15. White Spirit White Spirit 1980 (MCA)
Hard Rock
I gave all I had, the fruits of my season.
Album
The only album ever put out by Hartlepool’s White Spririt (the North East was a real hotbed for the NWOBHM) and an album that was distinctly hard rock and not metal upon its release in 1980. The band though had already put out a debut single a year earlier in “Backs to the Grind” and its b-side “Cheetah” would appear on the vital double
New Wave of Heavy Metal ’79 Revisited album, which would be released in 1990 by Lars Ulrich and Geoff Barton and an essential to any completist out there. They also appeared on another vital NWOBHM sampling album called
Metal for Muthas which came out in 1980 in two volumes, as well as popping up on various other NWOBHM compilations. White Spirit were a band that took their inspiration directly from bands like Deep Purple and Uriah Heep, and these influences strongly showed on their self-titled 1980 debut. These can be heard on the album opener “Midnight Chaser” which takes its cue from Deep Purple’s “Highway Star” and has singer Bruce Ruff sounding somewhat similar to Dio here, also on “Midnight Chaser” the flamboyant keyboard playing of Malcolm Pearson a la Jon Lord can be heard and then in a more controlled manner a la Ken Hensley on “Red Skies” etc. Overall the compositions are consistently strong and diverse throughout on songs like the melodic “Red Skies” the Styx sounding “High Upon High” and the layered “No Reprieve” the pretty outstanding “Way of the Kings” and the 10 minute showpiece track "Fool for the Gods". There is some excellent axe slinging by Janick Gers across the album as well, despite the domination of Malcolm Pearson on keyboards for most of the album. The band were more keyboard driven than guitar driven hence the Deep Purple and Uriah Heep comparisons of the band, making this album a melodic analomy within the NWOBHM period, in fact the album is something of a chameleon that could fit into in number of genres. The band are largely remembered as the launch pad of guitarist Janick Gers who many years later would go onto join Iron Maiden, as well as being the first band of drummer Graeme ‘Crash’ Crallan who would go onto to join fellow NWOBHM band Tank a few years later, sadly vocalist Bruce Ruff would disappear from the music scene not long after this album. The 1997 Japanese reissue of the album features the aforementioned “Backs to the Grind” and “Cheetah” as well as adding a third track in “Suffragettes”.