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OZ were among the first Metal bands to come out Finland alongside the likes of Sarcofagus, Riff Raff and Tarot. Originally hailing from the godforsaken village of Nakkila, they released their self-titled debut on the miniscule label Kräk! in 1982 with almost no notice, which may have contributed to their move to Sweden shortly after since it was reissued there under the title Heavy Metal Heroes/Hey You. Thankfully, OZ are now rightfully recognized in the underground as a legendary band whose impact on the Finnish scene is immeasurable. Unfortunately, none of that started here, and for good reason.

That's not to say this is a bad album. If you ever listened to OZ before, you already have a good idea what they were doing from the start: rocking, energetic Heavy Metal with a big dose of NWOBHM and Hard Rock similar to the likes of Motörhead, Sabbath, and Dio-era Rainbow. It even starts off brilliantly with the blazing opener "Hey You", which has the raw, outbursting energy we've all come to know and love from the band along with some pretty aggressive guitar work for the time. However, it's pretty clear the band is still trying to find themselves, with almost none of the other songs really standing out from one another and being little more than decent. The one exception to this is "Rather Knight," which is a pretty cool song if you can get past the fact that it sounds pretty similar to Rainbow's "Stargazer" in terms of structure and especially in the riffs. That might just be a coincidence, but I sincerely doubt it.

OZ would go on to release the excellent Fire in the Brain shortly afterwards and really take off from there, and that's more than enough to make you overlook the somewhat rocky start found on here. This is still the kind of stripped-down classic album that OZ always makes, and it has enough of their trademark energy to make it worth listening to as a curiosity, but it was definitely all uphill from here.