Cirith Ungol - One Foot in Hell (1986)

One Foot in Hell was the first Cirith Ungol record I picked up on cassette, smitten after repeated exposures to the opening track "Blood and Iron" on Best of Metal Blade Volume 2, which I played so much that I infuriated all my family and another family that were camping together in New Hampshire over the summers. While that might be my go-to anthem among the band's catalogue, I was satisfied to find that the rest of the album is nearly on par, and for me the most evocative in terms of the dark fantasy/sword & sorcery that influenced the Californians both lyrically and sonically. They basically took everything great from the earlier album and covered it with a suit of iron, occasionally flecked with some rusty spikes to poison the blood of the impaled.

While other bands were ratcheting up the technically and extremity, Cirith Ungol were sticking to their formula and just making it more consistent and engaging. I mean, this album dropped in a year that also produced Master of Puppets and Reign in Blood, two discs that have done lengthy (and often competing) rotations as my metal GOATS, which make for quite a contrast against this simpler sound. This band was already becoming an anachronism by the mid 80s, but that's exactly what makes One Foot in Hell so damn cool, the stark and straightforward blend of riffs and atmosphere. I do actually think this one is less varied than its two predecessors, but the production feels a little more '80s' in line with a lot of the band's Metal Blade peers, there's more of a reverb and resonance coming out of the speakers that it exchanges for the jam room feels of its older siblings, and this works in tandem for the soaring, brooding chorus parts as in "Nadsokor". The whole album here feels like it was written and performed by orcs as they beat their siege machines together and prepare to roll across the realms, stamping out the civilizations of man, elf and dwarf...

...and for a 12 year old, that was MIGHTY FUCKING AWESOME. And still is! Whether because such an idea is timeless, or because I never stopped being 12, that's a conversation we can have another time, but judging by the band's continued popularity and the fact that the following three records they would produce over the 30+ years after this one, seem more like attempts to revisit this magic than that of the first two records. So I am not alone. Now, having heaped such praise upon this one, I can't quite say it's perfect, there's a little bit of goofiness here with the obvious party track "100 M.P.H.", which is fun in its outright, but sounds like they're trying to create their own "Ballroom Blitz", still keeping it well within the realm of the heavy metal lyrics, but had this one been replaced by another more serious piece like all its neighbors, the album would be even better than it is. Just saying. At least the lead at the end is really slick.

Otherwise, this is everything you want. Tim Baker's harrowing vocals launch over the mix like a stone heaved over some poor castle's wall by a trebuchet, especially in the doomiest tunes like "Chaos Descends" or "Doomed Planet", where the voice is such a weapon against the slower churn of the guitars. The rhythm guitar tone has a lot more 80s steel to it than the 70s-cloaked earlier albums, and I also think the lead guitar blends in better where it often seemed to bleed a little on the debut. There is a bit of passivity to the drums, if only because they are just crushed by the awesome weight of the riffs and vocals, but in a way that works in its favor, and I'd say the same for the bass...it doesn't have that pop to it like it did on the first two, but it definitely bulks up enough to enforce the rhythms, and I think that approach just worked better for this material.

One Foot in Hell is a bonafide American metal classic that deserves to be placed on the same pedestal as classics from Manowar or Twisted Sister, and to this day remains my favorite of the whole Cirith Ungol canon. It has one track that doesn't live up to the rest for me, sure, and it got absolutely buried the year it came out by so many other amazing releases, but it's totally timeless, sounding just as potent now as it did when I was hitting puberty. I think the band really hit the level they wanted musically, and where they would remain barring slight tweaks to production and aggression. A nice "Waaagh!" we could stick in the faces of our poseur friends and siblings who listened to Poison and Bon Jovi.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

https://www.facebook.com/cirithungolofficial

Satan - Into the Future EP (1986)

Into the Future (aka the Dirt Demo '86) came out three years after Court in the Act, and I think that might be one of the reasons that Satan didn't initially explode as much as they could have. The major British bands at the time were churning out hits like an assembly line, with better production and more accessible songwriting, and even the members here were a little involved in other projects, and yes, they had the provocative name that was going to get them in all manner of hot water (ha ha!), so this didn't have quite the prolific impact; it wasn't getting in front of peoples' faces, or butts in concert seats. That said, the smudgy mushroom cloud (?) cover artwork on this EP might be ugly, but the music itself is a great continuation of the style on the debut, and I daresay I think the mix is stronger, giving a little more tightness and power to the instrumentation. Michael Jackson also has a slightly more controlled delivery than Brian Ross, with a little more dirt to the low end and some sharpness to the higher.

There are only four songs, at under 18 minutes, but the A-side for this one, "Key to Oblivion" and "Hear Evil, See Evil, Speak Evil" are certainly among the better 80s tunes they wrote, and ultimately would belong on a double-disc collection of career highlights. They showcase all of the band's great riffing techniques...complex, tremolo picked lines, packed with melody, a bit of shred or neo-classical influence, and most of all, propulsive power. Jackson's delivery is on point, he even has a few screams on here that I really enjoyed, they felt angrier and more controlled and not just an errant falsetto boast. There might be an added level of weight to how it sounds, and part of that is the production, but it's kind of a bridge to their sophomore album, which was trying to keep a little more current with the heavier, thrash environment around it. The only one of the four that slacks is "Fuck You", and that's not because the music is bad...it's amazing, but the fact that it's mostly an instrumental with just the dumb "Fuck you!" exclamation for the lyrics...when Overkill did this, they made it a straight to the face statement with an aggressive thrash song...here, the music deserved much more, or it should have gone full-on instrumental.

Otherwise, this is one dope, deserving follow-up to the debut, consistent while it moves them a little forward with regards to production. Unfortunately, it's hard to find on its own, but you can usually get it packaged with Suspended Sentence for a pretty killer value, if you can get it at all. I think the songs are also on the Early Rituals collection that came out through Listenable, but I haven't been able to check that one out. Anyways, this is definitely one that I can remember on cassette, spinning it next to Possessed's The Eyes of Horror EP because both of them combined would match the daily duration of my paper route job. The NWOBHM might have been dissolving as of this time, but the chops on display showed that Satan was prepared to take on all comers for the future.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.satanmusic.com/

Megadeth - Peace Sells...but Who's Buying? (1986)

I mentioned in my Killing is My Business... review that I really dug one of the remastered versions, but I'm the complete opposite when it comes to its follow-up. You want the original Peace Sells..., the default version and an improvement over the debut album in every category. Alright, if you PREFER the rawness, the disheveled vibe of old thrash and speed metal demos or albums, then perhaps this one came across a fraction too polished. Personally, though, I thought this record was straight fire when I first heard it and I've never changed my mind in going-on four decades. If it wasn't for one other album, this would be my favorite from Dave Mustaine, but even then it's a close match, and the sophomore is one of the most mandatory and iconic works of its genre. From the amazing Ed Repka cover art (which put the guy on the map) to the Cold War themes, the incorporation of the mascot, the bold orange and violet colors, this is not an album you look at and forget. It's also not one you could LISTEN TO and forget...

From the opening, bass-heavy grooves of "Wake Up Dead", it's almost shocking how much these four members had matured within the span of a single year. Instantly, there is more 'control' to the songwriting and performance, and while that might sound unappealing for a reckless band like Megadeth, borne on attitude and twisted sneers, they still manage to keep that personality intact. This thing is a riffing fucking juggernaut, and Randy Burns and his staff knew how to capture all the lightning in the bottle. The songs have an excellent level of variation, atmosphere and pure power, whether the band's moving steadily along or at some unbridled clip. Rhythm guitars are imbued with a lot of punch to the chords, and crunch to the palm muting patterns. Ellefson's bass lines are some of the best sounding of the era, joining others like Harris, Lemmy or Burton as an exemplar of how important the instrument should be in the medium. Strangely, Gar sounds a little more subdued than on the debut, that's not to say the beats are lacking, but it's just part of the balancing act.

The leads are quite a lot more memorable than on the debut; they've harnessed that slight sloppiness into something more defining and melodic, but they can still feel a little reckless and uncouth, and incorporate a little more harmony alongside some of the low-end thrashing (as in the bridge of the title track). Dave's vocals are also reined in for the better, the nasally mid-range adding some nasty bite and wit to some really memorable lines. In fact, I think "Peace Sells..." is the poster-child for his sense of sarcasm and socio-political critique, his pinched delivery can often prove cringe-worthy on later tracks like the awkward "Sweating Bullets", but they come off perfectly in this track, and the lyrics are truly hilarious, inspired, and 'Murica (in a good way). And so much of this is just so goddamn catchy, the first four tracks are unassailable, from the neck-stressing breakdowns of "Wake Up Dead" to the evil trot of "Devil's Island", this is how to start off an album, and I'd run these up against almost anything else in the genre when it comes to structure, pacing, and riff choice.

