QUEENSRŸCHEOperation: Mindcrime EMI (1988)Rating: 9.5/10 I must admit that I’ve never been a great fan of Queensrÿche. True, I loved their debut EP, but I found their last two albums, The Warning and Rage For Order, totally tedious, especially the latter which was all atmospheric and lacking in aggression. However, with Operation: Mindcrime Queensrÿche are […]

JUDAS PRIESTRam It Down CBS (1988)Rating: 7/10 Having played this within a few hours of the XL demo that dropped through my letterbox, it leaves me scratching my head in utter bemusement. Quite frankly, much as I venerate every morsel of Priestliness, they should by rights be getting a severe pasting by the likes of […]

TIRANT SIN Mutant Supremacy (1988) Buffalo, New York-based Tirant Sin feature former Leviathan vocalist Chris Barnes. Chris is on his second stint with the band, having been a founding member back in early 1986. As you would expect, Tirant Sin play high energy thrash with a touch of hardcore thrown in for good measure, and […]

ANACRUSISSuffering Hour Axis (1988)Rating: 8.5/10 Barely a year after Bernard Doe’s review of Anacrusis’ Annihilation Complete five-song demo, the St. Louis, Missouri-based boys are back, and with a full-length album no less. When Bernard referred to Anacrusis as a mixture of Metal Church, Trouble, Slayer and Metallica, he hit it right on the nose. Although […]

AUTOPSY Autopsy (1987) When drummer Chris Reifert left the band Death early in the summer of 1987, he wasted very little time in getting a new project off the ground. Autopsy is the name of his new venture and this four-song demo tape shows them to be treading more or less the same ground as […]

NUCLEAR ASSAULTSurvive Under One Flag (1988)Rating: 9/10 Well, things have certainly been happening at Assault-ville. Dan Lilker and co. have really worked their proverbial butts off and here’s the result; a finely crafted excellent album, that shows the band enlarging their sound beyond the first few tentative progressive steps the band took on The Plague […]

SLAYERSouth Of Heaven Def Jam / London (1988)Rating: 8/10 When Slayer said back in Metal Forces #23 that they were going to take a more experimental direction with their next record, they weren’t kidding. Although South Of Heaven is still undeniably Slayer, it’s perfectly clear that the band have made an effort to vary their […]

METAL FORCES – Issue 28 Magazine Cover (1988) « Previous Cover Next Cover »

YNGWIE MALMSTEENOdyssey Polydor (1988)Rating: 6.5/10 Probably the most interesting and least known fact about this album is that Joe Lynn Turner wears a wig. Bet you didn’t know that ay boys and girls? Well, although there may not be as much hair here as it may at first appear, there are quite a few hairy […]