Halloween-Don't metal with evil, 1985

Okay, a slight change of plans here. Originally I was going to do a 20 year old album review on King Diamond's Fatal Portrait this week. However in order to do that I need to give it a good listen and that has not happened. So that review will be out in two weeks because next week is Black Sabbath week. Instead today you get a review of the debut by Detroit's own Halloween. The band billed themselves (and still bill themselves, read on for that) as Detroit's heavy metal horrorshow. This album was released on a small independent label and I actually just picked my copy a few month's ago although I had heard of them back in 1985. There are plenty of 80's metal band's that existed mainly in the underground and for one reason or another got talked up as being good. Some of these "lost gems" turn out to be less than gems and lost for good reason. Every once in a while you find one that slipped past and really should have received more attention. This album is a good one, not great but good. There is a bit of an LA influence on their sound. The main one is Shout at the devil era Motley Crue although there are maybe some hints of early WASP and early Lizzy Borden as well. However, don't let the Crue influence make you think they are light because there are heavier than the Crue. At times maybe almost on a Judas Priest heaviness level. The album has a solid rawness to it and the lack of production actually helps it. The vocals and a number of the guitar solos help set these guys apart. I am somewhat surprised that a major independent label didn't nab these guys back in the mid-80's. I could have easily seem them fitting in on Metal Blade Records. They are still around as they released an ep and an lp this Summer, but I have not heard those yet. They play a few shows a year, mainly around the Detroit area.
"Don't metal with evil" used to be fairly rare a few years ago, but now the band sells it for $15 from their site which is below.
http://www.halloweentheband.us/main.htm

Their my space site has videos and music. The videos are songs from this album so they were done in the mid-80's. Kind of fun videos as they are like zero budget, but you get to see the band with their graveyard stage set. The guys looked like a cross between Motley Crue and Twisted Sister. The video for "Nice place to live" has almost two minutes of credits before the music comes. Still be patient because I think it's the best song off this album and the video is a great slice of mid-80's metal.

http://www.myspace.com/halloween1031