Know Your Enemy

Guess it is common understanding that “No Stranger to Danger” achieved the excitement level of house dust, no more, no less. Given this fact, “Know Your Enemy” was in a relatively comfortable situation right from the outset. Even its incredibly misshapen artwork was ignorable in view of the musical improvement the album featured. And today we know that a multi-coloured, miserable artwork is just a trademark of the entire present thrash metal world. Lääz Rockit were just the harbingers of this evolution.

The band had left the barren fields of heavy / power metal. Now the dudes were concentrating on a mix of power and speed metal. The average production failed to lend the material an adequate degree of harshness and today the mix of the album appears antiquated. On a positive note, it’s a brilliant sound for people who like to travel back in time. The first high-pitched screams of Michael Coons will leave no doubt that the traveller has arrived. His vocals are as eighties as possible, a lot of high tones without any form of balancing counterweight. He did not perform badly, one just has to get used to this kind of singing again.

The A side houses the gems of the album. The dynamic “Euroshima” boasts with a good flow, pretty sharp riffing and an above average intensity, inter alia due to some rumbling double bass parts and a swift mid-part. “Most Dangerous Game” is one of those tunes which begin like a ballad and end as a vibrant thrasher. “Last Breath” would have been great with a less stupid, less stomping chorus - its guitar work is solid. Unfortunately, the B side is left out in the cold in terms of gems. The conventionally designed songs get shorter and shorter as if their lengths were symbolizing that the group steadily runs out of breath and ideas. They pass by without outstanding sequences or miserable sections. In terms of style, they are on par with songs of Satan / Pariah, but with regard to the quality level, I see a difference at the expense of the US American quintet. For example, the chorus of “Self Destruct” is pretty coherent and catchy, but only seen in isolation, because it is poorly embedded into the song. Other pieces also have relatively attention-grabbing parts, but do not form an outstanding whole.

Decide for yourself whether or not you want to (re) discover this so-so work with eight regular tracks, a superfluous guitar solo, a meaningless intro and the oh so funny titled, completely useless outro. Despite a few early highlights such as “Forced to Fight” from the debut, the band only gained momentum with the release of the fourth, clearly thrashing full-length. “Know Your Enemy” was a misleading name, because it looks like the dudes were, contrary to the title, not aware of their true antagonists – a certain lethargy and predominantly mediocre song-writing.

Holy shit… and some people still deny the 80s were the best decade of all times! I don’t think I’ll be around by the next 80s, but I’m more than sure it’s going to be awesome; including uncanny events like the second coming of Jesus or the foundation of the Romanic Church of Appletology, whichever is more likely. Anyway, Lååz Rockit’s 3rd offering, Know Your Enemy, is one badass thrash record. It shows a more mature band, full of energy and new great ideas – this is especially surprising if we consider that it came after No Stranger to Danger - and the best words to describe it are Complete Destruction.

The present review is for the Massacre Records re-release, with an additional DVD of Lååz Rockit live in Eindhoven 1986, thus the review will be divided in two main sections; the full-length release and the DVD.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY

This album is just about having fun while thrashing your place; isn’t that the definition of thrash metal? Know Your Enemy starts with a little intro before it explodes right in your face with “Last breath”. The catchiness is immediate; the first threatening riff and accompanying notes will increase your adrenaline, and you’ll feel the need to start jumping all over the place. Then Michael Coons will come in and command all your movements; at this point you’ll be doomed to frantically headbang until the album is over. When heard at first, his voice can sound a bit annoying, or difficult to get into - with that peculiar falsetto of his -, but his high-pitched, tearing shrieks are one of Lååz Rockit’s most valuable assets; it’s like when Blitz goes “ELIMINATE ELIMINAAAAAAATE!”. In fact, his shrieks are quite reminiscent of Overkill’s frontman, and those who like albums like The Years of Decay or Under the Influence will be delighted with Michael Coons. What is more, his performance in this album may be his best and more complete in his career; showing more emotion and solemnity in songs like “Means to an end” and “I’m electric”, but still keeping his innate aggressiveness.

When compared to the rest of their work, the closest one both in terms of quality and musical style is their next album, Annihilation Principle. The most notable difference is the darker atmosphere in this one, and the generally thicker sound of the music. This is thanks to the perfectly audible bass, which plays an important role in the music, unlike in Annihilation Principle, where it goes rather unnoticed. It can also be said that the drums are a bit weak and muffled in comparison, and don’t sound as demolishing as in Annihilation Principle, but that’s a minor issue; you still have the catchy, memorable choruses and the breakneck speed riffs. The only thing you could really complain about is the last two songs: “Mad axe attack” and “Shit’s ugly”. These last 2:18 and 1:38 respectively and really can’t be classified as songs. The former is a long, out of place solo and the latter is random noise; none of them interesting at all.

