Review by Daniel for Nasty Savage - Nasty Savage (1985)

Florida five-piece Nasty Savage first formed in Brandon in 1983 & rose to a reasonable level of popularity off the back of the over-the-top stage antics of their unusual & charismatic front man “Nasty” Ronnie Galetti. Ronnie apparently used to smash television sets over his head on stage which sounds like fun for the whole family really & I can’t imagine why metalheads have a reputation for being yobbos, can you? Anyway… Nasty Savage released two well-received demo tapes before being signed to Metal Blade Records who were picking up almost every promising young metal band in America at the time. In fact, the enormous impact of Metal Blade head Brian Slagel’s involvement in the development of the US metal scene begs the question of whether American metal would ever have developed at all if not for Brian. He really had his finger on the pulse at the time & another indication of that can be seen in the details around the recording of Nasty Savage’s self-titled debut album which would be laid down at the now infamous Morrisound Studios with Tom Morris behind the mixing desk. Savatage had already spent some time there for the recording of “Sirens” & “The Dungeons Are Calling” but Morrisound would later go on to become internationally renowned as the home of the Florida death metal scene in just a few years time.

Despite what online reviews might tell you, the resulting production job isn’t all that strong with the guitar sound being noticeably thin which does admittedly add a little bit of underground street cred to the atmosphere. In fact, it’s hard to deny that this is a particularly metal sounding record & I think that this has definitely contributed to some people incorrectly claiming it as legitimate thrash metal.

The cover artwork is an awfully low budget affair that simply depicts the Nasty Savage logo in a bubbly font that feels very much like it was a sketch from the back of a teenagers school book. But this is hardly unusual for the time… especially not for a Metal Blade release… so it’s pretty easy to look past it.

Musically, Nasty Savage seem to carefully toe the line between classic heavy metal & thrash metal in much the same way that Metal Church, Omen & Laaz Rockit were doing & you won’t hear any NWOBHM style hard rock moments here. This is an unashamedly metal release put together by a group of musicians who were clearly more ambitious than they were talented. The instrumentalists do a good job at stretching their technical skills further than they perhaps should but never seem to lose a grip altogether. The highly celebrated guitar solos are possibly the only area where they obviously fall short of the mark as the twin guitar attack clearly aren’t capable of anything too flashy but that doesn’t seem to have stopped people from heaping praise on them online if my recent investigations are anything to go by. I mean some of these solos are just dreadful but the overall atmosphere of the music seems to not only enable the band to get away with it but also to somehow promote an endearing quality that leaves them offering more appeal than they ever had any right to.

The main musical influence here is clearly Mercyful Fate in my opinion as there’s more than a little Fate about the way the songs are structured but you’ll no doubt pick up elements of the classic English bands like Maiden, Priest & Sabbath too while always maintaining a sneaking little niggle in the back of your mind that hears hints of the young San Francisco thrash metal scene. You’re unlikely to hear any light-speed tempos here mind you but some of the mid-paced riffage certainly offers similarities to early thrash exponents like Slayer, Exodus & Anthrax & even a little bit of later Death Angel.

But the real talking point of the Nasty Savage sound sits directly with Ronnie. His vocal style is about as polarizing as you’ll find & Ronnie puts in an almost hyperactive display here. He never sits still for long with unwanted surprises seemingly appearing with little to no warning & he reminds me a lot of Exodus’ Paul Baloff in that respect. His higher register screams seem to pretty obviously reference Mercyful Fate’s King Diamond. In fact, I can hear a hell of lot of Ronnie's phrasing in the delivery of Atheist front man Kelly Shaefer & I tend to think that this is no coincidence given the potential for Ronnie to have had an influence on an early Atheist with Nasty Savage being arguably the most extreme band to come out of Florida during Kelly's formative years. To be completely honest, I don’t have a problem with Ronnie’s vocals really. I think I’ve heard enough obscure vocal techniques employed in metal music over the years to be able to see the merit in them. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the song-writing here. It’s incredibly inconsistent & at times the lyrics can be ridiculously obvious. I’m looking at you “Metal Knights” & “The Morgue”.

I really want to like this album & I think that’s primarily due to that metal-as-fuck atmosphere I spoke of earlier but it doesn’t really come close to delivering on its potential in my opinion & I subsequently rank it as one of the weaker US heavy metal releases of the time.