TORANAGA: Bastard Ballads LP + inner. Check samples.

TORANAGA - BASTARD BALLADS LP PEACEVILLE RECORDS 1988 + inner

Side A - 1.Sentenced, 2.Dealers in death, 3.Bastard ballad

Side B - 1.Soldiers be brave, 2.Time to burn, 3.Retribution

Toranaga – Bastard Ballads
Label: Peaceville
Catalog#: VILE 5
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: UK
Released: 1988
Genre: Rock
Style: Thrash

Tracklist
A1 Sentenced 6:48
A2 Dealers Of Death 5:30
A3 Bastard Ballad 6:00

B1 Soldiers Be Brave 5:41
B2 Time To Burn 8:33
B3 Retribution 2:15

Bass – Andy Burton
Drums – Steve Todd
Engineer – Kevin Ridley
Guitar – Andy Mitchell
Producer – Kevin Ridley
Vocals – Mark Duffy

Despite two decent record deals (this album was put out through Peaceville, the second album God's Gift through Chrysalis), England's Toranaga made only a small splash during their career. I always found the raw energy of this debut superior. The band played with an early Bay Area feel, though heavily rooted in traditional NWOBHM, conveyed through the melodic guitars. Vocalist Mark Duffy has a raspy vocal style which reminds me of early German speed metal, perhaps a dash of Exodus.

There are only six tracks on the debut, so it's a little short. "Sentenced" opens with a melodic thrash riff which reminds me of older Overkill. It's a pretty long track for thrash/speed metal, almost 7 minutes, and has its peaks and valleys. "Dealers in Death" is more of a heavy metal song with a heavier edge to it. "Bastard Ballads" begins with melodic speed metal and has some mellow parts with some cool leads. "Soldiers Be Brave" uses some flowing triplet picking and is one of the thrashier tracks on the album. "Time to Burn" is balladic at points, but picks up into some So Far, So What, So Good style thrashing during the bridge. The last song "Retribution" is a slower, moodier track and sets up the direction of the second album.

The mix here was decent. The drums have a lot of reverb to them so they often reach a pretty crashy level which thunders behind the even guitars and bass. Duffy's vocals are decent and the songwriting is good. Aside from one or two catchier songs, though, this is a better album than God's Gift. It's not exactly derivative, but more of a smorgasbord of sounds from better bands and albums.