As a longtime fan of their three classic full length albums on Metal Blade Records (“Tales Of Terror”, “Death And Insanity” and “Monument”) I was really curious to finally check out some new material by reformed Atlanta based Thrashers HALLOWS EVE. First of all let me tell you that it is a big letdown that original vocalist Stacy Anderson is missing in this reincarnation, because his unique voice always used to be a big trademark for the band back in the 80s… So, the nucleus of the new / old line-up nowadays only consists of Tommy Stewart (bass) and Skullator (guitar). They both also share the lead vocal duties, while Brandon Ottinger and Dane Jensen complete the picture on guitars and drums respectively. These four guys already got a lot of bad press after performing at Germany’s “Keep It True” festival recently and the reviews I read on this CD single afterwards actually weren’t any better as well… All this, in combination with Tommy’s statement, that he’s “not interested in making the same songs over again…” and that their fifth album would be “even further out” not really fuled the fire of my enthusiasm and therefore my expectations weren’t the biggest anymore, to say the least. But I still wanted to remain as fair as possible, not letting myself influence by outside opinions or prejudices. So, after I listened to the two featured tracks over and over again, one thing became pretty obvious to me rather quick already: this is by no means the band I would associate with the name HALLOWS EVE nor with their classic style! Instead of disappointing their loyal fanbase (which they WILL do, and you can quote me on that!), a new name would have been the better solution here. Musically it’s actually not as bad as mentioned in most of the previously published reviews, but the guys should definitely reconsider the vocal department (especially Tommy’s vocals sound totally out of place here). Therefore I prefer song number two, ‘Looking Glass’, which features Skullator on lead vocals, who delivers a raw Death Metal performance (or “vulcan vocals” as they prefer to name it), with Tommy just adding some melodic, almost Ozzy-like additional vocals to it. A pretty cool combination and definitely far better than ‘Technicolor Roadkill’, which somehow reminded me on all those annoying Hardcore / Metal crossover acts that used to be pretty popular in the mid 80s. The sound / production on the two songs is just ok – nothing more, nothing less. For a demo it obviously would’ve been no big deal, but as this is already material off the upcoming fourth HALLOWS EVE album “Evil Never Dies” a bit more time should’ve been invested in the recordings of it. Of course it’s always difficult to judge a reunion only by two songs, and I really hate to say this, but I fear that this rebirth will go nowhere and probably does more damage to the name HALLOWS EVE then regain the interest. The number of first class bands that are around these days is so much bigger than in the 80s that you at least have to live up to the expectations connected to your musical legacy – otherwise you’re lost! For more info check out www.hallowseve.org