Metal Invader Magazine — (Greece) Translated by George (Late January 1999)
ANOTHER TIME ANOTHER PLACE
After long years of absence, Lyadrive are back. For all those out there who don’t know the name, Lyadrive were formed in 1979 At the Bandwagon of Neal Kay (known producer of the NWOBHM era). They released only one 7″ & split up in 1985. Their first CD is Awesome! It consists mostly of old songs & some new songs. What’s best on the CD is the guitar work & how it ties up with the Bass. The first song of the CD is ‘Sign of the hunted’, It’s quite fast with many influences from the good spirit of NWOBHM. When you think the song is over, along comes ‘A.T.A.P.’ (From the single!??) & ‘Dangerline’ to send you back to those good days. The next song was a surprise for me because it’s the well known ‘One Of These Days’ by Trespass. The CD continues with more good songs, the only exception being the boring’ Fools Paradise’. Now we reach the best song on the CD ‘Steal Away The Night’, which tortured my stereo for weeks! The mix of the slow & fast parts is great. Generally, this release finally rewards?? Lyadrive & we thank them for not letting these tracks go unreleased
Unfortunately the CD is not released in Greece. You will find it at George Arvanitakis,
SOLONOS 44 KALLITHEA L7673 ATHENS
CD reviewed by Antony Livanios
From Hard Roxx Magazine Issue 36
Hard Roxx Magazine can be order my E-mailing Hard Roxx’s Owners. As of issue 36 the Magazine cost 4 UK Pounds in the UK (4.50 Europe, 5 pounds the Rest of the World) and comes with a sampler CD of new music. LYADRIVE Minority/One MIN 08
Here’s an odd CD The band have obviously been around for a while but I for one have never heard of them. They thank Maiden, Leppard, Praying Mantis and NWOBHM in the credits, and sound like they have been all over the place in their search for stardom. The album includes three very NWOBHM tracks recorded in 1984 as bonuses, and boy do they epitomise the time or what. Anyone who sings a song called ‘We’ve Got The Rock‘ with a straight face and is still going today deserves full marks for perseverance. To be honest, the three bonus tracks are pretty naff, but as they’re technically free it would be unfair to judge the album on them.
There’s eleven other tracks contained, and to be brutally honest they’re really rather good. ‘Sign Of The Hunted‘ is an excellent opener with a crunchy yet melodic guitar backing coupled with a great chorus. It’s all a bit rough and ready, but that just adds to the charm. Over the years I’ve listened to enough demo tapes to recognise this sort of music, but nobody seems to be actually signing bands that sound like this. The last band I came across with this sort of musical attitude were Hunted from Bristol, and I get the distinct impression that if you bought their ‘Crawl’ album and liked it, Lyadrive will be right up your street. Each track is punchy and to the point, with good choruses and a good twin guitar backing. There are no ballads for wimp fans, just out and out British Metal music with great energy and no apologies. Worthy of special mention are ‘Madame Guilotine‘ which starts with a nice piece of classical music (borrowed), and ‘Lazerwind‘, which starts slowly and atmospherically before going into a brilliant guitar section and finale.
‘Another Time…’ is an unashamedly British product, and from reading the sleeve notes you get the feeling that Lyadrive are happy to still have the chance to bring their music to the masses, be it four blokes and a dog down the local boozer or a sold out Wembley Arena. They’ve retained the spirit of the early Eighties pioneers, and deserve to be heard. Listen to the track on this month’s free Taster CD (Lazerwind), and if you like it then I guarantee you’ll like the rest of the album.
8/10 Alan Holloway
Strutter’zine
LYADRIVE ‘Another time, another place’
(MINORITY ONE)
The history of this English band goes a long way back. LYADRIVE was formed back in 1979 and was one of the bands of the so-called N.W.O.B.H.M. (short for New Wave Of British Heavy Metal). They existed from 1979 until 1984 and in that period they built up some reputation in the London Hard Rock scene. The band only released a 45 single, which is now ultra-rare and very hard to get.
In 1995 the band reformed due to the fact their only 45 single was becoming a collectable item. Therefore the band decided to record a whole new album they had actually planned more than 10 years ago, but never got released back then. However now LYADRIVE has released a CD that is titled ‘Another time, another place’. Musically LYADRIVE hasn’t changed that much and are playing 80s typed Melodic Hardrock, kinda like PRAYING MANTIS, early SANTERS and UFO.
Notable are the 3 bonustracks on the CD that were recorded way back in 1984 but are making their first appearance on this CD. Most of the 14 included songs are in the same direction. Good guitar-oriented Melodic Hardrock with very nice harmonies and lead vocals of Nick John. The best songs are “Sign of the hunted” (80s typed uptempo melodic hardrock), “One of these days” (starts as a ballad, later a catchy 80s styled melodic rocker), “Fools paradise” (uptempo MHR), “White dress” (uptempo MHR), “Lazerwind” (good semi melodic rockballad with a break in the middle of the song) and “Here comes the night”.
“Here comes the night” is the closing track and also the best song of the whole album. This song is a great melodic AOR rocker that also has some keys. There aren’t any weak songs on the album and I could easily recommend it to anyone that loves the early 80s styled Melodic Hardrock of bands such as SANTERS, PRAYING MANTIS, UFO, TERRAPLANE, ROX…
The CD is available through NEAT RECORDS or for 10 English Pounds at: MUSIC MASTERS, Orchard End, Upper Oddington, Moreton-in-marsh, Glos, GL56 0XH, U.K.
Rating: 8/10
Strutter’Zine can be bought for $5 from
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