Oriphiel

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The Batlord

Dude, does anyone else know what the **** I'm talking about?

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Unknown Soldier

Notice

This year's reviews are hopefully going to be more streamlined and hopefully shorter and tighter, which will in turn allow me to get through these albums a bit quicker.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
Most genres of metal are exportable products but that’s not to say that when its exported, that its new purveyors can do a particularly good job with their new gleaming product. Metal outside its principal American and British playground was always a hit and miss affair throughout the 1970s and first half of the 1980s, and it was often a case of venturing into the unknown. Outside its principal playing area, Germany was the country that provided metal with the most tested metal bands and as the 1980s wore on Germany would spread its wings and spread quality metal to its neighbours. German metal would undergo something of a revolution itself in the mid 1980s, as its mainstream and speed metal bands would give way to greater diversity in power metal and the brutal American product thrash metal. Germany particularly embraced thrash and its bands took the thrash blueprint often into even harsher or muscular sounding territory and a band like Kreator were the perfect example of that harsher sound, but a number of other bands including Angel Dust would give a demonstration on how muscular thrash could sound. The album starts with an instrumental piano intro and the expected speed metal of this type of band is quickly beefed up (or porked up as they’re German) with a coating of powerful thrash. Some of the stronger tracks on this album include the cutting “Legions of Destruction” the amusing “Gambler” thanks to some exaggerated vocals. Then there are the energetic riffs of “Atomic Roar” backed up with some heavy drum beats and the killer closer "Marching for Revenge". There are a couple of clangers on the album and these come in the shape of "Victims of Madness" but they are few and far between. The resulting album on face value sounds like a simple thrash assault, but in reality and musically the album’s tracks are complex by thrash standards in general (excepting bands like Metallica of course) and the band’s sound also hints at the future power metal direction that they would move into as well. There are some complaints about the album’s production but I think it’s solid enough due to the quality of its compositions and musically the album hints in the direction of the Metallica brand of thrash metal a la Ride the Lightning. There are also several differing opinions of vocalist Romme Keymer from being dominant to not being voluminous enough and I personally think he falls somewhere in between and gets the job done well enough, despite some rather comical vocal turns in places. The kitschy album cover again hints at the band’s future power metal direction and might be seen as disappointing by thrash metal advocates. Today Into the Dark Past is something of a cult classic that is not too well known outside of thrash and it’s worth a listen to, as here is a thrash band much like Metal Church that were vying the line between thrash and power metal at this time. Into the Dark Past can easily beat albums by bands such as Poison, Cinderella, Great White, Ratt and even reputable albums from thrash based bands like Flotsam and Jetsam and Watchtower to claim a place in this year’s top 20.

Romme Keymer - Guitars, Vocals
Andreas Lohrum - Guitars
Dirk Assmuth - Drums
Frank Banx – Bass

Production- N/A

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

Pic not showing up.

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Unknown Soldier

Fixed.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
Despite being an American west coast phenomenon thrash metal sprouted up in several other locales across the USA and New York was one of such location. Constantly a hotbed of developing musical genres historically, New York had been somewhat left behind in the American heavy metal revolution of the 1980s and had lagged behind the likes of Los Angeles and San Francisco as a city that raised quality metal bands at this time. Anthrax would put New York city onto that map and former Anthrax bassist Dan Liker who had appeared on the spunky Stormtroopers of Death album Speak English or Die (see 1985 review) would form the impressive Nuclear Assault thrash outfit a short time after. Their debut album Game Over would turn out to be one of the strongest efforts in their whole discography and one of the many must hear thrash releases of the year. Despite being recently formed, the members of Nuclear Assault fronted by former high school teacher John Connelly, were already seasoned veterans of the New York thrash metal community and their album comes across as a seasoned effort by a bunch of artists that knew exactly what they were doing when it came to thrash. Some critics slam the album as being generic and I suppose if they’re referring to the album in hindsight they may have a case, but for its time the album flows with a certain amount of fiery ambition and this becomes evident from a track like “Sin”. This track then flows into the equally strong “Cold Steel” before then embarking on the slower paced “Betrayal” a song with amusing lyrics, as John Connelly constantly sings about a ‘backstabbing whore’ and the humour contibues also on the errr delightfully titled “Hang the Pope” which lasts all of just 46 seconds and the even shorter “My America” at just 29 seconds. On these last couple of tracks the band have clearly ventured into humorous Stormtroopers of Death territory which of course is a bonus. The inevitable tracks about nuclear warfare the central theme of the album come in the form of “Radiation Sickness” “After the Holocaust” and “Nuclear War” and these tracks add further fuel to the fire here and “Nuclear War” probably ranks as my favourite cut on the album. The Album closer “Brain Death” runs at seven and a half minutes and in my mind the band didn’t quite have the chops to keep this kind of track going for such a lengthy period. The riffs are both tight and furious across the album and at times there is an almost epic backdrop to some of the tracks which adds further fuel to the futuristic grasp, that the album has on a possible future for mankind. The album was produced by Alex Perialas a thrash metal producer who besides working with Anthrax, Stormtroopers of Death and Nuclear Assault at this time, would soon go onto produce vital thrash metal acts like Overkill and Testament as well. I also love the Game Over cover as it’s straight to point with its nuclear holocaust message and its comicbook zombie style characters on its album cover, which contrasts really well with the album cover’s red and yellow backdrop. After this album the band would release The Plague EP in 1987 and is largely remembered for the controversial “Butt **** (You Figure it Out)” track that ill advisedly makes fun of Vince Neil’s infamous ar crash, which goes to show that despite the humour of the band, they often didn’t get it right and failed to run the censor over their own work. Game Over has been ranked on Rock Hard’s The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time list and will be of particular interest to anybody that really digs vintage sounding thrash from this time.

