Blood Money

Man, this album is an absolute beauty and If you're a black/white/red cover art fan and collector like yours truly you can just skip this review and safely put it on your want list coz it will certainly deliver any and all quality Steel-cravings you might hunger for. Possibly even beautiful'er than the great debut ...but is it musically on par? Yepp. File under "Sophomore promisekeepers" (how rare!)
while I elaborate:

First off the production is a big step up from the early half of the Ebony output. No more over-the-top, mid-range screechiness a.k.a. the infamous "Ebony-mix", but instead we get one of the best produced and professionally sounding albums of the label's entire output. Since this is also the most Thrash of the label's album rooster, that is an especially welcomed improvement, considering how the combo 'mid-range screetch' v/s Thrash was always problematic to these ears. At the same time they've managed to keep their raw'n'rumbling sound that we learned to love from the debut, and for yet another band that went from for a slightly Thrash'ier direction on their 2nd album, Blood Money must take the medal for "least Slayer-sounding sophomore Speed/Thrash album of the 2nd half of the 80's". Let me put it this way: If you would strip everything Slayer out of Razor, and revel in the offals of this bloodfeast while gobbling random post-nwobhm Power like Atomkraft, Virtue and Sacrilege down yer throat, here's bloody "Battlescared" for ya'!

All in all they are still pretty much the same band we learned to love from the debut. The pounding lead riff of the title opening track confidently cements the mood for the entire album, the brilliant, wailing vocals of Danny Foxx still bringing the flavour of originality to the table. They have indeed cranked up the brutality-factor another notch here though, and it's especially prominent in the storming, absolutely killer SpeedThrash Gem of the album - Ye Mighty "Shapeshifter"!(*goosebumps*) The riffing of this merciless Monster Of Thrash will fucking make you hyperventilate and go catatonic for exactly four and quarter of minutes, and if you happened to have pissed yourself in the process, you're forgiven.

Last review I made the bold comparison of the Bathory debut as far as lead riffings went, and in at least half the album, i.e. tracks like "Atlantis", "Bird Or Beast", "Evil Bitch", "Mutant" and the aforementioned "Shapeshifter"(*goosebumps*) this still holds true. Add to that the catchier, Ultra-British Powerspeed-with-a-flair-of-nwobhm of "Wolfboat", "The Legend" and "Caligula" and you've got yourself another Corroseum-approved must-buy. I solemnly swear that this LP will trigger the neck-muscles of even the laziest, most blasé and overaged guests of your next HM vinyl home party, and if all else fails, just keep playing "Shapeshifter"(*goosebumps*) on repeat until they surrender.

1 microscopic objection as a final note: I would have loved to hear them developing that unique Heavy Metal-invention of theirs from yesterdiscogs, i.e. the ingenious "Lazarus-pace"(!) There is a short tribute to this phenomenon in the final bars of "Evil Bitch", but in the words of my infamous rock star countryman, "More is more!"