Diamond Mistress

About 1, 1/2-2 years ago I was doing some research in the old school heavy metal stuff from my own country and Madison was pretty famous here in Sweden back in the day so their albums came across me within time. I was a little surprised that "Diamond Mistress" actually was as good as it was because I had heard a lot of other swedish bands from that era that didn't really stand out compared to english or american bands (except for Europe and Treat of course).

The albums opening track is a true classic. It's the powerful "Lay Down Your Arms" which starts off with some nice church bells before going into the really powerful music that immediately screams "classic". "Run Boy", a somewhat weaker song but still powerful and over the "filler" range but it doesn't get played as many times as "Lay Down You Arms" at my place. Track 3 and 4, well, they're my favorites on this album. Track 3 or "Sneaker" as it's called is based on a cool guitar riff which is followed by some heavy drummin' and a heavy bass along with Göran Edman's powerful vocals. "Don't Look Around" was the first song I heard from this album as a preview clip and I totally love it. It's heavy, half-fast and powerful with a little "swing" or whatever you can call it in the middle. "Pictures Return" is the first ballad and the wortst track here even though it's still good. The title track and "Don't Go" are not as good as the first 4 tracks but still nice and especially "Diamond Mistress" is worth mentioning because of it's up-tempo drumming with double bass drums. "Squeeler" was one of my favorties when I got this album but it seems to have gone away a little from me but it's another power bag of emotion in Göran's vocals. "Changes" is ballad 2 and the better one as well and the album's finished with "Turn Me Loose" which defenitely is the fastest song here. It has some fast riffing and double bass drums and could maybe be regarded as a lighter thrash style.

The production is not the best I've heard but it's still awesome for being a swedish heavy metal album from 1984 when even Sweden's then biggest metal band Europe seemed to have a maybe cheaper production on their albums. Everything's balanced and the guitars sounds really nice. Today the album could need a remastering (which I've made for myself) for a better sound but it's still working and it sounds good. It could have been better and it could have been worse.

The cast is great. There's some underrated musicians here. Göran Edman is probably the most special here and he has enjoyed some serious success but the others should have been bigger than they ever became, especially the guitarists. They all go along with each other and I think that's one of the big things that makes this album so good.

So finally to my last comments on "Diamond Mistress"....

All tracks are great, some more than the others but you don't get away from that. My personal favorites are: Sneaker, Don't Look Around, Lay Down Your Arms and Changes.

I really think you should check out this album if you find it in a store or on the net because it's worth it. There's some great classics here that is worth to be remembered.