Black Virgin - Most Likely To Exceed (1986)

Yikes Scooby, run for your life! This is scary stuff, Black Virgin must surely have crawled from the same fetid pit inhabited by Hellhammer. This is really, really dark heavy metal from the gloomy cavern of the '80s. This is most certainly the sort of album us teenage rebels craved back in the day, but with all that hair metal around it was difficult to breathe through the smog of hairspray. The bizarrely named Black Virgin are so pitch and so sinister that I'm seeking advice from a priest after just one listen. Amazing how so many bands over the last decade or more have tried to sound so evil, and yet these guys effortlessly slip into the blackness with their gloom-laden brand of claustrophobic heavy metal. It's the sort of sordid metal that drums up images of moonless nights and a sacrificial lamb - think of old Celtic Frost, especially in that grim vocal department, Kenny Lienhardt, also responsible for those sinisyer riffs, is pure filth in those arrogant and devilish sneers - I'm thinking early Voivod too as the pitch 'Nightriders' oozes out of the speakers. There's a sinister female named Cathy Burke on drums, and Joe Cerna bringing the barbaric bass, Black Virgin exist as one of metal's most ungodly acts. 'Blood Brothers', 'Heavy Metal Mad' all hellish creations that take metal to it's darkest corner. This is real black n' roll to frighten not just the children, but the adults also. Just imagine the reaction of the parents when their son bought this home and gave it a few spins. Spooky stuff. Great cover too. 8/10