Byfist
Adrenalin

May 2002
Released: 2002, Saba Records
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: Arto Lehtinen

I was approached by Saba Records and asked if I was interested in Byfist’s debut cd produced by the original Metal Church vocalist. Of course, I couldn’t resist interest and temptation, and replied to their offer by saying, "of course!" I have to admit being more interesting in the band, without knowing any single thing in advance, because the former Metal Church vocalist David Wayne was responsible for the production and Warrior Dude Joe Floyd engineered the whole result.



Well, Byfist stands for the traditional metal approach by having the 80’s vibes in the sound, which definitely catch my ears when spinning the cd around on the player for the first time. Vocalist’s Vikk Real’s voice is fine all-in-all, occasionally reaching the same upper register a la Rob Halford or King Diamond. However, basically, his voice suited the 80’s influenced Metallic meltdown, which is fine despite the fact that I compared his high and loud vocal parts to the two metal legends, but his vocals can’t be compared to any other highly-rated classic metal legends. In my opinion, Vikk Real has developed his own identifiable singing style.



While reading the band's bio I was kind of surprised when noticing the triple guitar work a la Maiden, which ain’t common for metal bands. The triple guitars work damn well here, and bring more real headbanging feeling.



I am much sure there are a lot of old school metal diggers willing to check out Byfist, unfortunately their website doesn’t give that much information about the band. Still, go ahead and try this: http://www.byfist.com