Younger old school heavy metal bands with gimmicky live shows and a somewhat tongue-in-cheeky image often have their shows mask the fact that their music really isn’t all that special. To be fair, so do many of the older bands they model themselves after. Lyon-based Animalize actually has the songs to back it up. Or at least they do now; while their previous releases were enjoyable and promising, ‘Verminateur’ is the first release on which Animalize lives up to its full potential. It’s total eighties throwback, but not the kind that makes you want to listen to actual eighties bands instead.

What makes Animalize better than most bands attempting a similar thing is the fact that they are really good at constructing melodies. And that goes for every melodic instrument in the band. Niels ‘Coyote’ Bang has a voice you may have to get used to, because it’s quite light and thin for a heavy metal singer, but the vocal lines are extremely memorable and he blends with the band’s sound very well. The same goes for the lead guitar parts. Even the faster solos have a very strong melodic character, which really sets Animalize apart from the generally more riff-focused bands of their NWOBHM-inspired scene.

Another interesting development is the fact that ‘Verminateur’ is the first Animalize release that is entirely sung in their native language. That shouldn’t make this much of a difference, but when listening to their 2020 debut EP ‘Tapes from the Crypt’ and their first full-length ‘Meat We’re Made Of’ (2022), I have found myself enjoying the French-language songs a lot more than the ones sung in English. Maybe there is something to their own language that makes them write a certain type of songs, and it just happens to be my favorite of their types of songs, but whatever the case, it just works.

That does not mean there is only one type of songs on ‘Verminateur’. Sure, a large part of the album consists of the band’s trademark NWOBHM meets melodic speed metal sound, but the surprisingly multi-faceted epic ‘Bons Baisers d’Outre-Tombe’ really shows an improvement in the songwriting I had not expected from the band at this point. On the other end of the spectrum, ‘Damnée’ is a gorgeous melodic rocker that almost feels like AOR without the excess gloss. The speedy ‘Armées de la Nuit’ is the perfect opener, the title track brings some very welcome aggression to the table, while ‘Cheval Astral’ and closer ‘Reviens-Moi’ are very classy traditional heavy metal songs.

If you want to hear a young heavy metal band that is as traditional as possible, but doesn’t sound like a watered-down version of the eighties bands that influenced them, Animalize is the band for you. And I can’t think of a better place to start than ‘Verminateur’. This is the band’s first album that is consistently amazing from start to finish, and we can only hope there is more to follow. The decision to go French exclusively in the lyrical department is a welcome one, though I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that they have some good English-language material up their sleeves with these songwriting skills. Highly recommended.

Recommended tracks: ‘Bons Baisers d’Outre-Tombe’, ‘Verminateur’, ‘Armées de la Nuit’, ‘Damnée’