Although this Porthsmouth-based British “Traditional Heavy Metal” act (they bring that type of music with a modern edge) was founded already in 2008, founding guitarists Stephen Main and Tony Fuller would struggle through the usual changes of membership, before they found the current stability within their band. With the joining of Ashley Edison in 2010, they already got themselves a great lead singer, and when bassist/ backing singer Bradley Edison (related to Ashley, perhaps?) and drummer Andy Finch entered the fold in early 2011, everything fell into place!
The five-some immediately set to recording its debut 6-track EP We Must Fight, which was released officially in October that same year through Bored Stiff Records to positive response by the media. British magazine Terrorizer even put the EP's song “Bridges Will Burn” on the cover mount CD of their Dec. 2011 issue, tipping Dendera as a “band to watch in the next few years”. And thanks to support shows for the likes of UFO, Firewind, Alestorm, Unearth, Taking Dawn, Revoker, The Sword, Kobra And The Lotus, Grand Magus, Malefice, Wolfsbane, I AM I, Orange Goblin, Ill Niño, Sacred Mother Tongue, POD, Power Quest, and many more...the band spread its name and got a positive reputation among a somewhat diverse lot of audiences. No surprise then, that there was quite some anticipation for the band's debut full-length...
...which has just recently fallen into my to-do box. Of course, the album's now out for a while, and has already gotten positive response from the major printed and online magazines. Check the “Press” section of the band's own (www.) dendera.co.uk for more details, and at the same time also check out the video for the track “Senlac Hill”, as a means of introduction to the band's sound, which is in the first place influenced by the great Iron Maiden, and shows further influences (according to what the band itself says at (www.) facebook.com/DenderaUK) from the likes of Metallica, Megadeth, Judas Priest, Saxon, and UFO, among many others. The band has a MySpace, but I was unable to check that out. There's also some extra videos (good quality live recordings and also a PR video) to watch at YouTube (accessible through the video on the band's own site). Only 8 tracks on the album, but they dó add up to no less than 45 minutes of highly enjoyable modernized Traditional Heavy Metal with a singer who's an intermediate between DiAnno and Dickinson, without actually resembling either of those two (his pitch is perhaps a little higher overall?)! Great stuff, even if it needed a couple of turns in the cd-player before I really got into it.