#virgin steele

Brocas Helm: Into Battle (1984)

This album's exceedingly plain, even dull -- ok, butt-ugly -- cover art says a lot about its creators' impoverished independent status, but it also fails to do any justice to one of America's great '80s cult metal bands: Brocas Helm!

Though they came into existence in the same time and place (1982, the San Francisco Bay Area) as thrash metal speedsters like Exodus and L.A. transplants Metallica, Brocas Helm were musically aligned with fellow castle metal knights like Manilla Road, Cirith Ungol, Witchkiller, and the neighboring Griffin.

Meaning that band members Bobbie R. Wright (vocals and guitar), Jim Schumacher (bass and, uh, magic!), and Jack Hayes (drums) took most of their cues from select late '70s metal pioneers like Rainbow and Judas Priest and especially New Wave of British Heavy Metal champions like Iron Maiden and Angel Witch.

In 1984, Brocas Helm inked deals with First Strike Records (for America) and Steamhammer (for Europe) and then bravely rode Into Battle wielding little (certainly little recording budget) but the cardboard Excalibur depicted in the hilarious band photo overhead.

Ah, but Brocas Helm were blessed with the most unshakable, if innocent, heavy metal faith as they rode out of the thunderstorm on the hooves of "Metallic Fury," sought ancient treasure on "Dark Rider," showed their Tolkien fandom with "In the Ithilstone," and slayed the dragon with a six-string axe on "Warriors of the Dark."

No, seriously, even those self-appointed 'Kings of Metal,' Manowar, had nothing on Brocas Helm's lyrics, see for yourselves:

"And against a spear of lightning; A figure rides the stars; His steed a dragon red and gold; His weapon a black guitar.

My fingers played like hellfire; As I played the killing chord; The dragon screams and falls from sky; As if pierced by magic sword."

What did I tell you?

But Brocas Helm were at their finest and fiercest when the title track, "Here to Rock," and "Night Siege" accelerated to a frantic gallop, armed with Wright's explosive shredding, which came jabbing and slashing all unworthy 'false metal' poseurs to shreds.

Indeed, with surprisingly powerful performances like these, one can't help but wonder what might have been, if only these metallic knights could have benefitted from even the slightest financial backing.

Instead, as I once wrote in the All-Music Guide, Brocas Helm waited four long years to deliver their second album, Black Death, and issued nothing but demos in the 1990s, before re-recording several old favorites for 2004's Defender of the Crown collection.

Ultimately, although they were clearly doomed to waste away in a castle metal dungeon, Brocas Helm's influence later reverberated through the Bay Area metal scene, thanks to 21st Century acolytes like Slough Feg, Saviours, Hammers of Misfortune, and Ludicra.

Monday, March 30: Virgin Steele, “Children of the Storm”