FirePower

Chateaux is just one of the many NWOBHM bands that never broke out. There's many similar victims that fell fate to this, but Chateaux has some memorability in the metal underground for being more accessible, and easy to find than other bands. You won't have to spend over a hundred dollars for one of their records.

The music sounds like if you stole all of Savage's instruments and threw them to some slightly above average musicians and told them to play heavy metal (Metal Enterprises, anyone?). You've got typical lyrical content of classic heavy metal: sex, speed, violence, and all that jazz. First lets discuss those guitars, we are treated to this crazy gnarly, ripping tone very similar to Savage. The riffs are pretty fast, oftentimes borrowing elements from speed metal, but they're never that exciting and remain rather basic without that proper hook to make it catchy enough. The song "V8 Crash" seems to give us the best possible display of guitar aggression, but it never exceeds that point to get the memorability as some other bigger NWOBHM bands, such as Dark Star and Angel Witch.

The drums are airy, and sound slightly muffled, not having that crisp tone that is usually desired. The bass has been given the Jason Newstead treatment, it's barely audible. If you listen very closely, it's there in the background, but it has such a strange rubbery tone it might as well not even be there. The vocalist is rather lukewarm but sounds a bit similar to Rob Halford, just without the abundance of high notes. I'd say the better portion of the album is on the B side, including songs "Run In The Night", and 'V8 Crash". The best song on the album is "Run In The Night", where we receive some decent shredding and a really groovy bass intro.

No idea what's going on that album cover, it's like a heavy metal dude just shrunk down to microscopic size in a coral reef on a foreign planet. The cover actually kind of gives the album a stranger vibe, it's such a bizarre decision it just doesn't fit the aesthetic. In conclusion, this album is can be generic, but its a good blazing album to drive fast to. This, however is probably the weakest album in their discography. Their follow-up "Highly Strung" is a solid grade A effort. Drive fast and play it loud, but don't crash that V8 of yours.

Chateaux – Fire Power

NWOBHM is an interesting genre; being more classifiable as a movement, not defined by your stricter terms, like other genres could be; death metal and the like. NWOBHM exhibits far more variety in sub categories than could be said for other fields – yet still retaining a’ typical sound’ – that could be argued as the most ‘standard’ sound alongside the term in the dictionary. When I hear the term, I usually think Bitches Sin – with bands like Grim Reaper and Iron Maiden usually conjuring up god-like connotations; sitting in a league of their own – above the sometimes simplistic stylings of the genres ‘defining sound’ that I consider true NWOBHM. Saxon is another band, that while older (starting before the ‘boom’ period of ‘80-’82) have an incredibly influential sound –marking a strong point of reference for emerging bands – also have some of this ‘unclassifiable’ godlike-ness and authority to their sound. We must also note here that both ‘Maiden and Saxon have since enjoyed legendary careers, still going strong after 30 years or so of metal mastery, and extensive catalogues, that add to this ‘beyond NWOBHM’ character. Grim Reaper can also be said to have a bit more longevity to their career; carrying into the later 80’s with their final release ‘Fear No Evil’ in ca. 1987 (remembering that the vast majority of NWOBHM bands out one or two releases that were often demos or singles) – a cliché of admittedly limited truth. My point here is that Chateaux is another one of those ‘stand-out’ distinctive NWOBHM bands, somewhat of their own sound and style. They retain a lot of the bass-heavy rockin-ness typical of the genre, but due to the voices of both vocalists (Steve Grimmett on one release, the impressive Krys Mason on this one) and the ‘late’ date of some of their releases- meaning they may ‘lose’ some of the clichés typical of the ‘genre’. Genre rules and distinctions aside, Chateaux have a powerful sound that blends their own drive with the genre to craft a powerful take on music that is truly memorable and hard.

By this time in their career, Chateaux (with their incredibly NWOBHM esque moniker), had refined the sound that was evident in their debut single, and the associated first full-length ‘Chained and Desperate’. They had parted ways with both bassist Alex Houston, and vocalist Steve Grimmett, who was busy pursuing his careers with Medusa and Grim Reaper, and given the date, decided to get a bit tougher and speedier on this release – culminating in a collection of speed metal infused, ‘true-metal’ songs that shed the bluesy overtures characteristic of the first years on the movement (see Dragonfly, Handsome Beasts, Diamond Head). This type of blending has resulted in some of the strongest efforts of NWOBHM, and some of the most distinctive – the blending the NWOBHM approach, with the added hindsight of releases like the groundbreaking ‘Wheels of Steel’ with its speed metal attack, and of course the heavier, thrilling approach of Iron Maiden’s excellent first two albums – which set a very much ‘metal’ standard which still has legacy today. Examples of this NWOBHM meets ‘metal’ sound, characteristic of this period include Avenger’s thrilling two full length scorchers ‘Blood Sports’ and Killer Elite’. Anyway, with the strong influence of the date and influence with which to caft music, Chateaux went somewhat the route of Avenger – a faster, harder, rawer sound definitely having speed metal characteristics and metallic-ness in guitars that wasn’t evident in large quantities earlier on (it was in Blitzkrieg’s work). This makes for a magical sound in this Ebony Records release (an often questionable stable for it’s ‘metal’ dedication).

