Hard And Heavy Hardware

As I was starting to get into heavy metal in the early 80's, one of the early cassettes that I bought was Headhunter from Krokus. I'm assuming that I got turned on to the band by those quality videos for Eat The Rich and Screaming In The Night...man, they don't make 'em like that anymore. I loved that album, and my brother an I quickly dug into their back catalog and picked up the tapes for Hardware, Metal Rendez-vous and One Vice At A Time... but honestly, I don't recall a damn thing from any of those albums. I think that my musical taste was changing so quickly, that soon after we picked up those other Krokus albums, we were already off chasing something heavier and faster...and Headhunter was obviously the heaviest album from Krokus, so their other stuff just didn't hold my interest.

Of course given that I've been totally immersing myself in early 80's metal nostalgia, I've been toying with the idea of digging back into those earlier Krokus albums, and giving them another shot.

I was in Portland last Fall, and checking out the record stores when I found a copy of the 1981 release for Hardware. I didn't remember a single thing about the record, but with a six dollar price tag, I figured that I'd take the chance and pick it up.

It is pretty rare for me to buy an album without playing it safe and downloading the songs and giving them a spin before actually deciding to buy the record, so it felt a little dangerous buying Hardware, but you know, sometimes I really walk on the wild side.

I didn't really have high expectations for this record, and while I've had it for about five months, I still hasn't bothered to listen to it. I was dragging my feet on this, but since it had worked it's way to the top of my backlog pile, it was time to finally give it a spin. Hot damn. This was a great surprise! I mean, back in 1983 and '84, as I was devouring a steady diet of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Dio, I can see how this would have gotten pushed aside, but as I'm neck deep in early 80's metal nostalgia, this was an amazing find. This record has been getting repeat spins this past week.