Randy

I'm glad I came across this album, it's just tremendous rockin' 80s metal. Anthemic with a good helping of NWOBHM style, via Denmark. "The Beast" is a perfect metal song, one of the best ever written for me. Just out of nowhere I hear it, and it's as good as anything on Iron Maiden's debut album. That raw kind of stirring powerful galloping metal anthem, with a bit of Randy Rhoads meet's Riot shredding as well. With just a dash of that punk influence, Misfits is in there somewhere. Adds up to a tremendous song, could listen to this countless times.

The rest of the album is quite good too, it ranges some different styles of 80s metal song writing. A fun mix. It has a couple serious gloomy sounding numbers like "Shadows Are Falling" that really stir and move with their classic metal style, a bit Judas Priest. And just something about it, the album has character. Randy is a bit rough around the edges, I get the impression they weren't huge at the time, but they could have been. They just get it. There are some lighthearted fun rockers that might be at home with Kick Axe and bands like that, Thor even, mixed in with the classic heavy metal European style of songwriting, it keeps the album varied and fun.

Some of this feels pretty unique as well. "The Razor's Edge" for example, it's fun and upbeat, it's chugging riff with soaring vocals and upbeat tone, then a bit of emotional guitar work and lyrics as well. It's tough to describe, maybe mid-80s Priest meets something like Ashbury's Endless Skies album. Bit of that epic psychedelic rock influence in there somewhere, but coming back to a heavy metal riff to hold it together. The interplay with the guitar singing along with the chorus is great too, fun touch. And I've never heard something quite like "Nightmare", it's fun and moody, just unique.

So while everything on the album might not be up your alley, odds are you'll find something you're glad you heard. There's a lot of top shelf galloping Maiden style NWOBHM riffs you don't want to miss, as well as good old fashioned fun heavy metal Dio style. And enough little touches and unexpected styles mixed in that it just has that special something to it. Plus they just sound good, cool vocalist, great rhythm section, I notice that bass, soaring leads too. They were the real deal. One of my favs, check this out.

It's nuts how how one is boomeranged around heavy metal's family tree. In the case of this mallet swinging rivet head and mosher, the Witchtower/Blackslash Split CD: A Tribute to Randy raucously steered him towards a largely unheralded but supposed Danish "heavy metal legend" from the 1980s; more precisely, the thespian rock trio's titular yet super belated 2010 compilation released on CD as well as limited edition 12" vinyl under No Remorse Records and comprised of thirteen heavy duty toe-tappers varying between blatantly cheesy 70s rock a la Golden Earing or Rick Derringer and much catchier face-graters way more in line with Witchtower's stocky, bass heavy pummeling or Blackslash's classy "melodic metal" composition.

Having now practically ran the gauntlet regarding said up and comers' discographies (including their savory "A Tribute to Randy" split from April) as well as sent off some nifty Grande-Rock(.com) interview Qs to Alec, Blackslash's founding bassist and inherent spokesman, I'm ineluctably compelled to delve further into this Old Europe mystery and guilty pleasure not only for my sake, but the hard-tootin' Germans' and Andalusians' as well - especially Witchtower's Victor, who digs Randy like a ragtag horde of 49ers!

Immediately noticeable is the record's massive bottom heavy sound, which effortlessly permits the bass and drums to thwack away with reckless abandon, thus making themselves fully heard; in conjunction with the sawing, buzzing guitar tones, the overall effect reminds me a lot of Witchtower's freakishly fun 2014 self-titled full-length debut as well as Pentagram's live sonic tornado from '78, A Keg Full of Dynamite. Effectively, it makes for a real murky and rotund, swampy sound whilst the plentiful live wire leads masterfully anoint the songs with sizzle and dash, notably on "The Beast", with its long-winded and fiery fret runs followed by some serious, maximum overdrive "tug and pulls", or rather, crazy-ass, maniacal bends and throttling, hairpin curve phrasing which never get old. To wit, this mutual favorite can easily be spun from dusk 'til dawn without losing its shine or luster...No wonder Vic and the boys selected it for their calamitous reprise!

Another fearure which jarred me on first listen like an impacting crash-test dummy is front/ax man Jørgen Jensen's charismatic, Ian Gillan-like vocals and delivery, notably on the bopping carousel of an opener, "Shadows Are Falling", which also hints of uncanny "hard-driving" doom elements, with its tell-tale, diabolically squealing, Victor Griffin style string bends and trills. In any case, it's somewhat of a mild but fluid and accessible track which elegantly paves the way for "The Beast"'s no-nonsense swagger and all-out, roughhousing rhythm. Hail this last as the top highlight of an otherwise slapdash compilation, hands down (and dukes up!).

At this juncture, allow me to throw in a little disparaging yang to my egregiously enthused ying.