The 'B-side', well, not quite so much. It's funny that I have some of the same complaints as on the debut, only they are minimalized due to the sheer momentum of the band's musical maturity. For example, I don't care much about the "Good Mourning..." intro, with its clean guitars and lead, but it's at least better at setting a mood than "Last Rites" on the previous album. Also, there's the obligatory cover, this time Willie Dixon's "I Ain't Superstitious", and unlike "These Boots", they are playing this one a little closer to the belt...it feels like a bar cover by a couple metal musicians, but until they get to the nether regions of the track, they don't really metalize it at all, and even then it's too late. Then again, "My Last Words" is quite good, and there's a case where the acoustic/bass intro really shines. "Bad Omen" seems like a largely instrumental flex, but a decent one, and "Black Friday" probably dominates this deeper part of the track list, it far exceeds its intro half with those churning little rhythms during the verses.

Because of these small B-side missteps (at least for me), Peace Sells... doesn't quite reach the perfection of the albums Megadeth's two West Coast peers put out in the same year. Yes, it's basically up against my two favorite metal albums of all time, in the same genre, from the SAME fucking State! Uncanny, but to be fair to Dave and the boys, this album really does hold its own, it's one I am constantly listening back to, and the many positives almost completely obfuscate its few flaws. Within a span of months, Mustaine had already manifest into the metal godhood for which he was destined, and what a joy it is to have been around then, to have heard this when it first came out, and grown up with it. Worth every penny, worth every drop of nostalgia, and a triumphant evolution that doesn't cede any of the band's intensity other than sounding like the product of a studio and not a shack.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.5/10] (Just not your kind)

https://www.megadeth.com/

Picture - Every Story Needs Another Picture (1986)

I was hardly any hesher hunk to take advantage of the 80s hair metal sex and fashion, I was too young and dweeby at the time (and the latter does remain an apt description for me now), but something within me always stirs, partly from attraction and partly from laughter, at all these smutty old album covers. She's got a picture...of the band Picture...and she's stalking some private eye dude down the steamy city street in nylons, high heels and leather skirt. And it's on Backdoor records! If you used this as a cover today, I'd still think you were awesome, but there was something so sleazy and entertaining about it back in the day, and I like the color scheme and it strangely sort of mirrors the colors of their better known, more evil looking 1983 album Eternal Dark.

These Dutchmen are best known for that early 80s batch of records, at the crossroads between NWOBHM style heavy metal and more mainstream hard rock, which put them on trajectory for a level of international renown that they sadly didn't ever quite achieve. It's kind of cool to have a couple Picture albums around if you're showing off your old vinyl collection, but even then it's not a group I ever see a lot of people having discussions over. Every Story Needs Another Picture was already the group's sixth album, and it certainly seemed too timid in a year that was producing records like Master of Puppets, Somewhere in Time and Reign in Blood, but listening back on this one now with a fresh appreciation, it was actually a bit more busy and developed than some of their earlier, more straightforward stuff, and it has the sort of authentic 80s atmosphere to it that a lot of bands today fall over themselves trying to emulate. This album effectively sounds as it looks, something you'd chase into the urban nightscape, blaring out of the open windows of your Corvette or Trans Am or whatever was popular to drive in Holland at the time.

The guitars have a heavy foundation of hard rock and blues to them, sometimes using effects as you'd expect from a group like The Dire Straits on their ginormous hit, or ZZ Top, but just as often you've got a traditional feel that reminds me a lot of Whitesnake throughout the 80s. There are some synths here to give it that radio appeal, but also a lot of organs and such which also summon up some Uriah Heep or Deep Purple references. I'd venture that tunes like "Burning for Your Love" even leap off into a mix of mildly prog rock influences with the keyboard lead,s mixed with AOR arena rock for the predictable but functional verse guitar riffs. Vocalist Bert Heerink, who had taken over for Pete Lovell on the previous year's Traitor, has a nice, slicing high pitched voice which is smooth at encompassing all the melodies required over this material. The album does suffer from some softer rock anthems like "Stay With Me" or dull rockers like "She Was Made for Lovin'", but where they get a little more bombastic and intense like the first track "Battle Cruiser" and its cool opening choirs, or "Moving Down the Line", it's quite good stuff..."You Took My Money, You Took My Pride" and "Stand Back for the People in Charge" are also quite fun, the latter even with hints of Boston or Zebra in it.

I just wish there were more ambition here. I think if you like group such as Lion or Dokken, there is a chunk of this album worth your time, and a kernel of their sound was trying to go a little bit further than just the mundane butt-rock that they were undoubtedly pressured towards at the time, because it was either write some giant radio or hair metal hits, or get utterly fucking trampled by the heavier strains of the genre that were hitting in full-force by that time. Every Story Needs Another Picture does not accomplish either of those ends, but as an artifact of the 80s it's not bad if you have a soft nostalgia for AOR or lighter metal that really treads the line.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

https://www.pictureband.nl/

Helloween - Judas EP (1986)

The only thing working against the original Judas EP was that it only had one new song to offer. A friend and I used to love these old Combat cassette issues of stuff like this or Celtic Frost's Tragic Serenades, we'd sit around on our skateboards in his basement, back when that was our thing, and just toss these things in the boom box and wonder. I seem to remember they didn't even have much by way of J-cards, or at least some of them didn't, they were just the cover and the inside of the cassette cover was just bare white. It wasn't an issue, but this one really stands out to memory with the simple mouthless pumpkin image and the green classic logo on the little flag sticking out from its 'brow'. I mean how could it get any cooler? A band that performed music this exciting, AND with an aesthetic connection to Halloween, our favorite day of the year?

These days most have experienced this one as part of that full-length compilation version which includes all of the original s/t EP, Walls of Jericho, and this one new tune, without the bells and whistles that were on the Combat EP. And don't get me wrong, that's the way to do it, you get the most bang for your buck and the official studio material of that era all in one place, with the exception of one track from the Death Metal 4-way split in 1984 they did with Running Wild, Hellhammer and Dark Avenger, and for all I know there's some other version that also includes that. But I'm approaching this for what it was, an EP or single with one new tune and some extras. WHAT a song that was, "Judas", another scorcher the likes of which you heard on those earlier releases. A fast beat with lots of double-bass characteristic of what drove the power metal general into its own niche beyond just the traditional heavy metal. Awesome bass lines and fills, and riffs even more rich and catchy than all the previous material. It's also just a little bit more evolved in the arrangement, with that pre-chorus and chorus perfectly placed, and it serves in a sad way as Kai's swan song as the front man with the band, since they'd pick up Kiske after this and Kai would focus more on his writing and guitars (but he wouldn't be able to avoid the helm for long!)

By far one of my favorite Helloween tracks, with the perfect ending where Kai spits out those elevating screams and it ends with that little swell of choir. There are two 'live' tracks from Walls of Jericho, "Ride the Sky" and "Guardians", and this was great as it was my first opportunity to hear the band 'live', and man did they sound awesome...nearly studio perfect? Probably because it was, these must just be the studio tracks, maybe washed out a little in the mix, with crowd noise added in. But at the time, I liked to imagine they actually sounded this great. The Combat cassette also had two tracks lifted from the original EP to flesh it out, "Victim of Fate" and "Cry for Freedom", which are arguably the most popular, so I guess if this was your first introduction it was offering a good pair of samples and then "Judas" to top it all off. Rating this thing is a little hard, because obviously I love the title track so, so much, and the cover, and have that nostalgia...but the other material is basically all a re-tread and it doesn't have much place as a product anymore.

So "Judas", the song? 10/10. Everything else about it, not so much...

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

https://www.helloween.org/

Rage - Reign of Fear (1986)

Although the full-length Avenger record album, Prayers of Steel, was enjoyable, it wasn't until Peavy Wagner and company had undergone the name change to Rage that they strung together one of my favorite metal recording streaks of the 80s (spoiler alert!); one that I listened to with nearly the same reverence as the Golden Eras of Metallica, King Diamond, Coroner, Voivod and other favorites of that period. There are a number of camps within this band's fandom, some prioritizing the era that they were first exposed to the Germans' music, others attracted to the particular studio aesthetics of their more polished, measured mid-period of the 90s, their handful of conceptual 'rock opera' style efforts, or even the most modern sounding of their output. While I enjoy a few albums or songs from all of these epochs, none has come even close to this early run of Noise Records classics, full of shrieking abandon, raw ideas and aggressive, memorable riffing that was a creative fusion of thrash, speed and the budding European power metal sound.

