Review by Daniel for Heavy Load - Death or Glory (1982)

Heavy Load's 1978 debut album “Full Speed At High Level” was one that I had a real problem with. The vocal performance was terrible & the cheesiness of the music was something that left me cringing for most of the regrettable experience. But it was a full four years before they'd would get around to releasing their second self-financed effort “Death Or Glory”, so let’s take a look at whether that time was well spent.

Firstly, the production is again pretty raw with the vocals being too loud in the mix & the guitar sound being pretty tinny although this is not a deal breaker by any measure as the album is still quite listenable. The musicianship is generally very good with all of the instrumentalists proving to be quite accomplished for the time. The guitar harmonies in particular are very well executed. Guitarist & front man Ragne Wahlquist’s vocal perform is massively improved from the debut where he couldn’t sing to save his life. This time he offers us quite a unique style of delivery for a heavy metal band. In fact, I’m not entirely sure he’s all that well suited to metal to be honest. He’d sound far more at home in front of a late 70’s/early 80’s punk rock band in my opinion but he has his moments on the stronger tracks here.

Stylistically this an unashamedly metal focused release with less of the 70’s hard rock & progressive rock influences we heard on “Full Speed At High Level”. The artwork features a sword-bearing warrior in battle with a polar bear in the snow. It’s metal as fuck to be honest & it’s a good indicator of what you can expect to hear. But the metal on display isn’t your generic NWOBHM affair. Heavy Load possess a far more epic & melodic sound with a strong emphasis on overblown backing vocals & singalong hooks. As with the debut, this is cheesy as hell & I struggle with it quite a bit. When Heavy Load get it right they can produce some pretty solid material & songs like “Daybreak Ecstasy” & “The Guitar Is My Sword” are strong examples of this. But the rest of the album leaves me feeling more than a little alienated as it’s just so far from my metal comfort zone. It’s very clear that Heavy Load were the root of the European power metal sound though. No one else was doing this sound back then & I’d be very surprised if it had no influence on the power metal scene that shares so many of their traits. Even more extreme European metal bands like Bathory possess some of the same characteristics. Just look at the lyrical content & epic feel of albums like “Hammerheart” & “Twilight Of The Gods” for example. Heavy Load were certainly writing odes to their Viking heritage much earlier than anyone else but we can only guess as to their direct influence given that their albums were so hard to find even back in the day.

“Death Or Glory” is unquestionably a step up from Heavy Load’s debut & shows improvement in most areas but I still find a really difficult listen due to the blatant cheesiness of it all. I’ve always found the more melodic European metal a challenge & Heavy Load unashamedly push a sound that directly clashes with my ideals of what metal should be so I was never going to find them an easy listen. This is a real shame as there are some very promising signs here & there. Particularly in album closer “Daybreak Ecstasy” which is not only the clear album highlight but I suspect that it was also a huge influence on the early Swedish melodic death metal movement with its beautifully complex harmonized guitar arrangements. In fact, I find it very hard to believe that bands like Dark Tranquillity & At The Gates weren’t familiar with the Heavy Load records based on the evidence presented in that track.