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Heavy Metal Thunder NWOTHM (Traditional Heavy Metal Revival)

Genres Heavy Metal NWOBHM NWOTHM (Traditional Heavy Metal Revival)

NWOTHM (Traditional Heavy Metal Revival)

Bands born long after the eighties choosing to sound like them anyway. No gloss, no downtuning, and a singer who can genuinely hit the notes.

Active years
2005 – present
Origin
Sweden / USA
Family
Heavy Metal Origins
Bands here
14

Start here

Four records in order of how easy they are to get into — which is not the same as best first.

  1. Death by Fire Enforcer, 2013 The landmark

    Swedish, and the most convincing of the revival bands — this is not pastiche so much as a group who genuinely did not notice the last thirty years. Twin leads, falsetto, and no keyboards anywhere.

    Listen to Death by Fire

  2. Darkness Remains Night Demon, 2017

    Californian, three-piece, and the closest thing to a modern NWOBHM record. Short songs, huge choruses, and no interest at all in being heavy.

    Listen to Darkness Remains

  3. Conqueror’s Oath Visigoth, 2018

    The epic end. Jake Rogers sings in a genuine baritone rather than a shriek, and the songs are about swords without embarrassment. The best-written record of the revival.

    Listen to Conqueror’s Oath

  4. Sister In Solitude, 2013

    Where the revival stopped looking backwards. More Sisters of Mercy than Judas Priest by this point, and the band broke up not long after — the most interesting dead end in the movement.

    Listen to Sister

What it sounds like

A deliberate refusal of everything that happened after 1985. The revival bands play twin harmonised leads, gallop rhythms and high clean vocals, record to analogue tape or something imitating it, and refuse to downtune, triple-track or compress. Nothing is modern about the production and that is the entire point. Songs are short, tuneful and built around a chorus. Compared with the NWOBHM it is copying, it is better played and better recorded but less urgent — these are bands making a conscious stylistic choice rather than young men with no other options. It sits oddly on a timeline: musically it belongs in 1981 and it started in the mid-2000s.

  • Heaviness 3 out of 5
  • Speed 4 out of 5
  • Aggression 3 out of 5
  • Technicality 3 out of 5
  • Darkness 2 out of 5
  • Melody 5 out of 5

Where the name came from

New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal — named by fans and the underground press in conscious imitation of the NWOBHM, which it consciously imitates musically too. Enforcer, Cauldron and In Solitude led the revival from the mid-2000s; the American wing around Eternal Champion and Sumerlands leans epic.

The bands

Hear these first

  • Enforcer Sweden
  • Visigoth USA
  • Night Demon USA
  • In Solitude Sweden
  • Cauldron Canada

And 9 more

  • Ambush Sweden
  • Haunt USA
  • Eternal Champion USA
  • Sumerlands USA
  • Skull Fist Canada
  • Striker Canada
  • Traveler Canada
  • Wytch Hazel UK
  • Idle Hands USA

If you liked this

Closest in sound outside this family, leaning towards the similar or the gentler rather than straight into the deep end.