A few years ago there was a revival of the whole New Wave Of British Heavy Metal thing — and surely we can all agree that is still a phrase crying out for a better handle — with bands like White Wizzard flying the flag. It was fun, too. There was something properly heartening about hearing younger bands throw themselves at that sound with absolute conviction and no trace of embarrassment.
Nerve Star clearly understand that feeling. More importantly, they understand why it mattered in the first place.
Formed in 2021, the band have pieced things together from different corners of England and Sweden, gradually building a line-up that now feels rock solid. Joss Thorley on bass — and let’s stress this now before anyone starts, no relation to me — joined alongside Chris Billinghurst, before the arrival of vocalist Matt Oakman pushed things up another level entirely. Add in the experience of Janne Stark on guitar and Peter “Trumpeter” Svensson on drums, and “White Hot” ends up sounding exactly like what it is: a record made by people who know this music inside out and absolutely love making it.
From the very start, this is proper metal. Ominous, slashing riffs, no attempt whatsoever to disguise its influences, and no interest in pretending the calendar says anything other than 1981. To open with something this epic is a statement of intent if ever there was one. After that, the sheer enthusiasm and conviction become one of the album’s great strengths. There’s a kind of wide-eyed belief in what they’re doing that makes even the most familiar moves land with real force.
And yes, you have heard a lot of this before. But that is rather the point. More to the point, so have they.
The guitar work is one of the real joys here. When they go for it, they absolutely shred, and the twin lead thing gives the album an old-school grandeur that really suits it. Thin Lizzy is an obvious touchstone in the way the two guitars weave and bite, but there’s a lot more than simple hero worship going on. The high notes are hit with gusto, the slower passages have that unmistakable Maiden-like drama about them, and the instrumentals are placed well enough to give the record shape rather than just act as filler.
There’s a little more groove in places than you might expect, too, and that stops “White Hot” becoming a straight gallop from start to finish. Some of it leans into a chunkier, heavier stomp, and some sits neatly halfway between the more melodic and the more thunderous sides of classic metal. At its best, the album is ambitious in a way a lot of retro-minded records never quite manage. One track reaches out into darker, almost Sabbath-like waters before properly exploding, and elsewhere there’s enough pomp and scale to hint at prog and power metal without ever losing the raw thrill of heavy rock.
That thrill matters. So does the sense of fun. There’s an absolute glee in the way these songs are delivered. At one point the lyric “Heavy metal, rock n’ roll is what I do!” arrives like the mission statement it probably is, and honestly, fair enough. That’s the whole thing in one line. Nerve Star aren’t trying to reinvent anything here. They are trying to play this stuff as if their lives depend on it, and on that front they succeed.
It helps, too, that this feels like a proper band record rather than a stitched-together project. The sessions may have been split between Sweden and England, with Janne and Peter recording in Sweden and the others working with Ras at Raw Studios, but the finished album has a coherence that suggests everybody was pulling in exactly the same direction. Thirteen tracks is plenty of ground to cover, but there’s enough variety in the pacing and mood to keep it moving.
And then there’s the closer, “Richard III”, which brings in actual Budgie legend Tony Bourge. That, on paper, could have felt like a gimmick or a history lesson. Instead it feels completely right. Bourge’s presence adds genuine weight to an already epic finish, and hearing all three lead guitarists going for it gives the album the kind of grand closing flourish this sort of record absolutely deserves.
“White Hot” is not subtle. It is not especially modern. It is not trying to tell you that heavy metal needs fixing.
What it does do is remind you why this kind of music is still such a buzz when it’s done with enough belief, enough skill and enough noise.
Yes, you’ve heard it before.
More to the point, so have they.
And that’s exactly why this works.
RATING 7.5/10
