Ross the Boss – Legacy of Blood, Fire & Steel
Ross the Boss – Legacy of Blood, Fire & Steel
AFM Records
Release Date: 28/04/23
Running Time: 50:15
Review by Paul Hutchings
7/10
Does the name Ross Friedman mean anything to you? Search the memory banks, and you’ll find that Friedman is better known as Ross the Boss, former guitarist with The Dictators and Manowar. For the first six albums, Friedman played on what are widely regarded as the best of the Kings of Metal’s output. As laughable as Manowar are to many, they hold a place in the evolution of Heavy Metal which cannot be ignored.
After leaving Manowar in 1988 after the “Kings of Metal” album, Friedman played in numerous outfits before forming Ross the Boss band in 2006, releasing four studio albums, very much in the style of Manowar, but with perhaps a little bit more subtlety than his former employers have in recent times. “Legacy of Blood, Fire & Steel” is a celebration of those four albums, with tracks drawn from each of “New Metal Leader”, “Hailstorm”, “By Blood Sworn” and 2020’s “Born of Fire”.
If you are a fan of Ross the Boss, then this release will contain no surprises for you. After all, you’ll likely have all the albums anyway. If you aren’t a fan, but are curious, then this album is likely to be a decent introduction. It doesn’t leave a lot to the imagination. The themes are predictable, the song titles even more so. ‘Blood of Knive’s, ‘Kingdom Arise’, ‘This is Vengeance’. You should get the picture pretty quickly. Machismo metal at its best, music designed for teenage boys who live at home, full of fantasy about battles, fights, and rescuing maidens in distress who will be forever grateful and show their gratitude in any way their hero wants it. Yeah, it’s a bit painful.
Musically, Friedman remains a phenomenal guitarist and there are elements of the album which are a headbangers dream. The explosive ‘Hailstorm’ is semi-thrash metal in pace, for example. And we also get some the vocals of Marc Lopes, new frontman of Metal Church, who cut his teeth with Ross the Boss on the later albums.
Adored in Germany, where three of his albums have charted, this is an album that is likely to one for the diehard fan only. However, if you want to put the brain in a jar for a while, and kick back as traditional and well played Heavy Metal anthems are blasted out of those speakers for 50 minutes, then this is probably the album worth a listen.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Blood of Knives
02. I Got the Right
03. We Will Kill
04. Kingdom Arise
05. Hailstorm
06. Great Gods Glorious
07. By Blood Sworn
08. This Is Vengeance
09. We Are the Night
10. Maiden of Shadows
11. Born of Fire
12. Denied by The Cross
LINE-UP:
Marc Lopes – Vocals
Ross Friedman – guitars
Mike LePond – bass
Steve Bolognese -drums
LINKS:
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