Thunderfire - s/t (1983)

My goodness this has one of the scariest intro's ever - think Sabbath's debut as far as dungeon-esque horror goes, but musically it's more standard metal, the sort that I love, although this has more a doom-laden feel than say Stainless Steel and what really separates this from the rest are the gargoyle-styled vocals Freddy Fiskens, who is the bastard offspring of Lemmy, and has really oily textures to his vocals. This is very direct metal but heavy at its heart, harbouring a NWOBHM feel alongside a deeper bluesy guitar sound which comes courtesy of  Danny van Poucke and the rhythm of Malcolm Murray. This about as dense sounding as metal gets, hard to believe this comes from Belgium, but if you're after primitive wildman metal then you'll find this chest-thumper a real treasure. All I can say is if AC/DC, Venom and Sabbat were thrown into a cauldron then no doubt Thunderfire would emerge.
7.5/10