Running Blind

Much like the first wave of punk which preceded it, the NWOBHM produced a large quantity of great bands which had a tendency to exist for a fleeting amount of time before leaving us with a mere single as proof of their existence, such is the case with Bashful Alley. This is unfortunate as they were quite clearly a talented band. There isn't very much to Running Blind, but what is here is very good.

The single starts off with Running Blind which begins with a rather melodic prog rock like guitar instrumental reminiscent of early Genesis. It then kicks into pure mid-paced heavy metal with a Def Leppard type sound albeit a bit heavier. The singer even sounds somewhat like Joe Elliott's vocal style on their On Through The Night album albeit with a slightly lower register. His vocals are very mid-range throughout this single so don't expect any falsettos. The other song which is titled My, My, My immediately jumps into frantic Van Halen style guitar shredding before some faster paced riffing takes place. It then slows down and becomes more subdued and bluesy before becoming fast again. The music on Running Blind is moderately heavy for it's time period and the musicianship is very tight. The guitar and drums pack enough of a punch but sound rather fuzzy and tend to drown out the bass in the mix which is unfortunate. The overall production is slightly murky as many NWOBHM recordings tend to be but is far from unlistenable.

Despite my previous references to Van Halen, Def Leppard, and Genesis, do not expect Bashful Alley to sound like a carbon copy of any of those bands. They have a sound and personality unique to themselves. I find it unfortunate that they didn't leave us with much material, but perhaps having such a limited amount of their music will help you treasure what little exists. I would definitely recommend this to any fan of rare NWOBHM.