Description
Tyneside, England’s Hellanbach were often touted as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal’s answer to Van Halen — which they were. Their debut album, 1983’s ‘Now Hear This’, gave pause to many critics who’d been previously incapable or unwilling to see past the band’s very obvious debts to the great Van Halen: a slew of pretty decent songs. Indeed, let the first band that hasn’t borrowed from another source throw the first stone, lest you take the issue of stylistic recycling in rock & roll too seriously and fail to realize that Hellanbach was no guiltier than the next group in this regard. And given the band’s unlikely location, how can you fail to appreciate Hellanbach’s commendable efforts to bring fun-loving party anthems to the dreary climes of northern England, as evidenced by the energetic highlights ‘Look at Me’, ‘All Systems Go’, ‘Let’s Get This Show on the Road’ and ‘All the Way’. Fueled one and all by Dave Patton’s exuberant guitar histrionics, these L.A.-by-way-of-Tyneside rockers nevertheless pack plenty of punch despite suffering from Neat Studios notoriously weak production values. In fact, the album’s only serious blunder is thankfully saved for last, when Hellanbach takes an ill-advised stroll into camp cabaret territory with a cover of ‘Everybody Wants to Be a Cat’ from Disney’s The Aristocats. Rather than measuring up to Van Halen’s explosive rendition of ‘Ice Cream Man’ (as was clearly intended), this unconvincing performance — and particularly singer Jimmy Brash’s halfhearted stab at mush-mouth cleverness — simply serves to remind listeners that there’s only one David Lee Roth, and more importantly, only one Van Halen. The band was facing an uphill battle when it finally released its much-delayed sophomore album ‘The Big H’ in late 1984. For all its positive attributes, the first album Now Hear This’ undisguised debt to all things Van Halen had made the Tyneside quartet a love/hate proposition among critics and fans. The band even got the mean-spirited ‘Halen-bach’ nickname. Now taken to task as hopeless wannabes instead of well-intentioned disciples, the group’s creative axis of guitarist Dave Patton and singer Jimmy Brash was clearly floundering as they led the band through lukewarm new tracks like “The Main Man,” “Panic State O.D.” and especially “When All Is Said and Done” (great guitar, awful words). For all his wondrous technique, would-be guitar hero Patton still based his every lick and solo on Eddie van Halen’s inimitable style. Opener “Beaten to the Bone,” the speedy “Bandit’s Run,” and the re-hashed oldie “Nobody’s Fool” are still decent 80’s metal tracks.
Track listing:
1. Out To Get You-from Out To Get You EP 1980
2. Light Of The World-from Out To Get You EP 1980
3. Let’s Get This Show On The Road-from Out To Get You EP 1980
4. Nobody’s Fool -from Out To Get You EP 1980
5. All The Way-from the 60 min cassette 1982
6. All Systems Go (Full Scale Emergency)-from One Take No Dubs compilation 1982
7. Dancin-from Now Hear This 1983
8. Times Are Getting Harder-from Now Hear This 1983
9. Look At Me-from Now Hear This 1983
10. All Systems Go-from Now Hear This 1983
11. Maybe Tomorrow-from Now Hear This 1983
12. Motivated By Desire-from Now Hear This 1983
13. Taken By Surprise-from Now Hear This 1983
14. Lets Get This Show On The Road-from Now Hear This 1983
15. Kick It Out-from Now Hear This 1983
16. All The Way-from Now Hear This 1983
17. Everybody Wants To Be A Cat-from Now Hear This 1983
18. Beaten To The Bone-from The Big H 1984
19. The Main Man-from The Big H 1984
20. Nobody’s Fool-from The Big H 1984
21. Bandits Run-from The Big H 1984
22. S.P.G.C. -from The Big H 1984
23. Saturday Night-from The Big H 1984
24. Panic State O.D. -from The Big H 1984
25. Daddy Dig Those Cats-from The Big H 1984
26. When All Is Said And Done-from The Big H 1984
27. Urban Paranoia-from The Big H 1984