GRAVE DIGGERHeavy Metal Breakdown Noise (1984)Rating: 8/10 Heavy Metal Breakdown is a bloody good debut, giving this fan 80% of pleasurable music with a fixed smile on his face, as he found it quite easy to dismiss the poor 20%. It’s also quite evident that Accept are the flavour for the moment – how long […]

WOLFEdge Of The World Mausoleum (1984)Rating: 8/10 This is the UK hard rock band that signed to Chrysalis a couple of years ago, released a single (‘Head Contact (Rock’n’Roll)’ / ‘A Soul For The Devil’) and then seemed to disappear into obscurity… until now. Most, if not all, of the material here is at least […]

BURNBurn Moonshine (1983)Rating: 8/10 The first album from a young Swedish band and a fine debut it is too. From the commercial Van Halen-ish ‘Good Or Evil’ to the hyper frenzied speed of ‘Get Lost’, Burn have delivered a well balanced ten-track metal album. Generally, the band remind me a lot of early Tygers Of […]

METAL FORCES – Issue 4 Magazine Cover (1984) « Previous Cover Next Cover »

ARMED FORCESLet There Be Metal Metallic Flame (1984)Rating: 9/10 This mini-album is the first vinyl release from this New York band and an excellent debut it is too. Armed Forces play the sort of metal that grabs you by the throat submitting the listener to a barrage of intense mayhem, guaranteed to sort out the […]

SNIPEROpen The Attack Electric Ladyland (1984)Rating: 9/10 A live album this, which is pretty hard to believe as apart from maybe the last track on each side there’s little if any detection that the Japanese outfit are actually performing in front of an audience. Still, what this album lacks in atmosphere it sure makes up […]

GILGAMESJTake One EP Rave-On (1984)Rating: 6/10 Oh yeah! Rough, hard-edged metal of Dutch origin. Gilgamesj may look like a bunch of weirdos but they don’t sound like it. Take ‘Oppression’, the opening number on this EP, with instant riffs and stunning lead guitar breaks. Good vocal delivery in perfect English from Frank van Stijn also […]

IMPALER Impaler (1983) Yet another US metal act bursts out of the Midwest, this time the savage Impaler from Minnesota. They have been together for less than a year now and have already recorded an EP on their own aptly named Blood Records; the tracks featured will be ‘Assassin’, ‘Shock Rock’, and the anthem ‘Impaler’. […]

HELLIONDangerous Maneuvers Stampede (1984)Rating: 5/10 No, not that over-hyped L.A. band, this Hellion hail from New York. The opening two numbers on Hellion’s debut album, ‘The Pump’ and ‘Ain’t No Hesitating’, are more like commercial pop than the high-energy rock that the biog proclaims this band to be. As for the rest of the album, […]

UNDERDOGRabies In Town Mausoleum (1984)Rating: 7/10 This is the follow-up to the German band’s self-titled debut album of last year, and quite an improvement it is too. Side one includes three Dio-like epics in ‘Nightmares’, ‘I Do It’ and the high speed frenzied ‘Needin’ Your Love’. However, for a title track ‘Rabies In Town’ is […]