Even as far back as this 'debut', the band was writing rhythm guitars that sounded like nothing else out there...not because they were a massive stylistic departure from the parameters established by genre staples like Judas Priest or Accept, but they were just really imaginative and epic, while retaining an almost workmanlike, steel-mill execution due to the rough yet clear mix of the vocals and instruments. This was a sound which could hang with the heavier edge of the NWOBHM, or some of the emergent thrash and speed metal from both their native Germany and North America. A dark atmosphere is imprinted as soon as you lay eyes upon the blue-tinted cover ninja, and maintained through the structure and savagery of the lyrics and riffing. Since this was the same lineup as on Prayers of Steel, certainly there is some carry-over of those elements from before, but Reign of Fear is just a step beyond, an album I've admired since my first spin as a young teenager, but only come to appreciate even more in the wake of their even more impressive output yet to arrive.

The focal point is the vocal point: Wagner's hoarse, wavering, accented intonation was a treasure at the time. From a lot of his more recent material, it'd be hard to imagine he once had a range like this, but for years the Rage catalog was replete with Halford like screaming that was a great contrast for that blue collar anger in his mid toned barking, and he could use it to great purpose in the song choruses, although this particular album isn't quite where he would flaunt that the most. Cuts like "Hand of Glory" or the opener "Scared to Death" are fine examples of him going off the hinges while still keeping it catchy and slightly under control. That he's also a great bass player is of no small consequence, the faster tracks on this album keep him busy, or the power thumping of a mid-paced fist-raiser like "Raw Energy", where he once again is using those screams to maximum potency.

There's a lot of dynamic range in the track list here, from the outright blazers to the aforementioned arena stompers, to the ambitious if flawed track "The Scaffold" which is 9 minutes long, with acoustics leading up to a slower, melancholic 'epic metal' track that you might almost expect out of a band like Manowar. "Machinery" is pretty much an all out speed/thrash attack, with some infectious fucking riffs. The guitars have just the right level of rusted steel strength, whether splayed out with open chords or exploring the more agile patterns; the leads shift between moody and sporadic, but all sound just awesome seated within their respective riff-sets. The legendary Jörg Michael's drums are powerful, splashy, benefiting highly from the reverb-washed mix. The band was also trying to level itself up with the inclusion of some synthesizers, as in the opening march to "Scared to Death", or the timpani and other percussion visited in that swollen bonus track I mentioned above.

The lyrics can oftentimes come off a bit weird or cheesy, like the sleazy sex anthem "Chaste Flesh", but who am I kidding, the dorky 13 year old virgin me absolutely fucking loved all of this, as it helped his balls drop...and for the most part, it...still does?! Reign of Fear is an album that has aged so well for me...or maybe it's more appropriate to say it hasn't aged at all. While not my favorite in their catalogue, there is just no possibility of me putting together any Rage playlist without including half of the gems on here..."Echoes of Evil", "Suicide"...of the nine core album tracks, there are none that I dislike. "The Scaffold" has its ups and downs but it certainly serves as another testament to their ambition, to try things and see what sticks. Thankfully, so much of it did stick, and it's never been flushed out of these earholes.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10] (you wish it was morning)

http://www.rage-official.com/

Ripper - ...and the Dead Shall Rise (1986)

Akin to fellow 80s acts like King Diamond, Impaler, Exorcist and Halloween, the Texas Ripper sought to espouse the horror themed theatrics of big names KISS and Alice Cooper into a harder hitting metal sound you could place somewhere between trad 'eavy metal and the emergent USPM scene. Granted, they were a painfully obscure act, on a rather tight budget, so one might forgive the trashy vampire cabaret look they were aiming for, immediately apparent from the cover photograph. In terms of quality, they had some potential to them that was muddled by what I might dub 'too many paws in the puddin'. The decision to use the vocals of all four members is the primary suspect, creating a cheap and cheesy sense of inconsistency in bad need of an edit.

The band was formed relatively early on, in the later 70s, but nothing really manifest until the middle of the next decade. Musically, these guys (and gal) wrote loud, visceral heavy metal riffs with a bit of chugging force to them that seemed like a grimier alternative to acts like Manowar, Tyrant or the Canadian Thor. The note patterns were not particularly interesting or spectacular choices, but they're efficient and in their own way quite abrasive, and surefire arena pleasures in that they function off simplistic progressions of chords that seem custom generated to catalyze headbanging among their audience. The pace is generally mid and muscular, with some palm muting to propel the girder-strength of the chords, but they'll occasionally also incorporate a decent, whiny lead or melodic sequence that hints at further dimension. A few of the tunes like "Sinister Minister" have an almost psychedelic Sabbath flair to them, perhaps due to the rawer fiber of the guitar tracking and 70s appeal of the chops, but overall it really places itself in that crushing 80s vibe.

The caveat is that instead of Viking berzerkers baring their pectorals, you've got a gaggle of graveyard ghouls in mascara and clothes you'd expect to see in a theater adaptation of an Edgar Allen Poe story. With the exception of the genre anthem "Metal Mission", all of these songs deal with blood sucking, mortality, naughty bondage ("Don't tie me down, just tie me up..." was their catchiest phrase here) and other themes you can soak in the moonlight of a fantasized Halloween night, in those halcyon days when leather, liquor, sleaze and excitement walked hand in hand with tricking and treating. That said, these guys were clearly raised more on Gothic horror than exploitation and gore, so don't expect too much blood and guts. They were hardly burning churches and sacrificing live animals on stage, they just put together the look for fun and laughs and obviously a live reaction that they might not otherwise have gotten.

One characteristic that really stood out to me on the album were the synthesizers (contributed by a friend of the band), which some might accuse of being overused, but might genuinely be the best part of this. Most are used as intros, but a few pop up at other choice climaxes to great effect. Very John Carpenter aesthetically, as if they were written to score an alternate sort of slasher film to Halloween. Honestly, they build up such a level of creepy, campy nostalgia and expectations that the riffing and heavy metal architecture often feels like a letdown. The real issue, though, is that all four members decided to contribute vocals. The female vocalist and bassist Sadie Paine (they all had handles like that) really lets go like a whiskey swilling harpy in tunes like "Night Cruizer" or "Don't Tie Me Down"; she clearly had a great pitch and volume, and might have made a female counterpart for the King himself; sure to please fans of groups like Bitch or Hellion, but at the same time, she can get on your nerves pretty quickly. As for the male vocals, one of the guy's has a haughty pitch redolent of the US Tyrant or maybe Lips of Anvil at his most manly, but the rest are downright inconsistent if not corny (like in the interchange of "Sinister Minister" which is just too much to bear).

The production here's a bit raw and underdeveloped, no surprise since I've read that this was basically a pair of demos smashed together into a full-length format, but you can generally pick up what they're putting down, and it's not a lot worse than some of the earlier recordings on labels like New Renaissance or Metal Blade. The drums are smashy and cluttered, and the bass doesn't do much of interest, but the vocals and guitars are loud enough to smother these minor nitpicks and in general it conjures a brash, lively, live feeling to it which captures what they might have sounded like at a gig. One of the crucial traits during this period was, of course, the memorable chorus, since metal was nearly on par with pop in terms of popularity, and I feel that Ripper really come up short in this department, no matter how much shouting or howling they use to deliver those money shot lines between verses. Combined with the average riffing, the irritating contrast in the varied vocals, and the fact that the keys seem to atmospherically outclass the metal ingredients, it's not much of a stretch to understand why they never really broke out...

