Trident Winter was formed in 2005 by a couple of Australian guys with a mission to bring back the heavy metal sound of the 80’s. After a lot of practicing, writing songs and performing, the band hit the studio to record their self-titled debut EP. Sounds promising. Or does it?

For a self-financed EP, Trident Winter sounds pretty good. The music sounds clear, although the vocals tend to disappear into the background in some songs. The lead guitars could have used a boost here and there, both in volume as in sound quality (although some solos sound quite energetic), but the whole is quite okay for a first recording effort.

Thing is, a new band is always made or broken by the quality of their lead singer in my opinion. And this is the sensitive spot of Trident Winter, because vocalist Simon Hallet sounds good in some tracks, on others his vocals are just plain awful. Take ‘Taste Of Fire’, for example. Raw vocals (think of a mixture between Axl Rose and Brian Johnson) are being followed by a really mellow, almost humming sound. It sometimes sounds like he can barely hit the notes, which is a pity.

‘Revolution Time’, on the other hand, is one of these head-banging songs that you appreciate on an EP like Trident Winter. The vocals fit the song and I would like more tracks with this kind of singing. He does hit the high notes on this track, which gives the EP an instant boost.

The verdict: there’s a lot of work to be done, but for a first effort, this doesn’t sound too shabby. Improve the sound quality, work on the singing, keep writing these cool sounding melodies like in ‘Kings Of The World’ and we might just hear more of these guys in years to come.