I just love stories like the one of RECEIVER. It’s a story of a band’s dream come true, a dream supported by wholehearted passion, passion that fueled their tenacity, persistence and tons of effort! A story of never giving’ up and yes, it has deservedly a happy end – their first official album which is going to be released on 10th of November by Gates of Hell, in all kind of formats, limited LP editions included.
It all began a dozen years ago when RECEIVER were formed, back in 2011. The opening track of their upcoming debut is “Unite”, the oldest song ever recorded by RECEIVER, coming from those old days of the band; it’s the one that their record company put out as their first single from “Whispers of Love” too.
So, the story goes a long way back, with five young friends playing the music they love, finally standing in front of a crowd with their performance at Power of the Night VI (2011) where RECEIVER played live for their first time. Unfortunately, the band soon met with a lot of difficulties and had been on hold for six long years; only to come back stronger than ever in 2017, old and new members continuing the 5-piece Nicosia-based metal band that would embark on a new journey.
Since then, RECEIVER managed to achieve success and gain recognition through the old-school, unfailing way, the best a band can count on: playing live, one gig after another, giving it all, not holding anything back. They returned at Power of the Night XIII (2018), they played at Make Music Cyprus (2022) and Agrino Festival (2023) and finally, at this year’s Up the Hammers XVII warm-up show. This has been their first time in Greece and they really delivered an amazingly good show.
At this point, please allow me a little detour. On February I saw a video uploaded from their live gig at Down Town (Nicosia) where they played “Burning Whiskey” of RUBY STAR AND THE GREY HOST; well, I love blues rock and since I witnessed this particular band’s cover, I felt it in my guts: RECEIVER really put their heart and soul in what they do, they don’t take anything for granted – they play as true as possible.
Commitment; that’s the word I’ve been searching for. That’s what made them bring out “Whispers of Love” after all and they should rightfully feel proud of it.
The album itself is a fine example of traditional heavy metal with many epic and folklore elements. There’s a reason why something is called classic and it’s the same reason we all like classic-style metal bands. Classic has passed the test of time, it has undisputed value, it has set the standards. Naturally, everything that sounds classic in a nice, subtle way can be catchy and successful. RECEIVER aren’t classic of course – not yet. But they honor the legacy of many classic bands with decency and truthfulness. So, yeah, they may sound as cliché epic heavy metal but they do it in the most lovable way!
After “Unite” which reminds MANILLA ROAD’s fast-paced pure epicness, “Starchase” is clearly inspired by typical IRON MAIDEN’s galloping but with a performing attitude that brings TANITH and SANHEDRIN in mind, mainly because of Nikoletta Kyprianou’s strong, sincere voice. “Trespaser” is an OMEN-like speedy song which doesn’t really prepare us for what’s coming next: “Falling to Dust” is a hauntingly beautiful song, full of WARLORD’s lyrical greatness, reminding inevitably LORDIAN GUARD or maybe IRON GRIFFIN. “Wilderness” is a short mid-tempo instrumental song with pounding bass lines paying homage to DIO -or, once again IRON MAIDEN, if you like- followed by “Raiders of the Night”, a fast heavy-metal partying tune, the album’s weakest track in my opinion. “Arrow” is a song of freedom and cleverly combines some uplifting Irish-folk music with its beefy riffs and excellent guitar solos. Last but not least, “Whispers of Lore” is strongly based on Greek traditional music pattern, the way SARISSA play, making the closing track of the album an overwhelming epic anthem!
There’s also a CD bonus track named “Prowess and Decay”, a solid American-style song that I actually liked a lot, although it’s coming in contrast to folkloric “Whisperers of Lore”.
Andreas Kyriakou (lead guitars) and Charalambos Vasiliou (rhythm guitars) are ideally balanced in their playing and together with strongly bonded Loizos Koukoumas (bass) and Giannis Xanthos (drums) they manage to offer us a truly masterful metal work. Needless to say, without Nikoletta Kyprianou’s distinctive voice, RECEIVER would never sound as good as they do.
So, if you’re into honest, unpolished heavy metal, this is an album that will make you more than happy; frankly, I will not be surprised to see it in the highest positions of this year’s best-albums lists. Most probably it will be in mine, too!
Check the discussion about the album on our forum pages.
