This
is probably the rarest record I've found in Sweden so far. No, they don't
grow on trees over here in case you wondered, it was just idiot luck on
my behalf, and some hard work. It is not in my possession anymore, and
I'll tell you why...
It starts out great. "My Deepest Regrets" sounds very upbeat
NWOBHM, and this is funny, but I actually started thinking of their old
British namesakes, especially their hit "Lady Of Mars". Not
that the song itself is even close to a rip-off, but they share the same
driving, melodic-yet-powerful ideas. "Lovin Strangers" starts
out like a throwaway ballad, but surprises with a rather heavy lead riff
in the middle. Can I have some more, please? No, apparently not. (*cough*
cheap bastards *cough*....) Let's ignore the mundane boogie rock of "Stand
Aside" and even worse schmallad crap of "Finding My Way"
and get straight to the last decent piece of music on this disc, shall
we? Yeah, "Hard Rocker" is (of course) another fine piece of
heavy NWOBHM with some interesting leads and vocal melodies. Not the explosive,
top-quality Heavy Metal Hard Rock of epic proportions that would have
saved this record and made worth at least half the dough you'll have to
cough up to get yourself a copy, but still, yeah, nice... sort of.
Obviously DARKSTARR took pride in being a dynamic and diverse band not
afraid to churn out a slow song or two for the ladies or some good 'ol
heavy rock for grandpa'. Well, I'm not impressed one least bit. They should
have left that dated/girlie crap to the bar-bands, take a lesson or 2
from some
really HARD rockers before them like
CRYSYS,
THE HAND OF DOOM or
DEEP
THROAT and just
rrrraaaaaaawwkkk!!!
In short: It's an OK, half-decent hard rock record, but you'd be happier
with a handful of semi-rare nwobhm 7"s for the same price, trust
me.
This band was formed in Rochester, New York and is one of the finest examples of mixture between hard rock and heavy metal. Tunes like "My deepest regrets" or "Lovin strangers" could be the pride of many "top" bands and it is unfortunate Dark Starr didn't make it. Recent years their only release has gained much popularity in the collector's world mostly because of a CD re-issue in 1999 by Cosmicdaze label and a bootleg CD version released last year.