There’s always a tight rope a lot of metal bands have to walk with harmonized parts handle it poorly and you get a pile of saccharine crap. The riffs are super memorable throughout this record – there isn’t a week that goes by that the main riff to “Do it Loud”, or the main harmony that “Evil Eyes” is built around, that doesn’t get stuck in my head at least once – and the band’s harmony skills are, as one would expect, the show stealers. The virtues of this album are basically what it says at first glance – these songs are simply well crafted for the most part just extremely talented songwriters & musicians delivered the material with precision and class that deftly avoids feeling sterile or overwritten. Blind Fury, despite this more polished, streamlined writing style that this album showcases, are no different in regards for quality. But, thing is that the members of Satan were among the best songwriters in metal (subgenre doesn’t matter here) they were musicians that excelled at quite a few different songwriting styles over the 80’s, as the Satan albums that bookend this attest to. You’re probably thinking to yourself “sounds like some sell out shit, why would I want to listen to that” or something along those lines. You could say this album has an almost communal vibe going for it at times the chorus to blazing opener “Do It Loud” and the raucous sing-along fun of “Dynamo” are tributes toward such an idea. Here, the writing is more streamlined, there’s more of a purposeful emphasis on hooks, and in general while it’s certainly heavy, its emphasis is more crafting memorable, anthemic tunes than anything Satan did, really. The riffwriting is a bit more streamlined here classic bludgeoning NWOBHM-styled riffing rendered in hi-fi 1985 sheen, and the songwriting isn’t as dense as a whole. Instead, Out of Reach is overwhelmingly a much more slick, polished affair. To Blind Fury’s credit, despite largely being the same band – with vocalist Lou Taylor replacing the great Brian Ross on here – they aren’t really trying to make a CitA part II, because doing so would be a futile attempt to match the overwhelming brilliance of that album, with its thrashy, intricate harmonies and overall somber, bleak mood driving everything. Blind Fury on this record were 4/5ths of the band who recorded the immortal classic Court in the Act, perhaps the single finest NWOBHM record ever made. I mention all of that, because in my estimation, that constant name changing is a strong reason as to why Out of Reach is such an overlooked and underestimated record.
Then in 2011 they reunited with Brian Ross and have done a string of excellent records ever since.
At least, I believe that’s how it goes it’s hard keeping track of how many times they switched names. They ended up changing their name several times over the 80’s – first as Satan, then as the band who did today’s album (Blind Fury), back to Satan for an EP and an album, and then to Pariah for a couple more thrash albums at the end of the 80’s. Originally formed in 1979, they were musically among the cutting edge of the NWOBHM, but were inundated with quite a few lineup changes, most notably as far as their vocalists go. The history of Satan is a long and complicated one.
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