Search - White Wizzard :: High Speed GTO

A Refreshing New Look Back At Old School Heavy Metal

British Thunder 13 | Enola, PA USA | 04/15/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

""High Speed GTO" is the debut album from a Southern California metal band called White Wizzard, that has managed to capture the sound and energy of early 1980s heavy metal. Unlike the snarling vocals and machine like guitar and drums of what people today call "heavy metal"; White Wizzard harks back to the glory days of heavy metal, pulling from influences like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Saxon.



The album opens with the title track "High Speed GTO", which instantly grabs you and pulls you in. It was like hearing "Heading Out To The Highway" by Judas Priest for the first time, as the guitar and drums come in quite powerfully in the traditional New Wave Of British Heavy Metal way. When James Paul Luna begins to sing though is when you really step back and think that the album could have debuted in 1982 instead of 2009. Where as the bands seven tracks all sound tight and are executed in the traditional NWOBHM manner, it is Luna's vocals that seem to really set the band apart and cause them to stand out in my opinion. It's wonderful to hear a 21st century heavy metal vocalist actually sing for a change. "Octane Gypsy" is another fantastic track, and the band attempts to voice their opinion on foreign policy with the last track of the album entitled "Red Desert Skies".



"High Speed GTO" is a fantastic album, that unfortunately will be the only offering from this line up of White Wizzard; as Luna, along with guitarist James Larue and drummer Tyler Meahl departed shortly after the album was released to form a new group called Holy Grail. I encourage any heavy metal fan to take a listen to White Wizzard's album and judge for themselves. In my opinion, it's a great album that is refreshing to hear coming from four guys that probably weren't even in kindergarten yet when the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was originally going on."

For NWOBHMheads

Mark D. Neuhoff | Chicagoland, Illinois | 05/27/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is very unique. It differs from the recent trend in traditional metal of taking influence exclusively from Iron Maiden and Judas Priest in that it incorporates influences from the "forgotten" NWOBHM bands. In Megalodon for example, there is a background falsetto used which sounds very much like something Brian Ross would do while he was in Satan, in Celestina there is a riff taken right from Diamond Head's song Lightning to the Nations, and on March of the Skeletons there is a riff taken from one of Jag Panzer's songs on their album Ample Destruction. This album is very melodic while at the same time very creative in regards to the musicianship on each song, and anybody who appreciates the NWOBHM as a whole will enjoy this album."