Zlatanera are a Belfast, Northern Ireland based heavy rock band formed in 2012 who cite influences such as Black Sabbath, Cathedral, Entombed, Clutch, Corrosion of Conformity, to name a few, the latter of which they were pleased to open for in Belfast in May 2016. Although personal musical tastes are varied within the band, whose members are made up of local circuit veterans, they found common ground in their musical tastes to create what they believe to be the most worthwhile and productive project they’ve been involved with to date.
“Legerdemain” is the 8 track debut album from Northern Irish heavy rock band Zlatanera and boy is it a keeper! Putting aside the obvious Black Sabbath influence here (Let’s face it, which heavy band isn’t influenced by them?), upon listening to their music the first time around it seemed like their sound was revolved around stoner rock and doom but really speaking, on further listens Zlatanera is a heavy rock band with metal elements. There’s a lot of classic metal and rock riffs that the songs tend to revolve around, from the opening track “A Bar Too Far” which is chock full of hooky riffs and a ton of energy, to “Holy Man’s Crook”, a mid-tempo rocker that leads into the more sludgey, doomy stuff towards the end.
There’s not a bad song on here and thematically it all ties around Sabbathy type riffs with nods to modern acts like Corrosion Of Conformity, Kyuss and Red Fang. But interestingly enough there’s a few surprises thrown in that kind make you go, ‘What the hell?’ But in a good way. The little horror intro pieces like the hilarious satanic chant from the 80’s classic film ‘The ‘Burbs’ starring Tom Hanks kicks off “Bad Case Of The Devil” while “Master Of Ceremonies” is delightfully ghoulish in a cryptkeeper kind of way as the Halloweeny “Idle Hand Sanitizer”. It’s a little cheesy but the music simply rocks and simply exists as little additional pieces to throw you off a bit.
Vocally it’s gritty and throaty, perfect for their style of music that can sometimes be ruined by either really weak or just plain bad vocal styles, the drums are brilliant too and don’t overplay too much lending itself well to the groove oriented nature of the tracks. There’s not a bad thing to say here really, “Legerdemain” is not anything too far out of the box so to speak but it’s riffy as hell and just plain rocks. If you love the doomy, stoner rock type stuff then this will be right up your alley.
TRACKLIST
A Bar Too Far
Wired
Master of Ceremonies
Bad Case of the Devil
Idle Hand Satanizer
Holy Man’s Crook
Hooked, Kicked, Hooked Again
Advance of the Clodhopper
