Dragonslayer

This eponymous 2008 release made up of mid-'80s demos and independently released tracks is the lone, easily obtainable reminder of New Wave of British Heavy Metal outfit Dragonslayer, who were largely overlooked during their troubled career, and, heck, weren't even called Dragonslayer for most of it! Instead, the band was known simply as "Slayer" from their 1978 inception through to 1984, or thereabouts, when they realized that a certain, fast-rising thrash metal band from California was well on its way to becoming the one true Slayer, and decided it was in their best interest to just get out of their way. By then, the members of Dragonslayer had already laid down an eight-song demo during a 1982 session at Cargo Studios, overseen by engineer Colin Richardson (later an in-demand producer for bands like Fudge Tunnel, Fear Factory, Machine Head, etc.), that make up the first half of this collection and provide a good representation of the group's N.W.O.B.H.M. grit, spiked with '70s hard rock influences. Among the more aggressive examples, "Blind Terror" features galloping staccato riffing backed with bulging power chords reminiscent of Diamond Head or, more realistically, Holocaust, while the semi-thrashing "Satan Is Free" pairs everything down to sheer energy and simplicity — essential definitions shared by dozens of contemporary Neat Records signings. And although the demo's two epic power ballads suffer from both the band's songwriting immaturity and their limited recording resources ("Lady of the Night" is the better of the bunch over "Broken Hearts"), their rock-rooted numbers ("The Slayer," "Run Like Hell") really weren't half bad; nowhere near as sophisticated as the efforts of true big leaguers like Saxon or Def Leppard, but fundamentally sound enough to compete with, say, a Black Rose or Hollow Ground. Bluntly put, none of this material was "competitive" from a commercial point of view (hence the disinterest of record labels) with one major exception: the surprisingly punchy, smart, fully realized "I Want Your Life" (the version featured here coming from the band's 1983 EP of that name), which by all rights could have been a hit single for Dragonslayer under more fortunate circumstances...but wasn't. The remaining seven cuts contained in this collection date from another demo session from 1985, and by that time, the group's growing desperation was driving them closer to mainstream heavy rock in a bid to draw any level of recognition to their plight. But, thankfully, Dragonslayer's glam-intensive Mötley Crüe makeover was still a few years away, meaning that the bulk of the 1985 material (including highlights "Rock with Me," "Lies in Your Eyes," and "The Battle Is On") retained a thumping metallic sheen to it, akin to early Tokyo Blade or Elixir, even while displaying increased high-register squealing from vocalist Tony Mamwell. So, needless to say, Dragonslayer isn't likely to interest casual metal fans seeking out the unquestioned classics of the genre, but their music's rough charm is just the kind of thing that dedicated archaeologists of the N.W.O.B.H.M. simply can't ever get enough of.