It's
an ugly fucker, I know, but don't let the crummy cover art fool you, coz
this is truly great stuff. On "Kawaleria Szatana" the band has
once again renewed themselves and the difference between this LP and the
lackluster "
Smak Ciszy"
from the year before is so striking you'd hardly take them for the same
band. No doubt is it one of the finest Power Metal albums ever from the
old eastern block and it stands proud among it's German contemporaries
and cousins like HELLOWEEN, BRAINFEVER, RUNNING WILD etc. This was actually
the first East European Metal album I ever heard and if YOU happen to
be completely oblivious to this much exciting scene, I can hardly recommend
a better starting-point. It may not be the most original album ever from
the eastern block, but all of us who grew up with the Teutonic power/speed
of the Noise Records family and the likes are bound to really appreciate
TURBO's MAIDEN-meets-early-HELLOWEEN style of classic Euro-Metal. If the
music itself won't bring you back into the glorious 80's, the title "Kometa
Halleya" surely will (yeah, like
you didn't stare blindly
into the sky back then to catch a glimpse of this magnificent stellar
object?) ...And waddayano it's a fucking great song too!
There's fast songs with bombastic choirs, mid-paced song with bombastic
choirs and... well, even more songs of a certain pace and level of bombasticness.
It's really not the kind of album that one wants to dissect song by song,
so I'm tempted to leave this as a shorter review and let you check it
out for yourselves. I don't think it will be that pricey, should it cross
your path in the near future, so why not indulge yourselves in some 'Exotic
Metal' hullabaloo and make up your own mind? Owning the record with the
ugliest/creepiest zombie-pic
ever is of course another valid reason
to add "Kawaleria Szatana" to your collection.
Perhaps the best album from one of the most well-known Polish bands. TURBO have released dozens of albums but I think this is their finest moment. Influenced heavily by the German scene (thats RUNNING WILD, HELLOWEEN, ACCEPT etc) TURBO give us an album of strong classic powerful heavy metal. Originality its not in its highest level here but its metal played with excessive passion, anger and sweat. What else do you need anyway? A classic release from the eastern block and highly recommended for those who are searching the metal scene of those countries.