NINETIES HARDROCK

THE OBSESSED(US) title Lunar womb. One of the heaviest powertrios ever to come out of the 80s and 90s metalmovement. The Obsessed started out late 79/ early 80 in Washington D.C by singer/guitarist Scott wino Weinrich, they did loads of shows up and down the eastcoast until Wino teamed up with Californiancombo Saint Vitus 1986, he released a couple of albums with them including the legendary V album(89), in late 1990 he said goodbye to Vitus and got back to The Obsessed. Hellhound(German label) paid for the debutalbum that was released in 1991, but the followup Lunar womb released in 1992 is still the most intense album The Obsessed ever recorded, bassplayer on that album was later Kyussbassplayer Scott reeder. the album contains a lot of classics and it is a lot of variation through the record from heavy Sabbathriffs to Motorhead structure. The Obsessed left Hellhound later to team up with Columbia(Us label) they recorded the album The church within and played around the US with different bands also in Europe. When Columbia kicked them out Wino had enough, after a 7Ó released on Bong load records The Obsessed broke up in 1994, now last year Wino came back and has started his new band Spirit Caravan  where he teamed up with some exWretchedmembers, back to The Obsessed Lunar womb became musically the finest moment for the band.

COUNT RAVEN(Sweden) title:Stormwarning. Formed in 1989 did two demos the same year that became legendary especially after a review in the UK mag Metalforces, the band started to receive response from fans all over the place and the ball was rolling. In 1990 they got a deal with UK label Active records and released the epic and incredible debut album Stormwarning an album that would set the standard for Count Raven in later years. The songs on the record is classics and with the emotional vocals of Christian Linderson(now Terrafirma) the album just shines through. The music is very 70s inspired with a backbottom of Sabbathriffs, a lot of people called the band after the release that Count Raven sounded more Sabbath than Sabbath themselfes. Stormwarning got great response when it came out, and is still selling copies 7 years later. Count Raven went on to a supporttour with Vitus in central europe 1990. hellhound(german label) rereleased the album in 1991, they did 2 comp.tracks before Christian left the band in 1991. The album stormwarning is to me one of the greatest albums released by a Swedish metal band just listen to the song A devestating age among others. Count raven went on later as a 3piece until 1999 when Dan left to  form Doomsday Government(See Hand of doompage).

TROUBLE(US) title: Manic Frustration Trouble got a new revival with the release of this album in 1992, the album Trouble(1990) had opened the doors even more for the band in this decade, and Manic Frustration proved to be a important album for the legendary Chicago heroes at least a musically step forward, but the label Def american got rid of the band in 1994, bad luck again for Trouble. Before the split they had toured with Pantera, played festivals done a video, when the second single Rain came out nothing took off really, in 1994 Trouble made their own ep One for the road before they signed with Bulletproof for the album Plastic Green head before they sadly called it a day late 1996. The magic on Manic Frustration is of course the songs, it is hitsingles all the way and Eric´s Beatlesinfluences just shines through the record mixed up with Pink Floyd and Sabbath, when the album came out all the mags were as usual giving it topreviews. All the records the band did is excellent, that is the reason I believe that Trouble will always be a legend and the legacy still lives on, it is just a shame that they are not around us anymore.

SHEAVY(Canada) title: Blue sky mind. Released in 1996 an it is already a classic!!!.Well what make this album so special? it is of course the songs on the record, the band came out of nowhere with a demo that suprised me totally in 1994 called Slaves to Fashion, with a music similar to Monstermagnet and a singer who could be Ozzys son the tape is a thrill and it gaved cold shivers down the spine they carried on in 1995 with the release of their 7Ó Dalas tar and it opened some new doors for the band with great reviews all over the place and in 1996 Blue sky mind came out and already has the album caused quite a stir in the Metal underground and the following is just building up. The band hasnt reached its peak yet I reckon within some time the band has gone from a small underground act to a touring band. Check out Blue sky mind you will not be dissapointed.

REVELATION (US) title: ...Yet so far. This band is included on the Hand of doompage with complete background history and interview...Yet so far became the last album the band released on the Hellhound label in 1995. Founding member John Brenner had left them earlier but he contributed 1 song to this album. His replacement Dennis Cornelius turned out to be a perfect replacement for John and the new bassplayer Jim Hunter fitted right in too. With..yet so far the band finally came over to Europe with both Vitus and Solitude Aeturnus in 1995. Back to..yet so far the album has a lot of tempos and variations in the songs and compare to previous records. Even though I love the previous material I reckon ..yet so far is the most brilliant album so far, check out their new demo titled Frozen masque it is a classic demo and currently the band is looking for a label with this tape.

