Boy, I have great memories of listening to Kadavar in the early 1980s, when they were part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and - - oh wait - - Kadavar were founded in Germany in 2010. They just sound like they stepped off of the time machine from 1979.

Their new album, "For the Dead Travel Fast," their fourth with Nuclear Blast and fifth overall, is gleefully, consciously retro-focused. I get some Diamond Head, Angel Witch, Triumph, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Golden Earring, Fastway, Motorhead, Wishbone Ash, Cheap Trick, 70s Rush, 70s Kiss, Spinal Tap, Mountain, Alice Cooper, Free, Ted Nugent, ‘70s Heart, and as an outlier, Radiohead. There are also a handful of riffs that would have been at home on Metallica's "No Life Til Leather" demo tape.
The guitars are only as distorted as they need to be, not one fuzz granule more; the solos utilize Bluesy bends and wah-wah, and wouldn't trigger most radar guns (ironic, given the album title). The drums are all Bill Ward, while the bass is reminiscent of a subdued John Paul Jones. The vocals are clean, with a small degree of higher backing vocals. Your pearl-clutching auntie will still scowl when you pop this cassette into your Trans Am's deck (maybe you're driving her to the grocery store; I don't know), but Kadavar would be a lot more tolerable to her than, say, Slayer or Kreator.
"For the Dead Travel Fast" is an easy-going, solid Metal album to bolster 2019's NWOBHM renaissance, alongside the triumphant releases from Angel Witch and Diamond Head. I enjoy the uptempo moments, but I think Kadavar do best with their dreamy, softer touch songs. Check out “The Devil’s Master,” “Saturnales,” “Poison,” and “Demons in my Mind.”