Time Signature Something I've found...

Genre: NWoBHM

A lot of the NWoBHM was not very good, I think, but we have to appreciate that the NWoBHM movement was probably one of the most important movements in rock history, and certainly in heavy metal history, and without it, metal would not be what it is today. Also, there was a certain DIY authenticity to the NWoBHM which characterizes both the good and not-so-good acts.

This demo by Badge falls somewhere in between. It contains two tracks: "Silver Woman" and "Something I've Lost".

The former track is the better of the two I think. It opens out with a good old fashioned guitar solo accompanied by a 4-chord guitar riff which is reminiscent of the type of riff that made Nirvana one of the biggest rock bands of the 1990s (maybe grunge is not so unmetal after all). This riff basically runs through the bulk of the song, serving both as verse and solo riff, while the chorus riff is an equally simple one. The effect of this repetition is that the bridge, which sounds like a completely different song, comes as a complete surprise. I like this, because it really shows us how much early metal was actually influenced by progressive rock.

"Something I've Lost" is a ballad, but not the sappy horrible type of power ballad that would mar the metal of the late 80s and early 90s. This is more of a dark, melancholic and heavy ballad of the type that I usually like. The only thing is that it is not that this particular ballad is somewhat trivial and sub par. The verse is my favorite part with its use of an acoustic guitar and a slightly off key vocal delivery (I don't know if it's deliberate or not, but it works), but the heavy chorus, I think, totally lacks energy and catchiness.

This demo should be of interest to fans of traditional heavy metal. It is probably next to impossible to get a hold one, and those copies that are available are probably expensive as hell... fortunately, both tracks are available through Youtube and similar sites.