Crossfire

Going from a perfect, 80's Fastness-Metal Opener and then following up with a pounding, heavy Melo-Metal rocker instead of a fucking schmallad equals pretty frigging high scores for an old Malaysian Metal album, no matter if the latter is a bit on the generic side. Obviously the first crappy ballad comes next, but the following "Kebangkitan" is a little dark, brooding gem of Arabian Nights/Camelback/Kashmir-Metal greatness - Best Song On LP for sure! They close chapter A with the generic hardrocker "Ambisi", which only redeeming factor is, well, 'Not ballad' I guess.

Now, let's backtrack and compose ourselves some coz this will surely seem mighty confusing: How the HELL did we just run through one whole side of an 80's Mal-HM LP with only ONE ballad?!? Well, sometimes miracles do happen and I guess this is one of the major reasons that the Malaysian edition of the ever-so-popular CROSSFIRE-monicker has become one of the most well-known (or slightly less unknown) names from this part of the world. To put it in the simplest of terms: They're pretty much a Super-Normal 80's Heavy Metal band, and for most die-hard fans & collectors that's enough to put a ping on the HM Hunting radar. Let's flip sides and venture further:

Both "Batu Bersurat" and "Emosi" are fairly well performed and composited melodic RockMetal numbers, albeit a bit on the generic side. The 2 schmallads inbetween are of course as awful as ever, but wrapping things up is the great "Bahang Kota", full to the brim of great vocal harmonies and exciting Power-riffing moments, once again proving how important the final track is to the overall vibe of an album. For instance it might make you forget that there's only really 2 other songs of the same level here, and thus hi-jacks a place on your want list, despite it being sort of a mid-league tier album from an international perspective.

...and for all cocky internet-metal warriors who's dying to Prove The Corroseum Wrong (HA! Never!!) and claiming there is actually a picture sleeve version available of this album, thy mighty aDmiN's answer is NO. There is not. But yeah, ok, there is, but really, No, there isn't. There are however at least 2 versions of fan-made sleeves made for this record, but this is a known practice of Malaysian record collectors and owners and these products are most certainly a post-millennium thing, however nice looking they may be.