Traditional heavy metal band Black Moor, who hail from Halifax, NS, play the kind of bold, bombastic, anthem-driven heavy metal that defined the genre in it’s heyday. Lethal Waters is their sophomore album, following the critically acclaimed The Conquering which was released in 2009. That first album was a bit of a bittersweet victory for the band – while it ultimately earned the band a Loud Recording of the Year award at the Molson Canadian Nova Scotia Music Week in 2010, the production of that album was first delayed for more than a year when a serious car accident left drummer Sylvain Corderre with multiple serious injuries, including a badly broken leg and fractured skull.

Lethal Waters is both a return to form and an act of defiance. The album is full of guts and grit, and a spitting refusal to be defeated by something like broken bones and bleeding organs. This is embodied nowhere so well as on the swollen, menacing track “Midnight Warrior.” The slightly snarly vocals are clear and true, the guitar solos ripping, and the rhythms section tight, dynamic and passionate. The bass lines contain just the right dose of dirty groove to give the song a bit of impish up-to-no-goodness to boot. A great track to break bottles and slur your words to.