Irish metallers Sirocco have released in the end of 2012 their third self-financed full length album, Lambay, featuring 8 tracks that mostly combine what could be described as celtic heavy-metal with some moments of old-school thrash metal. These guys started off in 2003 and remained an instrumental band until 2007, releasing a couple of demos and a full lenght album that way. With the release of their second album, The March Through Crimson Frost, in 2007, Ciaran O'Cearuill (Bass) also took over the vocal duties - other band members are Robert Kernan (Drums), John Owens (Lead Guitar) and J. Tobin (Rhythm Guitar). This third release was recorded at the BPM Studios, in Glanmire, Cork, between August and September of 2011 and was mixed by the band itself along with Finny Corcoran, who also mastered the album. A final mention to the album artwork, a beautiful work by renowned Belgian artist Kris Verwimp.



The album starts off with Azure, a simple intro that introduces us to the real first song, title-track Lambay. After some slightly mellow guitar riffs that work like some kind of secondary intro, the song finally starts, in a slightly amateur-sounding way, showing a slight lack of coordenation and a retro sonority. The guitar sound is very fuzzy and there are also a few experimental / psychedelic moments, so the overall feel is that you've traveled back in time and you're listening to Iron Maiden back in 1980 jamming out with 1978's Black Sabbath ("Never Say Die's phase") while 1984's Metallica keeps thrashing in every so often. This will please fans of this retro kind of sonority, but will probably scare off anyone who's into a more modern sound, at least those who won't give the album a chance for a second listen. One good thing that must be said about this release is that it grows on you. The guitar riffs and melodies are quite simple and the vocals are far from being over-the-top, but the overall works wonders and each consecutive listen engraves those melodies each time deeper in our subconscious, and suddenly the songs are no longer stranger, but friendly to our ears. Lambay and MaelSuthain are two of the highlights of the album; the band's composition skills are also praise-worthy, particularly John Owens's and J. Tobin's riffs in the aforementioned tracks; Ciaran O'Cearuill's bass playing is also noteworhy, it's not often we get to listen to a bass so clearly in a song. If all other songs had been able to keep up with these two in a consistent manner, and specially if the album had a different approach in terms of production, making it more cohesive and tight, more like an album and less like a jam session, Lambay could have been a solid base for Sirocco to grow on. As it is, Lambay is a fun record to listen to, if you're into old-school metal and willing give it a few spins in order to let it grow on you. Final score: 65 out of 100.




Rating: 65%