Battering Ram - Time Masters

Angry Metal Guy

Occasionally, pet projects can take a very long time to gestate into something more serious and tangible. Spain’s Battering Ram has had quite a long journey to get to their self-released debut album Time Masters, starting from their formation in 2008 and their demos in the early 2010s.¹ Over this time period, their ambitions have also grown. Evolved from just another thrash metal band, Time Masters is a sci-fi concept album looking to fuse epic heavy and power metal with technical thrash metal. How successful is Battering Ram in their goal?

Battering Ram’s fun sound tends to lean more heavy/power than thrash. The riffage of Guillermo Marqués definitely borrows a lot from all over, featuring plenty of variety from ’90s German power metal to ’80s heavy metal to both classic and progressive thrash (“Time Masters (Gods of Soul Deliverance)”). Many of the record’s choices remind me of fellow one-time time travelers in Persistence of Time -era Anthrax. Considering the sci-fi theme, I’d be surprised if some Gamma Ray or Iron Savior influence wasn’t intentional too (“The Persecuted (Back Again)”). The drumming of Benjamín Mateo is lively and energetic, complemented by some fat bass by Francisco Cabañas. Both of them shine best on the album’s thrashiest moments (“Immortality Fed by Death (Unstoppable Train)”), but their performances are solid all around. The songwriting also switches things up plenty outside of just subgenre shenanigans. Straightforward tunes like “The Persecuted” fall between more complex compositions, the 10-minute almost-opener “Unexpected Events (The Beginning of the End)” being a particularly bold choice that ends up panning out well.

While the core ingredients are in place, Time Masters has issues with consistency, direction, and pacing. Take David Ordás’s vocals, for instance. His fun voice works well on occasion but is often at odds with the instrumentation, the epic and melodramatic feel (“Holy Grail (Blood),” “The Persecuted”) suffering from a flat vocal delivery. However, Ordás does improve on the thrashier back half of the record. As for album flow, one of the biggest question marks is the double interlude in “The Prophecy (Revelations)” and “Armageddon Wars (Ragnarök)” towards the end. The tracks themselves aren’t without ideas, but they are oddly constructed and interrupt the flow between the album’s three strongest tracks. Replacing this whole segment with bonus track “Wormhole (Dreaming Eutocia)” could’ve done wonders to make Time Masters a smoother ride, and the same thrash-coded half-instrumental would also give more air time to some of the best aspects of both its guitar and drum work.

Thrash and power metal both perform best at high velocity, and much of Time Masters’ strong instrumentation lacks urgency. The guitars, drums, and bass all sound great and have great players behind them. The riffs have attitude and provide enough variety for the material, and the bass is often cranked loud while playing some really sweet lines. But throughout most of the first half of the album, I’m left desiring a lot more breakneck speed and bite than there is. By the time the potent one-two punch of “Immortality Fed by Death” and “Time Masters” hits your ears, it’s a little too late to salvage the average tempo. The production—while not actively harmful—is also a culprit in removing some Battering Ram’s potential breaching power. But even though the pros don’t outweigh the cons, the good things here are still very much visible. There are no absolute dealbreakers nor terminal issues, and, as mentioned, the very beginning plus the second half of Time Masters offers plenty of material worth checking out.

Despite the album’s drawbacks, there are plenty of neat pieces here Battering Ram can work with. Speeding things up, strengthening the vocals, and refining the songwriting would already make this a much more enjoyable ride. As is, Time Masters has some strong ideas within a very uneven package. Running a tighter ship and improving the production could turn the work presented on Time Masters from a rough but riffy proof of concept into a manic space adventure. I’m eager to await further developments, for the world is in dire need of more power/thrash. Speaking of, where the hell is new Paladin?!

Rating: Mixed
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: WAV
Label: Self-Released
Websites: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Releases Worldwide: January 10th, 2026

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