MONSTERMAGNET (US) title:Superjudge This US combo attracted attention with their first album Spine of god(rel.91) they brought in some new things into the metalscene with a progressive sound similar to the early 70s bands. With the second album Superjudge they developed even more with a incredible vocaldelivery from frontman Dave Wyndorf and a powerful sound they created quite a following from both rockers and metalfans. The album includes 2 brilliant covers Evil(originally recorded by Cactus) and the Hawkwind anthem Brainstorm, just Hawkwind is the closest to the sound of this album and the followup Dopes to infinity. The band toured extensively on this record, I reckon this album is the heaviest album so far recorded from this band, they have a new album on the way and maybe a interview will come in Hand of doom later.

KYUSS (US) title: Blues for the red sun Sadly this band called it a day last year. The Desertrockers Kyuss came out of southern california in the early 90s and released the much underrated wretch album, an album that have its moments but compare to Blues for the red sun its quite a lot of difference. The album came out in 1992 and it grabbed the attention of both Metallica and Danzig among others that took the band out as support, Blues for the red sun is in my opinion the most varied album that the band recorded and it received rave reviews all over the place when it came out. produced by Chris Goss(Masters of realityfame) the album smokes right through from the opening number Thumb to the insane small speach yeah the album contains everything, it is a journey through groove and spectacular little numbers to psychedelia and total tripped out lyrics. ExObsessed bassplayer Scott Reeder joined the band after this album, the band recorded 2 more albums after this one sky valley and when the circus leaves town, both albums is really great too and the band received the most success with these two, but in my opinion Blues for the red sun is Kyuss finest moment.

SLEEP (US) title:Sleeps holy mountain. this californian combo was formed as a fourpiece at first and released the debut album volume.1 in late 1990, shorly after that they kicked their second guitarplayer and continued as a trio, a ep called vol.2 was released in 1991 before they got signed to Earrache(UK) and released this great album Sleeps holy mountain 1992. The album is totally divided either you enjoy it or you hate it. The album got very mixed reviews when it came out all the mags blamed Sleep for being Sabbathcopycats, but even if Sleep had an obvious Sabbath feel the album contains a lot of good songs. The tracks comes across like really spaced out, total tripped but the album is really heavy in my opinion very much in the vein of the early 70s sound and especially one band that comes to mind is Blue Cheer that made the same stony heavy rock as Sleep does on this album. Sleep toured with Cathedral and Hawkwind among others on this album. They recorded the album Dopesmoker in 1994 but that album hasnt seen the light of day yet.

HAWKWIND (UK) title:Alien 4. Released in 1995. The legendary Dave Brock still waving the flag for one of the greatest bands in the history of rockmusic. A lot of people has said that Hawkwind could not come up with anything special compare to the good old days with the releases of Hall of the mountain grill etc. but Dave Brock Richard Chadwick and Alan Davey proved everyone wrong. This album Alien 4 is a great and experimental album, Dave Brock is unfortunetaly not singing very much on the record it is more the newcomer Ron Tree(the new Nik Turner) that is contributing to the songs and he does really well but Mr.Brock is unbeatable whitout him there would be no Hawkwind.I really enjoy Alien 4 as much as I do with earlier albums released by this band, the albumcover is as always really spectacular, check out Alien 4 cause it is really a great album and may the space always be with you.

SKYCLAD (UK) title: Jonahs Ark. The last review in this 90s metal section goes out to Skyclad. The band formed in England 1990 by Martin Walkyier (pre-Sabbat) and Steve Ramsey(pre-Satan). They got signed to Noise records and released the great debutalbum The wayward sons of mother earth 1991, a very suprisingly good album with strong influences from Jethro Tull combined with Slayer riffs they builded up a really good following throughout europe, the follow up A burnt offering for the bone idol released 1992 continued in the same way but was a lot stronger, the band climbed higher on the ladder with this album with more touringsupport from the recordlabel. The band made a ep after that and in 1993 the bands biggest triumph Jonahs Ark was released, an album that includes everything great vocals, excellent songs and great production, the violin just shines through the record. Skyclad received a final breakthrough with this album at least all over Europe where the metalmags and radio was really raving about it. The band did their first video with this album Thinking allowed and the album topped a lot of metal toplists that year, after this album skyclad started to experiment a whole lot more and became more mellow and in my opinion they have so far not yet come up with an album that is created in the same way as Jonahs ark. The albumcover on Jonahs Ark is really special too.

By Gabriel Liljehook