SWEET SAVAGE- Take no Prisoners 7″ (Park Records, Ireland, 1981)
This may not stand the test of time as gloriously as, say, BLITZKRIEG, although SWEET SAVAGE used to be one of the top underground bands of the NWOBHM. In fact, when you now compare this rocking and rolling two-tracker with heavier bands of the era, it’s quite obvious why we originally called such bands “Heavy Rock”. Except for some interesting breaks and bits in “Killing Time” (later covered by METALLICA), this is almost typical Pub Rock (or as Peter would love to have it called: Pubes Rock), except for the powerful singing maybe. I can’t really say whether this is good, bad or good bad music, but “Killing Time” sure is the better of the two tracks.
I used to hold strong resentment against SWEET SAVAGE in the early 80s. It wasn’t the music really - to tell the truth, it was because of the two guys on the left of the cover and their nasty grin. I mean looking at them still maddens me and I tend to believe people like these might have ruined my youth more than no sex, no drugs and no god.
I used to have the 2nd 7″ as well, but I can’t really remember how it sounded. But the tracks from the BBC session (partially used for the “Friday Rock Show”) were a bit darker and heavier than this first 7″.
Peter - KBD Records wrote:
Ha ha the two guys on left must be the original evil twins that I’ve heard so much about. Sweet Savage would’ve made some of my metal friends rock hard. This is so annoying it makes me clean my flat really fast believing the song will end faster.
Posted on 26-Apr-08 at 12:18 pm | Permalink
____> wrote:
C’mon this is GREAT! Love the drums sound and the vocals and the general Boogie Woogie feeling. Great post!
Posted on 26-Apr-08 at 3:39 pm | Permalink
John Forsythe wrote:
About the two guys on the cover, nobody seemed to notice but the first guy on the left is none other than Vivian Campbell. Some of you may remember him from his Dio days and more recently from Def Leppard.
Posted on 26-Apr-08 at 4:02 pm | Permalink
Pär wrote:
Vivian Cambell was already ugly back when releasing this. But Killing Time is a killer tune.
Posted on 26-Apr-08 at 11:06 pm | Permalink
Frank Mossi wrote:
Take no prisoners sounds like a parody, haha. But Killing time is a true classic and I’m happy that I can finally listen to the original now and not the Metallica cover version (which is great too!).
Posted on 27-Apr-08 at 1:57 am | Permalink
John Scharpen wrote:
This is another one that I only had on tape. I did, however, have the Friday Rock Show compilation with Sweet Savage’s “Eye of the Storm” on it - until somebody stole it from my locker at school. Now, years later, I have a bootleg cd with all of their early output on it. The second 7″ is much weaker than the first. They’ve since gotten back together and put out a couple of cds in an attempt to relive past glories (the Metallica effect, I guess - it seems that most of the bands that Metallica covered have gotten back together, most likely to capitalize on the fact that they’ve been covered by Metallica. ha.). Still, the first 7″ is one of my favorites from that time.
Posted on 29-Apr-08 at 10:26 am | Permalink
eddie wrote:
When is Styx’s first album gonna be on rotation???? wtf? dyhm? :)-
Posted on 01-May-08 at 11:38 am | Permalink
R0B wrote:
Is your resentment towards the two on the left because guys like that in the 8O’s were the ones stealing away all the sex and the drugs from you with those kinds of smiles?
“Killing Time” is great (way better then the cover Metallica did of the song). Thanks for posting this!
Posted on 03-May-08 at 7:31 am | Permalink
Admin wrote:
I wouldn’t have known what to do with them gals anyway, RoB.
Posted on 03-May-08 at 8:26 am | Permalink