Acid

Normally when I think of Belgium for metal, my thoughts turn to Aborted. Now, there's another band that will spring to mind. This 80's speed metaller released three albums of varying quality that began with this relatively raw release. The music has a certain charm to it between the production and vocals, but there are also some faults.

As mentioned earlier, the production is fairly raw. The sound seems like it was all recorded on cheap equipment in a room with the wrong type of acoustics. Morbid Tales or Forward To Termination are probably the works I would point to for this sort of sound. There are some benefits from the rawness in terms of giving some of the more, “evil,” or, “satanic,” lyrics a bit more believability. There's a slight vibe of darkness that emanates from dimmer production, and it allows things like the opening of the first song to work perfectly. A few notes on the guitar are hit repeatedly before the bass and drums join in followed by a voice that sounds like something from a classic horror film. There is a certain level of the macabre and completely harmless eeriness that is hard to describe and even harder to nail down this well. Rocky Horror Picture minus the sheer bizarreness of Tim Curry prancing around in a dress is probably the best comparison.

The vocals are probably the most distinctive aspect of the band's sound. For starters, the vocalist is a she. This gives her a very different sound from most other (male) metal singers. Kate's from the northern part of Belgium, so her native language is Dutch. This is worth keeping in mind for the way she pronounces English; it's noticeably guttural, and she sounds very low-pitched for a female. Even when she is technically raising her pitch, the gutturalness keeps it from sounding higher. Between that and some of her outfits, a female Tom Warrior is brought to mind. Another trait of note is the occasional screech. She doesn't really scream in the way that Halford or most others do, it really is frequently some sort of screech. The one on the chorus in the last song after she says, “Satan is,” is a prime example. The vocalist that this reminds me of would be Rob from Sacrifice though a witch or zombie screaming in pain would work just as well. The lyrics are pretty standard for the time with songs about how great metal is or talking about Satan or somehow bringing the fan-base into it. The lyrics are pretty plain, probably relating to the writer's limited English, which seems to be based on one of the British variants with her use of, “bloody,” as a pseudo-curse. This contributes to that older horror feel in terms of being obviously insensible yet attractive nonetheless.

The band and songwriting behind her is largely typical. The drums and bass do nothing out of the ordinary, and the soloing is similarly plain. The bass does get an occasional gain in volume, but that seems to be more a production quirk than anything else, and the soloing is just as likely to knock everything else into static as it is to grab anyone's attention. The riffing is nice at times; the gallop on Hell on Wheels springs to mind immediately. It's pretty dependent on power chords, but that's less of a problem in of itself so much as it's never venturing too far out of the box. The tempos do change from time to time. The earlier songs seem to emphasize the mid-paced more while the second half seems more willing to push the accelerator or even slow down. For all its simplicity, there's a couple of nice surprises. The aforementioned intro to the whole thing and the slow starts to Woman at Last and Heaven's Devils all work pretty well and unexpectedly. AC/DC, Motorhead, and Judas Priest are the older bands that I envision these guys listening to, especially the last two. There are some riffs that sound like either of those would have written them, and the relatively short, fast songs with simple lyrics are in line with what all of these guys were doing in the three to four years leading up to this release. As can be imagined, there is a certain older, hard-rock energy at times, but I'd never classify this album or any individual song as such. For one, most of these songs involve too much speed, and the atmosphere is just not what hard-rock commonly was doing or had been doing.

This album is an enjoyable ride though not without its faults. None of this is groundbreaking by any means, but it's much better than mindless worship. The production is a double-edged sword, but I don't think I'd want it to be much better. There is a certain pleasant smile that often forms on my face when listening to this though I wouldn't seriously consider this as a top 100 album. This can't stand up to Screaming for Vengeance or Restless and Wild, but it's relative consistency could stack up to Number of the Beast, and I think that's about where I'd rate it. It doesn't peak at the level that the title track or Hallowed Be Thy Name does, but there's nothing near as bad as Gangland or a couple of other songs on it. All in all, I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys their older metal fast.