Search - Medusa :: Clash of the Titans

Raw indeed

Justin Gaines | Northern Virginia | 11/18/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Medusa: Clash of the Titans is a collection of demos and rehearsal recordings from the early New Wave of British Heavy Metal band that featured future Grim Reaper frontman Steve Grimmett on vocals. You can definitely hear the Black Sabbath and Deep Purple influences in Medusa's sound, but when combined with Grimmett's high-pitched vocals the overall style is very similar to what you'd find on the first few Judas Priest albums.



Given the level of quality that most of the recent NWOBHM reissues have maintained (including Majestic's remastered Quartz and Chariot albums), I had high hopes for this release. Unfortunately, Clash of the Titans was a major disappointment. The sound quality is, to be blunt, terrible. I know that these are demo recordings, but calling them "raw" is an understatement. Given today's technology, you'd expect them to be able to really clean up the recordings. Perhaps the source material was too rough to work with? Whatever the reason, the results are far less than impressive.



I'll give this collection three stars, if for no other reason than the fact that it makes more NWOBHM material available. I just wish they had done a better job cleaning it up first. It sounds more like an interesting bootleg than an official CD release."