Those quips aside, Ripper is hardly some awful band of nothings, and ...and the Dead Shall Rise has become somewhat of a collectable, especially in recent years when cult heavy metal is once again in vogue. I might even go as far as to say it's better than it looks. Fans of acts like the aforementioned Hellion, Halloween, or Exorcist, or other unsung undergrounders like Diamond Rexx or Witch might discover they enjoy this, but it's nonetheless a bit amateurish compared to some of the stunning US metalworks of 1986. Those interested will probably have an easier time picking up the Black Widow Records re-release from 2003, and the band even released a followup in 2009 through that imprint, called The Dead Have Rizen, which I have not heard and can't comment on (I think it's only got 1-2 original members). This debut might fall below the radar of even some of the most diehard devotees of this niche, so if you like horror and unwashed 80s sincerity, check it out while you're carving your next pumpkin.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10] (I look almost human by the light of the moon)

http://www.ripperrizen.com/

Voivod - Rrröööaaarrr (1986)

Confessions of a 12-year old: Rrröööaaarrr was my first Voivod experience, the first cassette I was able to land of the Canadians through a crafty trade with a fellow junior high student who didn't like it and would be far happier with a copy of Anthrax' Spreading the Disease. Who truly made the most of that deal might be an arguable point, but forgive me for feeling the victor, because this was my introduction to what would become one of my most venerated bands of the 80s. Sure, my Mom took the tape away after reading that it had a song called "Fuck Off and Die", hiding it alongside Slayer's Hell Awaits, but that fateful shoebox on top of the refrigerator did not prove quite so elusive, and eventually I was able to enjoy this to the fullest.

Right away you could see what would attract a tween Dungeon Master to this album, that dreary and frankly horrifying album artwork, another Away classic, with the 'voivod' creature fused into some flame hurling, post apocalyptic megatank chassis of destruction. Spikes everywhere, to impale foot soldiers and of course any unwary pedestrian who would dare cross the fucking street around this thing. The best band logo ever. Rrröööaaarrr took this unforgiving, 'don't fuck with me' attitude to the music itself, which was incredibly brutal and primal compared to most of the other metal I was listening to at that age, but there was something more, far more happening which confirmed and maintained its allure, and has to this very day. In retrospect, having now also owned War and Pain for a considerable length of time, I can note a number of mutations to the core, punk thrash aesthetic that would be further refined into Killing Technology. It's still an irradiated cannibal scurrying about the streets, picking through refuse and taking on all comers with its spiked bat, but the songwriting takes a stride forward and there's a broader dynamic range through the track list.

There's a bigger budget here than War and Pain, or perhaps I should say that there's an actual budget. Period. Gone are the totally disgusting, sloppy guitars from the debut, replaced by a meaty but resonant tone that better suits the chords. Piggy's leads were still as wild as uncaged apes, but the rhythm guitars are just so more poignant, the riffing progressions quite catchy in pieces like "Korgüll the Exterminator" one of the most ambitious among these, and one of the best of all Voivod. What's more, you've got a lot of eerie melodies being flung out into the apocalyptic nightscape of the album's atmosphere, and Denis was starting to sharpen his unique, dissonant approach to chords, while clobbering the listener with a lot more mutes and metallic patterns than the more purely punk aesthetics the first time out. Away's drums here are loud as hell, maybe a fraction TOO loud, but the guy was hitting so hard that it's a wonder he wasn't instantly catapulted into the Dave Lombardo rank in terms of percussion heroes. The bass-lines are even more intense this time out, but the more prevalent tone of the guitars is better balanced against them.

As for Snake's vocals, still pretty bloody and brutal, but there is more of a haughty shout to the inflection than his wretched performance on the debut. The song selection is just so much better, with rich riffing sequences in "Thrashing Rage" and "Ripping Headaches" that set the groundwork for Killing Technology, frivolous leads wrought over the grinding nuclear inferno of the rhythm tracks. Still a lot of punk in here, especially in tracks like "The Helldriver" which remind me of earlier C.O.C.. I can see why some folks believe this album has a lot of repetition, the constant crash of the drums does get redundant as the 38 minutes stretch on, but when it comes to the barebones riffs, there is admittedly a good share of variety, from the more robust and pissed off chord-storms to the NWOBHM styled structures and solos that the band brought over from their obvious Venom and Motörhead influences (the latter of which might have also inspired the use of umlauts in album titles like this one). In general, though, Rrröööaaarrr is more clearly a 'thrash' record in the purest sense of the word.

It's not entirely a work of genius like its successors, and I have a few problems with the mix levels, but the calamitous cacophony of sounds and relentless lyrics have endured for me through the years almost as much as those monolithic works to follow. This music is not going to appeal to you if you're a pussy or a stalwart audiophile; it's restless and off the hook for much of the run time. It's not a mere recycling of speed metal riffs from other bands, either. Though War and Pain was unique enough in its own right, Rrröööaaarrr was truly a band apart from the rest of the world, and this is a timeless and turbulent record that has never been reproduced by anyone, even if its originators would surpass it repeatedly. Rusted madness, social collapse mayhem, and molten industrial spew. The grimier side of 'cyberpunk' joined to the visceral belligerence of the emergent thrash genre.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (exposed to the direct danger)

http://www.voivod.net/

Savatage - Fight for the Rock (1986)

Perhaps the greatest crime committed by the third Savatage full-length is that it stacks up so poorly against all its immediate neighbors, or the band's entire body of work in the 80s. But it's quite a lengthy rap sheet. On the surface, Fight of the Rock continues to take the Olivas and company further into the direction of mainstream accessibility, and this results in both a more harmonic, sterile and 'safe' sound that renders much of its content forgettable. As an EP with 3-4 of its better songs, this is a functional hybrid of heavy metal and hard rock, but there are periods through the track list where there is simply too much inactivity. The banal 'flow' of the record does it no service, and at least 50% of this music is complete scrap.

I'm primarily talking about how they launch us off with the decent title track, loaded with appreciable licks that once again place Criss Oliva's performance front and center. The verse riffs are just as catchy as "Power of the Night", the lead is decent and Jon gets off a few shrill screams in there, plus as cheesy as the chorus might seem, it works. But then, for whatever reason they change up the pacing and seem to become the Beatles ("Out on the Streets") gone horny for 80s power ballads ("Crying for Love", "Day After Day"). Savatage were not particularly awful at this sort of mainstream radio crap, no more so than most of the acts that were making a fortune on the airwaves (fuck off nowadays Bryan Adams!), but let's face it: this was not their calling, even if tracks like "Lady in Disguise" showed a fraction of ambition with their added horns and other instrumentation. Apart from "The Edge of Midnight" with its campy, haunted house intro, or the semi catchy "She's Only Rock'Roll", or "Hyde", which seemed like it would have been a better B-side for Hall of thee Mountain King, there's pitifully little of interest here.

Even the production seems throwaway, a bit murkier and less crisp than on the debut. There's a good deal of atmosphere created through Jon's more cutting vocals, which have plenty of reverb on them to slice straight into the night, but the overall vibe of the album is rarely one of the dark, sweaty streets on the prior album. As for Criss, I'd have to say he has a lower ratio of quality riffs here than any other album (including Streets and Edge of Thorns, two others I'm not fond of). The leads rarely matter outside of the better songs (which I've already named), and even in something like "Hyde" the patterns are a bit lackluster. The lyrics are even more effete than the album before it. 'Get rock dedication?' 'You know you better fight for the rock!' Gah, NO, Savatage. I will not! In fact, this whole album seems like it was compromised of cutting room floor clips that just weren't good enough to include with Power of the Night, especially the wimpier numbers that must have been omitted for feeling 'too different, too soon' from Sirens and The Dungeons are Calling. As if the band and Atlantic wanted to 'ease us' into this family friendly Savatage we could take on a picnic. I'd rather just leave it for the ants to carry off.

Thankfully, whatever fluke juice went into this creation ran dry in the band's veins for their ensuing magnum opus, but I'll be honest with you: I have a hard time even remembering this exists on most days. I can remember a friend and I doing our normal weekend stroll to Strawberry's Records & Tapes, seeing this on the shelf and being surprised it even existed, because no one actually gave a shit. It's almost supernatural in its mediocrity, the most average record ever made, and was a sharp letdown even after Power of the Night, an album that itself had a divisive reaction. I wouldn't dub it 'terrible', per se, because Savatage was just the sort of group which was competent enough to try anything, but it doesn't deserve to bear the same logo on it as Hall of the Mountain King or Gutter Ballet. Not recommended to those newly exploring the band, and if you're really all that curious, just YouTube the title track, maybe "The Edge of Midnight" and call it a day.

Verdict: Indifference [5/10] (don't slip away)

http://www.savatage.com/

Razor - Malicious Intent (1986)

While it's not the best remembered of Razor's backlog, or approaching the cult status of its predecessor Evil Invaders, Malicious Intent does continue to propel the band forward to greater things at a rapid pace, with a sexy cover image nearly as memorable as anything Anvil used. This is more or less of a hybrid of the prior two albums, explosive and accelerated street thrash with some of the dirty molten speed metal of the debut providing a cheap hooker backwash that bleeds a little red light class. There are actually a handful of songs on this which I would place alongside the best of the rest of their career, but ultimately some inconsistency in the riffing and chorus quality knocks it down a couple pegs.

