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Scrap Metal: Excavated Heavy Metal From The Era Of Excess (RidingEasy)
Compilation album Scrap Metal takes the listener on a trip back to the late 1970s and early 80s, when it was fashionable to be in a band even if you’d never picked up an instrument before. Billed as a mix of collectable heavy metal obscurities, there’s a reason the songs on the album are unknown – the 10 tracks, mostly from American artists, are distinctly amateur.
Now and again, granted, there’s the odd riff on the album that gives a glimpse of potential. The catchy 69 In A 55, by Californian four-piece Air Raid, sounds like early Maiden – these are bands that have not yet found their own groove. Scrap Metal as an album feels a bit like a rehearsal where musicians aren’t sure of their cues, and a reminder of a time when bands sang about leather, steel and headbanging and thought that poking your tongue out for pictures was class. Metal has grown up a lot since then.
words LYNDA NASH
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