Marshall Law

Personnel: David Martin (guitar); Mick Donovan (drums).
Recording information: Mad Hat Studios (1990).
Marshall Law's eponymous debut of 1990 confirmed them as disciples (though not, as has been suggested elsewhere, outright clones) of Judas Priest. Not at all, in fact, as the group had a lot more in common with contemporary European power metal acts such as Helloween or Gamma Ray -- minus the overt speed metal ingredients dominating these bands' songwriting -- than Rob Halford's crew. Of course that's not to say that fast-charging numbers like "Under the Hammer" and "Hearts on Fire" don't draw their energetic pacing from thrash -- they certainly do. But, as is the case with slower, rock-structured numbers such as "Rock the Nation" and the band's self-named theme song, Marshall Law avoid layering guitar overdubs to allow each song's inherent melodicism and infective choruses to stand out in the mix. Ironically, this also leaves something to be desired, flattening Marshall Law's sound somewhat and dulling the sharpness of their bite as compared to their raucous live appearances. Still, there's enough metallic aggression to go around here, making this a promising, if hardly essential, heavy metal debut. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia