Railway-s/t

Metal Mind
2009

I remember browsing the shelves of my local music stores back in the mid-1980's. As a metal fan it was time where there were lots of choices albums, but as a teenager I had limited funds so I never got to hear all the bands that I wanted to back then. There were lots of acts I heard of back then, but never got to hear. Yet I tucked a number of band names away in my mind and in more recent years have sought out some of these albums to see if I actually was missing out or not. One such name that I remembered was Railway, but now their first three full length discs have been re-issued.The origins of this German band stretch back to 1977 when they began as Cumulus. They soon changed the band name to Railway because their rehearsal room was located in the cellar of an abandoned railway station. The recorded a demo EP in 1981 and had some tracks on a compilation before nailing a record deal and knocking out this their debut in 1984. The opener "Heavy Metal Fever" rips on with a riff that recalls High -n- dry era Def Leppard with a strong groove flowing forward. However this songs isn't representative of most of the album. A number of the songs vary in pace and heaviness level, but they manage to pull upon parts of hard rock, classic metal and even early speed metal. Many of the songs remind me of either AC/DC or early 80's Accept. Although unlike a number other bands of the time they don't really have one sound running through most of the songs. I wonder if this has anything to do with the possibility some of the material was written over the course of a few years? I am unsure that, but despite the lack of a cohesive sound the album is easy to enjoy. The riffs are powerful and tight. The vocals are easy to enjoy and singer Walter Wicha has a enough of a range to give the band some freedom to expand their sound. Not exactly a classic, but definitely and album that I glad to get check out now even if it is a quarter of a decade after the fact. This Metal Mind re-issue includs a lyric booklet with photos and a band biography.