Way back in the mid-1970s as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was in its emerging state little could it have been guessed that it would quickly reach Texas in the US of A and have a major influence over there on Gary “Razar” King.
Gary would discover NWOBHM – in particular Samson’s second album, the wonderful Head On, and from that discovery not only did a love of all things NWOBHM spring up in Gary’s life – his band Raddar would also be heavily influenced in that direction.
With a strapline of “Texas powered melodic hard rock” describing Raddar’s sound well, those NWOBHM influences are heard throughout the band’s sound.
Whilst “back in the day” Raddar were active enough writing and gigging they had no recorded output. Now, four decades later we can enjoy Raddar thanks to a remastering of seventeen rather excellent songs.
Hard, heavy, melodic and a bit proggy too – Raddar sure enough had the chops. And the Razar King can crank out tasty clean riffs and power chords as well as some fine soloing.
As mentioned earlier, the NWOBHM influences are welcome and obvious but only part of the mix. The vocals are clean and powerful and the drumming Peart-esque in parts. There’s even the occasional swirling organ/keys to give some Uriah Heep style moments.
Take Coming Your Way for example – starts and finishes with a Box-style riff and that organ sound with a mid-section which gores towards jazz/flamenco yet still managing to “rock”.
Each of the seventeen songs here on Transmission stand up very well. A pleasure to listen to and enough for the ears of any rock fan to enjoy whether you prefer your music “straight ahead”, with some melody/hooks or the harder-edged NWOBHM.
Gary “Razar” King is clearly still enthusiastic and a fine guitarist to boot. And on the evidence of Transmission would surely have gone far under different circumstances.
I thank Gary for contacting me and sending over a review copy.
At time of writing. Transmission is available only via the band’s web site – http://www.raddartheband.com
I couldn’t find anything on YouTube to share with you here as a taster of how good Raddar are – but if you get on over to the web site you can listen to Transmission there.
I understand there are plans for a wider release in early 2020 – though in the meantime do head on over to Raddar’s web site and check them out. Seriously recommended.
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