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A very odd artifact from the golden years of classic metal back in the 80's, the elaborately-named Lords Of The Crimson Alliance came out of nowhere, produced this one and only album, and then vanished completely. I think this was only ever issued on LP back in the day, but there may have been a reissue at some point. I don't know if anyone still owns the rights to this album, so you may not have to feel bad for downloading it.

This is straight-ahead, riff-oriented Heavy Metal with an iffy production job, great songs, and the utterly over-the-top vocals of the pseudonymous Far Cry, who literally sounds like he has his balls in a bench vise. I don't think I've heard upper-register wailing like this since the glory days of Sacred Oath, and these are far more relentless. If it were not for the strength of the songs themselves, this would be only a curiosity, but LotCA ripped out some absolutely undeniable classic shit here. Pretty much every song is a feast of old-school riffs like the one that makes "Dragonslayer" such a headbang-fest. This band is drawing from the same well as classic Omen, Liege Lord, and Deadly Blessing, and they are doing it really well.

With their weird nicknames, incomprehensible intoned intros, and one-album-wonder status, Lords of the Crimson Alliance can never be anything but an utterly underground and obscure band, but this one album is a total classic of 80's metal killage, and if you can find the fucker, you will not be disappointed. A lost gem.