In my view, 70s vintage Hard Rock is one of the top foundations of Heavy Metal, particularly the Hard Rock spikes that began in Great Britain. Besides the loud vocals, killer bass, and strong drums, the wonderful crunchy sound of that old 70s guitar was probably the best one ever heard in those days, and even today, and it brought Metal one of its greater powers. Those attributes were almost shown in full with the brand new release by the American based band, DRAGSTRIP, that a while ago released its debut album, "A Heartbeat Away From Disaster", via the UK label of Riff City Records.

This debut album is the result of the co-working between Americans and Brits that shared their unified appreciation to 70s British Hard Rock. Among those guys there is one of the ex-drummers of the British Metal monster, TANK, Gary "Bulldog" Taylor, that once participated in TANK's self-titled album back in 1987. In addition to a well done drummer and a solid bass player (Brian Dobbs), the band proved to have a profound lead section. The amazing British talent of a vocalist, Kevan Overend, has the ability to be the next thing in present Hard Rock while reminding some of the famous names of the 70s along with some of the early 80s. This guy has a true Rock voice. Alongside him, the lead guitarist and also the ex-player of SPACE AGE PLAYBOYS, Tommy Norton, showcased his high skill on some artistic Rock type solos while providing a well done, and rather dominant, backing vocals. Those two guys together made quite an impressive vintage vocalic harmonies that there are surly missed in several of today's Hard Rock outputs. In the bottom line, DRAGSTRIP, as you can see, is an experienced band that tried to capture the spirit of the 70s, and I can say that they did it good with some cool tracks in the same vein.

However, "A Heartbeat Away From Disaster" was a only a heartbeat away from being a better release. There were something that I think that should have been a little different and others that could have been left out in the first place. First, I think that the main theme of the album, all the stuff that was made out of relationships, girls and such ,could have been a little more lyrically intelligent. Although we are talking here about a kind of free spirit lyrics, banality should have been avoided to some extent because you can reach a smooth line without it. Check out the plots of "She's Alright" or "Thanks For The Memories" or "Ain't Nobody" or "You're My Mainman".

Under the same page with the lyrics, I noticed that banality also paid its wicked visit on the several of the riffages that were displayed here. Some of DRAGSTRIP's material has its peak moments as on "Saturday Night (See My Baby Jive)", "Thanks For The Memories", "The Game" and "What I Need". Nevertheless, they composed some stuff that seemed to be too obvious or used lots of times over. I like the classic feel of the genre yet I don't believe that recycling is a sort of a tribute or keeping the heritage in tact, far from it. Secondly, there is that small production issue. Although the band chose to broaden their admiration for the 70s with a type of production that will fit the era, something like old BLACK SABBATH albums, what about the sound of the drums? The usual sound of 70s drums is way fuller and definitive than what I heard on this release. I really don't think that the addition of tons of reverb to the mix helped the snare sound that much.

So if you are a fan of THIN LIZZY, LED ZEPPELIN, UFO, early AC/DC and even a slice of the early American KISS, this album will bring you much pleasure. Even if Banality may come around knocking, DRAGSTRIP still has an edge by releasing a fine album with a vintage taste.