Enforcer
Classic Chicago Metal

February 2010
Released: 2009, Stormspell Records
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

Here´s undoubtedly one of the most hidden gems from the Chicago heavy metal scene: Enforcer. A band that started out in 1982, recorded only one 5-song demo in 1994 and split up.



Thanks to Stormspell Records - for zillions of times, for turning grounds of some abandoned and ancient graveyards upside down once again, to bring out some of these precious remains back to the daylight again. This time it is Chicago´s metallers Enforcer´s turn to get a fair treatment of their stuff that it has deserved a long time ago.



Chigago´s Enforcer plays a classic and killer heavy metal, just like many bands played in the early days of the 80´s. The music is powerful, catchy, epic, rollin´ effortlessly and in a fine way NWOBHM-tinged that surely appeals to a lot of people out there who have just always dug bands from Judas Priest to Black Sabbath to Omen, the RISING era Rainbow to Tyrant (US) to Iron Maiden. And coincidentally or not, speaking about the latter mentioned band, Enforcer´s song, titled "Born to Avenge" has these very familiar parts that are shameless rip-offs from Maiden´s "Gangland" off their classic 666 album. Every Maiden fan will surely notice this right away, just no doubts about it. Despite Enforcer´s strong attempt to kiss Eddie´s forehead, their heavy metal is pretty darn irresistible - and their disc screams to find its place on my CD-player more often than I originally thought it ever could.



The DVD part is also kind of interesting both in good and bad ways, to say the least. It´s been filmed using only one camera that stays still without getting zoomed closer toward the band or anything. Also the band has only a few lights on the stage (no flashing lights like most bands tend to have), but gladly some smoke is used every now and then, too. Also, the club where they played looks more like a small night club or something. You can see the bar on the left side, and bartenders serving drinks from there. And people who have arrived to this club, are mostly not metal guys or girls - and they are almost entirely concentrating on other things and not watching Enforcer´s live performance. Only a small fistful of people (an important note is in order for this part: There´s less than 20 people in the crowd) are getting excited about the band´s performance and go raising their fists or banging their heads when the Enforcer camp tries to do their best to spread some action amongst the audience with their killer heavy metal songs. Nevertheless, the band does their best - and they indeed both sound and look great in my opinion. Wish there could have been at least one more camera near by the stage (or on the stage) because the whole concert would have been far more interesting to watch after some edits done to this live footage than getting it filmed entirely with just one camera.



However, CLASSIC CHICAGO METAL sums up the history of Enforcer in more than a decent way, offering people a good chance to widen their knowledge a little bit further about the hidden heavy metal gems of the notorious city of Chicago. This time it was Enforcer´s turn to crawl out from the dark shadows with the great help of Stormspell Records.