Rollin' Thunder

Two years, and some lineup changes after their debut offering, Münster’s Mad Max churned out their sophomore record: 1984’s ‘Rollin’ Thunder. Though a rotating, constantly changing roster was one of the reasons for the (albeit timely, and after considerable output) ultimate demise of the band, here lineup changes are put to good use, and the band comes out with a positive result. Replacing the relatively poor vocalist Andreas Baesler, whose unenthused, boring, and talentless vocal efforts held the band back somewhat on their first album, was a good choice. Enter Michael Voss, whose smoother voice, higher range, and generally well-suited to melodic power voice is one of the reasons this album is a step up from the debut. Bass duties were also handed over, this time to Jürgen Sander – not that this matters, because due to the mix, you can barely hear the bass guitar at all on this one. So here we have it, a new and improved Mad Max, this time with a competent vocalist, and a shift in direction; leaving behind the lame, flat Trust-like heavy metal in favour of a US style melodic heavy metal/hard rock approach.

This album is probably a recommended starting point for the band; it’s just all-round better than the first – melodic AORish rock, done fairly well, with a sound that draws comparisons to Alien, Luv Hunter, and especially Leatherwolf. There are some real cool songs, usually the more metallic moments, such as ‘Stranger’. This track comes complete with a very Iron Maiden/Gravestone-ish guitar harmony intro; very melodic, and very metal. Guitar tone in this one has that nice, polished crunch – typical of the melodic heavy metal subgenre (see bands like Ruffkut. The solo sections are awesome, with a lot of spaced out, dreamy effects on the guitar, and an impassioned performance by the capable Wilfred Schneider. There are excellent guitar squeals and the overall song has this Witchfynde-ish NWOBHM feel. Half arena anthem, half Iron Maiden-ish crunch. ‘Yours Sincerely’ is effective in it’s mix of drums an guitar s which gives a half 70’s rock, half metallic NWOBHM feel. Overall it feels almost like metallic, yet bluesy rock in the vein of E.F. Band but with a lot more Iron Maiden in the guitar. A skillful, and well worked out little instrumental. This album has plenty of awesome guitar solos, nice showoff-ish vocal deliveries by Voss, and plenty of all round strong numbers.

This is definitely a cool album, and it’s where Mad Max really started to define themselves. They lost the predominantly goofy, straightforward, Trust-sounding vibe of the first effort, ousted some personnel, and changed direction for the better. Though they became predominantly a melodic heavy metal outfit, complete with the love-song subject matter, they still retained a lot of balls – particularly in the awesome, Iron Maiden-like guitars which feature typical German galloping crunch (with the melodic metal style guitar tone) and the very showy soaring scaley riffs typical of said British titans. Tracks like ‘Shout and Cry’ retain plenty of metal in them. Fast paced, racing guitars and anthemic, yelled, fists in the air hooks – they remind me heavily of Gravestone here. 'Riding Through the Night' is an awesome, metallic slow paced fist-banger. This album's probably a little bit harder than stuff like ‘Night of Passion’ hence more recommendable for your average metal fan. Great starting point to an awesome, once successful, but now forgotten German act; this album is a great blending of melodic elements with pure metal elements that works really well.

-DeathRiderDoom