MIRAGE – … And The Earth Shall Crumble ’85 [Remastered] (2018) + standalone single + 1987-88 demos

And with the new album from Eighties Danish cult-rockers MIRAGE being released tomorrow – their second after 37 years – it’s a nice opportunity to discover the band’s debut, 1985’s “… And The Earth Shall Crumble”, digitally remastered and including as bonus a standalone 2-sided single from the same year.
As extra, 0dayrox adds 6 MIRAGE demos written / recorded between 1987-1988 with songs that should have been part of their second LP. In fact, 3 of these songs were finally properly recorded for the album to be released tomorrow, “The Sequel”.
At the time of its release “… And The Earth Shall Crumble” received international praise by melodic metal / hard rock fans and magazines, with positive reviews all over the world.
The music is very impressive catchy uptempo melodic heavy rock with influences from the NWOBHM sound at the time, much more commercial and including keyboards into the mix.

Opener “Out there (Survivors)” is a commercial upbeat melodic hard rocker that sounds like a heavier version of PRISM mixed with Classy British metal stuff circa 1984-85, and a chorus that you can sing-a-long with after hearing it just once.
“So many Years Ago” starts calm, with a big church organ / Hammond kinda sound (a la URIAH HEEP), but develops into another great uptempo melodic rocking tune with a British smell akin RAGE, TOBRUK, NIGHTWING.

However, the song “Lords in Space and Time” reveals a pure metal band, with high pitched vocals included, so this is really a change in style, as it sounds very European. “Heading for the Sun” is then again a fantastic midtempo melodic rocker with a very strong chorus.
“Killer Dwarf Shorty” is slower with some funny lyrics, “Hellbound” adds more muscle again a little in HEEPish chorus, while “Punisher” turn riffs sharper and heavier.

The bonus standalone single sounds very good with this remastering, including a song with some of TYGERS OF PAN TANG on it.
The extra tracks are demos with a fine sound quality, with strong songwriting such as the rocker “Guiding light” (not unlike very early EUROPE), “Searching” (typical Scandi uptempo AORish song with keys, very 80s, like TREAT) and the melodic rock ballad “Turn on the Darkness”.

Unfortunately the English record company which released “… And The Earth Shall Crumble” sent their royalties to their Danish record company, who pocketed the money and filed for bankruptcy. Despite interest from the Danish label Medley Records, the second MIRAGE album was never released, though all the songs were written.
This remaster sound quality is very good, a very cool mid-Eighties album with all the magic of that era.
Highly Recommended

01 – Out There (Survivors) (Remastered)
02 – So Many Years Ago (Remastered)
03 – Lords In Space And Time (Remastered)
04 – Apostle Of Hell (Remastered)
05 – Heading For The Sun (Remastered)
06 – Hellbound (Remastered)
07 – Killer Dwarf Shorty (Remastered)
08 – Punisher (Remastered)
09 – Shave It All Off (7” single Remastered) [bonus track]
10 – Savin’ Love (7” single Remastered) [bonus track]

extra tracks demos 1987-88;
11 – The Emperor (demo)
12 – Guiding Light (demo)
13 – Get Down To Love (demo)
14 – Searching (demo)
15 – Far Away (demo)
16 – Turn On The Darkness (demo)

Jensen – Vocals
Sten Roland – Bass
Gade – Drums
Jan Bullen – Guitars
Morgue Law – Keyboards

BUY
www.amazon.de/Earth-Shall-Crumble-Remastered-Explicit/dp/B07DLDJTSC