Durbin – Screaming Steel
Frontiers Music srl
Release Date: 16/02/24
Running Time: 41:15
Review by Simon Black
6.5/10
If you haven’t come across James Durbin yet, this Californian screamer first came to wider notice by attempting to crack American Idol with his brand of NWOBHM influenced Metal sounds and multi-octave scream reminiscent of Halford back in the day. He didn’t win but has been carving out a respectable career in various projects ever since, with this being the second under the ‘Durbin’ moniker for Italian label Frontiers. As ever with their prolific projects, this involves splicing a mixture of Italian house session players and production team and counterparts on the West Coast.
I was particularly impressed with Durbin’s vocal performance on 2021’s “The Beast Awakens”, as it was clear that he was really going for it with both lungs blazing, but this offering is a more restrained affair. Whereas its predecessor was full on 80s in style and sound, with lashings of reverb, this album is much more lower key in the mix. They’ve opted for a flatter, more modern sounding mix, but to be honest this doesn’t do the album too many favours, as these songs are screaming out for a fatter and richer timbre, and it really works against the songs in that respect. Musically the songs are mostly full-on old-school metal cheese, but whereas the first album was all killer and little filler, this record doesn’t retain that consistency throughout and feels rushed, and half-cooked.
Then there’s Mr Durbin himself. Now as you would expect, he’s front and centre in the mix placings, but in a few instances has also opted for a more subtle and muted performance style. Now the guy has a cracking range, and a proper spine-tingling shiver overtakes when he scales the octaves, but we’re really nearly halfway through the album before he really lets that rip. The earlier songs are more muted, with Durbin showing that he can sing as well as scream, but it takes a moment or two to adjust to, and indeed when things do get more epic, for example ‘Power of the Reaper’ he again focuses more on a strong, powerful bout of singing, rather than screaming his way to the top, letting the guitar solo take that role. Yeah, exactly like Halford does live when he’s resting his voice mid-tour…
This isn’t a complaint, it’s a clear illustration that Durbin has worked out that longevity doesn’t mean shredding your vocal cords constantly, because that’s simply not sustainable as they age, but it does feel that there’s a bit more practice needed with the approach, as right now that flat mix undermines things somewhat, which just goes to show how much a bit of the old magic reverb juice achieves. It’s not a bad album, but it wasn’t a great album, and falls a little short of the previous, and admittedly very high, watermark.
‘Screaming Steel’ Official Music Video
TRACKLISTING:
01. Made of Metal
02. Screaming Steel
03. Where They Stand
04. Hallows
05. Power of the Reaper
06. Blazing High
07. Beyond the Night
08. The Worshipper – 1897
09. Tear Them Down
10. Rebirth
LINE-UP:
Vocals – James Durbin
Guitars – Aldo Lonobile
Guitars – Luca Birotto
Bass – Mike Roberts
Drums – Marco Sacchetto
LINKS:
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