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It’s a great time to be a young British metal band and Beholder’s second album proves they have the balls and talent to compete with the best of

There are influences from old-school thrash, power metal and also traditional sources, all adding up to a diverse and satisfying 12 tracks that range from the full-on force of Black Flag and Here I Stand to the more progressively challenging Morphine Serenity and The Tale Of Eleanor Grey. There’s even a darkly acoustic instrumental, Out Of Ashes, as the band show they have the bravery to try different musical shades.

This becomes clear on Toxic Nation, where they vary the pace constantly, highlighting the deft touches of guitarists Scott Taylor and Martyn Blackwell. Closing track As Darkness Falls could become one of the year’s classic metal moments, such is its epic and anthemic drive. This is an album delivered with skill and crushing force.

Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.