format: LP
year: 1988
country: France
label: KO.RUS Records
#: 1057
info: Innersleeve w/ lyrics & pics
style: Melodic Heavy Metal
Side A:
Side B:
The "Up & Down" debut from the year before is exactly the kind of bland, mainstream HR album that would deter most respectable Metalheads of finer tastes from further exploration into this band. Typically it's also way more common than this beautiful follow-up and consequently, FINE are doomed to never be the talk of the town as far as olde French Steel goes. Considering how intriguing and superior this their more elusive swansong is, that's a bloody shame.
So "Black & White" might not be a ferociously Heavy monster Steel or likely to be praised by the majority of my reactionary (...-and-proud!) 80's Metal brothers out there, but imho its sheer originality should at least make it a worthwile, one-time listen.
Its most instant descriptors would be 'Melodic Metal' and 'quite progressive', so obviously we can't NOT namedrop Queensryche in this review, but soundwise they're rather different from their US comrades in this field. Maybe its the combination of the high & haughty (think Russel Mael of Sparks if that rings a non-metal bell) vocals combined with the often somewhat corny song titles that make them sound Japanese in my stupid brain, but typical Western late 80's HM they are not.
For all ye of exotic tastes, the recipe of B&W reads as follows:
1 pointless B-side intro (water)
4 good'n'solid tracks (meat)
3 stand-out gems (spices)
1 atrocity (greens)
Starting from the bottom, "Song For You" is an absolute shit luuuuuurrw-schmallad that would outsuck even the most ridiculous parodies of the genre, but on the upside it's really the only real bust of the album. They start out exceptionally strong with the mighty "Pray For Your Freedom", an epic, fist-in-the-air hymn
which despite its late-80's-keyboard-overload-mix still outheavies most material from the pedestrian debut, reminding of those heavier, bestest bits off "Rage For Order". The following "Mind It" I would rate as a true achivement and realization of an almost impossible feat: A late 80's melodic HR tune w/ keys that absolutely Rips(!?) Yes, it sounds like ridiculous, paper-plate saucer sci-fi but it's true, it's a bloody great track that I wouldn't wanna change one note on and a must for your guilty-pleasures mix-tape.
The 3rd and last outstanding number is also the most intriguing: "Black'n'White" is where FINE goes all-out bonkers prog/symph-Metal - or perhaps 'Melodic Metal with severe prog/symph-influences' is a more correct description as they sound nothing like the usual staples of the prog-HM genre here. This tune is basically 70's Genesis with Melo-Power Metal armour welded to its body and had they recorded a 3rd album entirely in this form I would be one of its handful of fans worldwide. (And yeah, Genesis bores me as much as I'm sure they do you too...)
Without going into unnecessary, ranting detail the 4 remaining tracks all have traits that sould entice all closet fans of lightweight 80's HM, from the faux Jpn-Metal "Sweet Funny Hero", via the "Keeper.."-Helloween-style "Wings Of Life" and the oddball Hard-Rock-Peter-Gabriel "Gone And Never Back" to the hyper-yet-still-almost-great, uptempo finale of "Blue Nightmare".
Squeezing in a true Corroseum-style obscure reference here at the end, I'd summarize this album as a less sprawling, more musically consitent version of US madcaps The Kingdom, but with sexier cover art because Europe.