format: Mini-LP
year: 1986
country: Germany
label: private
#: 734001
info: lyrics on innersleeve
style: Heavy Metal
Side A:
Side B:
As German as German Metal gets, MORDOR really fill that iron glove perfectly and their silvery "Metal" MLP definitely belongs in the Top tier of private German minis ...which incidently puts it high above your average GaMa-type stuff in case you wondered. Accept is once again The Great Archetype and if we're gonna get really technical, I'd place this album right inbetween "Breaker" and "Restless And Wild".
The opening track "Rock Warrior" sounds exactly like a German Metal track called "Rock Warrior" is supposed to sound like - Heavy, stomping, headbanging-fuel for denim-clad troglodytes. While a mightly fine opener, imo it's still the most pedestrian of the featured tracks, but apparently it was considered catchy enough for David T. Richards to release as a shaped picture disc accompanying the 3rd edition of the Iron Tyrants-compilation LPs, so there you go. Actually I find it a bit misrepresentative of the album as a whole and it's possible that if you would hear this song and think it's their #1 best tune, you might not be that interested in checking out the full release - it's probably just gonna be more of the same just not as good, right? Nothing could be further from the truth. This is a really diverse piece of mini-Steel (my fave format, always!) with each of the 4 tracks presenting its uniqe style and tempo, while still keeping the sound of the band coherent. The following "Live Faster, Die Young" for instance - consider it their very own "Princess Of The Dawn"! Clocking in at a staggering almost-9 minutes (!) you'd suspect this one to get a bit tedious halfway through, but instead I'd describe the result as 'hypnotic' and I wouldn't wanna strip one second of it.
Side B is a bit less Accept-sounding and at the B-1 position we find The Fast Song, "1964". With its Speed Metal guitars and German Power-chorus it is however still 100% züper-Deutsch und züper-geil! The curtain-call comes with the slow, doomy and atmospheric "Mankind Doesn't Change", as great an epic farwell as we could ever ask for. So yeah, pretty much a must-have..