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Another day, another debut from a traditional heavy metal band, this time by way of Germany and the band Kerrigan. Sure, that's an odd name for a band, but on their album Bloodmoon, the music does the talking and it does it loud and proud. The production is a near-perfect recreation of that echo-soaked sound so many bands in the '80s relied on and it fits their music like a glove. They play with the kind of energy that makes it sound as though they might just lose control at some point but never do, which adds a bit of danger to their music, like so many of the NWOBHM and European bands from back in the day. Faster songs like "Pull the Trigger," "Forces of Night," and "Mesmerizer" really capture the exuberance of the early days of heavy metal when bands like Tokyo Blade and Witch Cross proved you didn't need to be a major label act to write strong, melodic metal songs. When they slow things down, like on "Hold the Banner" and "Child of Sin," they remind me of newer bands that are also mining the golden era such as Haunt and Traveler. No matter how you slice it, the guys in Kerrigan have hit exactly what they were aiming for, and any fan of traditional metal should take notice as Bloodmoon has them set up to be a force.