BAD AXE-BAD AXE-

Released in 1976 as a demorecord, this LA outfit probably is one history´s most underrated bands of its genre, by this timeperiod.

A large portion of  the songs have influences of Rush, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. The great guitar versus bass battles through the record is as contemperary as greater acts of today. The production is as you´ve to expect from a demorecord, but the signs of great strong songs shines through and I can´t stop listening to find out what´s around the corner. The impression of an outfit before it´s time leaves you with a feeling of self inflected drowning in the L.A musicscene. To bad….

With a great following back in the day there are some famous stories about Bad Axe. One is the Starwood gig, when they summoned 1561 illegal standing room only into a 800 capacity nightclub, on a monday night!! Impressive.

Even when the local radio station KMET94,7 had their annual Rocktober Award and Bad Axe was voted third best L.A  band behind, The Eagles and Van Halen it didn´t lead to a record deal. The air slowly dissappeared from Bad Axe. Bass player Dana Strum Went on to other bands in L.A, as did guitarist Dave Carruth. A nice rumour has it that Dana Strum introduced Randy Rhoads to Ozzy Ozbourne…That´s an achievement!!

Whatabout the drummer, Steve Ward?? There´s a great contribution to this demorecord and as far as I can hear, his plying style is flawless with good interaction and nice drive. It´s a bit hard to determind techniques due to poor production, but I have to assume there were not that many retakes so I am impressed by his work. There are some things to Catch up on and bring back to your toolbox.

This is an album for hard/heavy/prog/rockcore fans only. Nothing you put on your turntable at partytimes. Due to the low distribution the price tags are high but you could find some nice copies for reasonable Money . That would be “one for the price of Three. ” though. 🙂

VINYLRATING/GRADE

5-OK!-WORTH EXPLORING-