Some don't seem to dig the production of this record nearly so much as the prior output, and in truth there are some estimable differences. The guitars here are crisper and drier, and there's less of an atmospheric flush in the mix of the vocals, drums and leads. It's hands down cleaner than Evil Invaders, but that's not to say its polished to impotence. In fact, the popping intricacies of Carlo's melodic picking are brought more to the forefront on some of the album's most killer cuts like "Rebel Onslaught", where he's using some thrifty tremolo picked sequences interspersed throughout the verses. M-Bro's drums are loud and clapping, but you can pick out the snare and bass drum all too easily, the flooded lowlands of Mike Campagnolo's bass, and of course Sheepdog's garbled, violent prose. I'm a huge fan of Dave's speed metal techniques, lavish and incessant like Venom on amphetamines, balancing chords and single notes patterns efficiently, and can recall years of sitting in the basement learning to play this fast, well before death and black metal entered my life.

Malicious Intent does, to some extent, suffer some degree of monotony due to the similarity in momentum several of the songs take, and at times the note progressions can feel empty and uninteresting, aside from their sheer exercise value. We've heard the same general patterns on a number of their other records, and like Evil Invaders, it feels like a setup for Violent Restitution, which is measure for measure the best use of this band's unbridled testosterone and rage. However, a few of the tunes here are simply spectacular, like "Grindstone" with its intense and unforgettable hyper riffing and opening tremolo sequence which sounds like something Rigor Mortis might have included on their debut. I mentioned "Rebel Onslaught" earlier, and it's bristling with riffs across varied tempos, from the uppity mid-paced NWOBHM speed metal smackdown to the crazy, asphalt burning lead. "Challenge the Eagle" is another winner, its slicing riffs often reminiscent of a poor man's pre-"Thundersteel" taking its liquid lunch out of brown bag, and there's a fraction of charm even to the stupider songs like "K.M.A. (Kiss My Ass)" or the weird intro skit to "Stand Before Kings".

I've actually got the old vinyl for this one, so I've not heard the bonus track "Mosh", but all around I'd say this would be most worth acquiring if you're a diehard for Executioner's Song, Evil Invaders or Violent Restitution. I wouldn't recommend it as the best starting point in their discography, but for the most part it's as bad ass as you could expect from the Canadians, on par with what peers like Anvil and Piledriver were putting out in this era. The lyrics are actually pretty decent here, loads of dystopian and murderous images packed into a compact, clobbering presentation. Workmanlike, frenetic, and fun, Malicious Intent is not oft spoken of like it's next oldest sibling, but it's almost comparable in quality, so pop a beer cap, strap on your bandana, and settle in for a ride to rebellion.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (volcanic reverberations)

http://come.to/the.razor.pages

Queensrÿche - Rage for Order (1986)

Rage for Order was about the time that Queensrÿche really started to earn that 'progressive metal' tag that they've worn for decades, since it shows a clear stretch towards more experimentation and rock structures than either of the earlier releases. That's not to posit that the band had suddenly become 'brainy' or anything, or started to sound like a group of Yes acolytes (though I hear a good deal of Rush in cuts like "I Dream in Infrared"), but clearly there was a difference in the songwriting here than on the eponymous EP or The Warning, where emphasis on speed and flashiness took a back seat to the script of functional riffs, clarity in production and further highlight Geoff Tate's impressive prowess as a vocal force fit to rival the best in the entire business, if not entirely dominate them...

Contrary to The Warning or its brilliant successor Operation: Mindcrime, Rage for Order is not so much a unified, narrative concept album as it is an exploration of certain themes, one of which seems to be the technological awakening of civilization and the onset of the Information Age. Titles like "I Dream in Infrared", "Screaming In Digital" and "Surgical Strike" are all obvious hints, but what I appreciate is how the lyrics explore these ideas from a more personal standpoint. This isn't the Terminator saga, or the Matrix trilogy, frightening us with cautionary tales of machine rebellion, but more of a direct line into a believable future as it splays open like a blossoming flower, and the lyrics to tracks like "Screaming in Digital" and "Neue Regel" seem to enforce this theme. That said, it's still consistent enough in its message that I doubt the term 'concept album' entirely evades it. What's most interesting is just how 'relevant' its conversations remain today, despite the fact that the level of technology we're dealing with has grown by leaps and bounds from guided missile arrays, Star Wars and personal computers to handheld devices, cloud tech and other advancements.

But my favorite elements of this record have always been its smooth contours, simplistic and creative rhythms organized into more complex textures, and the fact that it's a wonderful transition into an album that remains one of my favorites of all time in the metal genre. The leads and choruses here might not be quite so mercilessly sticky as those of Operation: Mindcrime, the rhythm guitars not quite so workmanlike and airy sounding, but I don't think there's any argument that the next album was more or less a better reworking of the compositional level placed in this one. In fact, tunes like "Neue Regel", "London" and the cover of Lisa Dalbello's "Gonna Get Close to You" place Rage for Order into a near pop environment. The guitars aren't heavily distorted, the drumming is super polished to a Phil Collins level, there are a lot of dated sounding synthesizers coursing across its soundscape, and in several cases the arrangements of the vocals prove the only overpowering aspect of its creation.

Tate is the master of this work, reaching new heights of perfection in the chorus of "Walk in the Shadows" or "The Killing Words", and they did a great job of multi tracking him to create this soothing atmosphere that creates a jubilant explosion within the ears. Though most of the riffing patterns are actually quite minimal if you break them down, they never feel that way thanks to the weight of everything else happening, and I love how DeGarmo and Wilton occasional use them almost like slices of melodic percussion knifing through a piece like "Screaming in Digital". Queensrÿche fully embraced its progressive tendencies here, and unlike another LP of the same year, Judas Priest's Turbo, they pulled off all the keys and mechanistic leanings of their experimentation with far more seriousness. I might still enjoy that other album for its cheese factor, but Rage for Order is never so tongue in cheek, even where it most distances itself from the raucous metallic roots of the debut EP.

Though I like the production of this album for the time it was released, I definitely feel that this is the most 'dated' sounding of all the Queensrÿche works of the 80s, and that's in part due to the general thinness of the guitar tone and its poppy permutations. In addition, some of the more dramatic tracks like "I Will Remember" have never ranked among my favorites, though they once again serve as forebears to the great commercial success the band would see with Empire. The clean guitars through the album definitely feel similar to how they were used in other USPM acts of the time like Fifth Angel's debut, but the note progressions are not all that memorable and leave too much up to Tate's voice alone. 1986 was also a year in which more aggressive albums like Reign in Blood, Peace Sells..., Zombie Attack, Darkness Descends and Master of Puppets were ruling the roost of my attention span, and despite the anger implied in its title, Rage for Order is admittedly quite wimpy by comparison, so it didn't stand out all that much in the crowd.

That aside, though, this was a clear step forward into a more creative territory, and one that I've continued to appreciate down through the years. Queensrÿche was far from a 'first' band in either the heavy metal or progressive rock spectra, but their ideas always felt slightly ahead of the game, polished and accessible but still willing to challenge a listener's imagination and expectations. Rage for Order was never as rewarding for me as the following album which perfects its fundamentals, but it was nonetheless compelling and distinctive among all the thrash, speed and later NWOBHM I was enamored with at the time.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (you forced me to force you)

http://queensrycheofficial.com/home.cfm

Nuclear Assault - Game Over (1986)

New York City. Where the bomb dropped. Nuclear Assault. Perhaps never one of my absolute favorite thrash bands in the universe, but I'm not gonna lie to you: I owned the t-shirt. I bought the records. I watched the videos. I went to the gigs. I learned the songs on my guitar. This was surely one of that group of 'essentials' in the 80s that could provoke excitement by the mere mention of the name. Their visibility, touring and lyrical matter transformed them into one of the most emblematic, idolized and oft imitated thrash acts of the period. Hell, just the logo alone. But even more than that, I feel like Nuclear Assault were the 'iconic' East Coast band in this niche. Sure, Anthrax and Overkill sold more albums in the long run. Outlived Connelly and Lilker's band of mutants. M.O.D. might have developed a comparable buzz with their goofy antics. But when you close your eyes and think back on those halcyon days of hi top sneakers, denim vests and moshing in the shadow of the Cold War, your inner child drifts towards memories of mushroom clouds, panic on the streets, and a group of ragtag New Yorkers whose dead center delivery and violent riffing might have carved out an empire had they not rendered themselves irrelevant by the dawn of the 90s.

