VARDIS — 100 MPH (review)

Album · 1980 · NWoBHM

5/5 · 2010-04-08
Certif1ed

Proper Eavy Metal, The Way it Wuz Meant

It's quite obvious why Vardis never really caught on. Like Holocaust, they played the real deal - heavy metal music played by regular kids, FOR regular kids.

OK, these regular kids tended to have very long hair and a penchant for wearing denim and leather - and possibly sacrificing the odd goat on their mother's clean sheets - but what kid wouldn't?

To get the best out of any band from the NWoBHM era, I think it's necessary to completely switch off all expectations - except that you will have this uncontrollable urge to bang your head and leap around like a crazy thing.

This latter is a GOOD expectation, because, when the music hooks you in, this is precisely what will happen - and there can be no reasoning why, no analysis or any other intellctual pursuits, especially when your braincells are plastered on the inside of your forehead.

All this preparation is necessary for a band as devastating as Vardis - one of the few bands that really GOT what metal was supposed to be like.

It wasn't supposed to be clever music, but it was supposed to be LOUD, and fast. Oh - and LIVE. You've got to admire Vardis for the sheer bloody-mindedness of making their debut album a live one. It's the ultimate statement of This is who we are, this is what we sound like, and if you don't like it, take a running jump. Or words to that effect.

100MPH kinda disappoints from the latter perspective - it's not really amazingly fast by today's standards. But something about it just gets better and better the more you turn up the volume - and your neck will start to ache after a relatively short time if you allow your head to bob as it is wont.

The underpinnings of Chuck Berry rock and roll and Status Quo style boogie are plain - but so are more Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath-like influences, along with the leer of Anarchy in the UK, and the Smash It Up approach of The Damned. And this is a very potent cocktail.

Because this is a live recording, like the valves in the Marshall stacks behind them, this album hots up as you listen - Vardis never let up for a second, not even to chat with the crowd.

The first glimmerings of real speed, and an influence on Metallica et al, comes about halfway through The Loser - where a strongly Blue Oyster Cult flavoured riff takes on a new life as early glimmerings of thrash metal. The other main point is the aggressive dominator of a riff that makes up the title track, which comes at you live and direct, replete with obligatory long guitar solo.

The closer, If I Were King is THE track though - the best is definitely saved for last. Hear most of Kill 'Em All in this one track. Everything from Hit The Lights, to Phantom Lord - with the exception of Seek and Destroy, which was stolen from Saxon - this is where the revolution began.

This debut from Vardis is consistently great, stomping, headbanging metal and just keeps on delivering.

But you did prepare yourself, and listen through at max volume without skipping anything, right?