Album Review: Enforcer - Zenith

I don't know the reason why, but somewhere along the way it became almost a rule that metal could no longer be fun. Given that the reason metal moved into the mainstream, and dragged along the classic names, is that there were numerous party anthems that crossed over, it's odd how little of the music anymore is actually fun to listen to. I'm not waxing nostalgic for Quiet Riot (their last album was a smoldering trash heap, after all), but it is nice to hear a record every so often that embraces the attitude that used to be prevalent, and gives us an experience that doesn't require the wearing of black and eyeliner.

Enforcer's new album is pure 80s fun. Traditional heavy metal these days has come to mean swords and dragons, but this is traditional too. Metal wasn't as dour and colorless as it is now, and the stuff that got popular was simple, catchy, and not quite as embarrassing to play in public as all the songs about taking off your robe and wizard hat (inside joke, sorry).

"Die For The Devil" kicks the record off talking all about, well, Satan, but it's done with an air of hair metal that bounces along with energy and rhythm. It's the sort of thing that, with different lyrics, would have fit right in with the Motley Crue's of the 80s. There's plenty of bands doing the nostalgia thing by bringing in the col synth sounds, but this is the better way of doing it; playing something people actually enjoyed about the music from back then.

We get a tonal shift with "Zenith Of The Black Sun", which stands out as a mid-tempo rocker in the "Holy Diver" mold. The riff has that same chest-pounding quality to it, even if the vocals are of the Vince Neil mold, which gives the song a completely different end result. The journey through the 80s continues with songs that sound a little like Motorhead, and the ballad "Regrets" that has a heavy Queen vibe. Enforcer is throwing everything against the wall, serving as a one-stop jukebox show of the entire decade. That's an approach which carries a lot of risk.

Not only does the record jump around from song to song, some of the songs contain odd shifts as well. "Searching For You" has a bridge that doesn't fit in with the speedy rest of the song, and the rhythmic shift from the verse to the chorus of "The End Of A Universe" is incredibly awkward. Both feel like they have parts shoehorned in that were written for other songs, which makes what we're given hard to digest.

There are certainly good moments to be found in all of these songs, and a few like "One Thousand Years Of Darkness" work well in whole, but there are also enough questionable choices made here that the record can't climb up the next rung of the ladder. It's a solid record, but it veers away from the great first impression far too quickly. Enforcer is trying to touch on everything that made 80s metal what it was, but if you heard the first single like I did, you're going to be disappointed to hear that while the band is trying to have fun, those cheesy hair metal tendencies are nowhere else to be found. I don't want to call it false advertising, but the band did pick a song to preface the album that doesn't necessarily fit with the rest of the material.

"Zenith" clearly isn't that, but it's still a decent way to spend 45 minutes. I just wish the band had fully embrced the fun they wanted us to hear. More of that would have made this record far better.