Ross the Boss is the 'New Metal Leader'!!!

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss…."

Yeah, merrily, it kicks off with a joy and grandeur worthy of Beethoven's greatest, striding down the crimson-tinted carpet like a baroque power-metal entrance theme. But then the dignified airs of the introductory "I.L.H." give way to the full-bore onslaught of "Blood of Knives," a riff-driven monster of epic proportions, a calling card as stark and real as a ninja throwing knife imbedded in the ol' cranium, right between yer beady lil' eyes….

Yeah, Ross the Boss is back, fools, and this time the sumbitch ain't taking NO prisoners. His mighty axe forged in the fire that was the Dictators, and honed to a razor's edge with Manitoba's Wild Kingdom and Manowar, Ross has come back like a long-lost king of yore to let every one of you peasants know that he is, indeed, the New Metal Leader.

Before his unceremonious departure from power-metal legends Manowar, Ross the Boss was the blood-and-bone of the band, providing the incendiary six-string pyrotechnics that were so crucial to the trademark Manowar sound. With New Metal Leader, Ross has come back to stomp a mudhole in somebody's ass, and he's assembled a strong band of warriors to assist him on his journey.

Vocalist Patrick Fuch's sounds like the mutant lovechild of Rob Halford and Kotipelto, his vox soaring high above the mix like a blood-hungry bird-of-prey. The rhythm section of bassist Carsten Kettering and drummer Matthias "Matze" Mayer is both explosive and locomotive crazy, with jackhammer basslines and galloping, wrecking ball drumbeats tearing down anything or anyone that stands in their way.

Rising above it all, however, like a saber-rattling golem is the one, the only Ross "The Boss" Friedman, a blistering fretburner with asbestos fingers and laser-like talons. His larger-than-life riffs smack yer ears around like a heavyweight prizefighter, while his bone-cutting leads slice-n-dice like a wolverine's claws. When he's not tearing you up with lightning-fast six-string-shred, he's knocking you down with percussive chords.

As a result, New Metal Leader is a bonfire of epic proportions. Lyrically, it treads the usual swords-n-sorcery, "we shall trimph," Viking mythology typical of Dungeons and Dragons-styled metal. But songs like the high-speed collision that is "Death and Glory," with its four horseman of the apocalypse rhythms, Fuch's glorious OTT vox, and the Boss' stiletto fretwork, or the menacing, dino-stomp doom-and-destruction mindfuck that is "Constantine's Sword" are gold-plated rump-shakers in the best Iron Maiden/Judas Priest/Diamondhead tradition.

Ross the Boss is back, and he's pissed off…bow down to the New Metal Leader and spread the word…. (Candlelight Records USA)

(Click on the CD cover to buy New Metal Leader from Amazon.com)