#24 In My NWOBHM Rarities Review Series
Persian Risk were never one of the harder NWOBHM bands; infact they are often the target of ridicule from your “metal purist” types for their questionable, melodic rock tendencies that favour radio friendly thick vocal harmonies at the expense of the speed metallish attack of Saxon, or the heavy, doom metal approach of Pagan Altar. Indeed, Persian Risk was always one of those bands in the Bronz, Gaskin sorta camp, yet their full-length really had some crunch to it, if you recall. Like Jaguar, who would delve deeper into commercial AORish melodic rock after their kickass first offering, Persian Risk opted to soften things up and slow them down a bit after their initial singles and demos for both this, and their polished full-length. Present on this EP is a polished sound, quality, crystalline production, and a band obsessed with poppy, larger than life chorus, centred on big vocal harmonies, non-threatening lyrics, and often at the expense of real riffs. Only two of the three songs are passable, and it feels like a confused band releasing a puzzling releases that is largely commercially driven, yet wanting to keep some form of NWOBHM credentials.
Your title track here is something I’ve given a lot of spins and just as many chances. Yet, even with my penchant for (good) melodic heavy metal/glam metal from the period, this piece fails to arouse any response rather than: overly commercial cheese. ‘Too Different’ is the title track, and is commercially ambitious – as clear as day. The subject matter is played-out even at this point, and the lyrics, and phrasing of the vocals is just sappy and saccharin. “We used to laugh at the movies, holding hands” Is just intolerable, and the lame ‘riff’ that carries through the song is about as uninventive as you could get. Yet – this song could have made it commercially; this is the type of stupefied drool that the masses seemed to eat up with a spoon around this time. Why? I dunno – I’d rather go buy a Savatage or Overkill album. Anyway, the other two songs save the EP, although they manage to squeeze a ballad on here (and at track two no less!), which is just wrong, wrong, wrong. ‘Sky’s Falling Down’ is a semi-passable ballad, with it’s melodic, and female-backupped chorus, and a decent, and fairly quick guitar solo (that you cant hear because it’s mixed down – typical commercial approach). Let’s just say, this track has potential. Anyway, the final track, ‘Dark Tower’ is the better one, and sounds like an Angel Witch track. It’s a bit darker, and with a bit more metal credentials. Having said that though, with the admittedly clear pop production, it still focuses heavily on big vocal choruses at the expense of bass or guitar.
To wrap up, I don’t like this EP. It’s too commercially focused, with the title track not even being a good ballad, or a halfway decent ‘I Wanna Rock’ type anthem (not that I like that track). Instead, it’s a lame, childish lost-love song with little to no merit, which is then followed up by a ballad. The ballad isn’t the worst I’ve heard, and doesn’t sound forced, but is again after the commercial ticket. The only track with balls is ‘Dark Tower’ which while passable is still lacking in the type of power found in the awesome title track on their full-length. I was looking forward to this EP after long-enjoying ‘Rise Up’ but I was supremely disappointed. Sure, Persian Risk is a melodic/softer band, but there’s not really any excuse for this offering. To be frank, it’s so bad compared to the full-length that it feels like off-cuts; the band had the chance to put out an EP but didn’t want to use up any of their good tracks earmarked for the LP, so put them on here instead. Probably not, but it’s pretty disappointing stuff for a fan.
-DeathRiderDoom