Distant Thunder in Bloomington, MN

Lone Star State metal-heads
Helstar
attempted to put the troubles that had almost derailed their career behind them by relocating from Houston to Los Angeles in 1987 and promptly signing a contract with
Metal Blade Records
for the release of their third album,
A Distant Thunder
, the following year. And although fans will never agree on which of the band's albums they like best, that very indecision serves as a testament to
's general high standards, which most certainly carried over into this latest collection of songs. For one thing, the group's initial speed metal hallmarks had been properly updated to incorporate thrash metal's somewhat more serrated guitar sound -- see opening powerhouse
"The King Is Dead,"
"Bitter End,"
"Scorcher,"
etc. -- and with the similarly frantic but more melodic style named power metal simultaneously rising to prominence in Europe, frontman
James Rivera
's potent histrionics actually felt relatively modern, rather than dating the band to the early '80s. Then again, listeners keen to indulge in some serious epic metal from that older time frame could do a lot worse than pumping their fists in unison to the
Iron Maiden
homage
"Abandon Ship"
or bowing down to the unequivocal majesty of
"Winds of War"
(laced with soft/hard altercations, synthesizers, piano parts, thunderous sound effects, you name it!). Finally, since even the less fluid and distinctive offerings (
"Tyrannicide,"
"Genius of Insanity"
) were generally rescued by the ever-tasteful shredding of guitarists
Larry Barragan
and
Andre Corbin
, it's no wonder that
helped
reestablish their reputation for delivering classic American metal at its most accomplished and criminally overlooked. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia