Hard rock and its younger sibling, heavy metal, have been with us a long time now and like all music, genres have sought to move with the times, evolve and update themselves. I would argue that it doesn’t have to, it found its perfect form a long time ago. All it needs to do is keep doing what it has always done so well and just do more of it.
And that seems to be the ethic at the heart of Age of Ore. Young they may be but the must they make is timeless classic rock at the point where it tips over into heavy metal, particularly the UK’s NWOBHM sound which gave rise to the likes of Iron Maiden, Def Lepard and Saxon.
Wings of Steel drips with heads down, no-nonsense, foot on the monitor swagger, Oblivion matches lyrical nihilism with raw, shamanic beats and Forsaker is a glorious onslaught of riotous riff-o-rama.
Malevolent is the sound of torches being passed on from elder to acolyte and the genre seems to be in safe hands.
