Tulsadoom - "Barbarian Steel"

 Hailing from the Vienna wastelands, Tulsadoom are a brutal 5 piece band who drink lots of beer and worship all things Conan the barbarian. "Barbarian Steel" is the title of their current full length album, 11 tracks of fast, heavy melodic thrashing death, with a heaping helping of old school and traditional power metal as well. One glance at the album cover and you know you are in for an epic journey of barbarian themed heavy metal. Album opener "The Glory Of Thulsa Doom" sets the tone for the rest of the tracks that follow, with it's melodious riffing, thunderous bass, pounding drums, fire-throated vocals and scorching lead guitars. The gang vocals in the chorus "For the glory of thulsa doom!" evokes images of marching into battle, weapons held high, and taking no prisoners! The band does an excellent job of re-telling our favorite barbarian's classic tales of bravery and battle, set to an excellent heavy metal soundtrack as evident in such cuts as "Attack the god of the four winds", "The hammer of thorgrim", "Tulsaride" and "Enter the snake cult". 3 songs into the album Tulsadoom plays a bit with a more black metal sound on "Fuck the god of the four winds", mixing some traditional metal influences with the likes of Celtic Frost and a hint of Dissection, this track also calls out to the Goatwhore fans with it's blazing riffs melting seemlessly into catchy, thrash/punk driven bridges. "Doomrider madness" has a very classic rock n' roll vibe, with its main riffs that remind this reviewer of classic Motorhead and a thrashy style that recalls early Megadeth especially with it's piercing guitar solo's. "Barbarian Beer attack" is a standout cut here. It has a great feel-good vibe and old school metal style that will have the listener banging their heads and raising a cold one in the air along to the lyrics "C'mon get drunk, life is short!". This will be a theme song for metalheads who love their beer cold, their metal classic and their parties to last all night long. Clocking in at just over 7 minutes long, "The hammer of thorgrim" is a viking metal styled tune, with a heavy stomping verse that will have Amon Amarth fans hitting the repeat buttons on their CD players and cranking the volume to the max, re-living this brutal slab of metal over and over again. "Barbarian bitchfuck" is a mid-paced anthem, full of grinding guitar pieces and beastly, clanking Steve Harris-like bass lines and solid double bass drumming rounded out by gravelly, hellish vocals provided by King Totolva. "Tulsaride" is another anthemic track, filled to the brim with catchy old school riffing and gang vocals that bring to mind the scene of a mead hall full of leather clad metal warriors swilling beer, banging their heads and roaring in approval of the mighty Tulsadoom's epic songwriting. This is yet another track that stands out on the disk and warrants many repeated listens at high volume. "Enter the snake cult" brings this raging slab of barbarian metal to a close, showcasing more of the bands affinity for melodic, guitar driven black metal vibes and classic thrash breakdowns. "Barbarian Steel" is in fact the answer to the proverbial "riddle of steel", it is a well rounded album full of everything a metalhead could want or need in a band. This Austrian outfit combines the best of all the extreme styles of every subgenre all while holding their swords high and flying the flag for epic barbarian heavy metal. If you've had enough of cookie cutter, deathcore, scenester bands, if you want your metal brutal and melodic and full of blazing guitar wizardry, then BY CROM look no further than Tulsadoom and add your very own copy of "Barbarian Steel" to your music collection! You can find the band online at www.facebook.com/tulsadoom and you can find videos for "Barbarian beer attack" and "Barbarian bitchfuck" on youtube. You can grab your very own CD copy of this album along with great t-shirts and patches at www.skullmerch.com and you can hear cuts from this band and many other underground artists every Thursday evening from 7pm to 10pm EST at www.brutalexistenceradio.com.