I have to admit to not actually owning or hearing Lääz Rockit’s 1985 release at all which you can take as a sign that I didn’t really get into their debut ‘City’s Gonna Burn’ at the time of its release. ‘NSTD’ sees the band diluting their approach somewhat as the majority of the songs come across as hardened glam rock songs.
The space style introduction to ‘Dreams Die Hard’ leads into a clean cut sound with crisp drums and very clear leads. The bass is a little thin on the ground as well making the music less intense overall. The opener gave me strong hints of Saxon’s ‘Crusader’ and ‘Solid Ball Of Rock’ albums as my gut tells me the band was trying to adopt a more commercial stance with this release in 1985 though the speed is a little faster. ‘I’ve Got Time’ passed me by as the riffing is very similar to that on ‘Town To Town’ but with a catchy chorus. Musically this is a tad more accomplished but dull and is only broken up by the occasional heavier track like ‘Backbreaker,’ which fleetingly ventures into thrash with its speed and double bass.
‘Stand Alone’ annoyed me greatly with its overly diluted melody making the track mediocre at best. My interest is sparked when more speed is injected on ‘Off The Deep End’ momentarily but blended with the slower more deliberate pace of the song. I’d have to say the riffing style is one dimensional throughout the album with little variation with only the faster songs offering any real sense of variety as the closing track demonstrates on ‘Wrecking Machine’. Comparatively even this and the other faster tracks are very average at best but stand out on this release as they are better than the other songs. Like the other Lääz Rockit reissue I’ve reviewed this month, this comes with two live bonus tracks which were a welcome change to the album material. Kicking off with ‘Erased’ from Left For Dead the bullshit banter was annoying but musically it is so much heavier as ‘Prelude’ is peppered with various connotations of the word fuck and annoyed the fucking motherfucking fuck out of me. Not the most astounding album from the 80s I’m afraid.
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