Natur - Head Of Death

'Head Of Death' is the debut effort for old-school Heavy Metal effort Natur. Touching on influences like Mercyful Fate, Metallica, and Manowar, the music is a cleaner version of these 80s heroes. On the flipside, it is also pretty basic, sounding like mid paced Thrash overall as the music carries through on the shoulders of repetitive sharp riffs and almost chanting vocals that sound like a cross between James Hetfield of Metallica and Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden. As a result, perhaps a small section of Metal fans can get into this style truly, but it is fortunate that somewhere far back in evey Metal fans' roots, they started off by liking either of these bands in the first place.

Tracks like "The Messenger" has slower, almost symphonic moments during the chorus while "Goblin Shark" is just a helter skelter of stop n' go moments that are mostly guitar based, but still fun to enjoy. Oddly enough, the music doesn't seem to pick up after the title track; it mostly eases down to a mid pace. Only when "Spider Baby" hits do things really pick up again with a quicker pace and still maintaning that overall raw sound. The big surprise, even if it is just a moment, is the acoustic touches on "Mutilations In Maine" which is a new start for Natur, but once things fall back to the usual riffs listeners may lose interest again. Still, for a debut it has a solid place in the Heavy Metal based sub genre and just churns along with no remorse. It does re-invent the wheel a little bit, but fans of the genre in general will like it.

  1. Head Of Death
  2. The Messenger
  3. Goblin Shark
  4. Decion
  5. The Servant
  6. Vermin Rift
  7. Spider Baby
  8. Mutations In Maine