Of course, Game Over was set to tape well in advance of that inevitable decline, and it might be better dubbed 'Game On', because it sowed the irradiated fire seeds of its influences into something that would inspire urban slammers and party thrashers everywhere. The West Coast might have been the best coast, with its incredibly advancements in aggression (Dark Angel, Slayer, etc) and what with producing the most popular metal band of the 80s, but where the Atlantic metropolitan groups like Nuclear Assault excelled was in brandishing their punk and hardcore influences more directly into the angry writing and lyrical modus operandi. It doesn't take a genius to discern bands like Discharge or Minor Threat on this album; the brilliance is how they took such youthful unrest and applied to classic NWOBHM/speed metal riff structures to produce an urgent, distinct style to themselves, producing a cross cultural aesthetic that drew even more of the marginal metal audience over from the skinheads and mohawks usually associated with 'the other side'. There's a damn good reason bands like Nuclear Assault came up alongside the Cro-Mags, Agnostic Front, Leeway and Sick of It All: their sociopolitical messages and gang-like resilience were often only divided by the length of their hair. And, in some cases, not even that...

But first and foremost, Game Over is a metal album. Its clean, rapid fire licks are the stuff of Venom and Motörhead intensified to beyond the speed limit ("Live, Suffer, Die"). The thundering implementation of the double bass to punk-borne chord sequence ("Sin", "Vengeance") manifest a complexity and busyness that you simply didn't expect out of the Ramones or Sex Pistols. There was a deeper side to the band than just their street savvy, and songs like "Brain Death" or the clinical mid-paced thrasher "Nuclear War" were more cognizant of melody and traditional riffing from over the pond, to the point that the contents of an album like this one were often set at great contrasts ("Hang the Pope" vs. "Brain Death", for instance), and perhaps the band were still not quire sure of how to flesh out their identity. But, then, that's the joy of this album: it's so damned earnest and innocent that it's impossible to dislike even in lieu of its flaws, which primarily appear in the uninteresting and unfunny vignettes like "My America" or the "Mr. Softee Theme", which even made me cringe as a 13 year old.

It was pretty par for the course in the 80s for thrash, punk and hardcore groups to include these goofy shorts as if to remind the audience that they were comedians in addition to musicians (a trait that would rub off on a lot of later grindcore), but where something like "Hang the Pope" at least has some vicious fortitude due to the accelerated riffing, these other two briefs always felt painfully unnecessary to me. Otherwise, this is a damned strong album, at least 7-8 of the tracks kick ass, and there's no question that this was one of the most manic and potential-ridden blue collar groups of the scene. You always felt like Nuclear Assault were your peers, your friends, good for a beer, never snotty or inaccessible, and the character pervades the very music on this album. So what if a bit of snot ran out of Game Over's nose and wound up in a cloning vat that would later produce the party crossover throwback called Municipal Waste?

The real star of this album: the production. Man, do I love the mix of the guitar on this record. Crisp and clear, with a lighter use of distortion than you might expect. Later records like Survive and Handle With Care would take the band into a harsher environment tonally, but here they were able to perfectly capture the balance of hardcore and speed. Lilker's bass also deserves mention, pumping and throbbing and bouncing with all the puerile punk tropes, yet too fast for the ol' circle pit. Glenn Evans' drums are admittedly pretty clean, but the levels provide an excellent exhibition of his fluidity. The guy was no Gene Hoglan, granted, but you could hear how he earned his sweat and respect, whether jamming on a typical rock beat in the lurching and quickening "After the Holocaust" or blasting through "Hang the Pope".

Which leads us to John Connelly, whose vocals were one of the most distinct features of Nuclear Assault. I can't think of anyone else out there who sounded like this man. He had an almost drunken swagger to the raw timbre of his throat, and yet it carried a particular melody with all its edginess. I suppose you could compare the pitch to something like Accept or AC/DC, but despite his ability to hit shift between higher notes and a ruddy mid range, what I enjoyed most was how I could connect to it. He didn't sound like a Geoff Tate or a Bruce Dickinson, removed from the everyman by several orders of magnitude due to their natural talents, but like a really fucking pissed off dude next door freaking out over some unforeseen spike in his electric bill. Like a metal Sam Kinison in one of his fits of rage. Or, rather, an even MORE metal Sam Kinison.

Favorites? I'll have to go with the intro instrumental "Live, Suffer, Die" which could have given Dave Mustaine and Megadeth a run for their money, so fast and flurried and precise. "Sin", "Stranded in Hell" and "Radiation Sickness" all stand with the fast paced chops, and the lyrical patterns and mid-paced banging gait of "Nuclear War" would no doubt rub off on the following album, Survive. "Brain Death" might just take the cake, though, the epic finale of the album which opens with clean and atmospheric guitars and then busts into one of the more memorable vocal choruses, and even got its own EP the same year (which I've covered elsewhere). The fact that even among the more impulsive, youthful tunes that make up the bulk of this record they would include a moody departure (and not a shitty ballad) like that speaks volumes that they were something special.

Ultimately, Game Over is not my favorite of the group's full-lengths, if only because I prefer the pummeling industrial-grade abuse and stronger songwriting of the two that followed it. I don't like some of the short bits. A few of the riffs (like the punk verse in "Vengeance") just don't stick with me. But it's immediate. It's (for the most part) fun. And miraculously, it holds up to scrutiny after 25+ years of dust and rust. Well worth owning whether you're a crossover diehard, you've got NYHC stamped on your knuckles, or you believe yourself any level of urbanite thrasher. If an East Coaster from Boston down to Washington, then this applies doubly to you: neglect at your own risk.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (I've paid much for my sins)

http://www.facebook.com/NuclearAssaultOfficial

Lizzy Borden - Menace to Society (1986)

Menace to Society might be my least favorite of the 'classic' Lizzy Borden studio efforts in the 80s, but remarkably it still showed some evolutionary growth from Love You to Pieces, and at least half of its tracks belong on any highlight reel of the Californians' career. Let's also admit that in 1986, there was a HELL of a lot to compete against. Thrash and speed were going supernova, and while there still some superb efforts in the field of more traditional or power metal (Somewhere in Time, Awaken the Guardian, and the Fifth Angel debut for example), even the lowly 12 year olds among us could sense that a 'usurper' had arrived, and that metal was going to continue to expand in a more aggressive dimension.

To their credit, Lizzy actually followed suit, and thus this one of the more hard hitting records in their canon, taking the hugely melodic tropes of the debut and driving them like a fist into the listener's face with a more heightened, dynamic and violent rhythm section. If the cheesy, Twisted Sister-like cover pose, with the band sporting various woodworking tools and riding a camouflaged military vehicle, was any indicator, they were here to offer us a beating this time, and look cool doing it. I mean, look at these gentlemen. "We're not gonna take it", through and through. Despite the fact that any passing avian might roost and nest in their rigid curls, these were guys I wanted to hang around with as a kid. They looked like they might explode at you out of some shitty 80s horror film, piss in the punchbowl at prom and then take all your girlfriends out back for a 'smoke'. Okay, the chainsaw there is a bit wimpy, and might not even threaten a woodchuck, but at least they 'tried' to look menacing to meet your mom's disapproval.

Musically, they pull no punches at all, and once the escalation of the bass and clean guitars that introduce "Generation Aliens" explodes into full velocity, you know that, as with so many of their records, you are in good hands here. I really dug the production on the vocals here, which seemed more focused than the debut, transforming Lizzy's zephyr shrieks into an air force attack, rising and falling like sleek steel birds in the sky as they drop their payloads and seek a greater altitude to escape the ensuing blast. A metric ton of chops, with a lot of tremolo melodies and other techniques picked through the record, and just a general, muscular tone to the rhythm guitar which pushes it Love You to Pieces in presentation. Bassist Mike Davis was catapulting around the undertow of the music like an acrobatic lit up with kerosene, his lines harried and busy, always presenting an additional layer of atmosphere and entertainment.

"Notorious" is always the song I think of first when reflecting on this record, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this. A threatening, imperialistic Roman point of view narrates the tune, yet another example of how the lyrical ambitions of this band so often, vastly exceeded the shallowness of the 'glam' thing they portrayed in their image; but the music rules the roost, loaded with glorious chord sequences, shouts of 'hail Caesar' and an excellent verse/chorus interchange. Others kicking ass include "Ultra Violence" with the Maiden-like trails of the opening guitars, bustling hedgerow of bass and the spikes of shining chords that support the sweltering voice of the front man; the choppy and energetic "Terror on the Town"; and some solid head banging through "Love Kills" and "Menace to Society", the latter of which has a very Saxon feel bisected with a more surgical melodic precision.

