Kat - Worship Me Or Die (1987)

This lovely lady is, or was, known also as The Great Kat...being a young metaller I actually feared the blonde bombshell who was touted, possibly more by herself than anyone else as 'Metals Fastest Guitarist', and around the time a majority of the record reviews were none too kind. I took it to be a novelty record so never purchased it back in the day, it certainly reeked of metal, as with gob open like a cavern, studded wristbands adorning wrists and blonde locks flailing over her guitar, she screamed from the cover like a banshee whilst on the back of the sleeve the allegedly evil wench clasped the hair of her two rather silly looking bandmates, the amusingly named Adam (The Animal) Killa, on drums, and Tom Von Doom on bass. Many, many years later I dug this record out from the dusty vault and have to say, I really like it...it may have been cheesy at the time but I personally thought that hearing it now would make me cringe but it's not novelty metal at all but a frenzied heavy metal opus with plenty of dazzling guitar work-outs, (if she actually plays it!), and it's a potent mix of technical hardcore and thrash built upon overly Satanic lyrics which at the time must've turned a few heads even if the track titles such as 'Satan Goes To Church' leave a lot to be desired, but it's clear throughout the record amongst the forest of twiddling solo's, Kat's unhealthy yelps and general scalping speed that there is a certain degree of decent musicianship and quality archetypal metal. It's clear that Kat loves herself, the record is littered with self worship but it's all done for the image I'm sure. I'd like to have a pound/dollar for every mention of the words death, satan, Kat and demon, but this has more metal in its crotch than most bands I could mention. All hail the Great Kat, even if she was probably a hairdresser in her other job rather than Satan's bitch. This would've kept your average 13-yr old metaller busy for weeks...and even more alarming is the fact she was born in Swindon, UK, proof that the British are always the best. Check out 'Worship Me Or Die' cos' this lady can play...and hear her other material at: http://www.greatkat.com/

7/10