The First Temptation

Album Review

Like many secondary New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands, B*****s Sin achieved precious little notoriety with the albums and singles released during their nondescript existence, only to witness quite unbelievable interest from later-day metal collectors, whose curiosity stretched even as far as checking out their unofficial catalog. 2004's Majestic Rock release, The First Temptation, is the plastic, silvery proof, delving deep into the band's past to unearth their legendary first demo from August, 1980, originally titled "Twelve Pounds and No Kinks," as well as a smattering of sessions from the BBC's Friday Rock Show. Needless to say, sound quality is not one of this package's strong suits (or even concerns), but it also might have been a lot worse, and of course we're talking about a genre where raw authenticity is actually revered as a prime attribute. What's more, only one of these seven demos (the slow churning epic "Ice Angels") would later resurface on B*****s Sin's official releases, making surprisingly accomplished offerings like "Down the Road," "Two of a Kind" (part Iron Maiden, part Praying Mantis), and the boogie-inflected "Heavy Life" that much more compelling. By the same token, poorly executed efforts like "White Lady" (marred by somewhat hysterical vocals) and the band's clumsy eponymous song are similarly easier to forgive, since they are, in fact, merely demos. "Down the Road" is reprised for the band's BBC session, which took place one year later, in August of 1981, and featured an almost entirely new B*****s Sin lineup. It also introduced significantly advanced material like "Fallen Star" (a mixture of Thin Lizzy and AOR), "Hold on to Love" (a fast-paced metal romp) and the group's most famous composition, the still awesome "Strangers on the Shore." And so, one is surprised to find that, as a whole, The First Temptation is quite a bit more interesting than initially expected, and highly collectible for NWOBHM fanatics, to boot.