CATEGORY 7

If you want metal, CATEGORY 7 have got it. As much as it often pays to avoid using the word 'supergroup', this meeting of veteran minds can hardly be described in any other way. Formed by certified guitar legends Phil Demmel (KERRY KING / ex-MACHINE HEAD) and Mike Orlando (SONIC UNIVERSE / ex-ADRENALINE MOB),  and named after "the numerical designation for the most powerful windstorms," CATEGORY 7 have a massive amount of pedigree and reputation between them. Joining Demmel and Orlando are EXODUS bassist Jack Gibson, OVERKILL / SHADOWS FALL drummer Jason Bittner, and the incomparable John Bush (ARMORED SAINT / ex-ANTHRAX) on vocals. Taking all of that into account, there was absolutely no chance that "Category 7" was going to suck.

The perennially undervalued Bush is the key here. Aside from some great recent work with ARMORED SAINT, there have been few opportunities to hear the great man's voice soaring over balls-out heavy metal. This is undoubtedly a guitar-orientated record — Demmel and Orlando are blistering, virtuoso presences throughout — but the sheer authority and rough-hewn soul that Bush projects every time he opens his mouth is, in itself, reason enough to get excited. As revealed on first single "In Stitches", CATEGORY 7 provide a magnificent vehicle for one of metal's finest voices, while also enabling the remaining four musicians to go at it like absolute fucking madmen.

Rooted in modern thrash, old-school melodic metal and an assortment of tech-friendly, progressive elements, these songs scream of a profound love and appreciation of neck-wrecking, over-the-top heavy metal. Bush sounds immense. Demmel and Orlando solo away with feral abandon. Bittner and Gibson drop the rhythm section bomb with lethal accuracy. Having made a point of declaring CATEGORY 7 to be a real band, and not just some temporary project, these men have clearly developed the necessary chemistry and musical kinship to back it all up.

There are regular echoes of the respective members' past glories, but the sum of those parts is something else entirely. On "Land I Used To Love", piledriving groove metal collides with a huge melody that would be radio-friendly if it wasn't underpinned by such furious aggression. "Apple Of Discord" is dark and intricate, as straight-ahead hard rock sensibilities clash with lithe and vicious extremity and a constant stream of solo gold from Demmel and Orlando. Both "Exhausted" and "Runaway Truck" are full of giant, chrome-plated riffs and serrated-edge hooks, the frantic "Mousetrap" is as hard and gnarly as anything from the last few OVERKILL albums, and eight-minute, prog metal guitar duel "Etter Stormen" is genuinely outrageous.

The only potential downside to "Category 7" is that subtlety and nuance are conspicuous by their absence. But for those of us that love to be battered into submission by thunderous heavy metal, the strength and charm of this new five-man force is hard to dispute.