Dorosłe dzieci

While 'Dorosłe Dzieci' isn't necessarily my favorite Turbo album - that would probably be the more thrashy 'Kawaleria Szatana' - it is one of the most accomplished debut albums of all time. It largely foregoes the flaws debut albums tend to suffer from, such as still being in search of the style a band feels comfortable with or a subpar sound due to having a limited recording budget or not knowing how to replicate the energetic sound of live performances in a studio environment. 'Dorosłe Dzieci' is a powerful, convincing opening statement for one of Poland's most influential heavy metal bands.

Stylistically, 'Dorosłe Dzieci' is notably less thrashy than the sound Turbo would later come to be known for, but still remarkably heavy for 1983. Here, Turbo's sound is deeply rooted in the NWOBHM tradition, frequently drawing parallels to Iron Maiden's earliest work, although the slower moments also bring the Scorpions' heaviest tracks to mind; 'Mówili Kiedyś' in particular reminded me of 'Animal Magnetism'. There are still traces of seventies hardrock to be found on the album, but whenever those influences are most obvious, it is clear that the band added them fully intentionally rather than not yet knowing how to evolve those into an early heavy metal sound.

One thing that sets Turbo apart from their peers are the fantastic vocals of Grzegorz Kupczyk. While he would experiment with various degrees of harshness throughout the eighties and nineties, he is simply a force of nature here. His full cleans sound mature and emotive, but he occasionally brings out a sandpaper edge to drive home the aggression of tracks like the interestingly structured 'Przegadane Dni'. Wojciech Hoffmann and Andrzej Łysów are fantastic guitar duo, especially shining during the abundant guitar harmonies. And the fairly prominent bass work makes it unfortunate that Piotr Przybylski didn't record any heavy metal albums after this one.

There is very little to complain about when it comes to the songs on 'Dorosłe Dzieci'. It kicks off perfectly with the early speed metal of the incredible 'Szalony Ikar' and the aforementioned, rhythmically dense 'Przegadane Dni' and maintains its momentum throughout most of the album. The title track is a nominee for the best ballad ever recorded by a metal band. It has the resigned melancholy that lots of eastern European ballads of the era had, only with a lot more instrumental and vocal prowess and a perfect build-up of tension. Those craving something heavier are well off with the likes of 'Toczy Się Po Linie', 'Nie Znaczysz Nic' and 'Ktoś Zamienił', despite the hypermelodic chorus of the latter.

If I was forced to pick a flaw on 'Dorosłe Dzieci', it would be the sequencing, as I think the atmospheric 'W Sobie' appears far too early, despite being a strong instrumental. Apart from that, this is a debut album to be jealous of even for most actual NWOBHM bands - you know, the ones that are actually British. The songs are powerful and for the time monstrously heavy, but the emphasis is still on melody. In fact, I'd say that 'Dorosłe Dzieci' is so good that most people digging into obscure seven inch singles by second rate NWOBHM bands while this album is up for grabs are wasting their time. A pinnacle of early eighties European heavy metal.

Recommended tracks: 'Szalony Ikar', 'Dorosłe Dzieci', 'Przegadane Dni', 'Todzy Się Po Linie´

Originally written for my Kevy Metal weblog

„Doros³e Dzieci”, the first Turbo album, was their most successful record: there had been 113 000 copies of it sold right after it has been released - and it was distributed only in Poland. That’s a tremendous number, ‘cause today even famous pop-stars don’t sell more than 20 000 copies of their albums in Poland.

The music on this album is a pretty heavy and fast, but also melodic piece of rock. You can debate for hours about how to call the band’s style back then - it’s hard to say is it still guitar-based hard rock or is it already heavy metal? Actually, it contains elements of both: the atmosphere Polish rock had in the 80’s and the spirit of the NWOBHM, with the addition of a nod to the older hard rockers from Deep Purple.

One of the first things one hears after hitting “play” are the delicious guitar solos and harmonies. These are just magnificent! Also the high-pitched vocals of Grzegorz Kupczyk just rule and divide, awesome! This guy is considered the best Polish heavy metal vocalist ever (this must be the millionth time I’m mentioning this in a review...) - and not without a cause! The bass stands out - which isn’t an often thing in rock music - and it rules. The drums are magnificent too, as on most Turbo albums - this band always had great drummers. The drummer on this record - Wojciech Anio³a - is one of the first Polish drummers to use double pedal. Just listen to the galloping “Szalony Ikar”… The lyrics are mostly political, and they aren’t too good I must admit… However, it’s just one flaw, if you don’t know Polish it won’t bother you anyway. The songs are mostly fast metal killers with intensive usage of double pedal drumming (I believe nobody else played like that then in Poland…), but there is also one slower, hard rocking track (“Mówili Kiedyœ”), a calm instrumental (“W Sobie”), and a few ballads (“Pozorne ¯ycie” and the band’s most popular song ever - “Doros³e Dzieci”).

So, if you claim you love metal - give this record a chance! I did and I fell in love with it. But maybe it’s just me?