I can’t help it saying how much having this job here at Metal Addicts is rewarding for reasons only metalheads like you and me would understand. One of the things we just love to do is to “dig” new bands. The more obscure, the sweetest is the flavor of the digging. If we do love doing this nowadays, imagine in the 1980s or the 1990s when there was no internet, no Google, no Youtube, or things like that. It was the real digging. But whatever…
I confess I never had the pleasure of simply knowing Wardance existed. Not even a clue. “Heaven Is for Sale” is their only effort released back then in 1990. Wardance sail on the safe waters of German speed metal of the 1980s. So, expect uptempo beats, sharp guitar solos, harsh vocals, and fast riffings. But Wardance have a hidden trick which is their female vocalist. Don’t expect someone like Acid’s Kate de Lombaert or our forever princess Doro. Sandra Schumacher, it’s the name of the lady, has a very personal voice. If I were to compare, I’d say she has the same personal kind of voice as Cirith Ungol’s Tim Baker. A bit uncanny, a bit out of tune, so simply fantastic. Wardance are a pleasant surprise.
You know what. You love Metal and decide to learn to play an instrument. Then you gather around some friends to have some fun. You start playing some covers, but you can’t play them pristine. Something misses, maybe the needed ability, maybe some musical experience, but even though, you decide to go on. Next step is writing some songs. Yeah, but the same happens. Songs you write miss something as well. They sound a bit weird. Riffs are kind of odd, but you don’t care, you move on. Some gigs here, some shows there, and then you get the dreaming record contract – well, anyway, any contract would be a dream. Next step you are sharing your songs with a whole bunch of weirdos. That may have been the story of Wardance and “Heaven Is for Sale” record.
Some songs are precious pieces of speed metal hell as “Heaven Is for Sale.” Others are a step into the 1990s and sound like Metallica as “Believe” and “Death Caress,” both with Wardance touch which is the element that make them so tasty. Wardance had the skill to mix lots of guitar melodies as the masters of Accept with a female angry and harsh voice and some thick guitar riffing as early Metallica. An unexpected encounter. Pay attention to the solo guitar intro of “Paris in Fear” – hum, certainly not a good song title for a German band to sing.
Well, my boys and girls, this review was certainly one of the easiest to write due to how amazed I was with Wardance. And I’m writing before listening to their cover of “House of the Rising Sun” and the rest of the album, which is long, very long with 17 tracks. Absolutely delicious and unexpected. The burning question is why a band like Wardance didn’t get a piece of the deserved success. “Heaven Is for Sale” is a great album. There are some secrets life will never reveal.
Wardance “Heaven Is for Sale” will be reissued on September 19th via Dying Victims Productions.
Track Listing:
- Heaven Is for Sale
- Destroyer
- Believe
- Neverending Nightmare
- I Don’t Love You Anymore
- Overture
- Don’t Play with Fire
- Death Caress
- Paris in Fear
- House of the Rising Sun
Bonustracks – CD Version – 1990: - Friday the 13th
- Blues
Additional Bonustracks – CD Re-Release – 2018: - Chonda’s Dream
- Killing Snow
- Megalomaniacs
- Wild Beauties
- Die Unendliche Geschichte
Watch “Heaven Is for Sale” video here:
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!