I say "slapdash" - as opposed to a less gracious "sloppy" - in the sense the record's track placement feels quite off. What's up with adding an inferior live version of the ZZ-Top-ish "Victim of the Night" three tracks down from an already ballsy and robust studio version? The banal and prosaic "C'mon, Let's Rock", as well as "Nightmare", are mightier disappointments; heck, let's call a spade a spade (sorry Vic!): the former is a weak-knee'd and facile, simply strewn 70s rock anthem reminiscent of the Runaways - the ill-placed female vocals backing the chorus certainly don't help! - while the latter's saccharine bent and foppish chanting are an insult to the band's headier fare. Why such extremes?! Either the songs rock out with their cock out, or frustratingly constitute cock rock! There's no middle ground, no grey area. Hence, my modest, but still commendable B rating overall. At least the slack is amply picked up by various hilt rocking heavy-hitters, mentioned above and below.

Thus, further highlights include the Grim Reaper sounding, albeit pedantically titled, "The Razor's Edge" and poppy, "Fox On The Run" (Sweet) evoking "Who's Got The Power"; suffice to say, the thunderously pounding and oppressive battery comprised of drummer Søren Højstrøm and bassist Brian Andersen, as well as team Jensen/Jan Buller's high-velocity, shredding solos, thoughtfully make the most of each track, except for perhaps the real stinker alluded to earlier, "C'mon, Let's Rock" - the one and only track not worth bothering with. A real boogieing and shuffle-some "Don't Look Back" has a similarly menacing and raucous bent as Judas Priest's "Cheater" from Rocka Rolla, complete with twirling blues licks and classic 1950s patterned drumming.

As inferred, the wind-down cuts are comprised of live material, starting, of course, with "Victim of the Night" (bis), followed by the rollicking CCR-like brawny swill of "On The Highway" - the recording is particularly grainy here - and surprising tour-de-force closer, "In the Still of the Night". With its harried and grouchy chromatic riffing as well as languidly waltzing cadence, rest assured it's of a much less commercial caliber than the 1987 Whitesnake classic.

Funnily enough, I somehow view Randy as a Danish Spinal Tap, that is, a national & historical heritage (i.e. treasure) more widely known for its hot-to-trot albeit disheveled and lowbrow coming-of-age aura, along with the wonky circumstances surrounding its existence, rather than the band's actual musical merit. Such a strange, loopy feeling is compounded by the Randers natives' rangy discography, limited as it is to the "Shadows Are Falling" Single ('86), a "no-name" demo ('87), the End of the Rainbow Demo cassette ('92) and finally, the relatively recent Randy proper compilation and subject of this topsy-turvy analogy. I suppose the crux of the matter is a total absence of full-lengths - in my book, a band only truly establishes itself once it delivers, at the very least, a full-length album!

Yet, speaking of "rainbows", this is where things really get interesting.

Admittedly, I've been outsourcing the extended youtube version of this compilation, which greatly benefits from the addition of the End of the Rainbow Demo i.e. the track proper and its acoustically nuanced/ramshackle brow-beater of a follow-up, "Hideaway", on top of two more last-minute stunners in "Rock 'n' Roll Symphony" and a propitiously relaxing cover of Rainbow's "Temple of the King". While the latter definitely behoves Randy's obvious Blackmore/Dio (RIP) influence, I particularly dig the other three so-called "bonus" cuts. If anything, they're snazzy-ly imbued with Randy's characteristic rockabilly spunk and jet-fueled candor, from the brash, free-wheeling, neo-classical leads and octane fused bridge medley of "End of the Rainbow" and manically surging latent half of "Hideaway" to the downright fandangling and flavorful Chuck Berry-ish twang of "Rock n' Roll Symphony", which, at one point, also reverts to a frosty "Burn" (Deep Purple) style classicist aesthetic.

Haw! I bet Ronnie James is jubilantly spreading his angel's wings to these gloriously timeless lines: "Beware of the light at the end of the rainbow/A mountain of gold is waiting for you!"

As I wrap up this tear-jerking write-up, allow me to apologize for my overt band comparisons...but this was to provide you with clues regarding Randy's oh-so-wry, beefy, down-home antics. Ah well, at least my Blackslash/Witchtower/Randy odyssey comes to a fitting, if not long-winded and jocose close, much like my Strattson review was geared towards some of the Francophone rock jesters' biggest fans, namely London's Amulet (who, *hint*, *hint*, are long due for their highly anticipated full-length sophomore!).

So, the next time you feel "randy", you know what to do!

"There ain't no use in playing rock n' roll
If you ain't got rhythm and you ain't got soul
It's a long, long way to reach the top of the rainbow
It's hard getting up
But easy down it sure goes!"