VARIOUS ARTISTS - The Bristol Heavy Rock Explosion
Bristol Archive Records
This is a pretty cool compilation of various bands, plenty of NWOBHM, from Bristol, England from back in the day. According to it's archivists, the city was a melting pot of heavy metal and punk all hanging out together. Yeah there's a first, but it all culminated in what was called the 'Bristol Sound'. The archivists believed their scene was at that time unnoticed by the local and national press. Don't all local scenesters say that? So this compilation was created in order to showcase the city's hard rock and metal acts from back then. It's nostalgia time.
The compilation covers the span of 25 years from the early 70s to the mid-'90s. There's 17 tracks and many of them are rare and previously unreleased. Obviously this is all second tier stuff. Let's be fuckin honest here people and admit that the main reason these acts never made it big is because they weren't that good at least not on the level of the more well known British acts of that time period. Sure they were local faves and maybe had a few decent songs but crying "boo hoo we got screwed or overshadowed" doesn't cut it. That's what archive compilations of this type accomplish by showcasing a band's slim material that was decent as opposed to reissuing an old full length.
Of course the fans will recognize the well known bands on here like BRONZ, JAGUAR (who are playing some fests this year), ONSLAUGHT and AMEBIX. But for me the highlights were the unknowns, big surprise, like STORMTROOPER's "In The State In The City", HUNTED's "Strangers" and STAMPEDE's "Shadows of the Night". Like I said earlier this is a decent enough compilation but then again I remember the days of NWOBHM. So chalk this up for fans or collector scum.
Rating: 3/5
http://www.bristolarchiverecords.com/
https://bristolarchiverecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-bristol-heavy-rock-explosion
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