format: LP
year: 1988
country: Singapore
label: NSR
#: AJ-1001
info: Promo-only vinyl version of the commercially available MC.
style: Heavy Metal
Side A:
Side B:
The most Obsküre Kült!-oozing sleeve of the entire Mal/Sin 80's Metal scene, for sure one of its most coveted relics and last but not least, the BEST Heavy Metal vinyl called "Menanti Kepastian" of the entire Asian continent - possibly the world! Me, I don't like it much to be honest.
"Kehidupan.." sets the tone right away and is quite representative of the whole album. VICTIM's 80's Heavy Metal is a very simple, down-to-earth one, unfortunately leaning more in the homespun, amateurish direction than the raw and punchy form of Steel I really wanted it to be, before multiple play-throughs forced me to stare reality in the face. Sure, all of the 5 proper HM tunes present are decent but hardly in the same league as their local betters. They're all kinda mid-pace'y but to their credit, each with their own character. After the random-German-demo-band-of-1985-type opener (and as always, completely ignoring the ballad fillers) we get the pounding and more sympathetic "Kuasa Cinta", aiming for a more mystic/epic vibe and not entirely failing, reminding me of the heavier Rusty Blade numbers. "Sketsa Hidup" wraps up side A in a similar but slightly more tired fashion and is not really the type of tune you want to use to inspire the listener to quickly flipping the album over.
...but by now this is Work, not Pleasure so: Chapter B starts off with the upbeat rocker "Mencari Dosa" and it's actually one of their more enjoyable offerings, mostly thanx to the keyboard-infused opening/closing riff, ultra-generic as it may be. The last track of note is the peculiar shortie "Kita Adalah Pejuang", starting off with a Peter Gunn Theme riff-off and it sounds terribly 'foreign' in all the wrong ways. Paradoxically they manage to shoehorn in their most powerful (or 'least mundane'?) chorus break of the album a couple of times in the middle, so in a way it might be their most interesting tune. Now if only they could have ended with at least ONE real Metal hit instead of the awful 80's pop-rock atrocity "Haluan Masa", "Menanti Kepastian" would have been a lot more memorable than it currently is, despite the plodding performance and below-par vocals.
Completists with too much time & money could do worse, but my expert tip is that you first & foremost try to hunt down the waaaaay superior 2nd album they recorded under the SELSIUS-moniker - more (6!) Metal tracks as well as heavier and better songwriting (...but not as 'Kûlt' a front cover art so I guess it will forever remain an undiscovered gem for True HM archeologists only)