Review by Daniel for Savage - Loose 'n Lethal (1983)

The appropriately named Nottinghamshire-based four-piece NWOBHM outfit Savage first formed way back in 1976 but split shortly afterwards following just the one solitary live show. 1978 saw the band reforming with a different lineup but as with most young New Wave bands the next few years saw a continual procession of lineup changes halting the band’s progress. But a few minor demo & single releases in the early 80’s saw Savage finally starting to get their shit together with 1983 marking the release of their first full-length album entitled “Loose ‘n Lethal”. It came right at the back end of the NWOBHM movement & is the sort of record that makes you stand up & pay attention. Once you hear it I’m pretty sure you’ll agree that “Loose ‘n Lethal” was a pretty suitable title.

The main element of Savage’s sound that people immediately pick up on is of course their over-the-top guitar sound which is nothing short of…. well… SAVAGE! I don’t think the world had heard guitars sound so completely out of control before with the distortion level set to 11 & the excessive volume levels in the mix providing even more distortion. In fact, you’ll find that the vocal performance of bass player Chris Bradley regularly gets dragged into the wall of guitar noise with his voice often displaying signs of distortion. Chris’ voice could be described as fairly typical of the New Wave. He’s not an enormous talent but he gets the job done. The same could be said for lead guitarist Andy Dawson actually as he’s clearly chosen the school of speed & ferocity over the college of virtuosity & melody. He just goes absolutely ape shit on every solo & doesn’t seem to have much structure or focus to what he does but it ends up sounding pretty cool nonetheless.

It’s interesting that Savage are often credited with influencing the thrash metal genre however I’m gonna be a bit controversial here (a shock for you all, I know) & say that there’s really very little proto-thrash or speed metal on offer here. In fact, it’s really only the guitar sound & the iconic opening track that can be considered to be influential on the more extreme forms of metal. "Let It Loose" has been brought to most people’s attention through the influence it had on a young Metallica who have covered it in various different capacities over the years. It’s clearly the fastest & most extreme song on offer with Motorhead’s more violent speed metal material being the primary source of influence. The rest of the material just benefits from the guitar sound which manages to make simple hard rock riffs sound like some ball-tearing metal. And honestly there’s a fair bit of hard rock about some of these songs. In general I’d compare Savage to fellow underground NWOBHM acts like Raven, Chateaux & Jaguar who were all pushing the limits of heavy metal extremity in their own ways but the most obvious influence I can hear on Savage’s sound is actually David Lee Roth-era Van Halen. In truth there’s a fair bit of Van Halen plagiarism going on in the riff & lead break departments. Just check the main riff from “White Hot” out & compare it with the riff from Van Halen’s “Unchained” for one of the many examples.

But thankfully I can look past all that because the energy & electricity of Savage’s music makes for a unique & interesting listen with only the one flat track amongst the eight on offer. I think they’re just lacking those couple of real classics to push “Loose ‘n Lethal” up into the essential listening category but as it is I’d still recommend that all fans of the NWOBHM give it a few spins.