Know Your Enemy is a classic thrash album in essence – regarding riffs and song structure – and at the same time has a very original sound. Take “Last breath”, for example. The riffs are quite simple and by the book. The glue that binds them, though, makes the resulting sound very unique and original; the combination of the mid-paced and speedy riffs – which are completely mastered by Lååz Rockit –, plus the contrast between continuous, fast (”feel the push, feel the axe”) and broken (”Take-your-last-breath”) vocal lines with doubled choruses is wonderful, and trademark of the band. Another good example of innovation is the mid-paced, aggressive, yet dramatic ballad “Means to an end”. Even though thrash already had very well known ballads like ”Fade to black”, ”Sanitarium”, ”Watch the children pray” and ”Gods of wrath”, I still find ”Means to an end” to add an extra element to the equation that makes it stand out: solemnity. What’s more, it doesn’t get as repetitive as my beloved Metal Church, and it has more balls than Metallica’s ballads.

Highlight songs include the fantastic “Last breath”, “Say goodbye M.F.” and “Means to an end”, although you could pick any other three (except for the last two) and the quality would still be excellent. “Last breath” is my favourite song. It’s as catchy as it gets and has such tempo changes, and aggressive riffs, you will yield to it from the first moment. The pre-chorus is complete speed/thrash metal madness; the mixture of Coons' fast singing with the dirty guitar sound and the bass pedal beating at full speed is just lethal. “Say goodbye M.F” has a completely memorable, relentless riff set and a fierce, extremely catchy chorus with over-the-top shrieks (“Say! Say! Goodbyyyyyyyyyye”); this song could be the definition of heaviness in a sonorous dictionary. ”Means to an end” is the heavy, very solemn sounding ballad; with excellent vocal lines in the chorus, and sing-along “ooooooh-ing”, it will easily captivate thrash fans who don’t care if a song is a ballad as long as it’s good.

LIVE IN EINDHOVEN 1986

What is this? An extra DVD on how to mosh with the Lååz Rockit method? Weeeeeeeeeee! That’s right, with this DVD you will see the full-of-despise looks decrease in a 30% within the first 5 rows of the concert. Unfortunately you only get songs from the first two albums, so no “Last breath”, “Fire in the hole” or “Mirror to madness”. Even though, the tracklist is quite good for the material they had released by 1986; including “Backbreaker” - which is mistakenly named “Backstabber” in the back cover -, “Prelude”, “Forced to fight”, “Caught in the act” and “Spared from the fire”. Compared to the homologous extra DVD in the reissue of Annihilation Principle, this one is superior in some facets and inferior in others. The sound, for example, is rather muffled (it’s especially detrimental for the instruments) and fuzzy – very 80s low quality -, and at some points even shaky; like in an old, often used tape. Thus, the music loses a bit of strength with such low guitars and drums in the mix. On the other hand, you don’t get the severe sound problems you have in the other DVD (Aaron Jellum is for the most part inaudible which has a great impact in some songs), and the camera work is much better; frontal view of the stage plus some good zooms – it’s not the seventh wonder of the world, but you couldn’t really expect much more.

The performance this time is more static on stage – this one is very narrow – but musically is still intense as usual; “Prelude” is played notably faster than in studio, and other crushing tunes like “Backbreaker” and “Forced to fight” are simply relentless and literally neckbreakers – keep handy some extra vertebrae. The band still displays a lot of chemistry on stage, having fun and transmitting it to the audience. Highlights of the DVD include the continuous stage diving, the almost successful attempt of kidnapping Michael Coons, the guy in the monster mask and pawns, the predictable attempt to kidnap him too (both failed felonies in “Wrecking machine”!), and of course, the musical artillery: the thrashers “Wrecking machine”, “Backbreaker” and “Prelude”; the catchy, heavy metal offerings “Caught in the act” and “City’s gonna burn”; and the ballad “Spared from the fire”. Yes, most of the DVD is great, despite the sound and the limited material, but this is Lååz Rockit we’re talking about; keep in mind they could pull a live show off even with Bee Gees Material.

If you liked any of this band’s 80s releases then… why don’t you have this one yet? Go get it! If you are looking for something with a more classic, thicker sound and plenty of shrieks, you should give a spin to Overkill’s The Years of Decay and Taking Over.

These guys were a pretty big hit among the US thrash metal hordes of the 80s: they hovered just below the level of popularity that bands like Overkill and Testament managed to accrue, and I had many friends who cited them among their favorite bands of the day. They were never one of my own personal thrash crushes, but Know Your Enemy was a good album that I listened to quite a lot and will occasionally spin again. It's got just the right amount of grittier aggression but still centers on catchy hooks.

"Demolition" opens the album with a creepy haunted castle vibe, followed by the excellent "Last Breath" with its brutal battery of searing speed metal guitars and a great breakdown chorus. "Euroshima" is wild political thrash frenzy. "Most Dangerous Game" is some quality speed metal based on a great story, and I like the acoustic intro. Michael Coons has a great way of mixing his shrill higher pitch with some powerful dirty edge to it. "Shot to Hell" coils about a very common chord structure but still comes across exciting. Other good tracks include "Say Goodbye M.F." and "I'm Electric".

