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SABOTAGE: "Behind the
Lines" LP Rarity: |
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Victim of the World
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The heavy metal
chainsaw known as SABOTAGE is one of those bands that raises the question:
"why did they never make it?". No doubt the fact that they come from Italy
and released this brilliant LP on a small Italian label has got a lot to
do with it. But still I don't fully understand: this piece of vinyl offers
some of the best heavy metal you'll ever find, period. And what you see
is what you get. Take a look at the cover: no countrymen of them did better
in the history of metal. A fantastic colourful design with monsters, skulls,
demons, snakes and everything else that should be on a LP of this quality.
Moving on to the music then. On "Behind Enemy Lines" Sabotage plays powerful,
fast and raw heavy metal. Only "Mothers" and "Warmachine" have a mid-paced
Accept feeling to them. In general you won't find happy music à la Helloween
but more melodies in the vein of early Iron Maiden. They're probably best
compared to bands such as Breathless and Ostrogoth but with a more rapid
approach. To name a 'big' band, I guess these guys listened a lot to some
early Anvil records. Fantastic singing from Morby, a little bit rough but
without ever failing to reach those high pitched notes. And the solos are
simply magnificent: they match the riffing perfectly and are well executed.
Tracks such as "Victim of the World", "Nightkiller" or "Heroes of the Grave"
are on par with any track from Adramelch's "Irae Melanox" and the epic "Promised
Land" will always beat Dark Quarterer. This truly is a band that deserves
cult-status and must live forever in the hearts of obscure '80ies lovers.
Excellently reviewed by Valdemar |