"Wild Dogs" - "Reign Of Terror": A 1987 metal masterpiece

Here's my first rare & obscure metal masterpiece album post - everyone download this, even if you don't listen to metal. It's especially for my friend "The Phelpster" from "The Manchester Morgue" who has posted some metal classics in between the film music on his blog.

This is the 3rd album release from the "Wild Dogs" from 1987: "Reign Of Terror" (7 additional demos recorded for the followup album never transpired - I didn't include them because their quality's pretty bad) which introduced a new lead singer & bassist. The 1st two "Wild Dogs" albums are great as well but this is the best one. All of the songs were written by the phenomenal guitarist "Jeff Mark" & the famous pioneer drumming virtuoso "Deen Castronovo". Jeff rules & Deen has been one of the most sought after journeyman drum wizards of all time as he has played on numerous metal & neo-classical metal albums, as well as non-metal releases for a wide range of artists including, Tony MacAlpine, Steve Vai, Marty Friedman, Cacophony, Social Distortion, Ozzy Osbourne, etc. He is now the drummer for Journey. Deen also plays on the former "Wild Dogs" singer "Matt McCourt's" project from 1986 called "Dr. Mastermind" - this is also an absolute metal masterpiece classic from "Shrapnel Records" that I will post on this blog soon as well.

"What Hendrix, Van Halen and Ywngwie were to modern guitar Deen is to drums. His over the top bombastic bass drum flurries soon made Deen the 16 YR OLD wonder kid of his band at the time. "The Enemy" went out as the opening act in front of Blue Oyster Cult and Foghat. Upon seeing an ad on TV for The Enemy, Kip Doran (Evil Genius), Matt McCourt and Ja Reynolds (Malice ) went to see Deen at a local nightclub. "He was playin' double bass in parts of "Shoot, Shoot" the UFO song, that actually made me like that song", remembers McCourt. "I was really into drummers especially Billy Cobham and Neil Peart and here is this (then) overweight kid takin' up the whole stage playing and singing, the others in the band had to stand on the dance floor because his kit was so big."

Here is another quote from Matt McCourt about the "Wild Dogs" and this 3rd release: "The Wild Dogs emerged in the nwobhm at the same time Metallica, Slayer, Metal Church, Iron Maiden, and Saxon came onto the scene. Signed to Shrapnel Records, they possesed drummer Deen Castronovo who has recorded with Ozzy Osbourne and Journey, and guiatrist Jeff Mark who styles himself after Eddie Van Halen and Uli John Roth of the Scorpions. He is a truly unique and innovative guitarist who if comparison HAS to be made I would say along the lines of Alex Lifeson in theory and originality and Uli Jon Roth for the speedy riffs. This was Mike Varney of Shrapnel Record's first real discovery long before the neo-classical invasion. This album was composed by Deen Castronovo and Jeff utilizing the world class drumming that prior releases did not contain. A drummers handbook of riffs and the notuion that drummers too can write songs! In an effort to be different this album definitely is not puppy mill speed metal and fits in with Racer X , or the other vocal based groups of this genre. You'll notice a few similarities on the production of "Dr. Mastermind", also released at this time. 16 months later Deen was picked up by Tony MacAlpine and shortly thereafter began his long career with Neal Schon, and became a member of the supergroup Journey. "Reign Of Terror" contains a highly modern prog rock approach to American metal. The album has been deemed a classic must own for budding drummers and guitarsits as a riffateria often inspiring talent."

Well there you go, that should get you salivating for some rare metal masterpieces to follow folks as I include some more revies here n' there between the film scores & soundtracks.

This album is available from CDBaby.com as a rare re-release. So if you're convinced, and I know you are, go pay the paltry amount for the CD and crank it up!