This album feels “swifter” in some respects, I dare say lighter on its feet than the first, but this is a simple matter of tuning. For while The Colony Slain may not sound as doomy as Desperate Souls, it is surely no less heavy. If anything, the material is grounded even deeper in the UK’s proud NWOBHM heritage (not to mention the welcome influence of Trouble). The guitar play is dazzling, if not virtuosic; the singing as earnest as ever. A constant between the two records is this virile sense of mission. One imagines a messenger furiously bearing down on his trusty steed, taking flight under cover of darkness with a scroll of urgent importance, galloping madly toward some unknown destination.

Age of Taurus has always predicted their songcraft on storytelling, in many ways a lost art when we survey the panorama of recent releases. Most bands succeed at one, perhaps two, good stories an album, but The Colony Slain is full of them. Every song bears a tale fantastic, making The Colony Slain an epic in the classic sense of the word.