Grim Reaper- Fear no evil

Background/ initial thoughts
I wrote the last blog just about background information about this band and where they were at the time of this release. I remember the guy at the local music store telling me about this album the day it came out, but I bought something else that day. I eventually heard this album a few months later. I now own it on album and probably on tape somewhere, but I will be listening to the album for this. Probably the last time I heard this was back around 1999 because I remember pulling out albums that I had not heard in years and this was one that I listened to. I liked this album back in the 80's, but thought it was good rather than great. I liked Nick Bowcott's playing, but wasn't too big on Steve Grimmett's voice. So let's put it on the turntable and see what we have.
They tear into the title track and it's a middle pace offering, but heavy enough and very sharp. It's a good opening song that has me more pumped than I would have thought. Never Coming Back is up next and quite honestly it drags a bit. What's even worse is this song is just not good for Grimmet's voice as he sounds like he is really struggling to muster up some power here, but it's just not happening. At this point I feel like some of my enthusiasm after the first song is starting to disappear. Lord Of Darkness comes on and the vocals are certainly better, but the music sounds like it's in the background way too much. This surprises me as this did not happen with either of the first two tracks. All they had to do was bring the guitar up a notch and this would have been a good song instead of just decent. Matter Of Time is track four and it's overall a good fairly solid song. The sound is good although the rhythm may be a bit too simple, but that's a minor complaint. It's been a mixed bag so far and the next track is even a little more different than any of the previous songs. Rock & Roll Tonight just feels a little out of place because it just sounds like a basic hard rock song yet it feels like they are trying to just heavy it up so it fits in and that doesn't really work. It's not bad at all, but it just sounds more like a B side kind of song. Let The Thunder Roar comes on and this is where I made the realization of what I think was this band's biggest problem was. I used to think it was soley the vocals, but listening to this song was when I realized how the lyrics sound really crammed. Grimmet is trying to sing a lot of words and they are trying to squeeze them in to a very limited space of music. This is where I realized that Grim Reaper's main problem is that they weren't the best writers in the world and it wasn't actually the fault of Steve Grimmet's vocals. Lay It On The Line follows and it's in the same category as Lord of darkness in that the music is a bit too low, but it's still a solid song. Fight For The Last comes on strong and never lets up. It's a bit of an anthem, but the strong rhythms help it to stand out. The song has a very good solo as well to compliment it. Last up is Final Scream which starts out with some annoying spoken word nonsense that doesn't have a whole lot to do with the song. After the spoken word comes a few plodding notes and then it rips into the song. This makes a very appropriate bookend to the opening track and both are pounding tunes that are similar in style. Also present in this song is some of Nick Bowcott's best work. The song ends and it's time for me to figure out what I think and what I know.

Verdict/ Final word- I think I summed it up about halfway through by saying it's a mixed bag, but overall decent. There were a few really good songs and some that could have better. The strongest songs showed their potential and their talent, but I think the song writing held them back. The first album is a very similar style, but it's just a shame that they didn't show much growth from the first album to the second. Although I would say this is my favorite album of the three as their best songs here are better than most of the songs on the other two albums. I think it is almost as good as I thought it was back then. Although my problems with it are different now then they were back then.Grim Reaper received decent reviews and some people thought they had bigger things ahead of them. Their third album was originally entitled Night of the vampire and it was supposed to be out as early as fall of 1986. I am not sure why but it didn't come out until summer of 1987 and the title was changed to Rock you to hell. They toured with Armored Saint and Helloween in 87 on the Hell on wheels tour, but broke up shortly thereafter. Steve Grimmet ended up in speed metal outfit Onslaught for a while and I believe he did a few other projects. Nick Bowcott was writing a guitar column for Circus magazine and had a band called Barfly. I believe they did get signed, but I don't think they ever released an album. So one of the last hopes to emerge from the New Wave of British heavy metal failed to join the ranks of Iron Maiden or Def Leppard, but they left behind some albums that I will listen to from time to time.