Rogue Male-First Visit

Metal Mind
1985/2008 Re-issue

These guys were part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement and recorded two LPs and one EP. Yet their entire legacy seems to revolve quite a bit around the fact that Kerrang! magazine called them “the next big thing” and of course they failed to live up to that prediction. In fact that Kerrang! Claim seems to be the only thing most people ever said about this band and I could never find a decent description of their sound over the years. Now the album has been re-issued and I can finally judge for myself. The sound here has a definite Motorhead influence primarily from the Overkill/Bomber era plus there are several songs with a strong Judas Priest sound say from around the 1979-1981 period. The vocals are gritty and deep and the music is heavier than I would have figured, but fairly basic. The melodies make this almost as much a hard rock effort as it is a metal album, but the two styles work together well enough. This is very much a NWOBHM sound although for 1985 it’s a little dated because by that time I think most were moving beyond this approach. I enjoyed every song and this version includes two bonus tracks. My curiosity of this band had grown over the years largely due to the fact that no one would commit to saying much about them. The results are that it’s better than I figured it would be. However I can see why they didn’t make much of an impact, if this had come out in say 1982 instead of 1985 then I could have better understood someone thinking this band might make an impact. Another fine Metal Mind re-issue which includes bonus tracks and the booklet has pictures and a band biography.