Charred Walls of the Damned

Ever since reading Kelley’s (Simms) interview with Richard Christy, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the debut of new super-group Charred Walls of the Damned.

CWOTD is the brainchild of former Iced Earth and Death drummer Richard Christy. Joining him is bass extraordinaire Steve Digiorgio (Sadus/Death/Control Denied) and guitarist Jason Suecof, who is perhaps better know for his producing skills, working with bands such as Trivium, The Black Dahlia Murder and God Forbid to name but a few.

Vocal-wise, they could have quite easily opted for a more extreme death metal style vocal, which would have actually worked well, but to get Tim “Ripper” Owens (Iced Earth/Judas Priest) to perform these songs was a great move. Quite simply, this is the best I have ever heard him.

Musically there are a lot of ideas and plenty of skills on show from start to finish and as you would also expect, a hell of a lot of technicality throughout the album. It’s primarily Melodic Heavy Metal with the added bonus of Death and Thrash influences. I’ve seen them being described as Disincarnate crossed with Iron Maiden and even a bit of Rainbow mixed with Death Metal. It is actually pretty hard to categorize them in more detail, but the band themselves have pretty much hit the nail on the head when they say that “Charred Walls of the Damned is a mix of every band that they have been in”.

Their self-titled debut is one of the most hotly anticipated albums since the band was announced, and even of 2010 … and what an album it is!!!