With this in mind, let’s get to the content. The metal credentials in this one are abundant, featuring excellent examples of the traditional heavy metal approach to guitar, and an almost equally typical mix, that retains the date – with it’s characteristic downmixing of drums that are heavy and thunderous. Example’s of these riffs? – well, check out the shedders in the excellently titled ‘White Steel’ drenched in Judas Priest 70’s influence with no blues to be found. An appropriate sound for the title of this track. The more epic one that kicks in around 1: 20 and the strong chorus, is a banger in this charged, epic number. The speeding up of pace in the latter part of this song, is done thrillingly – underneath a dirty menacing solo of the shred variety. A real great touch to the track – strong in metallicness and modern sound (when the date is considered) which denotes the great combination of NWOBHM with modern technique I talked about earlier.

‘V8 Crash’ is a speed metal stunner, with its aggressive drum and vocal delivery. Mason has a genuine drive and conviction in his voice, so that when he’s doing his lower notes, he sounds almost punk-rock. Very nasty in such finishing lyrics as “One more time” which is really the songs great hook – however, it’s delivered at such speed you almost can’t sing along here. Coming in at around 3: 00, this one races from start to finish, sounding like Germanic speed metal of the era, considering the guitar tones and aforementioned gruff vocals. Enough attitude for a whole album in this fast paced dominated. This is the sound that Grim Reaper would very much come out with on their debut – their later ones adding a bit more melody and half-balladry. Your opening track ‘Rock n Roll Thunder’ is another blistering effort, coupled with more anthemic lyrics. You wonder if these guys even knew how close the song title is to Saxon’s ‘Heavy Metal Thunder’ a longtime fan favourite that was released in 1980, with it’s title by this late date being pretty much lost in a sea of similarly monikered tracks. Anyway, consider the points I made earlier about the importance of date, and the influence of Saxon in heavy metal at this time. This track is an example of taking what Saxon done in their early work, and given the several years that had past, giving it a harder, more thicker sound – a natural progression that couldn’t have gone without happening. If you cant handle that, you shouldn’t be listening to metal anyway, because inherent in metal since Sabbath has been the incredibly central them of referencing, even borrowing heavily from other artists – what makes this work is when you take several thought out complimentary approaches – coming up with a great formula. Here it is Saxon with Iron Maiden, and the increasingly harder, heavier wave that was crashing throughout Europe at the time.

Anyway, your other standouts on this album are hard to pick, but the thrashy ‘Eyes of Stone’ a very metallic cut, with slower, doomed and menacing riffs in that John Carpenter, Halloween tradition, is strong. This one comes packed with epic lyrics, centring on the evil Medusa, and her evil touch and mesmerising effect on the protagonist. “Eyes of stone are calling me with a smile”. This one is not the faster track typical of the ‘NWOBHM meets metal’ subgenre, but a slow effort that is really memorable due to its subject matter and thrash-riffage. Your speed metal attack returns in the equally thrashy ‘Hero’ a definite headbanger that shows just what NWOBHM was capable of. Melodic yet banshee-like vocals and evil overtones, brought about with the negative, threatening lyrics are a highlight. Interestingly – Mason sounds indistinguishable from early Steve Grimmett – strange because I always thought Steve’s legendary banshee wails were incredibly unique – apparently not. When I first heard the release, I was convinced it was Grimmett, as he had been on the last album anyway, but I was thoroughly mistaken – line-up changes took place before this one was cut, courtesy of the pounds sterling of Ebony, in ’84. Both vocalists are strong though, with Mason showing he can step up to the challenge – attitude is evident in his voice, a great blend of the European soaringness of Germanic metal, with the aggressiveness needed to accentuate that thrash edge.

The album rules – hard. Like Avenger in Killer Elite, these guys produce a melting pot sound that takes the ‘hardest’ and purely ‘metal’ characteristics of NWOBHM, melding it in the cauldron with more wrought iron, liquid metal and napalm, giving an energetic, lustful sound that kicks your ass. Definitely owes a lot to Saxon and Iron Maiden – but who the hell doesn’t – particularly any band of the 1980’s, but almost equally any band that dares to have the balls to call themselves ‘metal’. A thrilling reworking of their sound in this one, that was still aggressive, yet admittedly rudimentary in their debut. This one also tops the more melodic, but solid follow up release ‘Highly Strung’ with it’s guitar-featured-on-cover coolness. NWOBHM by this point still existed, with some bands sticking with the styles melodic 70’s rock aspects, say perhaps Chariot, or Satanic Rites, but bands were usually attempting to veer off the path on to one of many related, but distinct side streets. Some went doom, some melodic commercial sounding rock (Def Leppard), with only their first release retaining the NWOBHM characteristic sound. A handful of bands tackled the emerging thrash sound that was appealing as hell in it’s rawness and energy. Evident in this fine release are a talented band taking on the metal genre with a couple years already behind them, and the benefit of several thoroughly original and influential releases shaping not only their sound, but the sound of metal as a whole. While this blend didn’t always work, it certainly does here, tracks like ‘V8 Crash’ being excellent meltings of various types of liquid steel that form like the evil robot in Terminator II, to form a beast of pure evil that is known as Chateaux’s ‘Fire Power’ – an appropriately titled metal classic.

-DeathRiderDoom