HOLY MOSES – Queen Of Siam

Obviously, music ages differently, and as always, it depends on the ears hearing the sounds. What was once good can sound awkward or downright bad twenty years later. The opposite is quite often the case too. And you also have the classics, which were great way back when, and continue to grow to appreciate and love even more as time goes by. As a sub-form of classics, fans have a number of works that are often considered and mentioned in term of “cult” classics. Reasons for “cult” status can slightly differ; but usually it means that a good album by a band never received the recognition some people think it deserved. It can also mean that while the album or band wasn’t excellent, it was still good enough and is considered “cult” anyway and worthy of that status.

Initially judged by locals of hometown Aachen (Germany) as “the most horrible band in the world,” Holy Moses were led (not only as the voice/front figure, but also soon after as manager) by the beautiful Sabina Classen. Her sheer appearance would be enough to separate the band from the male-dominated, beer-bellied German Metal scene at the time, even more so back then when there was basically only Sabina and Doro Pesch (Warlock) around, than now. Mentioned beauty didn’t transfer to her voice, though … quite the opposite as she does anything but sing beautifully or “proper” on Queen Of Siam.

Still, the vocals have a valid place here among the underground sonic quality of the CD. Allegedly, her teacher had not noticed her talent, but that didn’t hinder Sabina from eventually turning into a star. Horrid “vocals” aside, though, the music does offer reconciliation. Amidst the audible horror, cool riffs can be spotted quite frequently and there’s much joy for fans of underground 80’s Metal. This was a time when powerful, catchy riffs ruled supreme alongside poor production (in this case handled by Ralph Hubert, bassist for Mekong Delta), which has its charm, especially in this day and age, and this also goes for Holy Moses. The guitar work is good for what it is, even in the lead department, as is evident, for example, in the double kick that is “Walpurgisnight.”

Queen Of Siam was not the fastest Thrash attack of its time, and has tracks like “Dear Little Friend,” “Bursting Rest,” and “Don’t Mess Around (With The Bitch)” that are more mid-paced and on par stylistically with the more Traditional underground Metal that was around at the same time. Back then, Metal generally had a tendency to come across fairly fast in its delivery anyway.

The riff-age in “Roadcrew” bears slight resemblance to Metallica’s ancient “Whiplash.” The vocals here are handled by guitarist Andy Classen (who was married to Sabina at the time), and he pulls a Lemmy-imitating voice (or maybe it was his singing voice by default, who knows?) in order to further come across similar to Motörhead’s related namesake “(We Are) The Roadcrew.” “Torches Of Fire” manages to include hooks in its fast and intense delivery.

Especially considering the amount of talented bands from Germany at the time, and Queen Of Siam was released pretty much during Metal’s heyday, it did probably end up receiving the amount of attention it deserved, taking into account the well-known name Holy Moses would become, especially throughout Europe. A release that manages to be good in its youthful awfulness, its worthy, be it of “cult” or whatever appreciative status it had as a debut, today.

Note: This re-release comes with a further 7 extra demo tracks.