1984 was a good year for metal as many of us old geezers had the privilege of hearing gems like ‘Powerslave’, ‘Ride The Lightning’, ‘Violence & Force’ and ‘Defenders Of The Faith’ to name just a few. During the same year Lääz Rockit also planted their foothold on the metal scene with their debut album. Many promising outfits during the mid 80s attempted to straddle no-mans land between pure heavy metal and all out thrash and these guys succeeded with ‘City’s Gonna Burn’ which is a no nonsense venture into melodic thrash but dashed heavily with straight 80s heavy metal.
The title track gets things under way with humming bass lines and a NWOBHM riff. The echo of the vocals has been retained giving the listener a real taste of how many albums of this ilk sounded at the time. I never classed this band as a thrash outfit, but more of a deviation from straight metal. ‘Take No Prisoners’ offers the first signs of thrash however with a Priest style blended with Exciter speed. Listening to this after such a long time (my vinyl copy is currently in storage) needs a fairly open mind with regards to the production and song structures; and whilst many underground metal cultists regard this as a classic a contextualised approach is required to appreciate what it offers.
‘Dead Man’s Eyes’ has a loud snare drum sound as the band adopt Accept and Priest rhythms like a long lost metal son. Speed metal makes a welcome return on ‘Forced To Fight’ whereas ‘Silent Scream’ is rather plodding unfortunately. Once again the band treads tentative waters with ‘Prelude’ which has an eerie feel with a subtle cymbal and snare tap that I enjoyed. The song also offers the first double bass kick though very short-lived. The reissue comes with two bonus live tracks from a gig in San Francisco beginning with ‘Fire In The Hole’ and finishing with ‘Liar’. Noticeably the production and sound is fatter and denser which makes you realise how much recording of metal has changed over the years. Hardly groundbreaking but nor is it a total waste of time to investigate if you don’t already own it.
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