OLATHIA – HUNTERS

por David Rodrigo (Coon) · 23/05/2015

From Cleveland comes “Hunters”, the first LP from OLATHIA. Seven tracks in which the Ohahio band hopes to show they deserve a place in the competitive classic heavy metal scene nowadays. There’s a lot of new bands coming in this gengre in last few years (we can perfectly say we are still in the middle of a revival) and it starting to be usual to find a good bunch of albums in this style – some are not really that good but, lucky enough, some are worthy.

In the case of OLATHIA we found a band with experience and the voice of Chris E, formerly from CELLBOUND and a well established singer in the Cleveland area. The band, presenting a strong sound ever since the beginning with “Hellhound”, shows a rather classic inclination coloured with hints of more modern sounds suchs as EVANESCENCE or stronger tendencies in the likes of ARCH ENEMY, managing to achieve and adictive and familiar result while keeping the ability to surpriese the audience.

Through songs like the straight-to-the-face “Feel The Earth” (ideal for live action) or the intimate and interesting “Open Your Eyes” (starting with a good mid-tempo and advancing in crescendo, breaking in a strong chorus to then come back to the starting mid-tempo) the band prove to have talent and quality and they manage to make their experience show in their compositions: this is a debut album for the band it’s not lacking any experience and everybody know what they’re doing at each moment.

“Seven Deadly Sins” is one of my favourites in this album, very strong and straight forward, it has a very addictive riff that makes it a potential single and a good weapon to shoot live. Chris E. vocals is perfectly complemented by Jake Nicholson and Steve Albenze‘s guitars in a shared prominence, finally making this song a total blast.

“Hunters” gives name to the album and does it as a mid-tempo song with some epic feeling advancing in a costant crescendo, building a really nice song with clear IRON MAIDEN influences and some of the best guitar lines of the album. The journey continues with “When I Die”, probably the most agressive and different track in the album, giving some variety to it and showing the band’s versatility.

Finally, the album closes with “After I Die”, a song that can be easily described as the ballad of the album and, even though it provides a nice closing for this work, it’s probably the one I like the least. In summary, this firs OLATHIA LP is a good job, maybe a little bit too short for nowadays standards, in which the band shows their experience, talent and good doing, but it might lack another of those songs that really makes a difference (think of “Seven Deadly Sins”). Nice album, recommended for any fan of the gengre and a promising start for this band.