Lååz Rockit - No Stranger to Danger (1985)^{Release ID: 7728}

I could be quite stubborn when I was younger and if I took against something then that was that. One thing I despised with a passion (and still do, to be honest) was glam/hair metal and anything connected to it. The problem was, that if I got it into my head that something was glam metal then I completely blanked it from my life. Lååz Rockit were one of those who fell foul of my prejudice, by the most tenuous of excuses which was that they had a name that sounded glam. Yes, I really was that pigheaded that I didn't even look into it further, but condemned them even without a trial!
Anyway, I have since found out, of course, that Lååz Rockit aren't glam metal at all, nor were they ever and so I have recently been checking them out, first via third album, Know Your Enemy, which was a terrific thrash / USPM metal record that I enjoyed a lot. I then moved onto the debut, City's Gonna Burn which was a reasonable example of mid-eighties, twin guitar heavy and speed metal.

So today I have been checking out sophomore No Stranger to Danger and I gotta say upfront, this is my least favoured of the band's first three albums. The band seem to have been making a conscious effort to produce an album of sing-along metal anthems and the majority of the tracks feel a bit flaccid to me as a result. Guitarists Phil Kettner and Aaron Jellum do make a plucky effort to save these tracks with some high velocity solos, but the riffs are quite mundane and the choruses are designed to get a crowd singing along. Unsurprisingly my favourite tracks are the more thrashy Backbreaker and Wrecking Machine which are more indicative of where the band were heading for the follow-up and stand head and shoulders above the rest of the material, particularly Wrecking Machine, which at least ends the album on a high.

Ultimately, for me, an unsatisfying slab of heavy metal that only offers occasional glimpses of what the band are really capable of.