WELSH rockers Bullet For My Valentine have just released their third album and while they cite the likes of Metallica and Megadeath as influences, fans of Therapy? and the Almighty will find much to admire on it.

Maybe it’s the Celtic connection, because there’s an uncanny similarity to the Irish band’s guitarist and singer Andy Cairns on the killer opener Your Betrayal and the rest of the album gallops along at a similarly ferocious pace with The Last Fight displaying an attitude not unlike Glasgow’s Ricky Warwick’s from the latter.

Two years ago Bullet’s last album crashed into the US Billboard charts at number four and on this showing they could do even better. This album is a powerhouse of thrash; often edgy, sometimes dark and always exhilarating. Katie Melua fans will hate it. Fever isn’t smart and it isn’t clever, but hey it’s damn good fun. Welsh hard-rock has come a long way since Budgie.