Just when I thought that I am about to get seriously hammered by this incoming debut by the German Heavy Metal band, DOCTOR SPEED, it came crashing down on me while toppling my expectations downhill. I don't know why I came so straightforward with my feelings generated by this album so fast, but something told me that it just had to be now. The members of DOCTOR SPEED aren't new in the Metal scene when it comes to personal experience even though their career bands such as HORNY SPEED, WILD CHILD and ARAYA weren't that known to the large majority of the public's eye, but I believe that what they did on "Face To Face", their debut album as DOCTOR SPEED, should have been far better. It started with an average type of material continued further with a poor type of production and ended up in a product that shares potential but no zilch more. Heavy Metal can be a fine thing, but is has be nurtured in order to relish and shake down the enthusiasm deep within the listener.

Primarily DOCTOR SPEED share many common elements that can be found in older Heavy Metal hall of famers such as JUDAS PRIEST, old era of HELLOWEEN and RUNNING WILD, IRON SAVIOR and somewhat the first years of BRAINSTORM, probably mostly due to the fact that Axel Heckert produced the band. Furthermore, the foursome crew took some of their tracks into the veils of Thrash and Speed Metal as well thus making their rhythms heavier, rough and slightly brutal (Not in the Death Metal manner of course). However, within the loutish approach of the riffages, DOCTOR SPEED prevailed with their loyalty to melodic harmonies and catchy and even anthem like, choruses that accompanied most of the songs. I had a good time with "Evil Dead", which presented itself as the darkest entity on the album and it ended up being the band's strongest blasting effort. "We Destroy" carved through the flesh with an EXCITER meets IRON MAIDEN with something to prove and the solid ballad attempt of "Frozen Tears".

So what happened that this release didn't come to win my old school craze? I can start with the music itself and the band's performance. I don't have problems when a band wishes to stay away from overly complex features that will cause them to lose balance and stray from the path of the songs, yet DOCTOR SPEED took a different direction with repeating riffs and passages that didn't help their creations to be little more diverse than usual. Also there were a few tracks that while listening made me feel lost and disoriented. With all the simplicity around, how can one really get disoriented? Ohh maybe because there were passages that horrifically cutting the verse like as if it was raw meat? I think that is the right allegory to describe what went on.

When it came to the performance, I enjoyed Johnny Fox's voice as he seemed to me like an more than enough singer that knows how deliver the goods, if there were more than just a few goods around. However, I think that the weakest link was the band's drummer as it appeared to me that over a few tracks he was off beat to some extent and misplaced a few bass drum kicks along the way. Frankly, I think that with all the triggering, I might be mistaken but as far as it went, Aggi Bernhardt wasn't that hot on skins. That brings me to the production. In general I have no problem at all with muckiness and raw sound loom, yet I believe that the mixing was bad as the guitars, which sounded rather good, were on top of nearly everything, and probably the bass as well especially in the rhythms, leaving the vocals behind. The bass drum was very noticeable but there were moments where it was just too much to bear and the regretfully the snare sound wasn't consistent between the tracks.

"Face To Face" has an "in your face" attitude that has some resemblance to the US Metal attitude and probably, along with the old European class, that is the reason why the listening experience kept me going. Nonetheless, I congregate that DOCTOR SPEED will have to be more than forceful in their music and a little be spicier in their Metal perception in their later creations. With a good base of experience I gather there is a way to move forward.