Rusty Blade

If not the best then surely the most legendary of olde Steel from Singapore/Malaysia, the name Rusty Blade should most likely have crossed paths with the die-hard elite of fans and collectors of rare & obscure 80's Heavy Metal. We've dissected their 3 full-length albums here in the past, but until very recently I didn't think we'd ever have a reason to feature their 1986 debut recording in The Corroseum's rare HM vinyl archive. Actually the official format of this "EP" is a bit of a tricky affair. The original "786" cassette was in fact a 9-track full-length release, featuring not only the band Rusty Blade but an additional 4 bonus tracks: 1 Malay cover of Scorpions' "Still Loving You", performed by the vocalist/drummer of legendary pop/rock/folk-locals BLACK DOG BONE, Jett. 1 track by Singapore pop-rockers PELANGI and 2 aor/pomp tunes performed by a lass named Shirley Hermosa. Lucky for us, none of these fillers clogged up future reissues.

Moving on to 2003, the complete Rusty Blade discography was officially released on CD, but with the 5 tracks from this session spread out on the 3 CDs as bonus tracks. It wasn't until 2016 that we finally saw a proper, official reissue of this legendary debut, now in both CD, MC and vinyl format, the latter unfortunately in a limited 300x edition and thus almost as tricky to obtain today as their original 80's promo vinyls.

That would have been the end of this story if it wasn't for yours truly, once again staring too long into the abyss of Forgotten Steel* and seeing a picture of this holy grail flickering by in the murky depths of the intertubes. One epic journey of bravery & conquest later, I can now GET TO THE BLOODY POINT ALREADY:

The title track A-side is iconic, fist-held-high, prime directive HEAVY METAL of the first order. Absolutely not original in any shape or form but this kind of Rare 7" Single A-Side Steel of the finest, olde European swordwaving brand will have all die-hard collectors wet their panties nonetheless. Now if only they'd paired this track with the amazing, doomy & twisted "Gadis Lincah" on the flip, this would have been a downright Legendary release, but of course we're left with the one shitty ballad of the original source, so no surprises there I'm afraid.

It's safe to say that this is one of the holy grails of Asian Heavy Metal singles, on par with the most obscure Japanese items and currently I've yet to have seen or heard of another copy in the hands of western collectors. It's also worth mentioning that there were indeed a couple of other Rusty Blade 7"s made in the following years, but those were specifically manufactured for jukebox-use. As peculiar as these items seem to be to the uninitiated, these and hundreds of similar singles from the local HM/HR scene aren't as 'über-rare' as you'd expect and shouldn't be too expensive if you'd ever come across them (The Corrosseum said you shouldn't pay more than €10-€20 each) and unlike this gem they never featured any vinyl-exclusive recordings.

* = pardon the copyright-infringement, Roman.