format: LP
year: 1989
country: Singapore
label: Life
#: HM 2033
info: Vinyl promo-version of the commercially available MC
style: Heavy Metal
Side A:
Side B:
The swansong of Singapore's 2nd-to-finest is also the most fetching of their discography. Well, their 2 first releases weren't really much of a competition in that respect, but the burning question here is: Is "Awas!" as musically satisfying as its cover art?
UuuuuuhhmmmmIdunno.
It starts off kinda creepy - "Antara Nikmat Dan Syurga"
will strike terror into the bravest and most fearless of Metal warriors, as it is a
rather lame wimp-rocker sounding like B*n J*vi performing a neutered version of Skid Row's "Youth Gone Wild". Is this it?!?! Did they really fall that deep into the commercial radio-hr mudpit? Luckily the answer is No, as "Antara.." is the only track of its insipid kind. Of course the album is as crammed with useless ballads as most other Mal/Sin-Metal releases from this era, but as usual we're gonna ignore these completely and instead concentrate on the remaining 6 Real Heavy Metal tunes. Thus, "PLO" will represent the real beginning of the album. A song dealing with a militant terrorist organization is pretty much required to have a pounding, militant beat to it and this box is thoroughly checked here, as it is a very enthralling, Heavy, almost semi-Thrashy Power Metal number. "Gadis Desa" on the other hand is a bit of an acquired taste. With the blending of pounding HM riffing and Robert Plant-wailing it sort of predates the 'groovy post-Metal' 90's HR sound that became popular a few years later. Luckily it keeps the weight on the foot planted in the Metal 80's enough to not be a complete dud, and the galopping "Lima Perwira" that follows quickly sets us back in the right mood.
Side B begins with the title track, a great, straight-forward, Priest'y and uptempo number that would have been the obvious album opener if they hadn't been stuck in the backwards Bizarro-World that is the South East Asian music biz. The backwardsness continues with the fact that the last 2 heavyweights, "Siluman" and "Hidup Rock" is probably the 2 strongest numbers of the entire album, the former being a mighty Manowarian moodfilled monster of a song, and the latter a fast-paced Anvil-like speedster hit in the style of "Jarum Jang Halus" and "Wira" from their previous album, so at least they went out with a bang!
Is it as good as "Berat" or "Rintangan Hidup Dunia" then? Well, apart from the fact that the tracklist feel a bit jumbled, my crystal-clear aswer is: Almost. If anything it's at least the slightly more common of their 3 original vinyl releases and the one that you might possibly run into at least once or thrice a decade..