Proto Thrash - NWOBHM Shredders !
Rock Villain | 12/29/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The mighty Chateaux released 1 single and three LPs on the Ebony record label in the 1980's. The Band's only single and first LP Chained and Desperate featured soon to be well known Grim Reaper vocalist Steve Grimmet. There is speculation that Mr. Grimmet handled vocal duties on the band's Outstanding follow-up Fire Power. Mr. Grimmet has never confirmed or denied in any interview or periodical that I have read that he did in fact handle these duties. However one can speculate from the vocals themselves that Mr. Grimmet may have been the guy. One last note - the guitar work is outstanding. Tim Broughton smokes on all three efforts. I would love to hear other work by this man.
This compilation has every recorded song by Chateaux included in the collection. There is one single and three LP's worth of material. The material itself in simply outstanding at spots. This is well worth the money and well done. The information booklet is solid and gives decent band information. Five Star quality CD with every song by the band nicely done.
The breakdown of the material is as follows.
Tracks 1-10 are Chained and Desperate (4/5 stars) tracks with Steve Grimmet handling vocal duties. The standout tracks are the brilliant Chained and Desperate, Fight to the Last, Son of Seattle and Shine on Forever.
Tracks 11-18 are from the simply Killer Classic LP FIRE POWER (5/5 stars). This album was a change of direction for the band. They went to a straight ahead in your face proto-thrash sound. Two of the Tracks on this LP are simply must have for any metal fan. Run in The Night and White Steel are top notch NWOBHM shredding at it's penultimate best. Other strong tracks off this Classic are Eyes of Stone, Street Angel and V8 crash. There is no filler on this LP and this ranks as one of my absolute favorite works from the NWOBHM.
Tracks 19-27 are from Chateaux's third and final LP Highly Strung (3/5 stars). Highly Strung is a solid opus of tunes and featured the Classic Kerrang Charting hit "Chase the Sun." This has been disputed with me in the past and I have the Kerrang issue-nuff said. This LP is solid but is similar in all areas and does not have as strong a song writing as the previous LP Fire Power. Strong tracks include the previously mentioned Chase The Sun, the instrumental Phalanx, First Strike and One too Many
Well worth the price of admission."
Awesome!
Roch Vaillancourt | Orlando, FL | 09/28/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I discovered Chateaux totally by accident in 1984. I was looking for something new and cool. I picked up "Fire Power" at my local import store because of the cool cover and because they had a french name. Growing up in Sherbrooke (Quebec), if we saw a metal band with a french name, we'd check it out. I fell in love with the songs "Eyes of Stone", "White Steel" and "V8 Crash". The song "Run in the Night" has some awesome guitar screaming in the intro. How does this guy make his guitar scream like that is beyond me! I was never able to find any of the other Chateaux releases on LP and kinda forgot about the band with the years.
Fast forward to 2 weeks ago... I was feeling nostalgic and did a search on Encyclopedia Metallium for Chateaux. Lo and behold, I found that they had this anthology out. Looked it up here on Amazon and found it right away. This double CD is awesome if you're a fan of heavy 80s metal (like Accept, Dio, etc..., not talking about Poison or LA Guns here!). I'm so glad to have finally heard all their other releases. Awesome band that should really have made it big but for some reason, never did."
Witchfinder General & Diamond Head Meet Ted Nugent
"The Woj" | Downers Grove, IL | 12/02/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Any fan of NWOBHM will relish in this excellent 2 disc set.
The music is classic New Wave Of British Heavy Metal reminiscent of some better known "obscure" bands like Witchfinder General, Diamond Head & Raven. The guitar work here is unbelievably (and suprisingly) excellent; imagine Ted Nugent playing in any of the above mentioned NWOBHM bands (if you can). The songs here would be considered slightly underproduced by today's standards. But it actually yields a raw, brutal and in your face sound which really enhances the music, giving it a powerful "live" feel.
All in all, 2 discs of great metal music (go eBay or zShops) for about the price of a single disc. Considering the individual Chateaux albums are impossible to find, any metal fan will want to add this disc to their collection & cart ASAP. I guarantee you will not be disappointed."
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1