V.A. – The Bristol Heavy Rock Explosion (2016)
Spanning nearly 25 years from the ’70s to the mid-’90s, “The Bristol Heavy Rock Explosion” celebrates this UK city unfairly overlooked hard rock / metal talent through 16 tracks, many of them rare and previously unreleased.
Many of these type of compilation albums end up just being standard big hits from bands you have heard already of and probably already own.
Not the case with most the acts featured on “The Bristol Heavy Rock Explosion”, quite unknown and some really good.
On my first couple of plays it was probably the ’80s bands music that stood out for me. First up (and first track of the album) is Lautrec. Bristol based Lautrec were the prototype for Stampede (also represented here with their most known track “Shadows of the Night”). Lautrec was the first band of guitarist Laurence Archer who went on to play with Phil Lynott in Grand Slam and released a collectors piece solo album in 1985.
The track chosen is “Mean Gasoline” which is a great tune with a true first half of the ’80s metal sound, slightly Judas Priest-y with a solid rhythm throughout.
Another highlight is Bronz’s “Ask No Questions”. Bronz themselves did pretty well, being there at the birth of NWOBHM, later releasing the terrific hard/AOR album ‘Taken By Storm’ and also touring the US with Ratt in the ’80s. It’s just a really well formed song, nice use of keyboards and guitar riffs, excellent songwriting and you can see why they were the best of the bunch at the time.
Elsewhere we are also introduced to Jaguar, a mid ’80s group with their track “Stormchild”, and you feel they could have gone further. They firmly straddle that period of time between NWOBHM and the more fantasy style bands like Dio.
One of the Bristol Rock Scenes most famous exports is Claytown Troupe, probably most famous for touring with Pearl Jam on their Ten Tour and for being signed to Island records. “Hey Lord” is from their 1989 record. What a great song this is as well, goth rock at its ’80s best, part The Mission, part The Cure. It has pop sensibilities, an hypnotic sound and a solid beat.
Headmaster worth a mention too, one of the few female fronted bands here and with an American sound. Their contribution “Kids Said Rock” is probably one of the catchiest songs on this comp. There’s also a good track from hard rockers Hunted, recently featured here on the blog.
So who is that best known Bristol metal band? Onslaught of course, and here we get a new version (2013) of their ’80s song “Metal Forces”, too much heavy for my tastes.
“The Bristol Heavy Rock Explosion” captures a small piece of local history here with this compilation but have actually managed to bring together a set of tracks that will have wider appeal.
It’s a pretty varied insight to British metal in general during this period without just resorting to the standards that you see on every compilation.
Collector freaks will love this CD.
01 – Lautrec – Mean Gasoline
02 – Bronz – Ask No Questions
03 – Magic Muscle – Free as a Bird
04 – Claytown Troupe – Hey Lord
05 – Shiva – Not There
06 – Stormtrooper – In the State in the City
07 – Hunted – Strangers
08 – Voodoo – Crazy
09 – Mirror Mirror – Domino Effect
10 – Brabazon – Having the Time of My Life
11 – Headmaster – Kids Said Rock
12 – Jaguar – Stormchild
13 – Gazer – Give It to Me
14 – Metropolis DC – Snake Madness
15 – Stampede – Shadows in the Night
16 – Onslaught – Metal Forces 2013
BUY IT !
www.amazon.co.uk/Bristol-Heavy-Rock-Explosion/dp/B01KZBF6VQ
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