John Connelly- Guitar/Vocals
Anthony Bramante- Guitar
Dan Liker- Bass
Glenn Evans- Drums

Production- Alex Perialas

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
Often regarded as the final album of the ‘Great Manilla Road Trilogy’ The Deluge released in 1986 combines the styles of their highly reputable and cryptic Crystal Logic album, with the more accessible metal of their Open the Gates album (see both reviews) The essence of the album is a concept based around typical Manilla Road fantasy offerings that include ‘The Fall of Atlantis” but for my mind the whole thing at times feels like something inspired by the writings of H.P Lovecraft covering terrifying creatures and tormented souls, and the album cover itself looks like something out of Lovecraft as well. Album opener “Delirium” quickly re-introduces the listener to the vocals of frontman Mark Shelton, in one of the most instant vocal song introdutions of the year and around him the instruments swirl away in true Manilla Road style. There are songs like “Shadow in the Black” which after a slow start soon emerge as hyperactive efforts thrashy style which again test the mettle of the band’s components, where these guys kind of jam out Rush style throughout large sections of the album. Songs like “Divine Victim” with its bass intro is a song that attacks religion and again shows that heavy link between the band and their 1970s influences and Mark Shelton is soon singing ‘I’m not a victim of Christianity…..’ The song and lyrics here in many ways kind of reminded me of something of Jethro Tull and Aqualung albeit in a much more metal style, as that was an album based around animosity to religion. “Divine Victim” is then followed by “Hammer of the Witches” its sister track in terms of subject matter but it's a very different ball game altogether, and it’s a track that is clearly modern day metal with crushing riffs with the fill crunchy metal coating. “Friction in Mass” is again another track that reveals itself to be another effort that mixes in various styles and it also has a highlighted extended spoken section. The sub 2-minute instrumental “Morbid Tabernacle” helps glue things together and kind of reminds me of a neat early days video game soundtrack to something like ‘Ghost ‘n Goblins’ and this instrumental is much later joined by an even shorter one in "Rest in Pieces". “Isle of the Dead” which automatically made me think of the Val Lewton horror classic with Boris Karloff, is a song where the band use a cleaner musical atmospheric tone and where the sinister subject matter is displayed in great style, before the whole thing is speeded up. “Taken By Storm” is probably one of the heaviest workings on the album and as expected it relies of fast riffs that again bring the band into purer thrash territory. Finally there is the 8 minute title track which clearly again reveals the proggy roots of the band and is a song that heavily features the fantasy city of Atlantis one of the themes of the album, an area that the band would address in more detail in the distant future. In many ways The Deluge would be one of the final albums of any real quality in the Manilla Road discography based on what I've heard over the years and forms a cryptic and obscure essential trilogy of albums.

Mark Shelton – Guitar/Vocals
Scott Park – Bass
Randy Foxe – Drums

Production- Manilla Road

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
So how progressive are Fates Warning this time aound after I asked the same question for their previous album The Spectre Within? Well the odd tempo changes are certainly there but they do seem even more focused this time around. Out of the musicians it usually strikes me that drummer Steve Zimmerman might well be the star turn here, in at least with what the band were trying to do with his disjointed drumming style sounding spot on. The vocals of John Arch cover geeky Rush fantasy territory and as would be expected are underpinned with the typical trademark Fates Warning riffs. John Arch also certainly enters into that proggy/complex Iron Maiden territory especially with his Bruce Dickinson type vocals……. so the band seem to be checking the right boxes. In hindsight there weren’t too many metal bands at this time either, that were doing cohesive progressive metal to use as a yardstick in which to measure Fates Warning’s output from this period, so I suppose the progressive metal label does apply to the band, even though for me this album feels just like a complex playing machine rather than a full blooded prog-effort in the style I’m probably accustomed to. On the commercial front Awaken the Guardian would be the band’s first album to enter the US Billboard 200 album chart, where it reached a modest 191st spot and would also be the band’s last album without original vocalist John Arch before Ray Alder stepped in. The band continue with their impressive sci-fi/fantasy style album covers here as well and this cover very much evokes something that 1970s Yes could’ve put out, albeit Fates Warning do it in a much darker less forgiving style which suits their output. The song titles don’t skim on fantasy appeal either, with titles like “The Sorceress” “Fate Morgana” and “Giant’s Lore (Heart of Winter)” which shows the type of fantasy that the band were into. The album is a solid enough listen and according to most reviews really needs multiple listens over a long period of time to really do the album justice, but the album’s two standout tracks are probably the highly regarded “Guardian” and “Exodus”. The former with its extended acoustic intro and accomplished feel as it drifts through its 7 plus minutes of playing time and the song would become a permanent fixture on the band’s live set and The latter "Exodus" even surpasses “Guardian” by a minute and rounds off the album in competent style. Overall Awaken the Guardian is not only the most highly regarded album from the John Arch era, but also for many the best album in the band’s discography and in fact All Music states this album to be a ‘closet classic’ that needs to be heard. In many ways its somewhat odd meandering style actually caters for the type of metal I’m really into which is proggy power metal, but as said in my The Spectre Within review I’m much more a fan of the Ray Alder era anyway, which is probably why this album doesn't rate as highly in this year's list as could be expected. So for me the band’s best material comes from that time and I also always thought anyway that they did this meandering style better as well with Ray Alder at the helm…………. but that of course is just my opinion.

John Arch – Vocals
Jim Matheos – Guiitar
Frank Aresti – Guitar
Joe DiBiase – Bass
Jim Archambault – Keyboards
Steve Zimmerman – Drums

Production- Brian Slagel

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

I believe I mentioned in my thread that this album sounds like a more boring Iron Maiden. I stand by that.

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