Time Signature This is (hopefully not) the last time...

Genre: NWoBHM

One of three singles released by the same band in 1981 (and the only three releases by the band ever), "This Is The Last Time" is part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal wave of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

A lot of the releases of the NWoBHM era contain music which was essentially average hard rock and heavy metal, but some acts like Iron Maiden, Hell, and Satan were really outstanding and a hundred miles above the rest. Frenzy were not a hundred miles above the rest... they were more like 20 miles above the rest displaying some originality and above average musicianship.

The title track is an uptempo metal song which is very much inspired by the uptempo Deep Purple and Rainbow tracks of Ritchie Blackmore's, but with some more Iron Maiden-esque twin guitar things and transitions. When I first heard this track, I thought it was just a load of Purple off-ripping rubbish, but I've warmed to it. It's quite good.

"Gypsy Danser" is more or a new wave rock song (the bass work, at least, reminds me more of British new wave pop/rock than metal), but it's okay because I like that genre, too, and it is a nice mellow and melancholic track. It is also harder rocking than your average new wave pop/rock, so I guess it's really roaming the fuzz-land between new wave and metal, just like a lot of rock music of the 90s roamed the fuzz-land between alt. rock and metal.

This is a nice NWoBHM release which I would recommend to any aficionado, but it's hard to come by and available copies are typically priced somewhere between 80 and 110 USD.