Metal Caravans

Genre: Heavy metal

TRACKLIST:

01. Grab A Piece
02. No Hurry For Love
03. Just A Nightmare
04. Bound For The U.K.
05. Black Prince
06. Undermywing
07. Hand Over Fist
08. Metal Machine
09. Heavy Metal Boys

Oh, the manifold delights of this throwback release, an assortment of hopes and dreams gathered up and ruthlessly shattered on the ‘80s poverty metal rocks. Firstryke was born, lived and died in Oklahoma, opening for groups as disparate as Metallica and Dokken in the interim and leaving the world with this one gem of a recording. Everything here is hopeless and amateurish, from the dubious quotation marks in the album title to the blocky but serviceable production to the style and content of the music itself. Occasionally galloping, often chest-thumping anthemic metal filler that hardly aspired to the levels of TT Quick, much less Twisted Sister. In light of the above comments, dear reader, you’re probably bracing for a withering summation and numerical grade, but that ain’t happening today. This thing might have creaked and cracked even back in 1986 with “Bound for the U.K.'s” nostalgia for the already-bygone days of the NWOBHM seeming quaint and naive, but that innocence and enthusiasm lends character and staying power to every Maidenesque or sub-Scorpions lick and solo, every high note that makes it, every strident and cocksure lyric that revels in the simple pleasures of no-frills, headbanging-prone heavy metal. Lovingly reissued on CD for the first time by Retrospect in 2009.