Weapon

The 1980s ushered in what could be best described as a surplus saturation of bands in the L.A. scene that were frequently trying to out-pretty each other in appearance, and often times also in how smooth and radio-friendly a variant of hard rock they would pass off as heavy metal. Much of this could be laid at the doorsteps of Motley Crue and WASP, both of whom had basically hit all the relevant points of glam visuals in the early 80s while still maintaining a heavier edge than what became the standard for the Sunset Strip. Among the sea of otherwise faceless acts struggling to make it by taking this image-based concept and running with it was Weapon, a band that looks like the post-Grace Slick era of Starship but plays something halfway between Motley Crue and a more riff driven, early 80s NWOBHM sound that was probably considered quite passé by 1988.

Functioning as something of a power trio response to the quartet format put forth by Motley Crue and Quiet Riot, the presentation that comes together on their eponymous debut Weapon is somewhat humbler in demeanor. Part of this owes to the low-fi production value that came with this being an independent effort, resulting in something that is a bit rawer and possessed of a bit more bite than the likes of LA Guns or Ratt. Truth be told, the riff set that is at work within the guitars has more of an affinity with NWOBHM practices and reminds a fair bit of early Tygers Of Pan Tang, with occasional parallels to Twisted Sister, while the bass work is fairly animated and the drums tend to play it safe and stick to a slow to moderate pace. The outlier of the bunch is the vocal work of guitarist Johnny Victory, which sounds fairly plain when crooning at lower ranges, but gets a bit gritty and sleazy when going up to higher ranges in sort of a Blackie Lawless meets Brian Johnson hybrid way.

In spite of having a fairly solid all around performance from this fold, including but not limited to some decent shred happy rock guitar soloing, the songwriting of this LP is pretty contrived and lazy. Wheeling through an array of cliché rock and blues based ideas, songs like “Sweet Meat”, “Gonna Rock Out Tonight” and “L.A. Leather” sound way too close to rip offs of a number of signature songs out of AC/DC and Kiss, dressed up with raunchier sounding vocals and a slightly more fancy display out of the bass and guitars when the solos chime in. More metallic assaults like “Speedy Leeds” and the bass happy cruiser “Smokin Axes” have a bit more balls to them and listen closer to something out of Blitzkrieg or early Diamond Head, but the bulk of this album seems more intent on riding on 70s rock clichés and partying in the lyric department.

Though not entirely bereft of any redeeming qualities and even quite fun at a few points, it is understandable why this band never broke through and ended up folding tent without putting out any more material. By the admission of Motley Crue circa 1988, they were done with the glam-steeped sleaze of Too Fast For Love and Shout At The Devil and were on to something that was more focused on being a man and bagging babes rather than accomplishing the latter by looking more like them. Had this album been put out in 1982 in Britain and enjoyed a proper production, it might have proven a bit more original, but it probably still would not have gone as far most of the big names ended up going. It’s far from the worst thing to come out of the 1980s, but the appeal of talented musicians writing mediocre songs is quite limited, regardless of the timing.