BRITISH STEEL - ENGLAND'S LATEST HEAVY METAL INVASION JCI 1100 (-84) US

 I'm well aquainted with and have lots of love for early hard rock and bands like Iron Butterfly, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Blue Cheer, Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep, but not that familiar with late seventies and eighties music in the genre. This has a lot of stuff I never listened to before. The reason I picked it was Mötörhead "Ace Of Spades" and Hawkwind "Kings Of Speed", both close to home for me. The rest of the bands I've never even heard of and listening through I realise I'm old and way too set in my old ways. Most of the songs very fast and energetic with flashy guitars and screamy vocals and sounding very much alike, conveyed by a kind of thin converted audio. I guess if you grew up with that kind of music it's close to your soul and you dig, though I don't get much of my kind of soul in there. But I do like Venom's "Warhead", so dark it makes the room fade, and Alaska's "Suzie Blue" which is more tough blues than classic hard rock. So not all bad and certainly a keeper and maybe I'll warm up to the rest given time. Also issued in EU (same number) and Brazil (Top Tape PORT 601008) plus as US cassette. First US vinyl had label as shown here in a glossy cover. (YZÄ*)  (SÄM*)