I wasn't such a huge proponent for some of the power ballads on the record, like "Bloody Mary" or "Ursa Minor", but they're hardly wimpy; it's just that once the heavier guitars bust out, the riffs all seem rather bland and unstructured compared to the faster pieces on the record. Otherwise, this shit is rock solid. The lyrics are all pretty serious and interesting, covering a wide array of subject material from the personal to the historical, so anyone fearing that they might devolve into a trashy sex/glam metal act where their image and music coincided could rest easy. It's not to pristine as its successor, Visual Lies, one of my favorite albums of the decade, or so compelling as Master of Disguise, but as a strong support that provided the band with more live material and some admittedly great songs to expand their following, Menace to Society more than rose to the occasion. I think much of the target audience was just too busy listening to The Ultimate Sin, Peace Sells... and Master of Puppets to really notice.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (no returns and no regrets)

http://www.lizzyborden.com/

Lizzy Borden - The Murderess Metal Road Show (1986)

I would have thought the mid 80s a bit early in Lizzy Borden's career to release a live record, what with their second studio album still on the horizon; and yet the medium was quite an important one for the Californians, whose frizzed up looks weren't made just for their photo ops, but for prancing around the stage setting and entertaining an audience largely weaned on glamorous drunken cock rock at the clubs. Fortunately, The Murderess Metal Road Show curbed any trepidation I might have had, a thorough treatment which was issued on both VHS and audio formats with a fat play length of around 70 minutes, and wisely, oh so wisely, a few bonus studio treats to tide over the band's followers until fall of the same year, when the sophomore Menace to Society arrived.

I've never watched the actual video, an admitted travesty for one who has enjoyed the group this long, so my knowledge extends only to the audio version, which in of itself is quite satisfying. For one, this is not a pastiche pulled from an entire tour, but a single gig, which to me is always a more authentic experience in judging a group's capabilities in the live venue. They include the ENTIRETY of the Love You to Pieces album, so all of those favorites are present here and even a few that aren't, but the consistency of the writing there makes for one hell of a solid night. Staples like "Warfare" and "American Metal" sound about as good as you'd expect, with a good balance of drums and vocals, though occasionally the flightiness of the guitar melodies takes on too much of a life of its own, breaking away from the rhythmic mold beneath, and the bass can often get lost. Lizzy sounds as sharp as the studio recordings, without ever straining himself, and in general I'd say the bound is spot on, the album exponentially better when experienced at a higher volume.

Beyond that material, they've also worked the originals from the Give 'Em the Axe EP into the set, and they replaced their Rainbow cover here with a version of Paul McCartney's "Live And Let Die", which is to me, the de facto rendition of this tune on any metal or hard rock release. Naturally, it irked me to no end when Guns 'n' Roses came along and exploded with their version, not because that was crap, but because I really thought the drama of Lizzy's timbre was the perfect fit with its screaming, while the little melodic breaks of the upbeat guitars totally pop out of the amps, not to mention the trebled thrust of the bass and the atmospheric transitions. I can live without the clamor of the closing 'finale' medley, but it wasn't and is still not uncommon for a band to end a gig with some further crowd tuning, so it's pretty sincere to leave it on the recording. All in all, a truly fulfilling set for any and all fans of the formative years of the band, and a great introduction for their newer guitarist Alex Nelson who seamlessly replaced Tony Matuzak.

The studio tunes are also quite nice, though I can see why the band might have been hesitant to include them on Menace to Society, as they're slightly less catchy than much of the sophomore. "Dead Serious" is a mix of classy melodic speed licks with loads of leads, but I didn't find Borden's vocal progressions all that memorable, even when he gets lower pitched and creepy over the bass lines in the bridge (a good shriek follows, though)."(Wake Up) Time to Die" is potentially more ambitious, over 6 minutes with loads of King Diamond-like screaming and a triplet canter redolent of classic Iron Maiden, and this is slightly sticker than "Dead Serious" what with the gang shouts and variation. But the best thing about the song is that the lyrics are based on Blade Runner, from the replicates' point of view, so how cool is that?

Ultimately, you come away from The Murderess Metal Road Show knowing that the band and label put their all into its conception. It might not be a top shelf live record when compared to the bigger names in its class, but the commitment to such a complete set and then the bonus material ensures that it never comes across as some premature, commercial ejaculate attempting to capitalize on the hot streak of a fresh new artist. Worth the time and coin if you're into the band's 80s fare, or just seeking out glistening US power or speed from the period in its birthday suit.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.lizzyborden.com/

Judas Priest - Turbo (1986)

Turbo has always caught a bit of flack from a segment of metaldom due to its ridiculous levels of accessibility, but let's be honest about this: Judas Priest, bless their hearts (up to and including 1990) has never exactly but Public Enemy No. 1 in terms of the aggression they incorporate into their music. Nonsensical accusations of subliminal messaging aside, they've always had a knack for the huge, friendly chorus parts that thrust them into the spotlight alongside the rest of the popular hard rock/metal radio of the 70s and 80s, and while their music might have seemed edgy in '78, hits like "Breaking the Law" and "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" always held an appeal to a wide cross-sampling of society, from the rich to the poor to the young to the elderly to the black brown white yellow green purple or whatever other compartments we place ourselves in.

So it's not really hard to believe that Priest would follow up the success of such pieces with an album that is largely wrought of a more 'commercial' party rock aesthetic that might have been generally associated with but not limited to KISS and Twisted Sister. For me, Turbo has always been THAT album, that cutting loose of the more serious elements you'd heard on most of their prior efforts and a focus squarely on catchy rock tunes that could appeal to the average high schooler of its day (or middle schooler, in my case). Granted, 1986 was the year of such lauded monoliths as Master of Puppets, Somewhere in Time, Reign in Blood, Fatal Portrait and Awaken the Guardian, so it might not have been in Priest's best interests to pursue this course when such quality was emerging from the underground (or from their own British peers). When held up against any of those records, or many others, Turbo seems trite, silly and juvenile by comparison, but in of itself I think this is still a fun record for a road trip to summer camp, arms and legs flailing out of the bus or your parents' station wagon en route.

If I've got any complaints, they'd revolve more around the actual production of the record and the fact that, despite nearly every song having some catchy sequence somewhere in the vocal progressions (Judas Priest was not a band known for much 'filler' on their early albums), not all are equally memorable in the long term. This is perhaps the most 'synthetic' sounding of their full-lengths, with the guitar synthesizers sounding immensely cheesy dowsed in their post-prog relish (the intro to "Out in the Cold" being a prime example), but in general the guitar tone does not feel adequately vibrant or powerful to really carry its hooks into infinity. The songwriting is of course meticulous, with tracks like "Turbo Lover" perfect sequences in alternated verse-chorus pop bliss, and very little flair or flash to the guitars beyond their measured, muted verse riffing, emboldened power chord chorus escalations and the requisite leads, but in retrospect I think the sound Judas Priest and Tom Allom settled with here might have benefited from actual fucking balls, as opposed to the timid tones of a turtle half afraid to emerge from its shell.

As for the consistency of the cuts, I will say that it's hard to tell Turbo was extracted from the theoretical double LP that the band initially proposed (Twin Turbos). All of the tracks seem to flow smoothly, the first half loaded with memorable choruses like the instantly recognizable title track, the desperate and uplifting "Locked In", the beefy mid paced rocker "Private Property" with its clapping electronic percussive strikes and the youth anthem "Parental Guidance" which felt like a more constrained lyrical alternative to Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It". As the album progresses, you get some moodier, slightly more serious pieces like "Out in the Cold" which might have been a passable Journey, Foreigner or Triumph track sans the slicing timbre of Rob Halford, or the ballsier "Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days" which is total cock rock that could just as well fallen under the banner of KISS, Mötley Crüe or the Scorpions, but catchy nonetheless. Some of the later tracks, "Hot for Love" and "Reckless" don't exactly stand out to memory, but they're flush enough stylistically with their lead-ins.

