format: LP
year: 1986
country: UK
label: Thameside Records
#: TRR 111
info: Also licensed to Rock Brigade Records in 1987.
style: NWOBHM
Side A:
Surely one of the most iconic latercomers (album-releasing-wise anyways) of the NWOBHM scene were DESOLATION ANGELS, and much like the ELIXIR debut LP before I was a bit taken aback at how this classic and fairly rare cult platter was missing from our archives. Betterment assured!
To me this is a perfect example of a band who did almost everything right - a grrreat band name, fantastic cover art, some crushing, true HEAVY Metal anthems ...and yeah, here comes the 'But..': Also the odd filler or 3.
So the songwriting is rather diverse in both style and quality, but not to the extent that it feels too sprawling since it's all churned out with the same raw, devil-may-care attitude. On the lower steps of the ladder you find your primordial NWOBHM-rockers like "Unsung Hero" and "Death Machine", dating all the way back to their debut 1981 demo and just maaaaybe those numbers could have been ceremoniously buried in a later reissue-type time-capsule release, as they must have come off a bit dated even back in 1986. On the complete opposite side of the spectrum we find the Mighty Mystic Metal Monsters in "Evil Possessor" and "Dance Of The Demons", the former being a traditional galopping Power Metal banger in its most crude (good crude) form, while the latter carries a semi-doomy vibe where comparisons to both
Pagan Altar's mournful harmonies as well as Witchfinder General's crunchy graveyard riffing can be drawn.
There is however more goodness inbetween. The opening 8 minute anthem "Spirit Of The Deep" combines a pounding troglodyte lead riff with more of those WF Gen vibes and it never feels drawn out despite its length. "Valhalla" is yet another archetype NWOBHM number but with larger Saxon-muscles than some of that earlier material, and at the end of the road the energetic riffing in "Angry Rain" rocks'n'Metals us into the ground with a force of the Grim Reaper himself riding a bat-winged horse! ...just maybe carrying on a minute or 2 too long for its own good.
On the whole, Desolation Angels' debut LP is a rather unpolished product, for better or worse. At times the rough edges feel like they belong, but you can't help wondering what kind of an album we could have had with a little more fine-tuning here & there. Unfortunately, in 1986 this sound would neither have made them mainstream- nor underground darlings. Perhaps including some fresh material in the style of the upcoming 1987 "Fury" demo would have been a better career choice here? Here's a petit-mal of too-much-honesty from yours truly: I know for a fact I would have experienced this album differently and probably enjoyed it even more if it had had the year "1982" printed on it.
Yeah, really. My pretentious, quasi-hipster subconscious actually thinks 36 years isn't "OLDE" enough. Like, "Only 40 years is Trve!", right??
If my stupid brain had an account on the forum I would instaban it.
(It doesn't though - I have the posts to prove it.)