Not Fragile are one of those bands I heard about back in the days of my youth—mostly about their Made of Metal demo in '85—but I was never able to find any of their stuff. Part of that is that they have a really confusing discography, with a lot of splits, EPs and compilations that all seem to recycle a lot of the same songs. This album itself is a kind of rerelease, as the same songs along with others were put out as a Japan-only version and then a Europe-only version in the '90s with different track lists. The tracks themselves were recorded in '89 for the band's intended debut, which then was never released in its original form.

So this is more like a compilation, cobbling together a dozen 30+ year-old tracks to make another version of this same album with a different track order and one would assume some remastering. If this was incredible stuff, I would understand all the versions, but this is, honestly, pretty average. It sounds a lot like Helloween or Deadly Blessing got hit with a de-evolution ray that took them back a few steps into a more primitive sound. The recording is pretty rough, not doing a lot to punch up these songs. The compositions are not as good as the leads, which are excellent when you can hear them. Vocals are iffy, with the singer often sounding warbly and a bit off the note. He doesn't hurt the proceedings, but he doesn't add to the songs either. I am reminded more than a bit of Kai Hansen's squeaky howl in the old days.

So this is like the third attempt to cash in on these old songs, which can't really live up to that kind of hype. If you like genuinely retro Heavy/Speed Metal then you will probably dig this more than I do, but it doesn't really rise much above the crowd.