In our Continuing Series: The Decline of Western Civilization ...

uwe · May 07, 2014, 04:40:26 PM

80ies metal haters don't read any further,

but for the ones with, jawohl!, guilty pleasures like me:

I just rediscovered Warrior, the one album metal wonders whose magnificent debut in 1985 went ... nowhere except the bargain bins and then - come Nirvana - total oblivion. They also became a cult band among metallists and having bought their debut at a spur of a nostalgic moment a few days ago (I remembered how the hair metal crazy guitaritst in one of my eighties bands would always pest me with the newest band from LA, wishing us to emulate the flavor of the week, and that he coaxed a "these guys are a lot better than your usual stuff" out of me when he played me a tape - yes, we had tapes back then - of Warrior) I now remember why:

And before anybody exclaims "these guys sounded like a bastard breed of Quiet Riot, Accept, Dio and Judas Priest" (all true in a way) I draw your attention to the arrangement at 2:44 in the above vid, that is what I call dynamics!

And they could repeat it live, that singer (later on in Steve Stevens' equally short-lived Atomic Playboys)

had some pipes:

I listened to their debut CD today in the car and the dynamics and velocity of the (not strikingly original, I know) music is simply stunning. It's also the most thunderous production (rhythm section is RRRRREAL LLLLLLOUD!) of any 80ies hair metal (cult) classic I've heard.

Now watch George chip in in a little while and dryly remark how he saw them regularly twice a week in his youth community center in LA when no one had yet heard of them ...

TBird1958 · May 07, 2014, 05:48:21 PM

I think that was the week he fell asleep in women's clothes Uwe!
Either that or taking pics of his "Special Purpose" as reflectioed in chrome pickup covers

Nocturnal · May 07, 2014, 07:41:04 PM

I saw this band open for Keel and Loudness after their debut came out. I remember enjoying their show but they disappeared rather quickly it seemed.

nofi · May 08, 2014, 07:24:18 AM

metal, a cult classic? every short lived band in metaldom became a "cult classic". i once owned that record, along with many hundreds more of the same type of stuff. to my ears warrior sounds like many of the other records i had. these lps
were part of my record show/online inventory, btw. not for my listening pleasure.

4stringer77 · May 08, 2014, 07:58:51 AM

This is the music I'm going to play on my bass boat's stereo when I'm water skiing with some honeys on the river. There will be a cooler full of silver bullets and I'll wear a cut off mesh football jersey and have a mullet!

uwe · May 08, 2014, 09:10:16 AM

Quote from: nofi on May 08, 2014, 07:24:18 AM
metal, a cult classic? every short lived band in metaldom became a "cult classic". i once owned that record, along with many hundreds more of the same type of stuff. to my ears warrior sounds like many of the other records i had. these lps
were part of my record show/online inventory, btw. not for my listening pleasure.

I think their dynamics, the extremely good production (you should hear the remastered CD), the mighty rhythm section, arrangements that leave the singer space and the harmony guitars which have a lot more adventurous combinations than just root + third (or fifth) set them apart. But the music as such is nothing new or original just very well executed. Bit "thinking man's Quiet Riot" (with a little Dokken thrown in for good measure, but who wasn't influenced by iconic George Lynch back then) if that is not an oxymoron ...

Other metal cult classix are of course Hughes/Thrall, Starz and Balance! You can only be cult if you were a commercial failure.

gweimer · May 08, 2014, 09:36:31 AM

I got to review all the new metal releases for the Illinois Entertainer for a few years in the '80s. There was so much really BAD metal that came out when it became really popular. Bands that I recall liking, but are long forgotten:
Black'n'Blue
Tokyo Blade
Loudness
Grim Reaper (whom I really liked)
The Hunt (the absolutely worst band I ever heard on record)

Granny Gremlin · May 08, 2014, 10:24:40 AM

Quote from: uwe on May 07, 2014, 04:40:26 PM

I always suspected that Steve was largely responsible for the sound of a lot of Billy's solo stuff and this mostly confirms it. Aside from the singer's voice, this could easily be a song by Billy Idol. Which reminds me, after Gen X broke up, ole SS, IMHO, was the second worst thing to happen to Billy. The #1 worst thing was cocaine... actually the 2 of those could have come as a package.

And as much as I like to be hard on him, Steve did some tasteful, I'll-just -hang-back-for-a-second guuitar work on some Billy stuff (though, as counterpoint, he compensated for that with the keyboards).

gweimer · May 08, 2014, 10:37:13 AM

I have always loved Steve Stevens work. If you want to get a taste of one his passions and little known talent, listen to his flamenco guitar work on Bozzio, Levin and Stevens.

nofi · May 08, 2014, 10:37:57 AM

starz were from atlanta but they seldom played here. they couldn't draw flies to a show. so they fled to europe where people seem to love this kind of shite.

the porky pig singer from grim reaper became the north american rep for marshall amps. a better gig i'm sure.

Basvarken · May 08, 2014, 12:23:35 PM

I have that Warrior album on vinyl. And I remember I really liked it back in the day.
Will have to try a bit to see if I can still listen to it without cringing

uwe · May 08, 2014, 12:43:12 PM

Nofi, you never learn! The Atlanta Starz you know are not

who stem from The Garden State, i.e. New Joisie and evolved from the remnants of one-hit-wonders Looking Glass.

(New Jersey) Starz never ever played outside of the US until last year when they were invited to the UK by some nostalgic dieheard fans. For one single gig.

I probably only liked them because their guitarist was called Richie, had sideburns and a receding hairline plus a white Strat ...

No, in fact I dug them because they combined musical clout with huge tunefulness - more AOR than metal really - and Michael Lee Smith, their singer, was visually sort of a butch Jon Bongiovi 10 years ahead of his fellow New Jersian. Unfortunately nearly all their material is blocked on German youtube.

uwe · May 08, 2014, 12:48:45 PM

Quote from: Basvarken on May 08, 2014, 12:23:35 PM
I have that Warrior album on vinyl. And I remember I really liked it back in the day.
Will have to try a bit to see if I can still listen to it without cringing

It's utterly cringy in a feel-good guilty pleasures way.

Basvarken · May 08, 2014, 12:53:11 PM

The lyrics are cringeworthy for sure.
"Wielding the axe, the mighty all must die" sounds like a Manowar leftover. Or were they ridiculing them?

uwe · May 08, 2014, 12:53:50 PM

Quote from: Granny Gremlin on May 08, 2014, 10:24:40 AM
I always suspected that Steve was largely responsible for the sound of a lot of Billy's solo stuff and this mostly confirms it. Aside from the singer's voice, this could easily be a song by Billy Idol. Which reminds me, after Gen X broke up, ole SS, IMHO, was the second worst thing to happen to Billy. The #1 worst thing was cocaine... actually the 2 of those could have come as a package.

And as much as I like to be hard on him, Steve did some tasteful, I'll-just -hang-back-for-a-second guuitar work on some Billy stuff (though, as counterpoint, he compensated for that with the keyboards).

Stevens was Billy Idol's sound in his heyday, period. Reputedly, he met him in a NYC music store when Stevens was not noodling riffs but playing the chords of Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side. The guy is a real talent and a shit-hot guitarist.

And he can elevate with his work even - sorry, George! - mediocre singers ...