ATTAXE, with a name like that you instantly know we are dealing with a band who have been around since the good old days of the 80's, and you could make a fair guess as to what type of music they play, Heavy Metal!

Indeed these guys started their Rock and Roll life in 1985, in Cleveland Ohio, USA.  Even with the odd beak in their timeline over the years, they are still going today.

During the early years the band produced numerous demos, as did many of the underground bands of the time did.  So in 2006 this compilation LP was originally released, and then the title "20 Years The Hard Way" made sense, 39 Years The Hard Way, simply doesn't cut it as a title.

As I mentioned their sound is a fairly typical US Heavy Metal from the period, pounding drums, wailing guitars and the occasional high pitched falsetto screamed vocals.

And hereby lays the problem.  This is nothing we haven't heard a thousand times before. There is nothing surprising, or outstanding  on display here, neither is there anything terrible, it is all just a bit meh.

Perhaps it is the quality of the sound, some of he production is very flat, again an indicator of the period.  I could be most of the material hasn't aged as well as it might have. Possibly because JUAN RICARDO'S vocals are not as stellar as some from the era.

There are actually some gems here, for example the last couple of songs, show a distinct step up in quality, both in sound and delivery.  "Are You Ready" is as good a gonzoid Heavy Metal anthem which many a band would kill to have in there arsenal. And "Playing With Fire" is an excellent mid-paced Metal monster of a tune, more like these and these guys could have taken things to another level.

As I mentioned before there is nothing truly bad in this collection, just not enough to make you want to keep the album on repeat listen.  I suspect however these guys are probably a much better band live than recorded and I bet the songs give a lot more in the live environment, so hopefully once we can all safely and properly go to gigs again, some of us get the chance to find this out.