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POWERRAGE, Featuring Former EXCITER Guitarist JOHN RICCI, Releases Second Single, 'Dragon Man'
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EXCITER’s ALLAN JOHNSON – “I Can Say 100% Exciter Will Never Play Together Again With The Original Lineup”
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Evolution. It’s one of those principles that seems to undergird just about every aspect of existence in this universe. As students of our most favorite of genres, we often speak about the “evolution of heavy metal” and how it has birthed a plethora of subgenres of varying degrees of viability. While some of these subgenres carry enough useful traits to become long-lasting pillars in the monument of heavy metal, others seem to serve the role of transitional forms or “missing links” between more well-known styles. Case in point: speed metal. Often seen as a momentary stop on metal’s journey from traditional to thrash, relatively few bands have built a career on speed alone. Acts who start with speed metal (many early thrash bands and power metal bands, especially) often incorporate other elements or transition to something else entirely. While this may be the general trend in metal’s history, Germany’s Cruel Force says, “Fuck that.”
Formed back in the late aughts as a blackened thrash/speed metal band, Cruel Force regrouped after a long hiatus, reinventing themselves as a pure and simple speed metal band with 2023’s Dawn of the Axe, an album that impressed me enough to earn a spot on my list of honorable mentions for that year. Well, if that was the dawn of the axe, 2026’s Haneda is the reign of the axe, an axe that has been meticulously honed and polished to the point of being as beautiful as it is lethal. I’d suggest doing a proper warmup before pressing play on the embedded “Whips-A-Swinging,” because severe neck damage is all but inevitable.
In fact, Haneda should have come with a warning from the surgeon general stating something like, “May cause permanent stank face. May cause carpal tunnel syndrome secondary to excessive involuntary air guitar. May cause the user to run through walls, laugh maniacally at inappropriate times, or punch strangers in the face. Do not use while operating motor vehicles, as dangerous and irreversible acceleration has occurred. User may also feel the urge to destroy said vehicle with their bare hands, Street Fighter style.” And that’s just my experience with the record these maniacs have produced. Guitarist Slaughter absolutely lives up to his name, slaying all before him with unbelievable rhythm skills and classic metal leads, while Spider’s fingers crawl across his bass fretboard in an effort to keep up. Carnivore feasts, delivering a timeless, thrashy vocal performance that suits the music oh so well, but MVP honors go to drummer GG Alex, whose incessant fills have managed to become a hallmark of Cruel Force’s sound.
The prospect of 42 minutes of speed metal probably doesn’t sound all that special or exciting, but in Cruel Force’s capable hands, Haneda has managed to transcend the genre’s ham-fisted, beer-guzzling stereotype to create something truly special. The compositions are incredible, ranging from 4-minute rippers like “Whips-A-Swinging,” “Savage Gods,” “Sword of Iron,” and “Black Talon,” stretching into more complex work like “Warlords” or the album’s instrumental centerpiece “Crystal Skull,” and finishing in grand fashion with the epic, 9-minute, Song o’ the Year-frontrunning title track. Every song features wild, yet somehow graceful transitions and killer grooves, and the production is simply beautiful, proving that an album can sound authentically old and brutal while simultaneously feeling cultured and refined. I’m honestly still in shock from how hard this album hit me; what on first listen felt like just a really good speed metal album has revealed itself to be utterly excellent.
To finish my musings on evolution, Haneda sounds like a handful of speed metal bands become isolated on an island that drifted away from mainland Metal millions of years ago (let’s call this island ‘Metalgascar’) and whose progeny have spent the intervening time adapting and mutating without any other external musical influence. Where mainland Metal achieved heaviness through ever more extreme vocalization, down-tuning, and genre bastardization, Metalgascar developed its heaviness through ever-increasing speed and compositional quality. Far from being some hunched-over figure towards the beginning of heavy metal’s March of Progress, speed metal, in the form of Cruel Force, has achieved its final form, becoming Homo deus, the Übermensch, the Gigachad, or as the kids say these days, “he’s him” (or “she’s her,” or “they’re them,” if you prefer). This fantastic record will undoubtedly be on my year-end list (if not atop it), because I doubt that 2026 can produce something that’s more quintessentially metal.
Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Shadow Kingdom Records
Websites: cruelforce.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/cruelforce
Releases Worldwide: March 27th, 2026
Some bands need no introduction; somehow, Lion’s Share do. Hailing from Sundsvall, Sweden, guitarist Lars Chriss and keyboardist Kay Buckland formed the group in 1987 and, between 1995 and 2009, cranked out a smattering of respectable, high-octane heavy metal records before seemingly falling off a cliff. Lion’s Share were never condemned to obscurity,1 but they never reached the level of acclaim their fans believe they deserved. Now, seventeen years after 2009’s Dark Hours, Lion’s Share attempt to swing back with Inferno, something Chriss claims as “the strongest, heaviest and most focused Lion’s Share record of our career.” There’s a lot working against Inferno: seventeen years between albums could either stoke the flames of ambition or see them snuffed out, and vocalist Nils Patrik Johansson most recently came off a plain bad solo record in War and Peace. But can Lion’s Share overcome these challenges and stumbles to claim the throne they deserve with Inferno?
Lion’s Share raise their Inferno through the ancient metal magiks of the early 80s. Ruled by the riff as first envisioned by the likes of Exciter, Diamond Head, and Dio, Inferno sneers at any notion that heavy/proto-thrash doesn’t deserve consideration this side of 2000. For the most part, Inferno’s throwback nature proves engaging. “The Lion’s Trial” evokes Dio’s “Holy Diver” with its dramatic synth intro and anthemic structure, while “We Will Rock” teeters the line of homage and plagiarism of Dio’s “We Rock,” borrowing heavily from its chorus riff and vocals. Inferno flirts with select 90s innovations, like Primal Fearesque power metal in “Live Forever” and “Another Desire” and brooding groove in “Pentagram” and “Baptized in Blood,” which catches similar waves as Bruce Dickinson’s The Chemical Wedding. The only break from the formula is closer “Run for Your Life,” which blends doom riffs with symphonic elements and full-on hair metal sleaze into a ridiculously fun package. Inferno sees a band that doesn’t just mimic the sounds of old but realizes them authentically.
Lion’s Share sound spry as ever on Inferno. Vim drives Inferno, bestowing it great volumes of speed (“We Will Rock”), brawn (“Pentagram”), dirt (“Another Desire”) and drama (“Run for Your Life”). Inferno’s biggest surprise is Johansson, who sounds simply robust, and his Dioisms feel more like a feature and less like a caricature than on War and Peace. I think because Lion’s Share is riff-centric, NPJ doesn’t have to carry the material himself and put too much pressure on his voice. When Inferno does call on him to take the lead, the results range from the strained hiccup of “Live Forever” to the chest-pounding victory of “The Lion’s Trial.” But the highlight of Inferno is Chriss’ soloing, which evokes the gnarly excess of Vivian Campbell and Eddie Van Halen in their shreddy melodicism. Lion’s Share may have been away from the studio for some time, but age doesn’t seem to have taken its toll on Inferno.
Lion’s Share don’t do much you’ve never heard before, but Inferno is just too fun not to feel like a total victory. There’s little bloat on Inferno, bar some over repetition on “Chain Child” and “Live Forever,” and the mix is clear and dynamic enough for what Lion’s Share do. The hooks are massive without being overbearing: I’ve been humming “Baptized in Blood” and “The Lion’s Share” all week, and “We Will Rock” escapes the knock-off label with a ridiculously catchy verse all of its own. Inferno’s lyrics are silly but delivered so convincingly it rarely comes off as corny but more tongue-in-cheek: when “We Are What We Are” calls for a heavy metal revolution, or NPJ describes himself as the “Anti-Social Warrior” on “Inferno,” I laugh with Lion’s Share. Overall, Inferno crackles and rages with simple heavy metal goodness.
Lion’s Share are so easy to root for, and Inferno proves why. Good songs, good performances, excellent solos, and an undying allegiance to their craft make Inferno a blast all around. With how good “Run for Your Life” turned out, however, it makes me wonder if Inferno could’ve ascended beyond mere enjoyability if Lion’s Share went in more adventurous directions in their songwriting. But there isn’t a whiff of pretension on this thing, and I get the sense that this is exactly the record these guys wanted to make. Lion’s Share are probably not going to take the world with Inferno, but if you like your metal loud, beefy, and dated circa 1981, it’s just the record you want to hear.
Rating: Good
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mps
Label: Metalville Records
Websites: lionsshare.org | lionsshare.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/lionsshareband
Releases Worldwide: March 27th, 2026
On this day in 2001 The 38th single I Feel Loved was released, reaching 12 in the UK singles chart
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Former EXCITER Guitarist JOHN RICCI: 'I Don't Think A.I. Should Play A Part In Songwriting'
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Harmonic Maximizer plugin by Audiority on sale for $19 USD https://rekkerd.org/audiority-harmonic-maximizer-multiband-exciter-plugin-sale/
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Former EXCITER Guitarist JOHN RICCI On His New Band POWERRAGE: 'I Wanted To Move On And Try Something Different'
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I Feel Loved - Top of The Pops, UK July 30, 2001
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