Ian Highhill - Man In White

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IAN HIGHHILL is a heavy metal band releasing actively since 2020 and hailing from Finland. This is their first full-length record entitled “Man in White” released independently on April 2nd, 2021. The traditional metal approach is quite evident from the start in a song like “Shine”, that reminded me quite a bit of the solo material of Jorn Lande. The song slows considerably its pace in most of the track and shares an interesting chorus. Keep in mind, that everything you hear is all performed, mastered and played by the same person, which in itself is quite the feat.

“Hellstream” shows off a slightly quicker pace and in some of its components is a nod to Ronnie James Dio and even some HELLOWEEN. The song has groovy bass lines, a fair share of melodies and well-crafted solo. You get a cross between SCORPIONS and YNGWIE MALMSTEEN in the rather doomy rock number “In the Darkness of the Grave”, a song that just oozes the marquee elements of a hard rock song and should most likely be a single for the album due to its catchy nature. In the same vein, with some added operatic choirs, you have a very SABBATH-esque number in the rocker “Father”, it marks its territory with the same trademarks, and like its predecessors, it possesses a strong chorus and some good old fashioned rhythm money riffs. Having been a fan of the slower doom metal genre for the last 20 years, I was intrigued when I heard “Firewater”, one that employs aspects I have admired in SORCERER and KYUSS over the years, a slow and grinding guitar sound, matched with higher notes in awe-inspiring vocal parts. The album closes off with practically one of the strongest tracks of this entire effort (without taking away from the quality of the rest of the album) in highly memorable and heavy “Purgatory Inn (Bring out the Devil)”, which is about as close as this record comes to IRON MAIDEN and even the classic material of GAMMA RAY.

Something I rarely say about an album is the absence of weak points, and this album really shines throughout its 12 tracks, which do have a similar pattern at times, but are also incredibly easy to listen to and appreciate. The mere fact every single aspect of this album was done by one single person is mind-blowing and is deserving of your listening time.

Songwriting:  9
Originality: 9
Memorability: 9
Production: 7