Heavy/Speed Metal four-piece act Metalian from Montréal released their third studio album, title Vortex, in 2019. The eight-track album fits perfectly into your playlist of Judas Priest, Traveler, Exciter, Skull Fist, Ranger, Steelwing, and perhaps Riot V. Review finished, right? In some ways yes, and in others not really.

Indeed, Vortex does not bring too much new to the spread, but that definitely does not mean that you should pass on this one, especially if you are a fan of any or all of the bands I've just listed. As mentioned by Michel in his review of their 2015 album, Metal Fire & Ice, it is very hard to listen to this album and not get a song or two stuck in your head after even one or two listens. Somewhat to the album's detriment, this is especially true of the first half, which is packed with electrifying performances and catchy choruses that you'll be wanting to hear over and over.

The album opens up with a busy, killer high-speed instrumental track, "Prologue," which moves quickly into "The Sirens Wail," a song which has some incredibly catchy vocal lines and impressive guitar work all over it. The third track, "Full Throttle," is one that to this day after probably 50 listens still confuses me. I just cannot understand how they went from the verse and chorus structure of the song to the galloping guitar madness that happens before the final chorus. It becomes a brilliant instrumental extension which sounds nothing like the main parts of the song. In this wild bridge you get twin guitar action, rocking guitar solos, groovy bass action, and a repeated dual-lead section at the end which changes harmony every eight beats, not always following the typical chord progression as expected, which will surely engage any listener. Somehow it reverts back to the main structure of the song, and while it doesn't sound like it would fit, they just make it work and it's pretty cool. The fourth track, "Vortex," is the last of a really high energy group of tracks for the first half before a noticeable change in energy that follows. Being the title track, it is satisfying to find that this song has such an incredibly catchy chorus with a very impressive vocal performance. The following two tracks still contain quite a solid and memorable energy, although with less flash and extremes. These lead to the final two tracks, which seem to bring the energy of the album down a few notches for the closing.

In some way, you could compare the way this album plays to an evening at the gym. The first half really pushes the limits while the second half looks for a bit of stasis attempting to cool down to the finish. The final two tracks are fine songs, but compared to the first six tracks may require many more listens to gain a full level of appreciation for what they do. While the ending does work, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of epic wizardry these guys could have finished the album with instead.

Metalian put out a very impressive offering with Vortex which sounds not like a third studio album from a fairly seasoned band, but rather a youthful, energetic debut from youngsters with heaps of talent. I'm very much looking forward to the next Metalian effort as this one has truly kept me coming back regularly since 2019.