Bride

Item: Live to Die
Author: Daniel Baillod

Live to Die

(1988)

Reviewed by Daniel Baillod

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Label Pure Metal RecordsAdonai Metal Rock #21989

heavy metal speed metal thrash metal

Translated from the original French

YYYEEEAAAAHHH!!! At last a band that really brings the house down!! I won't even tell you what the Bride has become!! Oh yes I will, I'll tell you!!! BRIDE is without any doubt one of the best WM bands today: the Bride has found the sound she was looking for on her first LP "Show No Mercy". The production is excellent (really!): the man responsible is John Petri (MANOWAR among others...). What an album! "Live To Die" is characterised by the variety of its content; of course, no pop metal, nor FM nor glam... Only "In The Dark" is perhaps the closest thing to commercial heavy, and even then... BRIDE is a true heavy metal band. "Metal Might" proves it to us from the outset; and what leaps to the eye (er... to the ear!) is the drum work, which is nothing less than impressive. And then,... the vocals...!!!! Wouarf, gulp, glop-glop...!!! Dale Thompson has become one of the best vocalists on the heavy metal scene. Admittedly, Dale ranks rather among the high-pitched "screamers" of the genre, but he, at least, has learned to bawl, and shows great mastery of his vocals ("Metal Might", "Heroes", "Here Comes The Bride",...). Not one track is less good than the others... That is perhaps the "problem" with this album! Thrash is present with BRIDE, with "Live To Die", "Out For Blood", and the excellent speedy "Here Comes The Bride"... Just listen to that tremendous wedding march!!!! Crazy!! No other word for it! BRIDE has chosen quality, even in thrash: let others take a leaf out of their book!! "Fire And Brimstone" and "Hell No" are also very good tracks, as is "Whiskey Seed", a song against alcoholism. The jewel of the album is "Heroes", a track of more than 7 minutes; it is an old track of the band's, reworked, enriched... A gem! As much at the vocal and drum level as (above all) the guitar level: Troy Thompson is one of the best fretboard-men in WM. If real heavy, almost thrash, turns you on, I have only one word left to say to you: BRIDE!!! The Bride is made of steel!! LIVE TO DIE!!!