Is this Total Metal? Absolutely, yes! I almost lowered my rating by half a star for really awful sound production and subpar closer Heat And Pain, giilty of lacking in both unbridled energy and speed (and packed with surprisingly silly lyrics), which are so characteristic for other tracks on this album, but finally changed my mind. This is as close to perfection as a NWOBHM morphing into raging and original speed metal can possibly get. Its rough around the edges and has one of the most muffled sound mixes I can think of this side of transistor black metal but songwriting itself is unexpectedly mature and classy, melodies are bright and emotionally engaging and Future Warriors have fabulous amount of speed, character and bursting vitality. Nuclear apocalypse/sci-fi lyrics and racuous vocals of Tony Dolan serve as a cherry on top of the pie. By the way, music itself isnt too similar to their fellow Newcastlers Venom (Tank, Exciter and maybe Raven would be much closer soundalikes) and, frankly, is much better. This is not only one of the better representatives of Newcastle Upon Thynes booming 80s heavy metal scene but one of the high water marks for NWOBHM as a whole. If band were more lucky and had proper sound production, then we could talk about this as of some equal counterpart to Iron Maidens debut, only much speedier, wilder and anticipating coming thrash metal explosion on much larger scale. Maybe my personal feelings and sense of nostalgia about Atomkraft also play their role in such a high evaluation of this band as they were one of the first NWOBHM bands, aside from most famous ones, which Ive encountered back in the day. And it were albums like Future Warriors which prompted me to plunge deeper into this very British brand of heavy metal music in its infant stage. Im forever grateful to Atomkraft as this journey lead to findings of some rough diamonds buried deep in the silt of time but rare were those albums which could stand proud next to Future Warriors. Its precious charm still stays kinda enigmatic and inexplicable even for myself but there is something in me which just clicks any time Im hearing songs like Starchild, Warzone or Burn In Hell. Later Atomkraft would become thrashier and heftier (and luckily they wont loose their originality, wild charm and oozing charisma) but this album doesnt pale in comparison to their impressive later works and takes very special place in my heart. So be it: Atomkraft gets full mark from me with their stunning full-length debut.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:36:00 +0000
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