The cover art screams "hard n heavy"! A slice right out of a cake made of metal, still one of the coolest images in metal LP art history. It conjures something very heavy hitting, like
Accept or
Iron Maiden perhaps if Eddie was depicted in the image chowing down on a piece. But instead,
Karo's "Heavy Birthday" is more like...
Craaft. Another German band that put melody and keyboards up front and in your face,
Karo is much the same. They hail from the same place, and splice that sugary coating with the heavy cream. An injection of sing-a-long choruses and fat melodic melodies and you get a fair vision of what
Karo's syrup is all about.
The press biography compares the disc to Sinner's "Dangerous Charm" and Kindgom's "Lost in the City", two great albums that were circulating around that time, but to me, the Craaft comparision is more obvious.
Here's something that will get your attention for the unknowing or oblivious: Dan Lucas is the singer. Yep, he is credited under his real name, at least I think it is, he is German after all: Lutz Salzwedel, but it's really Dan. He was best known for the "Canada" release back in 1992, but has faded from the spotlight in the past ten years. His voice is steeped in that German accent and gets quite high pitched at times. Alot of bands featured singers that came from the same page as him, but for a reason. It definitely does fit the music.
Karo was named after their keyboard player,
Karo Straub, who definitely gets his playing wedged into each and every song, and frequently. The guitars are well done, handled by Erich Holstein. Bass and drums are thrown in here by Dieter Seeburg and Ronald Bosien, respectively. Everyone does a great job and they should be noted.
"Wanna Be Loved" sports a catchy guitar rhythm with a metallic edginess. The swirling keyboards flooding the song are a keen match with the bouncy, super happy chorus. A fluffy guitar solo completes the package. This is like Skagarack with some
Tour De Force thrown in for kicks.
"One of a Kind" bounds off with more of a guitar driven sound but those keys pick up after the intro, creating fever dreams from the 1980s. Catchy as all hell, it's like a disease, you aren't going to shake this one after just a few listens. Pure Craaft-like stuff here. The chorus just buries its way into your skull, so sugary yet with spicy guitars. Sugar and spice make everything nice.
"Still Hate to Lose" is a fine track, although some would say otherwise. It's a task in simplicity to map out the paths of most of the tuneage here, but not the case with this one. The beginning is not much of an indication of where the song will be headed. With twists and turns along the way,
"Still" delves into something a little deeper and thus reminds me of yet another masterful melodic German band that was active at the time, Mydra.
"Sister, Sister" keeps the quality high and the keys in the spotlight. This finds itself high flying on a sugar rush of a chorus that is just repeated til your brain is ready for a Chernobyl-like meltdown. Like sweet cream icing melting down all over your heavy birthday cake.
Candy coated melodic rock for sure, with the shadow of
Survivor lurking in the background, but absolutely on point.
"Ball of Fire" steps away from the fluffy uptempo puff of the first few songs, and ramps up the rock portion of the sound. Or does it? Just wait til the chorus and the bit that comes after. The guitars are gnawing at the song like a hungry dog, with a grittiness in their electric barks, but the keys just keep on keepin' on their merry way. What else is there to love? How about the breakdown in the middle before the chorus whips you into shape again. It sounds like an engine trying to start, atleast I believe that's what they were shooting for.
"Call of the Wild" deserves a look for daring to be different yet remaining the same. More of a percussion push with steamy synthesizers of the organ flavored type for atmosphere and a throaty, power house vocal, make this one to watch for. The chorus kind of softens the approach but this is such well craafted (heh) melodic metal-ish rock.
The remainder of "Heavy Birthday" is not up to speed with the first six tracks. It drops off in quality from here on out, getting worse as the disc marches on. Not that it ever reaches lows of atrocity, but it brushes with boring by the last track.
"No-Mans Land" could be an 80s update of Golden Earring in spots. I swear that a few moments here remind me of that Dutch band in a weird way. Otherwise it's a punchy piece that is more flat out rock'n'roll than the sticky goodness that is the icing of the album.
"Out On the Line" is fairly forgettable 80s metal that throws in a couple of early
Van Halen moments where the guitar and harmonies are concerned.
"Cold Shoulder" tosses the accent in with raw abundance but its flanked with some hard rock that is reminiscent of early
Bon Jovi smashed together with more of that delicious Craaft influence.
"Nobody's Fool" is another take on that formula, except with guitars that sizzle a little hotter and keyboards that frantically cheese on. Decent, but nothing to fawn over.
It wouldn't be a Classix re-release without some kind of added incentive for those that might have already shelled out a couple hundred dollars USD for
Karo, before this was available. A digital remastering just isn't enough these days, although the remastering job brings out the natural feel of the album. It was undoubtedly not a big budget affair to begin with, but the sound doesn't reflect that.
However, as that lagniappe we get two unreleased tracks. A "new" version of
"Wanna Be Loved" recorded in 2005, which is nice. They turned a mid tempo catchy track, right on its head and made it into a proper ballad, something that "Heavy Birthday" did not contain inititally. Dan...errr... Lutz's voice has matured with a blossoming. It's much warmer and organic now than it was in the 80s. The song works beautifully as such, but then we get the same thing dished out again but with only the vocals and acoustic guitar in the mix. They titled it "acoustic" and it is, but it's just the same track as before but with the good stuff stripped out. Boring.
Karo only lasted for one album only and this is it. Thankfully with MTM eClassix's re-release it will get the second chance it deserves. A chance that was a long time in coming, but perhaps now, with fans of this type of music more in touch with what's circulating around the world, it will find the audience it was originally intended for.
Karo deserved a larger audience, and it would have been interesting to hear a second album and how they evolved, but atleast we have the opportunity to take a bite out of that "Heavy Birthday" cake, after all this time. A little stale perhaps towards the end, but those first bites are still deliciously sweet.
Written by
Alanna Wednesday, November 30, 2005
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