Review by Daniel for Obús - Prepárate (1981)

The debut album from this Madrid-based outfit is one of the earlier metal releases to come out of Spain. Zarpa's 1978 debut album "Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis" is the earliest that I'm aware of but I'd argue that "Prepárate" may have come in second (at least of the reasonably noteworthy releases out there) as I don't regard Barón Rojo's "Larga vida al rock and roll" album from earlier in 1981 to be anything more than hard rock whereas "Prepárate" has a foot in both the hard rock & heavy metal camps. Unfortunately it suffers from the same affliction as Barón Rojo's first couple of records though as I struggle with clean Spanish language vocals in my metal for some reason, especially when there's not a lot of talent behind them as we see here. The instrumentation is reasonably well done throughout & there are a few tracks that I quite enjoy (i.e. when the choruses don't kill off their chances) but none of them will see me rushing back for return visits. It's interesting that we may even have an early speed metal track on our hands here in "Pesadilla nuclear" although it's not a very good one it has to be said. At the end of the day "Prepárate" is another decent Spanish rock/metal record with solid (if uninspired) instrumental performances & fairly amateurish vocals. I'd take it over the first two Barón Rojo albums though if pushed.

For fans of Barón Rojo, Ángeles del Infierno & Saxon.