Medusa / Hurricane

Definitely one of the more underappreciated of Old Malaysian HM albums. Not in the absolute top-league perhaps, even rarity-wise, as I have seen copies appearing every once in a while for decent prices, but the split-format seems to have an adverse effect on many collectors for some reason no matter the origin of the LP, and this is actually a pretty cool one.

Both bands display a consistent, very traditional, no bs NWOHM style with no ugly commercial HR/classic rock mutants ruining the vibe of the album. MEDUSA's opener "Keindahan Palsu" is proving this point perfectly with a very Steve Harris-style bass intro, before the proud US-flavoured riffing a la early Vicious Rumors or Chastain takes control and brings a smile to all those of goodest taste in ye olde Steel. Skipping the first of only 4(!) ballad fillers present, HURRICANE introduces themselves with the solid headnodder "Perjuangan" (the single most common song title in Malaysian HM by a far margin) and 3.45 minutes later closes the first side of the album with "Pesanan", pending between somewhat uppity choruses & bridges and heavier Witchfynde-meets-Accept 'rumpel-Metal' riffing. Later "Gadis Penggoda" cements Hurricane as a force for good (or the cool sort of Evil, whatever you prefer) with its exotic-flavoured, mean form of primordial Asia-meets-Europe Heavy Metal.

At the tail end, Medusa returns and does so in style with the #1 hit of the album, "Cinta Bersulam Duri"! It's a rare occurrence that we see a song title including the word 'cinta' [love] that's not another ballad filler but this is one of those exceptions to the rule - a little primitive ripper of uptempo, charming demo-Steel for all True Fans of obscure demo-Steel treasure. Finally "Suria" wraps everything up (because token Final Ballad is easily ignored) in a nice enough, continued '83-sounding Rockmetal fashion.

I was 'lucky' to receive a very home-made, folk-art'sy version of this record for my own collection, and while most other copies should be of a cleaner variety, I think I prefer to live in a world where this is the Offical sleeve and everyone else is missing out. Wouldn't trade it for an M/M copy in a million years. Another sidenote is that there were at least one more "Gegaran" release made, though the "Gegaran '95" 5-band comp was a MC-only release and I'm sorry to say it's a pretty dire affair with mostly the usual lame ballads and mainstream hr crap..