BLACK ALICE: Endangered Species

Released: 1983

In the first half of the 1980s, a native heavy metal scene barely existed in Australia. Of course, there was a multitude of bands that sounded in some way like AC/DC or Rose Tattoo, but anything resembling the sort of styles that were becoming popular in Europe and the US at the time was pretty thin on the ground. A smattering of such bands did exist, however. Sydney had Tyrant and Boss, Brisbane had Vice and Melbourne had a small raft of bands including Taipan, Bengal Tigers and the Virgin Soldiers. In Perth, there was Black Alice.

Black Alice made a significant impression on someone, enough to end up on a major label. But this probably had more to do with the fact that they sounded rather like Judas Priest than because they were anything particularly special. It's true that Rob Hartley sounds more like Brian Johnson than Rob Halford and the guitar playing of Jamie Page is considerably more restrained, but it's still hard not to think of Endangered Species as little more than a poor man's Screaming for Vengeance impression.

Despite the money the label must have poured into this, this album sank without trace almost immediately. It's easy to see why. The entire album is blatant Priest worship, but rather poorly done. The songs simply aren't very catchy or particularly memorable aside from the titles, some of which must rank as among the most contrived and try-hard metal song names ever dreamed up. "Hell Has No Fury Like Rock n Roll" could in fact be in the top five of such a list. The tracks are pretty straight forward and ridiculously formulaic, except for "In the Hall of Ancient Kings", an attempt at an "epic" that is actually pretty dismal. Admittedly, the second half of the album gets underway fairly strongly: "Roll the Dice" isn't actually too bad and "Running Hot, Running Wild" is also ok, but after this the material reverts to the mediocre levels experienced at the beginning and never recovers.

As a kid, I'd often see this album sitting on the shelf in record stores and a couple of times even juggled with the idea of buying it. When a copy (dubbed from a cassette!) finally came my way recently, I'm rather glad I saved my bucks and bought Piece of Mind instead. Even in 1983, I probably wouldn't have liked this, and it's dated so badly that I can't even really recommend it beyond its curiosity value.

1. Wings Of Leather, Wings Of Steel
2. Psycho
3. Hell Has No Fury Like Rock N Roll
4. Blade Of Slaughter
5. In The Hall Of Ancient Kings
6. Roll The Dice
7. Running Hot, Running Wild
8. Power Crazy
9. Man Of Metal
10. No Warning

Rating: 42%