format: Mini-LP
year: 1983
country: Spain
label: Contact / Sonorització Discos
#: ETTE-35
info: Insert w/ band pics
style: Heavy Metal
Side A:
Side B:
Simple question: Why are we here?
Like, really?
Simple, honest answer: For rare, 80's black&white Heavy Metal private pressings
with dragons on the cover.
...so let's get back to our core values for a change. Spaniards ROCKSON checks most boxes of an early 80's cult release - it's ye olde primordial NWOHM the d.i.y. way, all the way! It sounds young, fresh & debut'y without any of the major amateur pitfals.
One minor joker in the deck might be the fact that the opener "En Tu Mente Esta" is the least striking of the 4 featured tracks. However it's solid nwobhm'y trot is honest and strong enough to keep you curious and with the following "La Chica Del Rolls" you'll know you're onto something special. This song uses one of my favourite tricks in HM songwriting: 1. steal Black Sabbath-riff 2. speed up. Even as a sparsely utilized opening- and bridge move it's bound to get your blood pumping. The rest of this catchy speedrocker reminds us of a hairier Mazo or Evo, where the zany 70's organs that flesh out the entire EP adds some extra flavour.
My largest crush of Rockson's is however "Herederos Del Rock". The frantic lead of this proto-Speed pearl is Metal-minimalism at its absolute best. In most other situations it would be cosidered terribly generic, but they somehow found the perfect use for it and thus we are violently blown apart by its sheer inertia. The opening bars of the closing "Hechiceros" first gives a somewhat stale and clumsy impression (think Mercy's lackluster "Swedish Metal" debut) but man do they blow those indications away quickly! This tune is armed with some deadly, razor-sharp hooks and the drummer - whoever he may be - truly shines with those crazy fills of lead.
In my book an oddly ignored release on all levels. One reason for this might be that the most common version of this EP is a cheapo 1984 repress with a less striking sleeve design (incidently carrying "Herederos Del Rock" as the title) and obviously 'cheap' plus 'not dragon' equals Not True! so there you go...