Enter VLADIMIRS from Cincinnati. Their style has something to do more with Punk orientated bands like MISFITS or DANZIG than Heavy Metal. Yes, yes, I know, my beloved Heavy Metal is without doubt a bastard child of Punk…yet, I have very little tolerance for Punk music, although I can accept there are some competent and heavy bands out there. So, I had to get through 12 songs of metallic Punk-Rock with a vocalist which is not sure if he has to sing or to shout, with very basic riffs, but with a very good production. After a few songs, surprisingly some thing started to sound good. It is the kind of thing good for listening in a bar while drinking lots of beer. It is more metallic than your commercial MTV Punk, it does have a lot of Speed / Thrash influences in their song, and damn, some good solos. Their song ‘New Flesh’ is quite catchy. Obviously lyrics are dealing with social things with some dark humor in there too. And I might even think they are very good live. I am more than sure that those Metallers that have no problem with good Punk or melodic Hardcore will definitely fall for this. After a couple more listening I have to accept I find this one better than my first initial reaction. And in the last songs the vocalist uses more his singing style, which is quite good I must say.  I think this band fits a lot in the wave of Swedish melodic metallic Punk bands in a similar style as ATLAS LOSING GRIP (which by the way, is fronted by Death Metal head Rodrigo of Blood Harvest fame). So, after all I guess more than one Metalhead will appreciate this, as I did at the end of the day. Oh, yeah, released by Hells Headbangers, so it has a metallic seal anyway! (since Julián obviously wasn’t really familiar with this style of music I’d like to advise everyone into Horror Punk to check these guys out… this is fantastic, heavily MISFITS inspired stuff with some metallic overtones here and there and the typical catchy sing-along parts… and in that department the band easily delivers the same quality (if not more) than for example CALABRESE or DEVIL’S WHOREHOUSE – Frank). More info at www.myspace.com/vladimirs, www.hellsheadbangers.com