You know those gnarly montages in 80s movies where the protagonist or group of protagonists do some really rad stuff (lifting weights, running tubular uphill sprints, driving on the beach, drinking hard) in a short period of time to make a time lapse seem quicker? And you know how those scenes are usually accompanied by a random bodacious rockin’ song with pump up verses and shouted repeated choruses that just follow the song title? That’s pretty much encapsulates every tubular song on Grim Reaper’s “Rock You To Hell.”
Grim Reaper were a NWOBHM that had some bitchin riffs and righteous, nut-curdling-wail clean vocals, kind of like a cross between early 80s Priest and Dokken. The problem for Grim Reaper is their debut got them a bit of notoriety, then their record company totally had a spaz and liked totally screwed them hard in a most non-triumphant way, so by the time “Rock You To Hell” came out, the only metal that anybody thought was rad was thrash and hair metal. I’m not really sure where the record company’s beef was because jams like the title track, “Rock Me Till I Die,” and not one, but two songs about vampires were grody to the max (in a good way) and should have been radio staples. In the end, what their dipstick record company did to Grim Reaper was not even cool and makes me wonder what their Goddamn damage was, because this is some jamming, fun, easy going metal.
