Velvet Viper is a heavy metal band from Germany formed in 1990 by singer Jutta Weinhold. The band released two albums – ‘Velvet Viper’ (1991) and ‘The 4th Quest For Fantasy’ (1992) – before going on hiatus for twenty-five years! In 2017, Jutta reformed the band with guitarist Holger Marx, with Velvet Viper going on to release four more albums over a prolific six years – ‘Respice Finem’ (2018), ‘The Pale Man Is Holding A Broken Heart’ (2019), ‘Cosmic Healer’ (2021), and ‘Nothing Compares To Metal’ (2023)…
…featuring an incredible sixty-five minutes of metal! And eleven songs to boot – everyone clocking in at over five minutes in length. What an offering from the German four-piece, opening the album with the six minutes plus title song ‘Nothing Compares To Metal’, and oof! Immediately into its stride, ‘Nothing Compares To Metal’ (the song) is a hustling, bustling romp of fast-paced and highly head bang-able heavy metal. The band are striding tall, planting both feet firmly on the monitor as ‘Nothing Compares To Metal’ (the song) storms on by. And after such a bruising opening salvo, Velvet Viper adopted a more melodic style of metal for ‘Invisible Danger’ – a mid-tempo march of the old-school variety! That is until the chorus breaks when all hell breaks loose, ‘Invisible Danger’ showing a clean pair of heels furiously galloping onto a finish. Velvet Viper is back – did they ever go away! And doing what they do best.
Now then, I may have got this wrong, but “The Norns are deities in Norse mythology responsible for shaping the course of human destinies”, of which there are three! And I believe it’s those three Norns that Velvet Viper are singing about in ‘Urd Wardande Skula’ – the three names of said Norns. As I said, I may be wrong, so feel free to correct me! ‘Urd Wardande Skula’ is a meaner-sounding song than either of the two previous songs, incorporating a little doom as it strolls on past. The band are mixing up the styles of metal here, taking a tour around the genre to offer a varied listening experience. And maintaining the variation, ‘Blood On The Moon’ is the rockiest song heard so far, emanating a sort of tribal chanting feel as it gets underway – stomping heavily from the one-minute mark, shaking the ground and crumbling walls with effortless ease. Velvet Viper has been around for many years now, the band featuring a wide array of experience and talent to give the band’s sound such a rich texture and flavour. Sometimes, you want a simple, straightforward album to blast your blues away, and at other times you want one that’s varied, making you stop, listen and think – and that’s exactly what you have right here! It’s an album that deserves to be played time and time again because there’s just so much to take in. Moving in the direction of the doom metal style of legends Black Sabbath, ‘Speak Truth To Power’ is a mean and moody march – full of thunder and punch! Except for the chorus, that’s full of pace and power! Such a glorious and unexpected gear change – the band actually took me by surprise! And that doesn’t happen too often!
The heavy-hitting anthemic style of metal comes flying out the speakers in the mighty shape of ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’, the band striding very tall and proud with shoulders back and heads held high. ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ is intense, with every metalhead everywhere raising their fists high and punching the air in delight. I really can’t stress enough how varied ‘Nothing Compares To Metal’ (the album) is, but then if you take a deep look into the meaning behind the album title, you start to get a sense of where the band are actually coming from! And it’s into traditional heavy metal territory we trundle with the pace and power of the head bang-able ‘Heroic Hearts’, thrusting hammer blow after hammer blow in the direction of the band’s legions of fans. This is exactly the style of metal I grew up with – and I fucking love it! Even after forty years! And maintaining the recent turn of speed, ‘Rise From The Fallen’ keeps the pedal firmly pressed to the metal, cruising along the autobahn at high velocity. The head bang ability of the last two songs has been incredible, with every mosh pit in the world becoming a frenzied mass of jubilant headbangers!
The phenomenal power of anthemic heavy metal hits the airways once more in the shape of ‘The 4th Part’, pounding the ground harder than ever before! Velvet Viper is in a rabble-rousing mood here, recruiting every listener, fan, follower and (even) concertgoer to headbang hard and raise clenched fists high in the air. I’m in – I’ve been head-banging all album long, and with only two songs left to go, it’s looking highly likely that I won’t be stopping anytime soon! Especially with the old school metaller ‘New World Child’ parading the most head-banging nature out of all the songs on offer – the band planting one foot on the monitor and the other firmly and squarely in the middle of the heavy metal genre. As the final song approaches over the horizon, ‘Nothing Compares To Metal’ (the album) has been a compelling listen, offering plenty of variation to please a wide array of metal fans. And I feel I must mention the incredible voice of lead singer Jutta – ’cause after listening to the new single from metal gods Judas Priest today, fronted by a seventy-two year old whose voice is still sounding phenomenal, Jutta is actually three years older than the mighty Rob Halford! And her voice is still fucking amazing! Two metal singers in their seventies still stand as shining examples to the younger generation. Bringing ‘Nothing Compares To Metal’ (the album) to a close, ‘Es kommt die Zeit’ takes a completely different path to every other song on offer – a swaggering hymn-like atmosphere descending upon the album. Sung in German, ‘Es kommt die Zeit’ – translates to English as “the time comes” – is an emotionally charged stroll with all the previously heard power and oomph tightly reined in.
Overall, an incredible array of metal styles, ‘Nothing Compares To Metal’ is stacked full of head bang-able anthems.
TRACKLIST
Nothing Compares To Metal
Invisible Danger
Urd Wardande Skula
Blood On The Moon
Speak Truth To Power
Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Heroic Hearts
Rise From The Fallen
The 4th Part
New World Child
Es kommt die Zeit
Velvet Viper: Facebook
Release Year: 2023
Label: Massacre Records
Category: Album
Country: Germany
Reviewed by Iron Mathew for Frenzy Fire and Metal-Roos.
