The Pleasure Slaves –

- Who – are they? The Pleasure Slaves are from Bergamo, Italy and have been together since 2009.
- What - do they want? They say they are the Defenders Of True Metal and they want us to join with them. The spirit of True Metal needs us all.
- Why? The spirit of many valiant True Metallers have gone before us and we are in danger of forgetting them, so the Pleasure Slaves have offered their energy, strength, courage and honour to ensure that True Metal stays with us. Very kind of them it is too as they are pretty decent on this debut offering.
- When - is the album ready for us to marshal behind in this noble campaign? August 20th 2012.
- Where - shall we gather? At http://www.pleasureslaves.tk you can visit just now to sample 'The Song Of The Seven' (hopefully there will be more of us than that!) and 'The Power Of The Nights'. In preparation, revisit your back catalogue for Manowar as they are heavily influenced by them and have named themselves in honour of Manowar's song 'Pleasure Slave' (ok - so you already had that sussed).



This debut album is instantly likeable with ten good rockable songs.

1. True Metal Will Never Die
2. Ballad
3. Lionheart
4. Hero
5. The Truest Of True
6. The Last Of The Giants
7. The Power Of The Nights
8. The Song Of The Seven
9. Red Dragon
10. The True Way

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All are decent lengths and written by the band members themselves which are all essential criteria for credibility in the Metal world. Lead vocals are provided by Simone SK Grigolo (who moonlights as a vocal coach) and these are pretty impressive, reminiscent of a younger Rob Halford crossed with Lenny Wolf while channelling the spirit of Ronnie James Dio: no screeching or half made attempts here – these are real vocals.

Guitars are provided by Simone Bianchi and Oscar Giavazzi, true Metal would indeed require twin guitars and all I can say is that the guitar pairing here is sublime. In fact, it is the guitars that takes me back for relistens 'cos they really are more than a bit special.

The baselines pass the Metal test – we all know what that is - turn the music up as loud as you can and you actually feel the bass properly under your feet in floor as the room channels the bass to mimic the heart of the music. I will apologise to the neighbours later, they've gone out for now. And the drums are fantastic. Stand up and take a bow Alessandro Villa and Roberto Ira.

So; ten songs, they are similar in theme as they clearly belong to the same album and group but they are individual creations, good Metal guitar riffs with drums 'n bass 'n vocals – its all got to be good right? Right!

Check out the website but just to make it easier for you here is 'The Song Of The Seven'. This has been online since January this year and already has over 1,500 views so unless their mums have all been busy watching YouTtube on a constant basis, there is clearly already a well defined Pleasure Slaves fan base.



Does this meet with the band's own determination to keep alive the spirit and tradition of True Metal – pretty much if your definition of True Metal includes Dio, Sabbath, Judas Priest, early Tygers of Pan Tang and even earlier Maiden, before the Sooty incident (not quite NWOBHM but in the same ballpark).

It will be interesting to see what they do next, they could be massivo.

26.6.12