Out of Reach

You can never go wrong with the better gems of the last wave of NWOBHM albums, when most of these bands starting going for innovation and took everything to a more technical level while blending the movement closely to that of old power metal. While Blind Fury is Satan with a facelift on the name, as previous reviews have mentioned the styles are clearly different and this definitely feels more like a side-project by previous Satan members than anything else. However, that hardly means its a bad thing!

The overly talented guitar duo of Russ Tippins and Steve Ramsey is easily one of the biggest highlights here. Compared to Court in the Act though instead of going down the odd and technical route, here it seems they wanted to go for more of a melodic approach with beautiful rhythm's and harmonies layering each and every second of this entire disc. The riffs and solos flow effortlessly like a lush waterful and it all feels magnificent, its just flawless guitarwork here. Vocalist Lou Taylor is quite possibly the second biggest highlight for me and this is where I get some of my Cloven Hoof comparisons. Lou Taylor actually sounds very similar to Hoof's Russ North, though a bit more limited. He's just got that same overpowering and convincing voice that can just soar on and on. I'm not sure if its exactly real, but Taylor seems to carry on one powerful note for a mindblowing 30-some seconds after the intro on the second track Out of Reach. He may not be as classy as Brain Ross when they were Satan, but I doupt anyone would have any qualms with the vocals here including huge Satan fans who may have missed out on this (besides, he's -leaps- beyond their next vocalist ... Michael Jackson?). Sadly the bass is hardly noticeable besides a few random moments here and there, while the drumwork doesn't really seem to shatter any new grounds either. Either way they're still above average and proves that this is one hell of a lineup not to be messed with.

Aside from that this album just sounds very similar to Cloven Hoof's late-80's era, Dominator/A Sultan's Ransom. Note quite as overpowering as Hoof and the lyrics are definitely not nearly as interesting, but I could easily listen to this along with those albums. This is not your radio-friendly NWOBHM and at times could probably be classified as old school power metal such as Liege Lord, Omen, Attacker, and so on. But hey, there's one thing Blind Fury does have over Cloven Hoof and that's hands down the production! Its nothing to brag about but the production here is clear and very consistent. For 1985 this was top notch quality.

While this album contains quite a simple "rock and roll" vibe to it at times with tracks like Do it Loud and Contact Rock and Roll (who would have guessed?), Taylor's amazing vocals and the insane solo's that come out of nowhere make even the weaker tracks fully memorable and extremely enjoyable. With songs like Out of Reach, Evil Eyes, Back Inside, and easily Dance of the Crimson Lady 1 you can definitely see the band was going for something else here, though with the other simple songs its as if the band just didn't have enough time to push out a real and complete epic masterpiece. An album full of tracks like these probably would have destroyed the underground.

Its downright epic at times and a classic of traditional metal. While it may not be as creative as Court in the Act or some of the stuff to follow the band(s), fans of old school power metal and the best of NWOBHM absolutely cannot miss out on this. Its kind of a shame the band didn't release any kind of sequel album to this or anything, because it almost leaves you with an empty feeling practically forcing you to crave for more. But hey, some classics kind of do that. Highly recommended.