review: Picture

Picture

Wings

Pure Steel Records

August 16th, 2019

The overall sound of Picture is 1970s/1980-1981 heavy metal in which the classic rock of the giants/pioneers that came before them can be heard. They are Dutch band formed in the late 1970s and issued their debut self-titled album in 1980, followed it up with Heavy Metal Ears in 1981, and more albums for a total of seven full-lengths in the 1980s. Even though they have not been around as an active band for 40 years, they did form all those years ago and have been rocking, on and off, for a long time. This new album finds the elder statesmen of Dutch metal music in very good form. The production sounds good, the music is classic-rock heavy metal, the guitar work sounds good, the songs rock and the singing is appealing as the voice of an older gentleman who carries a tune very well in a lower-midrange voice, and without any irritating attempts to do impossible things like glass-shattering screams or trying to be contemporary (like growling and stuff).

To what extent do Dutch fans of traditional oldie but goodie heavy metal care about Picture? Unfortunately for the band, their previous album, according to Metal Archives, is from ten years ago! That’s way too much time to be gone. Whatever the reasons, here’s hoping they are able to be more active now and don’t let the fans forget that they know how to rock. The entire album sounds like every song is meant to be on it. Not having a studio album in ten years should mean that these ten songs are going rock, and they do. The whole work flows so well with some songs recalling bits and pieces of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple and all those classic bands, a bit of that hard-blues rock, with plenty of 1980s-style shredding and melodic guitars, some rocking anthems, and some faster tunes, too.

Should American fans check into this band? All over in this country there are some stations that play classic rock from the 1970s, and some stadium metal like Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest, and some hard rock in general. Well, that’s the general audience that would enjoy Picture. facebook.com/PictureTheOnlyPage