Artist: Various Artists
Title: Essential NWoBHM - The Best Of Neat Records
Genre: NWoBHM
Release Date: 25th October 2019
Label: Golden Core
Album Review
Tonight is about good music and good people coming together. Tonight, is about Neat Records and NWoBHM and of course about people making kick-ass re-releases. This sample, once again, was assembled by Neudi who writes for the magazine Deaf Forever and is the drummer of bands like MANILLA ROAD, TRANCE and ROXXCALIBUR (that guy is an NWOBHM expert and jack of all trades).
The NWoBHM - The New Wave of British Heavy Metal was a nationwide musical movement that started in the United Kingdom around 1978, it sparked what is known globally as Heavy Metal today. The term itself was first used by Geoff Barton in a May issue of the British music newspaper Sounds. The NWoBHM established the definite Heavy Metal look: Denim and Leather, Battle vests etc. My opinion: The NWoBHM was a movement not a stable defined style of music but more of a musical petri dish and that is maybe the reason why it didn’t last it was just an evolutionary preliminary result. A starting point for different subgenres and a germ cell to give birth to those styles.
Neat Records - Neat Records was a label that was established in 1979 by David Wood who also owned Impulse Studios, the label was the most instrumental in the revival of Metal in the early 80s in the UK. Neat Records released records like VENOM’s ‘Welcome to Hell’, SATAN’s ‘Court in the Act’ and DEAF DEALER’s ‘Keeper of the Flame’ among many others. Neat Records was sold to Sanctuary Records in 1995.
This is indeed an essential insight into the NWOBHM, there’s a lot of bands on different skill levels and style, some are highly melodic and heavy thus foreseeing the sound of later US Metal (FIST, ARAGORN) while some were still firmly rooted in the 70s sound only heavier WHITE SPIRIT, SATAN’S EMPIRE and still others just existed between Punk Rock and Metal style-wise (HELLANBACH, ALIEN, RAVEN, PHASSLAYNE) and then there were still others that just played on an entirely different musical level (SARACEN, PERSIAN RISK, BLITZKRIEG, JAGUAR).
As mentioned above here and there you can make out which subgenre might have originated in a band’s sound. My faves are clearly JAGUAR, FIST, SARACEN, PERSIAN RISK and BLITZKRIE as they contradict the prejudice that the NWoBHM was just a bunch of untalented musicians that were overhyped by the media of the 80s. If you are a fan of the NWoBHM or just curious: this record is your gateway drug, promise!
Tracklist
01. Raven – Inquisitor
02. White Spirit – Cheetah
03. Fist – Throwing In The Towel
04. Blitzkrieg – Inferno
05. Aragorn – Black Ice
06. Axis – Messiah
07. Satan’s Empire – Soldiers Of War)
08. Bitches Sin – Down The Road
09. Steel – Rock Out (Decent Rocker)
10. Jaguar – War Machine
11. Dedringer – Hot Lady
12. Crucifixion – Take It Or Leave It
13. Warrior – Stab In The Back
14. Persian Risk – Ridin’ High
15. Saracen – A Face In The Crowd
16. Cloven Hoof – The Gates Of Gehenna
17. Alien – Could Have Done Better
18. Hellanbach – All Systems Go
19. Black Rose – Knocked Out
20. Phasslayne – Think It Over
Features
CD Digipack (78 Minutes total playtime)
Booklet with 24 pages including Liner Notes, Interviews and Photos
A free Neat-Logo-Patch
Website
https://www.facebook.com/Goldencorerecords
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 9
Total: 8.5 / 10
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