The Raiders are a stoner rock/ metal band from the UK who released their debut full length last year. The band seems to be heavily inspired by the Spiritual Beggars and Bill Steer’s solo project Firewind but also have a touch of later Entombed in their sound. They’ve got some coverage in mainstream rock and metal mags and might just become a name to remember in the years to come.

The self titled album opens very strongly. I Am The King, Demon and Rust (featuring Bill Steer) all have the heavy groove and melody of prime Spiritual Beggars while the vocalist sounds a bit like a young Danzig and manages to keep the band from becoming too derivative. These three songs provide a terrific start to the album with their memorable grooves and anthemic vocals. After this though the pace slackens a bit as the next three songs aren’t anything great. In fact, the album looses a fair bit of momentum here as things deteriorate to background music. Luckily, the next song Darkthrone picks up the quality and is another groovy riff monster that manages to alleviate the boredom.

The band sound quite solid and seem to know what they’re doing. The raw heavy sound also does the band good and is perfect for these songs. The songs themselves though are a bit derivative. While the Spiritual Beggars are an obvious reference point, the songs occasionally run the risk of sounding very similar to one another. Also, just about every song is mid-paced and while the vocalist sounds great for the first three songs he quickly begins to sound a bit monotonous.

God’s Breath Is Steel tries to change things up and succeeds to a certain degree but again the band can’t really escape the Spiritual Beggars comparison. The album closes with the fast paced Shape Of The Locust which is unfortunately not a very strong song. It provides a change in pace but the song’s a bit boring.

All in all, the Raiders have made a pretty decent album here. 5 of the 10 songs on this album are pretty good while the rest are a bit boring. They are derivative though and get no points for originality, still they are a bit better than similar derivative crap like The Sword which continuously gets high praise (except in the land of the kvlt). So, if you like the Beggars then check this out and chances are you’ll at least like some of it. Not bad but not all that great either.



Label - Invada Records
Year Of Release - 2007