Manilla Road - Crystal Logic (1983)

As soon as Mark Shelton's guitar kicks in, we get a feeling of metal muchness, because 'Crystal Logic', like so many other Manilla Road epics', is a masterpiece of epic metal, a record so goddam big, that every other metal album since seems to have spawned from it like some type of goblin-esque offspring. Of course, the tragedy of the story is that Manilla Ropad neevr got the recognition like so many other bands, and yet the landscapes they paint are far more alien and inhospitable than those on any Maiden et al album. Every riff and every warrior wail belongs solely to manilla Road, every crashing drum beat seems to act as the toll of a distance bell that reverberates forever through the wastelands. Not since Sabbath has been such a gargantuan, monolithic and monstrous noise, a big, lumbering elephant that destroys all who challenge it, every track smoothly rolled out like some vast tapestry of mystical tales. The killer speed metal riff of the title cut is an awesome sound to behold, the vocals soar between the flames like two spinning doves, as poetically the band shift gears, creating new voids of doom to explore and conquer. It's no wonder that bands such as Darkthrone continue to hail such a formidable beast, a creature that somehow has skuled in great depths and yet remained hidden like some beast still awaiting discovery. 'The Veils Of Negative Existence' is the type of bombastic metal that influenced Bruce Dickinson to wail time and time again, the riffs roll like some armour plated juggernaut, Shelton a true master of the metal guitar and vocal as 'The Ram' gallops in on thunderous beats, and as those tales of magic, mountains and monsters echo through the ears, we can only wonder why these guys never make those heavy metal top tens. maybe it's the creaky nature of it all, but what the cynics like to call old fashioned, us metalheads call timesless. 8.5/10