Description

Check the exclusive video showing this LP for sale

Check the exclusive video showing this LP for sale

the following review doesn’t concentrate on the music basically on how the band looked on the back cover:

MyoFist’s sophomore album Hot Spikes remains one of the most unique and bizarre albums in the history of hard rock music. This is an amalgamation of hard rock with what sounds like electrofunk. As odd as that may seem, the liberal use of electronic synthesizers with funky bass rhythms make this album a true hard rock anomaly, but it sure is a catchy one.

The songs Hot Spikes and Rock n Roll Suicide are historically important for MyoFist because they mark the first times front-man Ron Chenier uses his signature Ronch vocals, the deep and raspy snarls that are reminiscent of Lemmys from Motorhead. These would later, with the exception of the album In the Red, become the iconic style of singing used by MyoFist in general. However, most of the album features Chenier using a cleaner style of singing, or other vocalists besides Chenier himself.

A lot of these tracks are infectiously repetitious, but in a way that makes them irresistible. One listen to Teenage Love Affair and it will simply refuse to leave the head for hours. The same thing goes for Alimony or Never Come Back. Granted, this is not usually what hard rock bands try to do. They barely fit the mold whatsoever. Besides a bass, Its a Sin doesn’t even feature an electric guitar of any sort. Every song on the album could almost be said to take the instrumental approach of Who Are You? from Black Sabbaths fifth album, but with a more happy-go-lucky tone. The only difference is that there is a decent amount of hard rock guitar on most tracks.

This album is commendable for daring to be different at a time when this genre of music was moving toward uniformity. While most metal fans are so because they enjoy the standard sounds of hard rock and metal, there are many fans who surely can appreciate something that is bold and original.

Hot Spikes is very intriguing and fun. This release is an experiment that was successful.

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MYOFIST – HOT SPIKES:
RELEASED ON A&M RECORDS AMLH 64823 promo

Myofist* Hot Spikes
Label: A&M Records
Catalog#: AMLH 64823
Format: Vinyl, LP
Country: UK
Released: 1980
Style: Hard Rock / Metal

Tracklist:
A1 Money 3:28
A2 Teenage Love Affair 2:57
A3 What Am I To Do 3:26
A4 Hot Spikes 4:17
A5 Are You Crying 3:41

B1 Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide 3:51
B2 Alimony 2:33
B3 Never Come Back 3:48
B4 Its A Sin 2:35
B5 Lord I Miss You 5:00

Bass, Vocals Jeff Nystrom
Drums, Backing Vocals John Chenier
Guitar, Vocals Ron Chenier
Keyboards Ed Eagan

1980 Hot Spikes
Within months, FIST had signed a worldwide recording contract with A&M Records which resulted in a world wide release of their second album Hot Spikes in 1980. During this period FIST was touring with Motorhead, Krokus, Triumph, Max Webster, Harlequin, etc. In the spring of 1980 FIST had garnered, along with producer George Semkiw of Amber Studios, Toronto, two Juno nominations for Best Production.

Fist returned to the road and toured practically every corner of the eastern half of the continent for the next year. The band was signed to a world wide deal with A & M in the summer of 1980 and quickly returned to the studio. They emerged from Toronto’s Amber Studios that fall and released HOT SPIKES. The band hired George Semkiw to engineer and produce. The only difference between HOT SPIKES and its predecessor was the new album caressed them gently. Backed by songs like the anthemic “Reality” and lead off track “Money”, a song about the hustle and bustle of society’s drive for materialism, HOT SPIKES showed a maturity, harnessed by Semkiws experience. Other notable cuts included “Lord I Miss You” and “Teenage Love Affair” Never Come Back Alimony, intended to garner the band radio play. The tours continued, with FIST seeing practically every province and state over the next year.

The 1980 debut from this hard rock band. I played the hell out of this when I first got it, to the point that some of the songs are embedded in my memory forever. Mostly hard rock in style, with songs titled “Money”, “Teenage Love Affair”, “Rock and Roll Suicide” and “It’s a Sin”, with the crunch of the guitars tempered with some interesting-sounding synths. They were a bit of a schizophrenic band, too, as the songs featuring guitarist Ron Chenier’s growling lead vocals sound much heavier than those sung by pretty-boy bass player Jeff Nystrom.