In the first quarter of 2021, Golden Core will even release six rarities from 1980 and 1981.
Despite stylistic differences, these albums have one thing in common: They all sound like the missing link between (hard) rock of the seventies and what became heavy metal in the early eighties. The first to be released is “Letters Of Steel” by Piledriver. We are talking neither about the metal band from Canada, nor the Dutch Status Quo cover band, but the first one carrying this name, even though influenced by the first really cracking disc by Status Quo called “Piledriver”.
At the end of the seventies, the band played mainly in the Stuttgart area and soon earned a solid reputation as an energetic heavy rock group leading to a record deal with the freshly formed company GAMA (label: Sri Lanca). At GAMA’s in-house Spygel Studio (named after the folk band Eulenspygel, because the two owners of GAMA played there) the first and unfortunately only LP “Letters Of Steel” was recorded. Together with “Steven”, the also only LP by Requiem, Piledriver started the dance of GAMA, joined some months later by real metal bands like Sinner, Stormwitch, Gravestone or Tyrant.
Piledriver disbanded relatively soon after the release, but just today fans discover such forgotten gems. “Letters Of Steel” sounds like a rare NWOBHM pressing, but from Germany. Fans listen with rapture to the carefree and unfinished sound of many bands of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. And despite all efforts: This record could not be reproduced like this today. This album breathes the zeitgeist of the transition from the seventies to the eighties. The original LP was overdubbed by Patrick Engel (High Roller, Metal Blade etc.) and remastered by Neudi (Manilla Road etc.). The booklet contains rare photos and an interview with singer Martin Metzger!
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