Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!
Artiste: Glory Bells
Nationality: Swedish
Album: Century rendezvous
Year: 1984
Label: Sounds of Scandinavia
Genre: Heavy Metal
Tracks:
Flight back home
Wardrummer
Big thunder
My life
After twelve
Indian rainsong
Sweet Irene
Five foxes
In the attic
Chronological position: Second (and last) album
Familiarity: Zero
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression: Good solid heavy metal without any pretensions; great guitar work
Best track(s): Flight back home, Wardrummer and
Big thunder
Worst track(s): My life and everything after that
Comments: Another band I've never heard of, but on first listen I'm impressed. Quite NWOBHM in its execution, though these guys hail from Sweden and are no longer around apparently. Singer has a really powerful voice, think Accept or Scorpions and you're on the right track, then throw in a bit of Dio and Dickinson. Sorry to discover that the man in question, vocalist Glory North, died in 2006. Doesn't say what of. Mind you, he was fifty at the time. Seems this band waited till a little late in life to try to achieve fame. Sounds like they had some real talent, but they only produced this album and their debut two years prior then went their separate ways.
Listening to Glory North now, I think perhaps his delivery is lacking a little something; it's powerful and his range is good, but somehow it's missing, I don't know: warmth? Emotion? Can't quite put my finger on it. It's almost like he's consciously or unconsciously imitating some of the best metal vocalists of the time, without stamping his own identity on his singing. The guitars on this album are great, especially on
Big thunder and
Flight back home. The obligatory piano ballad is up next, and if they're not trying to send up the power ballad then they've vastly overstretched themselves on
My life: to be completely fair to them, it's absolute rubbish. Even the sax is so tacked on it's not true. Oh dear! "Ballad Writing 101"?
I have to say, after that my confidence in this album has really taken a knock and it's going to take a lot to bring it back. Hmm. No, that won't do it. Nor will that. Or that. Hope is fading fast as this album devolves into something of a parody of its quite good opening tracks. If this were Twisted Sister, I could see the self-deprecating humour, but I truly think these guys are taking themselves seriously, and that's bad news. And now they think they're Queen. Sigh. The final track is called
In the attic and I'm sorry, but if you bought this album that's probably where you should throw it. Awful.
Overall impression: Not even so bad it's funny; just bad with a capital B.
Intention: Never allow this band to assault my ears again.