Here’s one that almost slipped through the net though yet more confirmation that the new Wave of British Heavy Metal is still valid today. The one and only (self titled) album by Dark Star has been re-mastered, re-issued and given the full treatment by those wonderful people at Rock Candy Records.
Arising from the NWOBHM hot bed of the Midlands/Black Country, Dark Star soon started to make a bit of a name for themselves via their “killer” song Lady of Mars which found its way on to the Metal For Muthas Volume II Cut Loud compilation.
Lady of Mars has all the ingredients for the moniker of NWOBHM classic: Great riff, guitar work that gets in your head, soaring chorus, great lead breaks and a chugging undercurrent that causing thousands of heads to bang whilst playing air guitar. Ah, to be young in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s.
Anyways – Lady of Mars woke up the record companies and the band signed with Avatar. The album saw the light of day and was generally well received being somewhere between a heavier praying Mantis and a Diamond Head I’d say with some prog/metal fusion style stuff chucked in. And that was about that for Dark Star. A one-album career though an album which has stood the test of time and still sounds great today. The typical Rock Candy “spruce up” hasn’t done it any harm either and the liner notes have much more of a history lesson in there.
Always great to see NWOBHM still being validated and the Dark Star album well worthy of sitting in anyone’s CD collection.
>> CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE DARK STAR RE-ISSUE <<
Still on the subject of Dark Star, they may or may not have taken their name from the John Carpenter classic science fiction film. It was made for next to nothing though is both riotously funny, poignant and thought-provoking at the same time. Centres on a motley crew of a space ship in a 20-year mission to destroy “unstable planets” as they go ever more insane due to the effects of the trip.
A dead captain, a captured alien that looks like a beach ball, a talking bomb that has to be persuaded not to blow itself up and the ensuing battle of (half) wits. Seriously recommended. If you like your humour on the dry/dark side you’ll love it:
>> CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE DARK STAR DVD <<
A further connection is that the film inspired Arjen “Ayreon” Lucassen to include a song (Spaced Out) on his Star One: Space Metal album. It’s on the bonus CD and worth hunting out if you can find one with the bonus. The entire album is inspired by Lucassen’s favourite sci-fi films and the music is first rate heavy/melodic rock. It’s always towards the top of my play list.
>> CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT STAR ONE SPACE METAL <<
So there we are, started off looking at the Dark Star re-issue and rambled off in a sort of connected way in to other stuff that’s great too…….
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