Listening to the reissue of
\nFear No Evil<\/i>, the 1985 sophomore release from British
\nmetallers Grim Reaper, I have to wonder what the modern-day
\ngeneration thinks of this retro-metal. No doubt they’d scoff a bit
\nat the semi-demonic imagery that guitatist Nick Bowcott and crew
\nconjured up, especially since some of today’s metal makes this
\nstuff look like a horror film you used to see on
\nMystery Science Theater 3000<\/i>.<\/p>\n
But once upon a time, this stuff was cutting-edge, winning the
\nband a dedicated legion of fans thanks to select stations playing
\ntracks like “Final Scream,” “Rock & Roll Tonight” and “Fear No
\nEvil”. Yet even back then, when I was just 15 or 16 listening to my
\ncassette of this release, I thought that something was missing from
\nthe mix.<\/p>\n
Something indeed is missing – in fact, many things are lacking
\non
\nFear No Evil<\/i>. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here.<\/p>\n
In all fairness, this album was a step up from
\nSee You In Hell<\/i>, even though the basic formula hadn’t
\nchanged much. You still had the banshee-like wailing of Steve
\nGrimmett and the fretboard-on-fire leads of Bowcott. But the
\nmuddied drum sounds that were on the first album hadn’t improved on<\/p>\n
Fear No Evil<\/i>, though I’m hesitant to blame new drummer Mark
\nSimon for this. No, the blame here lies with producer Darryl
\nJohnston, who could have made the whole mix a lot crisper.<\/p>\n
There are also some decent songs on
\nFear No Evil<\/i>, though such an admission would be quickly
\nfootnoted as being a guilty pleasure. Well, I won’t do that. I grew
\nup listening to “Final Scream” (though the opening sequence with
\nwhat sounds like Pee-Wee Herman’s son is a bit banal) and “Fear No
\nEvil,” and these songs still have some magic in them that puts a
\nsmile on my face. Were there other groups doing this same thing at
\nthe time, only better? Yes… but I can’t help liking these two
\ntracks.<\/p>\n
Sadly, these are the highlights on
\nFear No Evil<\/i>. The remainder of the album slips into the
\nexact same problems that plagued
\nSee You In Hell<\/i>.The songwriting still is formulatic and
\nwithout the hook needed to lure the listener in (“Never Coming
\nBack,” “Let The Thunder Roar,” “Fight For The Last”), the mix (as
\nnoted before) isn’t the best – and, let’s be honest, Grimmett is
\nnot the best vocalist in the genre. Passable, yes; stellar, no.<\/p>\n
What’s worse, time has not been kind to either Grim Reaper or
\nFear No Evil<\/i>. These days, the album sounds incredibly dated,
\neven with the bright spots. This is the kind of disc that’s
\nlistened to as a reminder of youthful days gone by, not as a
\nrefresher course in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (of which
\nGrim Reaper was on the tail end).<\/p>\n
Granted,
\nFear No Evil<\/i> is not the worst way to pass an hour, and I
\nstill occasionally dust the cobwebs off this one just to clear the
\nmusical pipes in my head. But while this disc marked a slight
\nimprovement for Grim Reaper, it also suggested these guys were not
\ndestined for the big-time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7629],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-39495","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-grim-reaper","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39495"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39495"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}