What
a beautiful title for a compilation! No need to be such a "Templars
Of The Dragonfire"-smartass when naming your albums. Just stick to
the classics, they never fail. I'm sure there's more comp's as minimalistically
christened as this one, but few that could match it in rarity. This particular
"Heavy Metal" was the 1st proper Swedish HM-compilation and
subsequently it carries 8 utterly obscure acts, of which only SQUETTERS
are know to have released an utterly obscure
EP.
It's hardly surprising to see that the infamous budget-label Pang Records
is behind it. They were responsible for some of the best and most legendary
FWOSHM-7"s:
ZONE ZERO,
TREASURE,
SHAKESPEARE
and many more, but most of their catalogue consisted of mediocre rock
& pop bands desperate to release a demo-7" of a few 100 copies
to sell at gigs and local shops. Apart from 7"s,
compilation albums was their big thing, and this is the only one that consists purely of
Hard Rock and Heavy Metal bands.
The overall feel of this record is that of amateurish charm, and plenty
of it! If you can't handle a few out-of-tune guitars or vocals, a wobbly
rhythm-section or the raw garage-sound of the early NWOBHM 7"s, stay
with your Dream Theatre-albums and come nowhere near this one coz you'll
hate it. What we have here is a soundbite right out of the cradle of the
Swedish Heavy Metal scene. Plenty of flaws, but the spirit is as high
as it would ever be, and that's what matters. Well, that and good songs
of course and there is indeed a handful of those on this album. Let's
start from the beginning...
SQUETTERS play solid Heavy & Hard rock in the school of THE
RODS & co. Not the best songwriters on the album, but the raw, growling
vocals of Stefan Öhman bring up the spirit of the otherwise rather
middle-of-the-road material.
AXID is significantly more NWOBHM-laden,
the song "Reptile Rulers" being a somewhat seminal galloping
Heavy/Power cut that will put a smile on the face and sign of the devil
in the hand of any Metalfanatic.
STEELMADE could be the 15-year-old
kid-brothers of RIOT. Even vocalist Dick Börtner sound like a young
Guy Speranza. They may be next to clueless about how to handle their instruments,
but we forgive them since they at least knew how to churn out some decent
Metal riffing.
FOGGY TRIP's guitars are slightly out of tune, but
for some reason it makes their otherwise quite mundane Heavy Rock sound
rather neat in a lo-fi, garagey kinda way, at least on the heavier "No
Zeal".
LUPUZ makes great, driving, very NWOBHM-stylish music let down
by quite annoying vocals - a reoccurring fallacy of plenty of these compilation-acts,
and LUPUZ are far from the worst example. The brilliantly named
NECK
ROSE is HEAVY Sleaze Metal waiting to happen, the heavier and more
enjoyable embryo of something that probably turned into POISON 5 years
or so later. Let's rejoice over the fact that they at least managed to
cut 2 great crunchy & catchy pieces before the fall.
WIZ is
the kind of love-or-hate-to-death-affair that makes these kinds of compilations
so interesting. I stand firmly on the Love-to-death side of the tracks
and it's not only because of the screechy, juvenile fem vox of Bitte Hjälmås,
but just as much the wonderful, ultra-melancholic vocal harmonies and
guitars, not to mention the jangly playing and noisy mixing. Definitely
the highlight for the Basement-Metal fan that is me! I'll even forgive
them for the reggae-tempo on "Lady Evil", coz once they put
their teen-angst-ridden hands on it, the end result turns out quite doomy
(in the most liberal interpretation of the word).
LAROCHE ends
with very competent, mellow, well-played and catchy a.o.r. with good vocals,
in other words totally useless throwaway crap one could definitely have
done without. One more song each of AXID and WIZ would have been infinitely
more enjoyable to these ears. Well, anything would really.
As a whole it's still hard to recommend this LP to each and every Metal
fan out there. Sure, it's a highly coveted item among the most fanatic
Scanda-metal collectors, but apart from that you'll have to be quite a
fan of the garage-days of early 80's metal to fully enjoy the Metallic
teen-beat ruckus that comes with a Pang Records compilation album.