Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Piece By Piece the picture takes shape and reveals itself in whole; like a jigsaw puzzle where the objective is to find the frame before the detail, we are often confused in life and see the image first before we lay the foundations and the surrounding borders, the pieces making sense but not in the order where they are most effective, where the beauty of the scene laid bare will be at its most enlightening, its most enduring, and palpable.  

Gypsy’s Kiss may not be a name that modern listeners will easily recognise, but such is the history behind the name, such is the intertwining legacy with one of the world’s top metal bands of all time, the name itself will stir memories of what followed, of how without understanding that Iron Maiden might not be the same group, not perhaps even existing, without that flash of lightening caught initially by the friendship forged in youth of David Smith and Steve Harris.

Past is past, but the passion always remains where there is the basis of brilliance to work upon; and as Gypsy’s Kiss turn back the clock, from reformation, to being the proud support to Paul Di’Anno on his final tour, and now a third studio album, Piece By Piece the picture again reveals not only joy, but a fierce determination to push the boat out fifty years on from when it all started in East London, when the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal was but an omen of majesty to come.

Piece By Piece is a gigantic offering from the band, and as tracks such as War Of The World, Spirit Of Lost Years, A Soldiers Tale, the superb Never Say Never Again, Electrify Me, the blood thumping We’ve Come To Play, and The Entertainer all strut with sincerity, they swagger against the impact of other’s conceit, and they play as though the years between were but a small dismissal of Time, punishing the entity with lyrical cool and a sound that captivates and creates drama in every beat.

For stalwart David Smith, and alongside Jonathan Morley, Fraser Marr, Ross Hunter, Robin Gatcum, and Stuart Emms, Piece By Piece is the combination of pronounced control, of seizing the absolute moment in reminding the fans of just exactly came out of history’s soul, and that Gypsy’s Kiss never forgot their place in it.

A real buss of expectancy delivered, it is with warm heart that Gypsy’s Kiss have come to the foreground of British Metal once again.

Ian D. Hall