format: LP
year: 1990
country: Malaysia
label: Antares Muzik
#: A 9083
info: -
style: Heavy Metal, Power Metal, Hard
Side A:
Side B:
Apart from 'that ballad-thing', another weakness that Malaysian Metal albums are often being accused of is how they at times can be a bit schizophrenic stylewise. Some bands pull this off with style and manage to create some rather magnificent, original and eclectic albums (VIKING, LIPANBARA etc..), others are disappointing at best (albums with just That One Great Power-tune are too numerous to mention) and some just faceplant into annoyingness and weirdery.
Teras' one and only album is infortunately stuck between the 2nd and the 3rd cathegory. It's still a must-inclusion in The Corroseum's Malaysian review-section since
1. it is - by Malay standards - remarkably heavy at times, 2. the logo looks Metal as fukk and 3. the sleeve is yum-yum obsküreness-luwly. Those and the obvious reason Zero - Bloody rare! -
is why you are now reading this review..
On first listen this albums is downright annoying and quite hard to make heads or tails of. I was irked by their decision to open the album with a ballad, especially since both the cover and vague memories told a different story stylewise ..until about 2 minutes into the song where it thankfully becomes the pounding Power/mid-pace Thrasher we were hoping for. The guitars are distorted to hell, but rather raw than overdone, right?
Next real song in line is "Roda-Roda Liar" and here they want to be American StreetMetalRock and they know the recipe fairly well. Then it suddenly goes "Bohemian Rhapsody" on us and throw in a double-pedal galloping Power Metal break smack in the middle. Thanx I guess, why couldn't you just have done it the other way around?? They end the first side with the Speed Metal "Sengketa Dunia", sounding like Exciter covering TNT's "Tell No Tales", though it's unfortunately not quite as special as that descripion would make you think.
So this is a typical situation where the B-side will make or break the album, and this time, alas, it
breaks. "Jawapan Misteri" is one of the most seasickness-inducing pieces of rock I've ever heard. My inadequacies in music theory impares my description some, but it really just sounds like they're playing flat on purpouse in the chorus, at the same time changing the tempo and causing this flutter'y effect similar to what happens when you're touching the turntable in mid-play. Urrgh, my head... Then it's ballad - happy hr - ballad fillers until finally, we find the band's theme song and as is customary it is indeed the finest moment of the album. A thundering Power Metal stormer with a pinch of neo-classical, reminding quite a bit of Rising Force's "Disciples Of Hell" (*cough* riff-off! *cough*). Could have fit right into the "Hidup" album by their Singaporian cousins Aces actually...
If you're just looking to add another rare & obscure, nice looking vinyl to your collection you could do worse, but as far as Malaysian HM goes it belongs in the mid-league bracket, heaviness notwithstanding.