New heavy metal outfit Blazon Rite has released a debut EP that draws from older influences, but retains the fey sword-and-sorcery aesthetic of the younger bands that have comprised the modern heavy metal revival. There are only four songs on this album, but it shows a lot of promise.

The overdriven guitars take a light touch on the distortion, more late-70s than 80s. The Warrior's Choice is my favorite, with a dungeon-synth intro and an operatic performance by Johnny Halladay's great baritone, which is clean with some Germanic grit at the edges. The songwriting starts to get scattered and a bit chaotic by the second track, which starts out with slow musing and then switches to a quick beat and a melody heavily influenced by Black Sabbath's Neon Knights, but sounding as if the band and vocalist are drifting off beat and off key; I suspect a lot of people will like it anyway due to its enthusiasm.

Into the Expanse is also chaotic, but seems a lot stronger; the band isn't sure what they're putting together, but they know they have something that's heavy and driving, vaguely Judas Priest-ish, and they milk it for all it's worth. There's a little keyboard layering, but this was written for twin guitars and they take up most of the mix. I wasn't as impressed with Udug Hul. Blazon Rite shows a lot of strength in building up a song that ordinarily would be nothing special, and adding enough bombast to give it that epic feel, but Udug Hul nonetheless sounded like something Mike Scalzi would put together on a day he ran out of ideas and reject later.

Overall this is a promising start. The band is still finding its feet in terms of songwriting, but Dulce Bellum Inexpertis shows musicianship combined with raw enthusiasm, and that has been the stuff of which great debut LPs have been made in the past.