Year : 2015
Style : Heavy Metal , NWOBHM
Country : United Kingdom
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans
Size : 147 mb
Bio:
Quartz dates back to as early as 1974 when they were known as Bandy Legs.They signed to Jet Records in 1976 and supported Black Sabbath and AC/DC. The band changed their name to Quartz for their 1977 debut album, Quartz. The album was produced by Tony Iommi and Quartz toured with Black Sabbath to support this release. Queen guitarist Brian May handled guitar on "Circles," which also features Ozzy Osbourne on backing vocals. This track did not appear on the album but would turn up as the B-side to the "Stoking the Fires of Hell" single.Quartz toured heavily during this time, playing the Reading Festival three times (1976, 1977 and 1980) and touring in support of some of the larger hard rock bands of the time (Iron Maiden, Saxon, UFO and Rush).Quartz released their second studio album, Stand Up and Fight, in 1980 and their third, Against All Odds, in 1983 before calling it quits. In 1979 Geoff Nicholls left to join Black Sabbath. He contributed keyboards and songwriting from 1980s Heaven and Hell to 2004.In 2004, doom metal band, Orodruin covered "Stand Up and Fight" on their album Claw Tower.Prior to the founding of Quartz, Hopkins had played in Wages of Sin, a short-lived Birmingham band which toured as a backing band for Cat Stevens in 1970.After that band's dissolution, two of his bandmates, expatriate Canadians Ed and Brian Pilling, returned to Canada and formed the band Fludd; Hopkins briefly joined that band in 1972 as a replacement for founding guitarist Mick Walsh, but left by the end of the year after they were dropped from their original record label.Quartz reformed in 2011 playing a reunion gig on 16 December 2011 at The Asylum in Birmingham, England. The line up consisted of Geoff Nicholls, Mike Hopkins, Derek Arnold, Malcolm Cope and vocalist David Garner.
Album:
Originating from Birmingham, England, QUARTZ date back to 1974, and were considered to be at the forefront of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. They released their first album on Jet Records in 1977, which was produced by BLACK SABBATH’s Tony Iommi. Around 1983, Malcolm Cope also joined the roll call of QUARTZ members being called up to BLACK SABBATH working on pre-production demos for the “Born Again” album. Incidentally in 1980 Malcolm was approached by Ozzy Osbourne to join his solo band but he declined, stating that QUARTZ was his band.On January 31, 2015, Skol Records released “Too Hot To Handle” CD, which can be considered as a complete unreleased album from back in the day, as it’s a collection of 16 previously unreleased songs recorded between 1981 and 1982. Some of those tracks were re-recorded in different versions for the “Against All Odds” album (1983), and some of them see the light of the day for the first time ever. Because of the band’s connection with legendary BLACK SABBATH, the new album “Too Hot To Handle” is a part of the heavy metal history.QUARTZ are big on melody, the entire album revolves around harmony, sharp riffs, clean vocals, several catchy hooks and a haunting rock groove.The opening track of the album “Too Hot To Handle” starts very slowly, with melodic riffs, typical ‘80s style, followed by a precise guitar solo and David’s warm voice. “Crack The Sky”, is a romantic ballad that builds up to the end with some powerful roaring vocals. The beginning of “Hard Road” has a mushy guitar sound, completely unintelligible and a David Garner desperately trying to cover the instruments. The ending has a good solo, in my opinion, the only good part of the entire melody.Might be just me, but “Just Another Man” chorus sounds somewhat like IRON MAIDEN’s “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”. Continuing with #5, “Silver Wheels” we have some atmospheric rhythmic guitars powered by some great instrumentalists and a catchy refrain, it would have been definitely a hit back in the days. With “Hell Livin’ Without You” I had a terrible deja vu, the heaviness groove made me think of early UFO.The music sounds old, it’s so typical ‘80s, the type that my father listened to on his old record player. If “Too Hot To Handle” would have been released back in the day, I have no doubt that it would have been a hit, unfortunately, not a timeless one. Don’t get me wrong, the album is worth your time, but I have my doubts whether or not young people will get ‘addicted’ to it.
Line Up:
David Garner - Vocals (1981-1982, 2011-present) - See also: ex-Lucifer
Derek Arnold - Bass (1977-1980, 2011-present) - See also: ex-Copperfield
Mick Hopkins - Guitars (1977-1983, 2011-present) - See also: ex-Copperfield, ex-The Idle Race
Geoff Nicholls - Guitars, Keyboards (1977, 2011-present) - See also: Tony Martin, ex-Black Sabbath
Malcolm Cope - Drums (1977-1983, 2011-present)
Tracklist:
01. Too Hot to Handle 03:50
02. Crack the Sky 04:53
03. Hard Road 03:17
04. Just Another Man 04:15
05. Silver Wheels 03:15
06. Frontline 03:02
07. Love 'em & Run 05:12
08. Madman 04:02
09. Buried Alive 04:33
10. The Lawman 03:25
11. Tell Me Why 03:16
12. Revelations 02:35
13. Avalon 03:57
14. Right Above Myself 03:12
15. Gold Digger 05:58
16. It's Hell Livin' Without You 02:46
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