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Back in 1986 emerged a young British thrash band who brought some cool music and a dose of FUN to the scene. Their name was Acid Reign and they were a bloody great band! They were picked up by British thrash metal label Under One Flag in '88 and released the Moshkinstein EP, which is when I discovered them. The EP cover (shown below) stood out from the rest in that crowded Musiquarium record shop in Swansea and as soon as I got home and played it, I was hooked.
The awesome 'Goddess', the punchy 'Suspended Sentence' and the truly awesome 'Motherly Love', their song to Norman Bates. Brilliant stuff!

Mosh!

They got to support bands like Flotsam and Jetsam, Death Angel, Nuclear Assault and Exodus, touring on Exodus' "Fabulous Disaster Tour".
Sadly they weren't around for long and after releasing just two full length albums, (1989s 'The Fear' and 'Obnoxious' in 1990) they went their seperate ways.
But it was fun while it lasted. Fantastic music to skate to as well! Moshkinstein!

Kung Fu Fighting

Righto, first my apologies for the silence on this little corner of the internet, sometimes 'real' life has a habit of interfering with blogs and my aim of filling it with metal and retro gaming goodness.
So without further ado some more goodness will I write. (Im having a Yoda moment.) I have been playing a lot of Kung-Fu Master in the last few days and as soon as I saw the opening scene the memories came rushing back. I had it originally on the Spectrum and while not being best port of the game, I played it until the cassette wore out. *Games On Cassette Shocker*
Kung Fu Master is a beat 'em up game where you take control of Keiji Thomas (Welsh mother?) as he fights his way through a Chinese temple to rescue his girlfriend Sylvia who has been captured by Mr X. There are five side scrolling floors in all, chock full of dastardly enemies for Mr Thomas to chop suey.
Floor one of the temple contains Grippers, Dwarves and Knife Throwers, wile following levels introduce Tom Toms, poisonous moths, fire-breathing dragons, snakes and not forgetting those 'confetti' balls.
At the end of each level Thomas must face a boss who has different skills and deal him his ass on a plate before going up those wooden stairs. If you've ever seen Bruce Lee's Game of Death (and who hasn't?) then you'll be on familiar ground.


Thomas inspects the enemies foot

Now some are of the opinion that Kung Fu Master gets pretty boring real fast, and I concede that playing it for any longer than say half hour it probably would get rather tedious, but for a quick ten minute blast of arcade fun I cannot fault it. Sure your karate kid only has a few moves but personally I think it adds to the feeling of 'being' a Bruce Lee, king-of-all type fighter. Some guy walks up to Thomas and WHACK! One high kick and its nighty night for the hapless goon, and making you feel as hard as the proverbial nail. Heck in some ports of the game you can even perform a flying kick and literally knock the enemies heads off! Thats power.
Another *thumbs up* for me must go to the music too. I think its catchy as hell and I find myself humming it long after ive played (in fact im doing it now!) It seems to 'go' with the kung fu drama thats unfolding on screen, or perhaps im thinking too much *Grin*
Sadly I don't think many youngsters of today would be very impressed with Kung Fu Master, and you can't blame them when they have the likes of Soul Calibur and Tekken to numb their finger pads to, but its a shame because this title can be a joy in short blasts.