Description

Blind Fury, a British heavy metal group of the '80s, originally was known as Satan and had a black magic orientation. In 1984, they changed their name and took a more secular approach. Blind Fury was actually the name of Taylor's former band and the line-up was: Lou Taylor (vocals), Steve Ramsey (guitar), Russ Tippins (guitar), Graeme English (bass), and Sean Taylor (drums). The band released one album only, ‘Out of Reach’, in 1985. Curiously, the group's lingering, unresolved creative ambivalence over whether to pursue full-on metallic glory or mainstream acceptance was also reflected in Out of Reach's conflicting songwriting styles, generally resulting in two divergent schools of thought. On the one hand, songs like ‘Do It Loud’, ‘Contact Rock and Roll’, and even ‘Dynamo’ suggested that the band was angling for recognition within melodic heavy rock circles, by formulating songs of compact length, safe arrangements, and anthemic choruses that were easy to remember. On the other hand, six- and seven-minute extrapolations like the title track and the Queensrÿche-ish ‘Dance of the Crimson Lady, Pt. 1’ digressed into epic metal via dramatic intros, synthesizer-enhancements, and in the latter's case, lyrics about mystical lands of fantasy that were hardly fit for the Top 40. And the seemingly Iron Maiden-aspiring ‘Evil Eyes’ took it yet another step beyond, assigning its verses to three different characters (a ‘Humble Scribe’, ‘Demon Doctor’ and ‘All Seer’ — whatever that is) to spew its overwrought tale. Unfortunately, neither extremity felt realized to its fullest potential, managed only to cancel out the other in the end, and consigned Blind Fury to the middle-of-the-pack qualification that its members had repeatedly struggled to escape from. Obviously they knew it, too, since all but Taylor would soon revert to calling themselves Satan by 1987 and giving that franchise another shot. Track listing: 1. Do It Loud 2. Out of Reach 3. Evil eyes 4. Contact Rock And Roll 5. Living On The Edge 6. Dynamo (there is a place) 7. Back Inside 8. Dance of the Crimson Lady pt 1