Black Diamond - Faces (1985) {2016, Limited Edition, Reissue, Remastered}

German Heavy Metal, 2016 Rerelease, with 8 Bonustracks, limited edition to 500 copies. Black Diamond from Northrhine-Westfalia/Germany was Andreas Roch's project before Dorian Gray. His musical abilities showed themselves for the first time with Black Diamond and luckily he made also some albums with his later band. Sadly Black Diamond released only one EP in 1985. All other songs were put out only as Demos. The speedy sound on the EP combined with catchy songlines ("Break out", "Hard Rock" and "Temple Of Love") was typical for the time but had a higher class than many competitors. The musical direction changed a little bit with the 1989-Demo. "Hello Again" and "Night Rider" were less speedy but catchy again. "Delivery" and "Rock Time" contained an epic touch. Really fine material without doubt, but the missing promotion and distribution made it hard for this good band to survive. The vocalist Uwe Merz and main songwriter Andy Roch decided to open a new chapter and founded Dorian Gray. Many more great and unique songs were written and released on 6 albums (one album was only instrumental work), but the success never came, because also with Dorian Gray marketing and distribution were too weak to support a breakthrough in a reasonable way!

The early days of German heavy metal were something of an odd playground where album art and leather-fixated S&M were not an uncommon combination, but Black Diamond proved to be a cut above the rest in what looks like an innovative approach to either scratching a stubborn chest itch or simulate a black metal icon ripping into a jock's upper rib cage. What all of this has to do with a title like Faces is anybody's guess, but apart from the first impression via visual representation, the mystique of where this mid 80s EP stands is virtually non-existent. In other words, this early 80s born German metal outfit essentially takes their cues from their NWOBHM rivals, putting something together that takes predictability to a whole new level, yet still manages to be an entertaining ride.

At first, this album appears to be going for a deep, atmospheric route with a creepy intro that has a fragment of America's national anthem spliced in like a haunting homage to Jimi Hendrix. However, this quickly gives way to a very familiar type of rocking groove that one might easily mistake for early power metal, as the opening song "Fight Together" brings up some pretty sizable parallels to a number of cookie cutter Grim Reaper tunes, although the fanfare oriented sing-along chorus has all the hooks of a Twisted Sister or WASP anthem. The place where things are a bit less conventional is the vocal department, which walks a pretty thin line between an L.A. sleaze sound and a traditional Rob Halford emulation, the latter of which becomes a bit more pronounced on the 2nd song "Break Out", which gets a bit more adventurous in the riff department as well.

As things progress along, it gets a bit unclear as to whether Black Diamond wants to go in a completely metal direction as the See You In Hell meets Defenders Of The Faith opening songs would suggest, or in more of a retro-rocking direction, as the second half of this EP tends towards. There's definitely a strong Deep Purple and Kiss vibe coming out of numbers like "Rock Wire" and "Hard Rock", though interpreted through the similar grooving character that tended to typify the first 2 Grim Reaper albums. At the tail end of things it gets a bit off-kilter on "Temple Of Love" with a riff set that flashes at full speed in a Judas Priest mode yet again, only to be stilted a bit by yet another straight rock beat at mid tempo. It's a decent catchy tune that, thankfully, doesn't round out the listen as a weak token ballad, but it definitely showcases a band that's caught in a transitional stage and not quite able to kick the drum work up a notch.

While somewhat on the generic side for where music was circa 1985, Black Diamond managed to make a solid singular splash outside of the realm of demos here. The weak link is definitely in the drum department, as this band seems to want to have flashy guitar work meshed in with contrived, bare bones Phil Rudd worship. Sometimes the combination works, whereas at other times the album seems to want to compete more directly with Judas Priest, which had already bitten the speed metal bug a year before this and not quite fallen into their Turbo rut. It's a highly competent and fairly unique album, especially in a German context as it doesn't ape any ideas off of Accept or Scorpions, but it doesn't quite cross over into being an unsung classic.

~ metal-archives.com