Hell for leather bands

Press, 12 July 1984, Page 10

Hell for leather bands

SLADE “The Amazing Kamikazi Syndrome” (Victor VPLI 7469.) THE SCORPIONS “Love at First Sting” (Victor VPLI 6673.) SAXON "Crusader” (Carrere VPLI 6672). Reviewing , these albums is a kind of a training run for the upcoming Motorhead show in the Christchurch Town Hall auditorium. Heavy metal is not really New Zealand’s style of music, as opposed to the more brash Australian approach, which seems to border on the hell for leather, macho music. Slade’s “The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome” is an interesting album, showing quiet influences of recent Scottish bands like Big Country. Founded in the late 60s (originally the N’Betweens), Slade’s career appeared to go into a hiatus from about 1975, but Quiet Riot’s revival of “Cum On Feel the Noise,” plus the

release of “My Oh My,” from the latest album, which hit No. 5 in the charts in Britain, saw a revival in their career. There are the same old Slade songs, but interspersed is- some really catchy material. The single, is like the opening track, “Slam The Hammer Down,” but then the album takes a peculiar turn with “In the Doghouse,” more in the style of REO Speedwagon and Foreigner, before the version of “Run Runaway,” with its Scottish influences, plus the quiet (for Slade) “My Oh My,” a delicate song, featuring a piano and virtually no lead guitar. Side two is disappointing, particularly the opening track, “Ready to Explode.” The surpise is a (gulp) waltz, in (And Now the Waltz) C’est La Vie. But, the latest album demonstrates that Slade are not afraid to tackle something different.

Vat, ve hav ways of making you listen. To “Love at First Sting,” the third HM album by the German band, the Scorpions. Two hardhitting songs open the album, “Bad Boys Running Wild” and “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” very much in the heavy metal tradition, before the pace slows to a much more exacting and interesting song. “I’m Leaving You,” which shows the band at its polished best. “As Soon as the Good Times Roll” is in the same vein, a slightly off-beat reg-gae-influenced song, and “Still Loving You” opens with an acoustic guitar, and slowly builds up in a technique that Led Zeppelin favoured.

An inflated mix of pomp, bombast, and romanticism, a quote from an interview with Saxon, seems to sum up “Crusaders.” The album opens on the title track, and in the beginning we are

treated to battle sounds as Saxon return to the good old day? of Richard the Lionheart versus Saladin. Saxon then begin to slay the heathen listener with their sounds, plenty of brass and

drums, in a track aimed at the United States.

More commercial still is the single, “Sailing to America,” about the pilgrims on the Mayflower, and it is obvious where the song will land, considering the band were about to embark on a world tour, which included the New World.

But for the rest, Saxon are into rock — “Just Let Me Rock,” “Bad Boys (Like to Rock ’n’ Roll),” and “Rock City.” Get the picture. “Set Me Free” shows snatches of Deep Purple’s “Speed King,” but “Run For Your Lives” shows some restrained HM guitar work. - NEVIN TOPP.