When it was released in April 1981,
Blitzkrieg
's
"Buried Alive"
(backed with their legendary namesake tune,
"Blitzkrieg"
) was considered one of the best-ever single releases to emerge from the
New Wave of British Heavy Metal
. But the band soon dissolved, with singer
Brian Ross
moving on to front
Satan
before reviving the
name with an almost totally new lineup four years later. Released shortly thereafter,
's full-length debut,
A Time of Changes
, offered a much more refined, but ultimately not nearly as exciting update to the group's original barebones energy. It also contained many of the commercial idiosyncrasies and over-utilized cliches which had begun infiltrating
heavy metal
as it became more popular in the early '80s. Song titles like
"Armageddon"
and
"Hell to Pay"
only hint at the sophomoric,
Spinal Tap
-like subject matter they contain, all of which further emphasize the album's competently executed but utterly formulaic content. Examples include the prototypical, mysterious-sounding synthesizer intro (
"Ragnarok"
), which gives way to that most dated and feared of '80s
metal
devices, the piercing falsetto shriek, followed by the ever-popular galloping anthem (
"Inferno"
).
"Pull the Trigger"
is a semi-convincing commercial
single, the somewhat overwrought title track has its moments, and much of the remaining material (
"Vikings,"
"Saviour"
) smacks of early
Manowar
. And to the dismay of those hardcore fans wanting to hear the original version of the track so famously covered by
Metallica
, the 1985 version of
is hardly worth the price of admission. Its original riff (a clever perversion of Dutch prog rockers
Focus
'
"Hocus Pocus"
) is also given a "new and improved" treatment which effectively annihilates the original's inimitable groove. In short,
is for
fanatics only, and the simply curious would do well to pick up
Metal Blade
'79 Revisited
two-disc set instead. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia