It is a call back to chains, steel plated irons that scream to be placed back on whoever has respects to past glories, adhering the golden age of Metal. Three and half decades one of the 80's discoveries turned up in the offices of the back then small label called Metal Blade Records. Ever since then the label itself became a giant in Metal music, taking charge of some of Metal's relics and promises. From the other end, the discovery itself, the band THRUST, slithering from L.A., inked in blood a deal for the release of their debut "Fist Held High", a name to be reckoned with in what to be categorized as US Metal. Though only to be remerge in the early 00's, the album has trailed a lot of followers over the decades, until this special commemoration by Metal Blade Records to reissue it along with extra live crispies for die-harders to indulge themselves with.

In an age where West Coast Metal bands came to power and US Metal starting gathering followers, turning up the heaviness of their British counterparts, THRUST's debut was at the right moment, at nick of time. When I listened to the musical manner THRUST, I didn't recognize what can be inferred as special, yet I discovered past energies, a margin of class and no rest for the wicked. Striding through the material on "Fist Held High", there is a nostalgic sense of steel, a roar of victory against odds, in and out attacks of traditional purity to fight for the name and genre, and trust me that not in the MANOWAR sagacity. In order to harness THRUST's burning ambition, which abruptly ceased passing this record, you would have to immerse yourself in the 80's addictive Metal drug as a modern thinker would probably dismay what rings in his ear.

Knee deep in the tracks, I noticed the plainness and utter straightforwardness. Whether it is the rhythm guitar riffs that sent me from the heaven into the inner tunnels of the underworld, glorified soloing efforts, cracking raspy tones vocals of high pitched fiend straight from the pits or the punchy drumming already crossing its fangs with speed. There is also that fine hook to the tunes, even the delivered epic song "Freedom Fighters" that passed the test of time with its beyond eight minutes of marching armies. Some songs turned up to me classic anthems of Metal such as "Metallic Attack", "Heavier Than Hell", "Torture Chamber" and the favored "Posers Will Die!". THRUST have already foreseen the vehemence slowly drilling into the American scene with the appearance of "Thrasher", which isn't that known Thrash anthem of the late 80's or even METALLICA's "Ride The Lightning" or "Master Of Puppets" hard hitting Metal chunks, but more of the freewheel burning cruncher that won't let you be without kicking and screaming.

THRUST's debut efforts associated well with the large variety of American Metal bands that stitched the infrastructure of the once amazing Metal scene and "Fist Held High" is a relic stone alongside the others that came with it. Celebrate and rejoice.