Sounds Waves 1

“…what will the wind bring these days?”

What Tom Fischer didn’t know when he let that lyric sail is that in this instance the wind brings an ideal case-in-point for the old ‘which one doesn’t belong’ game, for this 7” falls easily into contention for that trophy. You’re gonna run into a slap if I have to explain further.

Beyond that obviousness, this is a curious little four-track sampler that's made more curious as it exhumes a few rarer-than-standard picks that newer archaeologist labels like Old Metal or Sentinel Steel wouldn't have to excavate to serve to us on silver trays, and that, my friends, is due to unassuming little outlets such as this. The problem is, however, that the disc’s sleeve doesn’t seem to have a clue what’s bubbling inside it, nor who it’s poised to impress. Yep, with its warm ocean-blue, decade-familiar, yet metal-unfamiliar pop ‘80s ‘hey you, put down Rod Stewart and l00k at my big 1, dammit!’ cover, it implies to...um...someone this 7" has the #1 metal goods you’re searching low and high for. Well, around 60% of the civilized world population was under the impression that Def Leppard’s Hysteria was the latest heavy metal champion at the time, and since this disc is tattooed with underground and rather ignoble band names, it’s only natural Sounds Waves was gonna be a hard sell to such an audience. Looking for a alternate horizon or perhaps a bigger picture, the disc squints at the .001% - the bedraggled few who are aware of and actually give a swig about underground metal – and naturally doesn’t see a parking lot full of anywhere near semi-expensive rides being exited by adults with anywhere near semi-bulging wallets. So...who’s gonna buy this thing?

Then what makes this yet all the more a curious curio actually forms the solution to the last haunting question - as a promo release it’ll be issued free with Sounds magazine, which even then was a long-running, well-respected rock rag that led early cheers for metal when NWOBHM was an acronym that meant very little to just about everybody. Gone are most complaints of wasted money, and the publicity…ah, you can figure out the rest.

Since “Visual Aggression” was already a warrior made fierce on Frost’s 1985 The Emperor’s Return ep, there was a minor chance it was already speed-racing recklessly somewhere in your collection, and if it wasn’t…well, then it should've been. Much obliged. Meanwhile, more hidden from view was Kreator’s “After the Attack”, a song armed for slaughter along with the rest of Pleasure to Kill's dreadnoughts, yet was only to be found on that release’s picture disc version, making this arguably the scarcest thing finding shelter here.

I say arguably about "After the Attack" because, really, how often were/are The Stupids ever on the tips of anyone’s tongues? I mean, even in the poorly dug ditch of underground metal, The Stupids were a hardcore band far underfoot and covered in indiscernible mud if they were in the ditch at all, and even today I never hear a syllable uttered about these guys. So basically if “Live to Rock”, actually an almost halfway decent h.c. specimen, wasn’t the unicorn of the disc in 1988, it probably is now.

Then there’s…yawn...ever-present Motorhead traipsing through “Killed by Death”, to me one of their stolidly standard and ultimately slow lane snoozers that could never spark even a moment’s interest in me, and the so-called dazzle that comes from it being live from The Birthday Party at the Hammersmith Odeon video/album is only a big fizzle to someone who could care less about most live albums. Enter the last reason I throw a smile at this thing (yes, The Stupids beat out Motorhead. I’ve lived with this truth for a few decades and still hold my head high. Now you can, too).

Should be slightly more collectible than it is.

“…everywhere starts the search for water and groceries…”