'Blitzkrieg' were an important force behind NWOBHM in the early 80's and while they never garnered the respect attained by 'Maiden', 'Def Leppard' and 'Saxon', have always had a strong cult following (which has included 'Metallica'). Like fellow 80's NWOBHM veterans 'Cloven Hoof', 'Diamond Head', 'Jaguar' and 'Raven', 'Blitzkrieg' are still flying the flag for the genre and never more so than with 'Theatre of the Damned'. This semi conceptual release is a real throwback to the early 80's and an uncompromisingly dose of old school Metal, which thankfully still retains ex 'Satan' / original vocalist 'Brian Ross' at the helm. Co production is courtesy of 'Saxon's' 'Biff Byford', which overall is excellent, maintaining the gritty / edgy NWOBHM sound but with clarity and intensity.

After an initial spoken intro, the title track gets proceedings underway and whilst it doesn't really have that opening concept feel about it and lyrically it perhaps comes unstuck in places, it's still a fine pulsating opener, which witnesses plenty of stringent fret work with 'Brian Ross' delivering convincingly throughout. Brisker still is the 'The Phantom', a darker nastier piece which rides along a sublime galloping rhythm, while the not too dissimilar sounding 'Devil's Spawn' is a tasty riff driven piece which highlights a fine instrumental break and sharp vocals on, lets say interesting lyrics. The strong run continues with 'My Life is My Own', which at times recalls early 'Metallica' with it's uncompromising driving rhythm and rigorous fret work, 'Brian Ross's' distinctive vocals also work especially well here. A little more diversity is introduced with 'Spirit of the Legend', which opens up with a neo-classical guitar fuelled intro, this develops more predictably, but the sublime fret work does make a welcome return. A short and pretty decent instrumental titled 'The Passing' is introduced at this point, before the semi-epic 'Into the Light', a more plodding piece that thankfully has enough twists and turns to keep the interest and while the penmanship is decent I'm not sure the spoken “last rights” were really necessary. Early 'Metallica' territory is again explored with the pulsating 'Tortured Souls', that rides on a solid riff and rhythm combo, 'Brian Ross' does well with the lyrics which push his vocal abilities to the limit and all told comes off as another strong cut. Slightly more commercial sounding is 'Together We are Strong'- do I detect a little keyboard work? not the finest cut present, but the guitar fuelled instrumental break makes it worth the listen. Last up is my pick of the album, the nasty brisk ripper 'Night Stalker', which at times recalls 'Painkiller' era 'Priest' but with a little 'Iced Earth' influence and whilst it's perhaps not the best choice of track to close the concept, as a standalone effort it's excellent.

Two re-recorded bonus tracks are included with the Digipac version of 'Theatre of the Damned', these were originally taken from 'Blitzkrieg's' first demo in 1980. Both 'Armageddon' and 'Blitzkrieg' are splendid workings of NWOBHM classics and well worth a listen especially if you liked 'A Time Of Changes'.

Perhaps lyrically it borders on the cliché and maybe a little more variety could have been introduced, but there's still a hatful of strong tracks here and in all honesty of all the albums I've reviewed recently from returning NWOBHM veterans, this is definitely one of the strongest and the one which sounds closest to their respective original sound!