Count your blessings!

I awoke with a slight feeling of melancholy and tried to work out what exactly was wrong.  It is quite possible that I had seriously overdosed on the new Laura Marling album the day before, having listened to it six or seven times in a row and becoming totally enmeshed in the web of bittersweet emotions that she weaves with her magical music.  It might have been a premonition that I would encounter some bad news when I checked the headlines.  Well those could very well have been some reasons for the sad mood that pervaded my being.  In any case, I was drawn to my stack of Metal records this morning and was going to put on this beauty here:

But on my search for the "L" section of my collection, I noticed that one LP in the "M"s was peeping out and it was one I had purchased a year or two ago, played a couple of times and filed away with no real impressions of either greatness or unimportance; in short, mediocrity possibly peppered with the occasional highlight  is what I associated Malteze with when I stuck away the record.  But as so often happens when I flip through the music library looking for one thing, my movements were arrested by the sight of something completely different; this time it was a black sleeve poking out from among the Manowars and Morbid Angles and I decided to give *Count your blessings* another spin.  Was I glad I did!  From the great production to the really exemplary musicianship showcased by the twin-guitar attack of Masami Fujimaki and Steve Cenker ably underpinned by the rock-solid rhythm section made up of Kriss Marxx on bass and Mike Voss on drums, the at times aggressive, at times tender voice of Barbara Malteze soars over everything.  Every track is a potential hit with plenty of hooks, full-on drumming that propels the musical narrative, and memorable choruses.  The lyrics are well thoght out and presented intelligently in the overall picture.  It is  very  professional and the only reason I can think of why this band didn't get bigger than they did (the split up after recording an e.p. and this full-length which dates to 1990) is the old chestnut about lacking the necessary label to do the job well.  

Personal highlights are *Hell walks laughing*, *Borrowed time*, and the ballad *Rain*.  Today something special happened that doesn't occur too often: my mood was completely changed by some songs on a record that I expected to not listen to anytime soon.  But this hook-laden riff-fest with those catchy choruses and the great voice of Barbara Malteze has become a firm favourite here at camp Piotr.