#shining blade

As a human, okay. Understandable, maybe. But any other race, most of all Charr? Why on earth would a Charr join the Shining Blade, a secretive organization made by humans, when Charr and humans heve been at war for centuries?

I never liked Jennah. In fact, I hate her. Yes, she’s the barefoot queen, that’s pretty cool, but she and Logan are responsible for Snaff’s death and I will never let anyone change my mind about that. And the Shining Blade praises her, so why should I even want to have something to do with them?

Most of the time, I play Asura. You can’t tell me that Asura would care the slightest to join such a human organization when there’s already the Pact and Dragon’s Watch and everything. Anise stated herself that the initiation ritual could kill us. We, the Commander, Hero of Tyria, bla bla bla, simply agree to something that could lead to our death, because this stubborn woman refuses to tell us about her plans otherwise?

Various Artists: Speed Metal Hell (1985)

I have a long and rather comical persoal history with 1985’s Speed Metal Hell collection ...

When it first showed up at São Paulo’s best heavy metal record store, Woodstock Discos, in 1985, I got it at a discount with the purchase of other LPs; on my next visits, they literally begged me to take additional copies free of charge; and after unloading them sometime in the CD-buying ‘90s, I wound up paying at least $20 to satisfy my nostalgic craving with the copy you see here.

Ain’t that a vinyl collecting in a nutshell?

Assembled by the much-maligned New Renaissance label (which probably never paid a royalty in their existence), this LP now offers a fascinating glimpse into the mid ‘80s thrash metal underground -- even though, or perhaps because, none of these bands ever made it to the big time.

Indeed, at least half of them were never heard from again, including N.W.O.B.H.M. inspired speedsters like Italy’s Shining Blade (“Winged Snake”), San Jose, CA’s Halloween-ready Stiletto (“Through the Night”), and Canadian pretty boys Midnight Vice (“Vice Squad”) -- and justifiably so!

That being said, while they possessed zero commercial potential, other bands bound for obscurity like Babylon, NY’s Attila (“Lucifer’s Hammer”), Lindhurst, NY’s Battle Bratt (“Henchman”), and Needham, MA’s Executioner (“Victims of Evil”) had violence and energy to burn!

A few others managed to eke out a career of sorts beyond this LP, beginning with a pair of Venom and Motörhead-fueled power trios in Virginia Beach, VA’s military nerds At War (“Eat Lead”) and Portage, MI’s Medieval, whose “World War IV” obsessed me for years to come.

Another was Savage Grace: a competent power metal outfit from L.A. that was deemed worthy of contributing, not one, but two tracks (the excellent “Master of Disguise” and “Fear My Way”), but made the mistake of choosing the same name as the Detroit-based progressive rockers from the early ‘70s.

But only two of these groups left a serious mark upon the ‘80s thrash scene, and they Danish maniacs Artillery, whose inimitable growler, Flemming Rönsdorf, let it all hang out on “Hey Woman,” and New Jersey’s Whiplash, whose ‘Triple Tony’ line-up teased the following year’s seminal Power and Pain LP with “Thrash till Death.”

In sum: while I’d never recommend owning three or four copies of Speed Metal Hell, one is probably worth investing in if you are metal-thrashing-mad for all things fast, furious, and ‘80s.