Description

Reduced price due to writing on tape

Ukrainan pressed music cassette. Clear Gala Studio music cassette with white print.

Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Russia were all countries that released lots of tapes in the early to mid 90s. A label that joined late in Ukraine was Gala Studio (also known as Gala Records). The label made and agreement with DAASP of Ukraine in 1997 and produced cassettes for a few years. The label was based at the Kharkiv Highway 201-203 in Kiev / Kyiv City.

CMC International found a way to sign every available ‘no longer hip’ metal band on the planet in the early 90s, so it was only a matter of time before they snapped up Saxon. After a string of surprisingly strong records, the band delivered one of their strongest albums during the 90s, ‘Unleash The Beast’. This was the first release following the departure of founding guitarist Graham Oliver. The album has slightly darker lyrics than its predecessors and the music could well be in comparison to some of their 80s work. Actually, not even the classics (Wheels, Strong Arm, Denim) were thoroughly consistent; in fact, the weak stuff from those three combined would probably be enough make up a really bad best-of compilation – this album, however, manages to be exactly 90% consistent (discounting the intro, there are ten tracks, do the math), which is quite impressive when you take into account that the old stuff reached maybe 70% tops in that area. But let’s not forget: when those albums were good – man were they dead fucking on. ‘Motorcycle Man’, ‘Machine Gun’, ‘Heavy Metal Thunder’, ‘Strong Arm Of The Law’, ‘Princess Of The Night’, ‘747’ to name a few – timeless, untouchable heavy metal classics. How does ‘Unleash The Beast’ compare to Saxon of the old, in overall style? To start with, the rock n’ roll-ish vibe that was largely evident on earlier albums is just about dead and buried here. No boogie-woogie tinged stuff like ‘Stand Up And Be Counted’ or even something bluesy like ‘Strong Arm Of The Law’ – this is just straight-up heavy metal all-around. Even when the occasional old-school rock riff comes through, it’s still played in a total metal fashion so that you don’t even take notice of it. As for the only two remaining musicians from the classic line-up, Biff Byford is unmistakably still Biff Byford – his voice isn’t quite like anyone else’s, even though he has a somewhat lower and deeper voice on this release (like the guitars), perhaps due to age or just to fit in with the darker vibe on the album. Also, Paul Quinn’s leads are pretty evident, I believe; at least I think it’s him playing a large part of the solos, as many of them are very old-school in nature and do a good job of recalling Saxon of the old. A very competent job for sure, not aged in the least bit. This is a completely worthwhile album. By far one of the best rejuvenations ever to happen – you know you’re good when you can write stuff that is on par with your old stuff, 16 years later. To see that Saxon are able to kick this much ass after some 20 years in business is definitely admirable.

Track listing:
1. Unleash The Beast
2. Terminal Velocity
3. The Preacher
4. All Hell Breaking Loose
5. Absent Friends
6. Circle Of Light
7. The Thin Red Line
8. Bloodletter
9. Cut Out The Disease