City's Gonna Burn

It happens every year at this time. As the year winds down, I start feeling the effects of my record spending and the savings account sinks dangerously low. I scale back on what I'm buying, and try to stay away from the temptations of eBay...limiting myself to only new releases...but some days the call is too great, and I can't resist picking up a record that won't stay off my daily playlist.

I grew up listening to Laaz Rockit, and loved both the Know Your Enemy and Annihilation Principle albums as a teen. I'd never bothered with the band's debut from 1984, City's Gonna Burn, until I downloaded it around 10 years ago...but even then, I hardly spent any time with it. For some reason I queued it up in my iPod over the summer, and suddenly I couldn't get enough of it.

Laaz Rockit formed in 1982, shortly after Metallica, and played that same Bay Area scene...Hell, Metallica even opened for them at one point. While they may have been outcasts within the Bay Area Thrash scene for not being as fast or as raw as what was quickly gaining momentum at the time...Laaz Rockit perhaps borrowing more from Judas Priest than Motorhead...there is still no denying that their brand of Speed Metal was still intense and valid.

I love finding these little independent labels from the 80's. I'd never heard of the Target label prior to this, and they didn't really release anything noteworthy, outside of a couple of Laaz Rockit records...but discovering stuff like this is like digging into the history of Metal and I'm fascinated by it.

Another piece of history from these old records is the merch sheet insert, and I needed to insure that the copy of City's Gonna Burn I bought came with one.