Time Signature Out of the darkness...

Genre: traditional heavy metal

Karthago Records are on a mission from the metal god - namely, to bring into the light by now obscure "one hit wonders of heavy metal history" in the form of their Heavy Metal Classics Collection. The German act Bloody Climax's one and only album, "Back to the Wall", is the first installment in the series.

And this is really good stuff. It definitely deserves to be brought forth to the masses. Drawing on the New Wave of Heavy Metal, Bloody Climax combine the drive and energy of the largely underground NWoBHM scene with the strong riffage of the likes of Judas Priest (the title track features a Priest-inspired riff). A melodic feel with roots in melodic hard rock and AOR has also made its way onto the album, making sure that the songs are both catchy and hardrocking. Tracks like 'Edge of the Daring' and 'Turn to Ice' are extremely well wrought and deserve status as metal classics, while the instrumental 'Bloody Climax' is rich in wonderful twin guitar noodling. 'Cinderella' is perhaps the weakest track on the album. It s a ballad, but it is actually the heavier parts that do not appeal to me, while the ballady parts are pretty interesting. Not all tracks on the album are equally strong, but the level of quality is generally high.

And the high quality also characterizes the seven bonus tracks on the Kathargo version.

The level of musicianship is impeccable, and I particularly like the blazing guitar solos and the old school metal riffage. The vocal melodies are also enjoyable. The production is a bit uneven, but that probably owes to the state of the recording that the reissue is based on.

Fans of 80s metal MUST get hold of this album!

Kev Rowland This is the first in a planned series by Karthago Records, the Heavy Metal Classics Collection, which is designed to make available “one hit wonders” of Heavy Metal history (their words, not mine)! Bloody Climax was a German band who released a vinyl album in 1985, and although they appeared on a split in 1987 that was all. But what we have here is an extension from the original nine songs to sixteen with the inclusion of previously unreleased songs of the planned - but never released - second album. So we are now up to 78 minutes playing time, with a 24 page booklet. But is it really a Heavy Metal Classic?

Here we have a band that by 1985 would have already sounded somewhat dated. To put it into historical context, if we take the big three NWOBHM acts, Iron Maiden released ‘Live After Death’ in 1985 after five studio albums, Saxon were releasing ‘Innocence Is No Excuse’ (their seventh) and even ‘Pyromania’ had been out for two years. So, these bands had already moved a long way in quite a short timeframe, but listening to this album makes it seem as if it is ’79 all over again. The whole approach is incredibly reminiscent of those classic days when loads of bands were releasing singles on their own labels, or being signed to either Neat or Heavy Metal Records. In some ways Bloody Climax remind me of early Def Lep with Steel and Heavy Pettin’ mixed in for good measure. Vocalist Matthias Müller has a really good set of pipes, and I am somewhat surprised that he hasn’t turned up with other bands since then. But, what lets them down is just the quality of the songs. There is no doubt that these guys can play, but this album makes me smile just because of the naivety and innocence, which probably isn’t what they were going for.

While not to be totally discarded out of hand this is very much for fans of the genre/period only.