Heavy Metal Kids - Heavy Metal Kids (CD)

All Music Guide

The Heavy Metal Kids never became stars, never won any readers polls, never had a hit record. But, if you could roll back time to that moment in 1974 when the very first needle hit the very first pressing of their eponymous debut album, it would be impossible to prophecy that sordid fate. Quite frankly, Heavy Metal Kids rises so far above the rest of the period pack that, Sparks and Cockney Rebel notwithstanding, there was no more exciting proposition to be found on the new release shelves.Part unrepentant boogie band, part pub rock leviathan, and part good time distillation of the best of Slade and the Faces, fronted by the utterly irresistible cackle of singer Gary Holton, the Kids' flash slashandsashay assault had a cosmic energy that could transform even the ballads ("It's The Same", "Nature Of My Game" into fistsintheair anthems. A decade later, the band could have so rewritten the notion of the power ballad that we might never have had to suffer through the 1980s; a decade ear...lier, and the British Invasion could have been the new prog. Imagine Jim Steinman producing Them, and you're close to the majesty of Heavy Metal Kids. As it is, the only people who seem to have truly noted what the Kids were doing were the Rolling Stones the laconic reggae of "Run Around Eyes" is a dry run for the Stones' later romp through "Cherry Oh Baby". Read more Less