Enforcer – Nostalgia

For nearly 20 years, Enforcer has existed somewhere between Judas Priest inspired traditional metal, blistering speed, and explosive glam, creating a sound that is uniquely their own. Their first 4 albums are certified 21st century classics, with songs like “Running in Menace”, “Undying Evil”, and “Katana” becoming headbanger anthems. And then there’s Zenith (2019). Call it their Turbo, this album saw the band going too far off the glam/AOR/pomp deep end for most peoples liking. While I personally enjoyed it, I too saw it as a departure from their roots, and understood the collective disdain.

Their new album, the aptly titled Nostalgia, isn’t so much a return to form, as much as it’s a balancing act. It becomes apparent upon first listen that Enforcer are far from finished with their metallic experimentation phase. In the same breath, Nostalgia comes off as much heavier and in your face than its predecessor. Throughout its 41ish minute runtime, Enforcer touches upon nearly every hard and heavy sound of those glorious 80s, with an eerily faithful atmosphere/production to boot.

The party kicks off with a gloriously cheesy slab of melodic metal, “Unshackle Me”. Its AOR atmosphere and euro flavored riffage are nothing we haven’t heard before, but boy is it fun. Now that I think of it, that’s the one word that sums up this entire release: “fun”. There’s a familiarity permeating this entire album, as if Enforcer dug through their 80s metal record collection and wrote some tunes after the fact. Whether it be the over the top “Coming Alive”, hooky “Demon”, or Raven gone polished “Kiss of Death”, almost every song on here is guaranteed to leave a big smile upon your face.

Channeling the eclecticism of Zenith are cuts like the poppy “No Tomorrow”, pomp title cut, and the brilliant power ballad that is “Heartbeats”. The retro atmosphere and balance between gentle verses and a mega chorus recall Dokken and Vinnie Vincent Invasion. Yes, you read that right. One needs to hear it to believe it! Contrasting these are good ol’ fashioned ragers like the rocking “White Lights in the USA” and Spanish sung “Metal Supremacia”, as well as “At the End of the Rainbow”, which sounds like a lost attempt at euro power metal circa ’87. One can only imagine what an entire album of Helloween worship from these sizzling Swedes would entail.

While the second half of Nostalgia is heavier than its first half, it also starts to lose steam for me creatively. By no mean are these songs bad, or even mediocre for that matter. They just don’t resonate with me like past Enforcer songs do. I also feel that 13 songs is a little bit much for a release of this nature. Granted, one is a 30ish second intro, but I digress. 8 or 9 songs would’ve done just fine, in true 80s fashion, of course. All in all, in terms of songwriting, musicianship, and overall memorability, Nostalgia is just as good as Zenith, so I can’t complain. I can only revisit Diamonds for the two zillionth time as Nostalgia grows on me. Or as they pronounce it, “No-stale-gee-ah”. Even Dennis DeYoung is an awe of this display of overindulgence!

7 out of 10

Label: Nuclear Blast

Genre: Heavy Metal

For fans of: Skull Fist, Hitten, Striker