format: LP
year: 1987
country: Singapore
label: Life
#: HM 1817
info: 2 tracks on the commercially available cassette version (and later CDs) are missing from this vinyl promo release.
style: Heavy Metal
Side A:
Side B:
While the following "Berat" and "Awas!" albums of Rusty Blade are as rare and collection-boasting-worthy as any old Southeast Asian 80's Metal LPs, this debut definitely tops them in obscurity. For many years few collectors in the west seemed to know weather this was ever released on vinyl or not, even as a promo. A couple of years ago I did however find a picture of this release hidden away in the deepest corners of the interweb tubes - The Hunt was on! ...and so, only just recently, a pristine copy of this Asian holy grail finally arrived at my doorstep!
Now, the bad news:
...
Did you guess it yet? Hint.
Yep, they mercilessly butchered another classic Metal album by removing some of the heavier material from the original cassette edition. The good news inside the bad news: They only cut off 2 songs this time. The Bad news inside the good news inside the bad news: One of the greatest songs of their career, the haunting "Langsuir Liar" drew the short straw. If you're somewhat familiar with this album through other media, it's that Doomy one with the female screams and goosebumps-inducing chorus. The epic, Judas Priest-tinged "Taming Sari" also met the same end.
Still, we are left with some pretty killer material. The band's greatest strength is that, at their best, they truly are the epitome of Headbanging-Metal! They have such a talent for sucking the marrow out of every perfect, pounding riff
and though they are the more crude, simplistic Anvil to Rockers' refined Iron Maiden, they are not far behind in quality. Here it is particularly evident in the 2 remaining Real Metal numbers, the lead-heavy "Satira Bangsa" and the catchy Metal-monster "Ketagihan". I'm not sure if this also includes the opening track though, and it's not primarely because it's a very laid-back heavy rock number more suited for ending the album on a lighter note,
but because there is a guitar-track in the background of the verse that is so dreadfully out of tune it renders a large part of the song unlistenable. Despite these dire circumstances, the chorus of this the title track is still the one song that I catch myself humming along to the most after the first week of keeping the album on regular rotation.
"Rock" surprises nought by of course being one of the token rockers, sounding like an old NWOBHM band trying to sound like AC/DC, which is a whole lot better than just straight up sounding like AC/DC I guess (AC/DC would be the only band I know that pulls that off fairly well..). Rocker #2, "Tarian Duka", is on the other hand a terribly anonymous and forgettable number. There's one more surprising glimmer of hope stuck at the tail end, as the last of the 3 ballads, "Kehilangan" is one of those rare examples of a genuinly good and memorable song.
Sadly the abovementioned mutilation of the original album session proves just how important a few extra Heavy-hitters can be to the overall experience of a record. In other words, unless you're a die-hard collector of crazy rare & exotic originals, you might be more interested in hunting down the official vinyl reissue (!) made by Life records 2017 instead. Might as well snatch the similar reissue of their first mini-album as well while you're at it - it's at least as great as this debut and this one was defititely never vinylized in any shape or form back in the days..