Traditional metal, nowadays, seems to have attained a certain plateau of style, and as such, it's always interesting to see what new bands bring to the table. Katana deliver a tight, memorable and relatively neat performance, with a good degree of catchiness, especially in terms of good, relatively original sounding vocal hooks from the band's more-than-competent vocalist. One of the distinctive aspects in the bands style is the very noticeable power-metal undertone to their sound, and the album certainly has a greater number of frills and musical flourishes than a "vanilla" traditional metal album, which is definitely an enjoyable factor, and sets the band apart a bit. Certainly, the mix of styles has been done before, but it's very fitting and sounds very well deployed in this album, adding a lot to it musically, in terms of depth, diversity and complexity. As with a lot of "new wave of..." traditional metal, there are definitely modern twists to the song writing - double-kick drumming is used much more liberally, and the production definitely has a modern shine. It could be ventured that these things, and those like them, which I am less able to name with certainty, are what sets the "new" traditional metal apart from the old. Katana are definitely not trying to be "retro" - they're playing the style which comes naturally to them.
The distinctly Asian theme of the band is definitely interesting, and makes for an album with quite a noticeable direction, but on the other hand, the balance seems to be there, and well implemented at that - There are no shortages of diversity in terms of subject matter. The album in general, for that matter, is well rounded to quite a high degree - some tracks definitely stand out more than others, but there's quite a high minimum standard, which is definitely a bit of good news. Katana take traditional heavy-metal down a rather melodic path, and consistently through the album, they do a good job of it.
I'm probably safe in thinking that Katana take their influence from the usual suspects; Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest, among a few others. Pleasingly though, they've added to their sound enough for it not to be simply a "clone" of either of the aforementioned band. Frankly, I find Katana to be quite a promising young band.
I'm going to give "Heads Will Roll" 7/10.
Links:
Katana on Myspace
Katana on Facebook
Katana on Metal Archives
