For those of you about to wet your pants in excitement that the German thrash-monsters Vendetta has released another album, look again, this is a British band formed back in 06 and have very little to do with German thrash. The British Vendetta play simple Judas Priest-influenced heavy metal, not something you’d usually find on Lion Music’s roster. This is their second release after 07 saw their debut Tyranny of Minority getting mixed reviews. This is for the most part catchy, tasteful and rocking heavy metal that can be compared to the likes of Icarus Witch and AxeHammer as well as the older heroes. With songs like the instantly mind-grabbing Delusion, hook-fests like Age of Annihilation and the slower slightly chugging New Horizon, there should be more than enough elements to this that’ll make it more than enjoyable to put on once in a while. Even though it’s nothing original nor groundbreaking the stellar song-writing and overall proper performance by the musicians that provides steel-melting lead-breaks, delightful riffs and heavily attention-clutching rhythms.

The reason I’m not overly excited about Heretic Nation is the flat production that just makes the whole album duller than it should be. There is no spark to create a bursting fire here, which is sad seeing as how this has bunches of potential. As thrilling as they are, the vocals never really takes of and soars above every other element like an eagle hunting for prey, the guitars are crunchy and nice, but not as lively and sparkling as you’d like them to be, and the drums are dry like a desert. In other words, they’re failing in making this sound as old-school and meaty as they want it to by compressing the sound too much. That being said, one cannot deny the joy of the mentioned tunes that despite the actual sound being lackluster, the song-writing is really good throughout the whole record which makes for a decent listening experience that is well worth to put on once in a while when you want to sing along to something that is catchy as hell. As mentioned, this is not as ground-breaking or inventive as those on constant exploration-quests might want it to be, but it’s a damn fun and energetic listen that is capped of with great musicianship and rocking tunes that’ll get your feet moving. Now if they could only get a decent engineer for their follow-up things should be in perfect order for a pretty great slab of heavy metal. Recommended.