Last Updated on 08:41 PM by Giorgos Tsekas
Genre: Power/Speed Metal
Country: Germany
Label: Miracle Records
Year: 1988
Who wins the battle? Is it the bigger army against the lesser opponents? Is it the mentally prepared one? The most faithful in his beliefs and values, or the luckiest one? All throughout history battles have been won or lost from all of the above. Sometimes it was the big armies that however got humiliated by smaller ones that were sometimes more faithful and others luckier. The rule is that the best combination of the above usually, buy not always, wins. But all these have to do with the practical side of the issue, with the trophy. With the return of the victorious ones in their land along with the loot of the defeated.
There is one battle though that your only enemy is yourself, the mental battle. The motive, the value the flame, the reason that you allow yourself to be perished or live forever through the legacy he has built. So, this battle I consider most important. If you have won this one, if you are one with your ideas and you are so convinced that this is the right thing, even when you die you will be proud about dying for that. You will have achieved reconciliation with death on every level, from the professional to the physical one. Such mental battles we all give in every choice we make and so musicians give this kind of battles with all their being. If they are convinced about their material, about their ideas, they will never stop being proud about them, even if they never make it to be released.
Bands like Mephisto have won their mental battle, even if they have lost the official one. They know they have written an excellent record (and one more later) even if that record and the band never made it. The cover cannot go unnoticed since it is Faust’s work and so the first encounter is a sight to be seen. Geographically we are in Germany, but musically we have crossed the Atlantic without even knowing it. The record has a lot of “US Power” elements, bass that follows the leads, speedy enough, but not always, thrash elements of the time and at the same time gives out a dark atmosphere in the right amount. Ι have the impression the record was made having two sides in mind, since the second one is more lyrical. Songs like “Save Your Rights”, “Battle of Kerovnia” (even though it is instrumental, it has that something) and “Holy Child” will get stuck in your mind, since they are some of the best moments of the album. Their musical ideas are being handed generously and you will listen a lot of riffs in every song without overdoing it. I consider it one of those diamonds that was never credited enough.
So, who is the real winner? The one who realized his ideas completing a record strong enough and erased his musical career for several reasons, or the one who realized his ideas in either a strong or mediocre record and enjoyed its commercial success? For me, if they have won their mental battles, then maybe… they are both winners…