Careless Talk Costs Lives

Slander was the quintessential NWOBHM band. They were from the UK, played straight-up mood music that fit perfectly into the period and genre, and their only album featured a cover that makes Raven look mainstream by comparison. There was only one problem: they formed a good five or six years after the final nails had been put into the NWOBHM coffin, releasing this, their sole record, in 1991.

Still, it’s hard to put this album on and not be taken back in time to the Soundhouse during the NWOBHM heyday. The four guys that made up this group, not known members of any other bands, were obviously fans of the genre, and were likely front row regulars at UK metal shows in the early eighties. But this doesn’t sound like a tribute; it’s more like the real thing than nearly any other metal album I’ve ever heard, leading one to believe that this band simply got started too late, the musicians born too far behind their time for fate to allow them to be successful.

The one real gripe about this album (and, in true form, a complaint common of many NWOBHM albums) is that much of the music sounds the same. This doesn’t hurt them as much as one would think, however, as that similar sound is a good one that I can easily listen to for 45 minutes. And repeated listens do reveal nuances in the music, flat production be damned. But the first listen of this album will not very likely be as good as the second, or the third, or the fourth. By that time, one will realize that songs like “Scheno,” “Lonely Nights,” and “No Road Back” stand out from the pack and represent some of the finest the genre has ever offered, albeit far too late. The other tracks don’t get any worse, of course, and it soon becomes apparent that this is a virtually filler-free album. While the songs seem to have the same style, each one is meticulously crafted so that individual listening constantly reveals new nuances not found before.

The album does, unfortunately, take a slight dip in quality toward the end. Of the final four songs, only the closer, “Cry of the Wolf,” is particularly noteworthy, with the preceding three being good but not quite up to the standards of the rest of the album. Still, there are no bad tracks on this one and the album closer redeems those tracks.

Perhaps if this band had come to light around 1980, they would have found success, and we would have been treated to more music from this talented group. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be, and we will have to settle for a mere 12 songs from this fantastic band.