The excellent Quartz are back with a fine new album – On the Edge of No Tomorrow. Whether they classify as New Wave of British Heavy Metal or not as they’ve been around since the mid-1970s is neither here nor there.
Simply enjoy this album as what it is – a band which clearly enjoy what they do and do it so well here.
Quartz will of course be forever associated with the whole Midlands rock scene and their connection with Black Sabbath and that shows up in some of the song writing on this album (in a good way) and we have ex-Sabbath vocalist Tony Martin turning up an Evil Lies.
Also there’s homage to the late Geoff Nicholls who passed away a few years ago. He’d been working on stuff prior to his death with those songs being completed by guitarist Mick Hopkins and appearing here as a fine way to remember Geoff.
On the Edge of No Tomorrow is Quartz at the top of their game. Bar Tony Martin’s appearance the vocals are shared between Dave Garner and the returning Geoff Bate allied with founder members Mick Hopkins, Derek Arnold and Malcolm Cope.
Arnold and Cope lock together tightly as a solid as anywhere rhythm section. Hopkins shows his considerable chops with riffs aplenty and measured solos which are effective without needing to be showy.
Fourteen intelligent, well-paced, pulsing heavy rockers and a clear production job giving quite at atmospheric feel to many. It’s not hard to hear the Black Sabbath influences nor sometimes to think whilst listening how some of it wouldn’t have been out of place on Heaven and Hell or a Dio album.
Freak of Nature a nice opener with one of those cutting Nicholls’ riffs. Death or Glory builds on things with a bit of a chugfest before breaking out. Have a listen:
They Do Magic is a lively one as it bounce along apace. Night of the Living Dead changes things a bit with its slightly doomy feel and a bit chorus.
Tony Martin puts in his all on Evil Lies as that burst out from a gentle start. Angels at the Crossroads is one of the Geoff Nicholls songs and would have been right at home of Heaven and Hell.
Indeed – the entire album is more than solid all the way through. Quartz can even do catchy melodic stuff such as What Love is which as a monster hook.
It all closes out with Highway to Madness. A superb darkly brooding slow-burning number in the style of early Sabbath.
When you remember that Quartz started out as Bandy Legs in 1974 and they can knock out stuff as good as this forty-eight years later its yet more evidence that the old ‘uns know how to do things properly and remain fresh and relevant.
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