Crom Wasteland

Crom 'Wasteland' (Claxxon Productions, 1988)

This LP was a gift from my lovely Spanish tutor Maria who hailed from Valladolid and knew the members of Crom. I'd moved onto death metal by the time she gave me 'Wasteland' so I barely listened to it and I also suffered from an element of teenage hubris which dictated that anything your elders gave you was rubbish.

This record still causes me to giggle as Jon would insist that we listen to Claxxon whenever he came round. The fact he knew the band was called Crom made the joke even funnier and he still brings them up regularly when he's not talking about bands featuring Sabre, his mum's Indian takeaway loving porcelain cat, or 'Alan Plays Bass'. Another case of you had to be there really....

Crom play proficient 80s hard heavy metal which is knocking on the door of thrash but is still rooted in the power metal stylings of the likes of Metal Church and early Anthrax. It's obvious that thrash has an influence on the band and I can detect hints of Celtic Frost in 'The Chosen One', but overall the vocals and sound are just the wrong side of traditional; more early Helloween than 'Hell Awaits'.

Although this Arthurian concept album is not a classic, it's quite refreshing and definitely better than I remember it. I think I might suggest to Pringle that we play one of their tracks on our next podcast.

Amazingly, 'Wasteland' appears to fetch upwards of £100 so I'm putting it in a plastic cover.

Peace