Description
Reduced price due to cd being vg
An odd metal compilation album from Laserlight Digital/Gama Musikverlags GmbH. Cool to see that four bands from Eskilstuna, Sweden are on this as their material are quite hard to find on cd.
Crystal Pride
A straight on Swedish heavy metal band with a female vocalist that was formed in Eskilstuna back in 1979. They debuted with an excellent private pressed vinyl single that led to a deal with Mill records. The band headed to Stockholm studios with producer Thomas Ljungquist and recorded a studio session that would become their debut self titled debut album. The album was then mixed by ABBA wizard Michael B. Tretow. Mill records also released a 12 single for the track Knocked Out from the album. Singer Susie Christensen has a nice voice and the band would continue to record demos during the 80s and 90s and it would be great to finally see another Crystal Pride album in the future
Lazy
Eskiltuna hardrock outfit Lazy was formed back in 1982 and they first appeared on a limited compilation album in 1983 called Rock On Roll On. The Rock On Roll On album was released on Pang records and Lazy were featured with the two tracks Darkness and Mountains. In 1984 the band signed to Mill records and recorded their one and only album Creature at the Stockholm Recording studios the same year. The two tracks on the Pang album weren’t released on the Creature album and maintains exclusive for that hard to find compilation album. Creature features some good hardrock with some bluesy overtones. After the album the band underwent some major line-up changes before folding in 1987 when three of the current members, Kim Bjorkegren, Per Aldeheim and John Rosth went on to funk rockers Its Alive. None of the three members however were original members or were part of the band when the Creature album was released.
Shere Khan
Mill Records was located in Solna, Stockholm and for some strange reason they were keen on signing hard rock acts located in Eskilstuna. The label had bands like Crystal Pride, Lynx and Shere Khan on their rooster. Shere Khan was promoted by the label as ‘a new band with a unique style. They play contrary to other bands happy and fresh music with rock n roll as their starting point’. Their one and only album ‘Quiet Enough For Love’ was released on Mill Records on the 15th of November 1985 and to be honest it didn’t feel that unique as the label praised them. In my opinion Shere Khan played were traditional melodic metal that was common on the Swedish scene in the mid 80s. Guitarist Thomas Skogsberg, here called Mowgli, isn’t the same person as Tomas Skogsberg that runs the famous Sunlight studio. Vocalist Daniel V Borch, also known as Daniel Zangger Borch released a solo single as Danny N Rox and later went on to sing with Tony Borgs high profile act Alien.
Lynx
Caught In A Trap was unfortunately the only album from the Eskilstuna act Lynx and it an absolutely astonishing melodic metal piece, reminiscent of the first two albums of Europe, of which mainly focused on the guitars rather than the obvious keyboards. Sure the keyboard are there and the music is very melodic, often slow and driving but the band introduce both instruments in complete harmony with another and it end result is a gem of Swedish metal. All songs on this album rule – and it’s just a great combination of influences coming in – I mean Europe meets NWOBHM meets power metal and White Spirit and Rainbow and all of them are served with a strong vocals delivered by Mats Eriksson. Among theese powerful rockers we also find the AOR oriented Dont Fool Me which should get lovers of Scandinavian AOR going ape. So overall pretty much solid from start to finish – and with good production, this one is an 80s metal gem which demands your respect. A brilliant group of talented young men here, crafting out an album of potential super hits. I’m surprised this band didn’t attain a higher status of fame – especially in Scandinavia – hell they’re better than Stone, or Tarot, and not exactly far off TNT. Utterly brilliant.
Stranger
Strangers debut album, The Bell (1985), is probably the closest thing to Helloweens Wall Of Jericho out there, an essential release in the ancient German speed metal chapter. The Bell features Gerd Salewski and founding guitarist Rikki Wolfgang Rieger (both would later go on to Chroming Rose). It then took the band a whopping five years to finally release a new album, and what happened? For starters the entire line-up has changed besides founding guitarist Rikki Wolfgang Rieger (later in Chroming Rose), and this is probably why there’s an entirely new sound and direction. The second album, Pretty Angels, was not impressive at all. Comparing Pretty Angels to The Bell is practically like comparing Helloween’s Walls Of Jericho to Chameleon, only I’d take Chameleon over Pretty Angels anyday. This compilation album features two tracks not available on any of the two studio albums. These two tracks were first found in 1988 and has a sound that feels like a natural progression from the 1985 album which suggest that these were recorded by the old line up. The speed and the riffs are here.
Kat
Kat are legends in their homeland of Poland, though they’ve only managed limited exposure beyond that. That’s a shame because they were very influential to 90s Polish thrash metal practitioners and their debut album (called 666 in Poland and Metal And Hell in the rest of the world) is a very enjoyable combination of Venom, Bathory, NWOBHM influences and unashamed blasphemous intent. Their debut album was released in 1985/1986 and must be among the first thrash metal albums behind the iron curtain. Its also a bit dirtier than the stuff coming from the Bay Area so its easy to look back and see why Kat are hailed as one of the pioneers of black metal too.
Elise
Heavy metal act from Roden in Netherlands that was formed back in 1985. They released three demo tapes between 1985 and 1988 before releasing their only full length album, No Time For Masquerade, released on the small North Star records in 1990 in a limited run of 1000 copies. The album is a great european heavy metal release sounding somewhere between Accept and Trans AM. The track, Sven Witches, that appears here were first on a compilation released in 1988 so the version on that album and on this album is probably taken from the Seven Witches demo that was released in 1986.
Track list:
1. Crystal Pride -Rock n Roll Gun-from Crystal Pride 1985
2. Crystal Pride -Let You Go-from Crystal Pride 1985
3. Crystal Pride -Evil Force-from Crystal Pride 1985
4. Lazy -Chewing Gum-from Creature 1984
5. Lazy -Mother Time-from Creature 1984
6. Lazy -You Got the Power-from Creature 1984
7. Shere Khan -Point Of A Needle-from Quite Enough For Love 1985
8. Shere Khan -Rockin You Rockin Me-from Quite Enough For Love 1985
9. Shere Khan -Turn The Table-from Quite Enough For Love 1985
10. Lynx -Final Race-from Caught In The Trap 1985
11. Lynx -Nothing In Return-from Caught In The Trap 1985
12. Stranger -She Was
13. Stranger -Wet Dream
14. Kat -Metal And Hell-from Metal And Hell 1986
15. Kat -Killer-from Metal And Hell 1986
16. Elise-Seven Witches-from Seven Witches demo 1986