Bride return with this, their 13th (unlucky for some) studio album. My path first crossed this christian rock band back in 1993 when I purchased their 'Snakes In The Playground' album thanks to a review from the hallowed pages of Kerrang! The album was said to be in the vein of 'Slave To The Grind' era Skid Row. While they weren't completely wrong, they also played up their religious beliefs as though they were the heirs to the throne of Stryper which, believe me, they weren't.

So having heard nothing about Bride since then, I was very shocked to see that they have still been plugging away at it and here, with their 13th album (26 in total counting compilations, live, demos and B-sides), comes 'Tsar Bomba' which, with a title like that, could mean anything to me - apparently it's the Russian nickname for the RDS-202 hydrogen bomb.

Opener 'Industrial Christ' cuts though with an infectious riff and the best way to describe the Bride of 2010 is Dream Theater -'Images And Words' era - that's not to say they've got all prog on us although, on the first couple of tracks, I am taken back to the aforementioned Dream Theater album.

The main nucleus of Bride has always been brothers Troy and Dale Thompson (guitar and vocals respectively) who have created an awesome sounding long player. The only thing I do not like are the lengths of the songs themselves which, with a bit of chopping and shaving, could turn the heat up and rock out a bit more!

www.myspace.com/bridemusic