The individual performances on Turbo are enthusiastic without hinging on the provocative. Rob clearly paves the way, his melodies the most impressive on the album, but Downing and Tipton throw in a few good, curving hooks while the rhythm duo of Holland and Hill keeps pace like a team of horse-drawn metronomes. The guitar synthesizes, which are careening and cavorting about the structure of the songs as if they were just testing the ice and afraid to go skating, can prove distracting in places, and the leads in tracks like "Locked In" and "Rock You All Around the World" are worthwhile if not their most memorable. But as usual, they practice enormous restraint in their performance, with no undue fills or excess wanking (aside from perhaps the over use of the synth atmospheres), letting Halford run the show, and for this reason the divisive reaction of some of the metal audience to Turbo, or Priest in general, is not unsubstantiated, even if I happen to disagree due to the typically great hooks the band tended towards.

After Screaming for Vengeance and Defenders of the Faith, two of the better albums in their entire canon, Turbo did and still does feel like a mild disappointment, but only in the way that this was the first point at which they felt like they were not keeping current with what was happening elsewhere in the genre. The momentum seemed to grind to a halt, even if they were still able to elicit some fun from the songs. With thrash, speed and power metal exploding, death metal just on the horizon, Turbo feels like an evolutionary step backwards, and Judas Priest weren't really able to reinvent or reinvigorate themselves until the explosive, and unforgettable Painkiller which stood out even against a far heavier landscape of thrash. As far as its song selection, I do prefer this record to its successor Ram It Down, of which a few tunes were also drawn from the 'Twin Turbos' writing sessions, but when held up against their greater legacy, Turbo doesn't emerge a favorite. A sunny, melodic and lighted hearted romp that I'll break out seasonally, fun for the whole family (including the girlfriend, who will generally rock out to at least "Turbo Lover") but nothing exemplary is happening and it doesn't feel like a direction I'd want Priest to further explore.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (you'll know you're defenseless)

http://www.judaspriest.com/

Exciter - Unveiling the Wicked (1986)

In what seems a strange twist of irony, the first consecutive Exciter record to appear on the same label as its predecessor was also the first that resulted after a major line-up change. After the Feel the Knife EP was released, John Ricci had departed from the Canadians' roster and with it a pretty important chunk of what made this band sound as it did. To their credit, they snapped up a good replacement in one Brian McPhee, and did not deviate heavily from the style they had already established through Violence & Force and Long Live the Loud, but there were enough tweaks to the formula that it doesn't feel like a precise doppelganger of its steely siblings.

I understand that the band considers this the start of a more decidedly 'melodic' phase in their career, and certainly some of the songs hold to this. For example, "I Hate School Rules" and "Living Evil" are pretty stock hard rock/metal for the mid 80s that fans of bands like Twisted Sister and W.A.S.P. might enjoy, the one difference being Beehler's offsetting screams. Still a lot of NWOBHM to be heard in the structure of the chords, but there definitely seems a toning down of the roughshod intensity that the band had laid out over prior recordings. That's not to say that tracks of this sort are necessarily bad, I quite liked the pumping bass lines and the little guitar fills used in the latter, but I don't feel that they were contributing much to my dreams of robing myself in leather and brass knuckles and heading downtown to start a fight, something I consider tantamount to the success of an Exciter record.

Elsewhere, when the band picks up the pace and blazes along in the proper speed metal context, Unveiling the Wicked feels a lot stronger. McPhee was perhaps a more technically fluid guitarist, or perhaps 'flashy' would be the word, and he runs his lines all over cuts like "Shout It Out", "Live Fast, Die Young" or the diverse "Invasion/Waiting in the Dark". As I mentioned, I rather enjoyed the melodic fills he injects into the songwriting (like the verses of "Die In the Night"), it gives them an added dimension that Exciter was previously lacking, but often at the expense of the sheer force and tone. Of course, there are times when his prowess is displayed in less than desirable fashion, like the showy and unnecessary 90 second guitar solo instrumental "Brainstorm" that should have been omitted here and left to soundchecks at gigs...

He's also not helped by the tone of this record. The rhythm guitar has a really ruddy tone to it, but not as solid and punishing as the previous albums. Beehler sounds about the same, and his screaming really shines in the chorus of the opener "Break Down the Walls", one of the best on this whole album (alongside "Die In the Night"), and Alan Johnson's fat fingerings are still quite audible, but as a whole, Unveiling the Wicked just doesn't seem as straight in the face as Long Live the Loud. Drums seem more restrained, and the songs, though still often pretty fast and furious, might have been geared towards gaining a broader audience, a feat that was precluded by Dan's continued use of the grating, banshee pitch.

Ultimately, I believe that the 'essentials' of the Exciter legacy begin with Heavy Metal Maniac and end with Long Live the Loud, but this album was certainly passable for the time and I still think a few of the songs deserve the attention of anyone into melodic North American speed or power metal of the 80s. Some of the lyrics are pretty dumb, but then they were never among the 'laureates' of the form. Make no mistake, this is still pretty raw sounding speed metal, an aesthetic the band would change for the s/t follow-up in 1988 (with a new vocalist). But it's not quite so consistent as the three preceding albums and thus I can understand why some fans might not enjoy it at that level. I don't, either.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (I'm a sinner, that's right)

http://listen.to/exciter

Celtic Frost - Tragic Serenades EP (1986)

Tragic Serenades was another of those lovely excesses of the 80s which had very little authentic justification for existence other than its commercial advantages. All three of the tracks here had already been released ("Jewel Throne" and "The Usurper" through To Mega Therion; "Return to the Eve" through the Morbid Tales EP), but Tom G. Warrior claims to have wanted to ramp up the production on a number of the tunes and incorporate Martin Ain's bass lines as a replacement for those Dominic Steiner recorded on the full-length. Makes sense, but then, why not just re-record the whole thing? Were the album versions of "Jewel Throne" and "The Usurper" such a legitimate cause for concern? I rather enjoyed them, and to be honest, I don't find these to be much improved...

But hey, it's got a Celtic Frost logo on it. Obscure, minimal, and pretty fascinating cover image. The market for this band was still quite young, and by '86 a lot of folks had yet to hear them, but thrash and speed metal were starting to blow up thanks to bands like Metallica, Anthrax and Slayer. So it would not have surprised me that Tragic Serenades was a first introduction for a number of their flock, and in fact experienced this first hand with a friend who called me over to listen to the 'new' Frost tape, only to then rush home and dub him the entire To Mega Therion since it was obvious that he wasn't getting the 'whole picture' (the selection here lacks some of the important, grandiose, atmospheric French horn stuff on the LP). The fact is, a ton of EPs and singles like this one, some with only the most minor of distinctions and studio tweaks, were unleashed upon a fan base that presumably would buy them for collection purposes or to shell out a few more dollars to their favorite labels and artists. A practice I didn't have a huge problem with at the time, but then...there's a reason why Eyes of Horror retains its value and Tragic Serenades does not.

To be fair, the production here of the album cuts seems even more raw and potent than it was before, and Celtic Frost at their angriest to its day. Ain's bass lines don't differ much in tone, but they feel more spacious and atmospheric and lend themselves just as well to the music as Steiner's. I like his slides and aggression in "Jewel Throne", and if I'm not mistaken it seems a bit more distorted in general than on the album. "The Usurper" comes off a fraction more groovy than the prior incarnation, but I don't really notice a gulf in quality between the two versions due to the bass or enhanced mix. The last track, an alternate studio take on "Return to the Eve" was included to show a lighter hearted side of the band, so you get a lot of hoarser spit and 'hngggs' from Warrior, and Reed St. Mark also adds some vocals with an even gruffer tone that...to be truthful...I wouldn't have minded on a lot more of their early tunes. That said, this incarnation of "Return..." seems mildly goofy in retrospect...

But the fact that it was also included on the re-release of To Mega Therion, and in fact, this whole EP has been retroactively added to subsequent issues of the album, renders it even more obsolete than it was when it first came out. Tragic Serenades is certainly the sort of product that tugs at the heartstrings of a good number of fans, and I can admire its nostalgic appeal, but I just don't see any ultimate purpose for it when I've already got Morbid Tales and To Mega Therion. I never lost any sleep thinking to myself 'hrm, what if Martin Eric Ain had re-recorded the bass parts for these tracks'. Not to downplay the guy's importance in the band's legacy (for better AND worse, down the road) but the full-length wasn't broken, and didn't need fixing. For me, this feels like thinly veiled contractual filler. And the 11 and a half minutes of redundancy and taking the piss here do nothing except occupy that Graveyard of Dusty Cassettes that I've no reason to return to...

Verdict: Fail [3.75/10]

http://www.celticfrost.com/