PICTURE is a band that almost made it big in heavy metal. Like many other bands of the dawn of the metal age, they SHOULD have made it big. All the tools were there. It’s been 40 years since these Dutchmen first made their mark. Is there a place for PICTURE in 2019?
You bet your sweet bippy there is. Wings has such a flavor of what made metal great in the early ’80s and that formula still works today. You’d have to be dead inside to not get a warm fuzzy feeling from this record. This is where classic rock and classic metal merge. PICTURE makes no secret of their influences here…’Line Of Life’ is SCORPIONS colliding with fast paced NWOBHM like TYGERS OF PAN TANG. The title track is full of a huge Hammond organ sound that brings classic URIAH HEEP to mind. ‘Little Annie’ is bluesy hard rock merged with more of that quick metal sound. Every tune here has got its own identity and each one is deeply anchored in the era of the Metal Gods.
Vocalist Ronald van Prooijen has got a pretty strong voice without a trace of an accent, but even though he was the original vocalist, I still must say that Shmoulik Avigal remains the ultimate PICTURE singer. But Ronald is more than up to the task. When the band is firmly in their metal mode, they dive into aggressive riffers like ‘Is It Real?’ and ‘Blown Away’. Some times they favor more of a rootsy AC/DC kind of attack, like on ‘Still Standing’ and ‘Never Enough’ and they also excel at this. Not many bands can handle both styles as well as PICTURE does here. The only tune I kind of have an issue with is the closer ‘Stroke’, which is a bit too long and doesn’t seem as lean and focused as the rest.
Wings put a real smile on my face and took me on a trip in the metal Wayback Machine. This is the real deal and PICTURE is every bit as good now as they were in the early 80’s. Pick this up!
Review By: Dr. Abner Mality
PICTURE
Wings
Pure Steel Records
4.5 / 6