By Albert Mansour
This Swedish-based female band’s debut album consists of eleven tracks. I believe Hysterica manages to offer a little more than your average female band. The vocalist Sinderella is nothing amazing but on the other hand the music has roots in 80’s metal bands like like Lizzy Borden, Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot and Metal Church. The guaranteed-to-leave-you-breathless guitarist “Bitchie” (I just love that name) and RockZilla have their riffs and solos worked out to the finest degree. Eight out of the eleven tracks on Metalwar are just awesome. Tracks which stand out are “Girls Made of Heavy Metal,” “The Bitch Is Back,” “Pain In The Ass” and “Devil in Me.” Metalwar is somewhat similar to an 80’s band called Leather Angel; this has the same sort of feel as their 1982 album We Came to Kill. I actually expected Hysterica to be another dreadful, typical, cheesy female band and all that. Luckily I was wrong, well at least somewhat wrong. There are some flaws here, nothing major, but these girls are smoking hot – any one of them could be on the cover of October’s Penthouse magazine. If you’re a fan of NWOBHM, this is a definite must to listen to as well as if you’re an 80’s metal fan. Great riffs, great solos, and a great debut album.
(Crong Records)
8.0
