Warhead-2012 Reissues

These two re-issues come courtesy of Mausoleum Records who initially released these two records in 1984 and 1986 respectively. This early eighties Belgium band a raw and dirty brand of speed metal. Quite honestly album number one (1984's "Speedway") is rather one-dimensional in nature although in small doses it is a fun listen. The LP is heavy and fast with a real dirty edge to it. "Speedway" is not perfect as songs do blur together and there didn't seem to be a lot of thought given to song development, but from some accounts the band members themselves were young when the album was written. Still it is a cool speed metal LP and it is especially fast and raw if you consider the year it came out in. Following a 1984 demo the band can back with an album that seemed more focused and had more potential. In fact, 1986's "The Day After" sounds more inspired to these ears as the band had tightened their sound and worked harder at crafting quality speed metal. The sound is still raw and dirty although the leads are better and the band had adopted a bit more of a technical edge. "The Day After" reminds me of a more underground Gravedigger if they had a rough persona and a vocalist who was more concerned with being loud then being good. Of the two albums I give the edge to "The Day After". Now, while the album was re-released already as a two for one deal with this re-issue there has been an attempt to fix some of the production problems that plagued those two albums. There is no bonus material on either disc and both are slim-cases with no information and just single pictures. But, the sound is improved. When I played it next to the copy I had sitting around home it was quite evident that thought was given on how to improve these two albums. Fans of early eighties speed who don't already own these releases should check out Warhead.