang To Rights« debut album, but Heavy Sentence are back with Dying Victims Productions for a quick-hitting and heavily satisfying 7” EP titled »Warriors Of Madness«. Featuring three brand-new & exclusive tracks, »Warriors Of Madness« maintains all the charm of that first full-length – deceptively energetic mid-tempo heavy metal roughened up by the spectre of punk, much like those early days of the NWOBHM – but switches gears slightly by “slicking up” that street-level throb with a production style that’s thick and clean and yet somehow dirtier than the already exquisitely dirty »Bang To Rights«. As expected, either way, Heavy Sentence keep proceedings as anthemic as ever, with the first two tracks storming & strutting like early ‘80s Motörhead. But the price of admission is more than worth it for the B-side, »Give Yourself To The Night«: a moody “epic” at five minutes, it stalks like a midnight vampire, beckoning and commanding in equal measure. Join these Warriors Of Madness post-haste!
Courtesy of Dying Victims Productions
Discography:
• »Protector / Darkest Hour« EP (Night Rhythms Recordings, 2017)
• »Edge Of The Knife / Heavy Vengeance« EP (2018)
• »7 Inches On Tape« Compilation (Hammer On Steel Records, 2019)
• »Bang To Rights« LP (Dying Victims Productions, 2021)
• »Warriors Of Madness« EP (Dying Victims Productions, 2024)
Heavy Sentence is:
Gareth Howells – Vocals
Tim Horrocks – Guitar
Jack MacMichael – Guitar
Ed Troup – Bass
Bryan Suddaby – Drums
FFO: Motörhead, Saxon, Thin Lizzy, Angel Witch, Omen, In Solitude, The Night Eternal, Haunt, Enforcer
Links:
Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp1 | Bandcamp2 | Spotify | YouTube
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well