Naturally
the album you've paid the most for -
ever - is the one you'll have
the greatest expectations for during the weeks of waiting for it to arrive
at your doorstep. Will it blow your mind as one of your greatest discoveries
ever? Will it suck so bad you'll solemnly swear
never to pay more
than $20 for a record again? Or perhaps it will be somewhere in-between?
Man I just
know it's gonna be either one of those alternatives!
Actually, a little slip from the post office just fell down my mailbox
today, so give me a few minutes and I'll let you know...
(tam-tam tam-tam tam-tam tam-tam...)
You know, holding a record in your hand of which you haven't got a clue
what to expect is pretty much like the Schrödinger's Cat-paradox.
Since you haven't played it yet you don't know if it's gonna be good or
bad, and at this very instant it's actually both at the same time, just
like the cat in the box is both dead and alive. Oh sod the quantum physics
and play some METAL already!
(tam-tam tam-tam tam-tam tam-tam...)
Ehr, well... I dunno. I really WANT to dig this album, but SHELDER doesn't
make it easy for me. The very first thing that strikes you is the under
produced guitars. A little more distortion (and, hrm, another guitarist
maybe..) wouldn't have hurt. The second and most incriminating thing is
the fucking DISASTROUS drumming. I've heard Brazilian 80's Black Metal
albums with better drummers than this guy. I know, that's downright rude,
but sometimes the truth hurts. It's like they bullied the guy for weeks
to get him to play a totally alien instrument on their oh so important
debut album. I can imagine the conversation:
"C'mon man, you can
do it!" - "B..b..but I've never played drums before in my
life!" -
"That's just negative thinking, man. Once you're
in the studio everything will work out OK" - "But...".
After letting him fail miserably at gunpoint they try to cover up their
idiotic mistake by adding several drum tracks on top of each other, one
of them being a
drum-machine! With the bad mixing and weak guitars
mentioned earlier this takes the production beyond "bad" to
downright "retarded".
Are there no redeeming features at all on this record then, you wonder?
Yes, there is one. A very important one. They
can actually write
great music. "Randy Rhoads", "Stranger Solitaire"
and "God Of Vikings" are in themselves brilliant examples of
Doomy/epic Metal falling somewhere between very early SOLITUDE AETURNUS,
US LEGEND and the last SACRILEGE LP. Frankly the only letdown musically
is the opening theme-song, a very average cut with guitars so weak and
timid it disqualifies as a hard rock song. Even the ballad "Rock'n'Roll
Star" has it's moments. It takes time to discern exactly what language
Corinne is using in the different songs, but despite the heavy accent
and a slightly nasal voice she's doing a passable job in the vocal department.
Still, I wish I could say this is one of those "love or hate"-albums,
but it's not. Rather a "tolerate or hate"-affair, of which I'll
have to count myself to the former category. For $200 I can't afford not
to.
Finally it should be worth noting that this
used to be one of the
rarest European Metal vinyls in existance, but recently a fair amount
of copies seem to have come out in circulation, so the last reason for
anyone to pay obscene mega-bux for it is pretty much gone. Then again,
people's definition of "obscene" might differ quite severely.
Very strange french Metal with a female vocalist. The sound reminds me of some very unique US-Bands like WYZARD or MILITIA, not because of the music but because of the strange songwriting and peculiar, unusual vocal parts. This means, it is not my style, but I think there is a big crowd of fans for that kind of stuff. Great Fantasy artwork. If it turns up, the price normally is very high, so only recommended to collectors with lots of money.
Fantastic epic hard rock similar to the early MANILLA ROAD stuff. The sound of this LP approaches MR's "Mark of the beast" material but with more melodic vocal lines and shorter tracks. Star mythique and Manilla are my personal favorites while Rock and roll star has a strong SCORPIONS influence and it's slightly different from the rest of the tracks. The production sounds like if the album was recorded in a cave and this gives "God of Vikings" a very haunting, mystical atmosphere. Fans of traditional Power Metal will probably find it uninterested, but the others will discover a unique gem of epic hard rock. Note: Apart from the instrumental named Randy Rhoads, the whole album is also dedicated to the memory of Randy Rhoads!