Like many other 80s bands, Lääz Rockit does sort of fall between genre distinctions. I'd say they are just as much early power metal as they are a thrash band. This album marked a slight shift from their earlier street metal sound (No Stranger to Danger), and after this they'd get even more thrashy on Annihilation Principle. In any case, Know Your Enemy has a nice raw energy to it which I enjoyed more than their other albums. It may not be first rate songwriting but it's good enough and I'm sure many thrashers wax nostalgic about this.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

First of all, Laaz Rockit are often named as one of the forgotten gems of late eighties American thrash. However, it was not until this 1987 album that the band we’re really starting to sound thrashier than before. Yet still there are many, many more influences and styles in their music than just thrash! And secondly Laaz Rockit weren’t one of the faster bands.

On “Know Your Enemy” we find some thrash, especially on the first part of the album. “Last Breath” and “Euroshima” are typical mid eighties thrashing songs with the emphasis on a strong chorus and catchy riffs. The production? Just a typical eighties sound. I like it. It’s honest and pure.

On “Most Dangerous Game” it is obvious Laaz Rockit can do a lot more than just thrash. This song is very dynamic and diverse and even some riffs and vocals line reminiscent of ’83-’84 era Queensryche. A very good and melodic song but still powerfull enough to be on this heavy album.

But is the second part of the album bad? No sir! The only problem with Side B is that Side A was slightly better. Speaking of catchiness, do try the chorus of “Self Destruct”. Want some melodic metal, try the semi-ballad “Means to an End”.

Are there no complaints? Yes there are! The last two ‘songs’ on the album aren’t songs. There’s 2 minutes of busy guitars called “Mad Axe Attack” and 1:37 minues of noise called “ Shit's Ugly”. And “Demolition” is just an intro. This leaves us with 8 real songs and the end of the album somethat destroys the atmosphere.

I remember aquiring this album when it was released back in 87. Uncertain as to whether or not this album would be a continuation of No Stranger To Danger or something totally new. However, aside from the song Backbreaker from the previous album, Laaz Rockit had finally found their sound which was to be embelished and polished into what was a dominating force of thrash metal. From the onslaught of Last Breath right up until the climatic finish of the axe mastery found on Mad Axe Attack this album was focused and sincere, loaded with some of the catchiest(not yet cliched)thrash melodies and powersurged interludes of any album released from the bay area up to this point in time.
Laaz Rockit had officially arrived into the realm of pure thrash. I think the focus on this album is truly significant in that there is no elements of generic metal or even the glammish feel that was prevalent on the previous two records. Indeed Laaz had finally become a poweful entity and began to surpass many of their peers, placing them lightyears ahead of what alot of the speed metal bands were doing.
Man, is this album ever fucking catchy. Catchy and creative at the same time. Any diehard fan of this band knows that the best was yet to come, but I'm reluctant to think that in 1987 there were few bands that released an album that matched the intensity and melodic genius found on this album.
With the exception of the Shits Ugly...which is really nothing more than the initial tell-tale signs of Michael Coons alcoholism...every song on this gem is a classic and only because I'm comparing it to their next album does it not get full marks.

Wow! There really isn't another heavy metal album in the world that sounds quite like this - it's the epitome of "power-thrash", despite sounding nothing like "Spreading the Disease" or "Nosferatu" or any other examples of the genre. What this is, is 80s metal (think Grim Reaper for instance) with the riff work accented a million times more strongly. So you have the catchy sing-along verses and choruses, but under that a very solid backbone of riffs.

Highlights: well, everything but the last two throwaway tracks (which are a total of like 2 minutes long, and one is even a pretty decent guitar solo, but they're not really songs). We start with the intro "Demolition", which goes into "Last Breath". This song is pretty typical of the album - really overt intro riff which is pretty similar to the underlying riffs of the song, and a chorus that is simple and catchy. "Take your last breath!!" "Euroshima" is pretty similar, and then we get to "Most Dangerous Game", which starts off as a ballad, and then gets really fucking heavy (think "Winds of War" by Helstar, though this song moves faster overall) - the melodies are perfectly designed and the middle riff set is all out fucking thrash. Very well done.

"Say Goodbye MF" and "Self Destruct" are two more thrashers, and "Means to an End" is another ballad, this time one without a thrash attack in the middle, but is very nice nonetheless - it's a ballad, but still one that demands to be cranked to 11. This is it, I stand or fall! Sing along, kiddies. "I'm Electric" is pretty much a speed metal song - the kind that sounds like Grim Reaper on crack the most. Maybe the best chorus here, and definitely the fastest song.

Overall, this is a very unique album - they completely fucking NAILED the concept of what they were going for here. Can't praise this album enough! It may be the most over-the-top album I've ever heard... the vocals are fucking insane and just a barrel of fun to sing along to, and the simple, punchy riffs are all memorable - this one just screams HEAVY FUCKING METAL!