{"id":21058,"date":"2012-07-16T06:14:58","date_gmt":"2012-07-16T11:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=21058"},"modified":"2013-02-05T16:14:13","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T21:14:13","slug":"blacksmith-time-out-of-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2012\/blacksmith-time-out-of-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Blacksmith | Time Out of Mind<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Originally recorded in 1991, but never officially released until present day, Time Out of Mind<\/em> is the second full-length album from New York-based cult heavy metal heroes Blacksmith. It follows the Heaven and Hell label\u2019s successful Blacksmith collection Strike While the Iron\u2019s Hot<\/em> and a string of high-energy live performances from the recently-reunited band. Heaven and Hell calls their reissue series \u201cLost Relics,\u201d and that has probably never been more apt than with this release. Time Out of Mind<\/em> is an album that otherwise never would have seen the light of day \u2013 long rumored to exist, but never actually heard\u2026 until now.<\/p>\n

By 1991, the thrash metal explosion was in full force, and that was not lost on the members of Blacksmith. The band\u2019s 1989 full-length debut Fire From Within<\/em> already found the band taking their sound in a harder, faster direction, and they continued that direction on Time Out of Mind<\/em>. You can still hear the classic heavy metal influence, but that definitely comes in second to the kind of high-speed riffing and breakneck rhythms you\u2019d expect from bands like Vicious Rumors, Powermad and to some extent Overkill and Forbidden. Guitarist David Smith just blazes away here, especially on the blistering solos, and vocalist Malcolm Lovegrove seems to have turned up the intensity of his own performance to keep pace. Smith and Lovegrove play off each other very well here, all against the solid rhythmic backbone Chris Caglione and Chris Madsen provide.<\/p>\n

Time Out of Mind<\/em> is a very strong album overall, and a great example of how the thrash and traditional metal sounds intersected at the time. It does have some standout songs, most notably the anthemic \u201cBurn Down the World,\u201d the high speed assault of \u201cPowerhead\u201d and the punishing album closer \u201cLive\/Die.\u201d The unlisted eleventh track \u2013 a very metal version of The Ramones\u2019 \u201cBlitzkrieg Bop\u201d ends things on a lighter note.<\/p>\n

The only downside is that the sound quality is not what it should be. Basement Studios\u2019 Jamie King did a heroic job cleaning the album up, but given the source material the sound on Time Out of Mind<\/em> just doesn\u2019t measure up to what we heard on the Strike While the Iron\u2019s Hot<\/em> collection. Weighed against the alternative, which is never hearing the album at all, it\u2019s something that can be overlooked.<\/p>\n

Kudos to Heaven and Hell Records for finally bringing this true lost relic to metal collectors everywhere. Time Out of Mind<\/em> is an album that all Blacksmith fans \u2013 whether they followed the band back in the \u201880s or discovered them recently \u2013 will definitely want to hear.<\/p>\n

Genre: Heavy Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nDavid Smith (g)
\nMalcolm Lovegrove (v)
\nChristopher Caglione (d)
\nChris Madsen (b)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tTime Out of Mind
\n2.\tAchilles Heel
\n3.\tBurn Down the World
\n4.\tLost City
\n5.\tPowerhead
\n6.\tPieces of Chuck
\n7.\tWreckage
\n8.\tThe Lesser Evil
\n9.\tBurn Out
\n10.\tLive\/Die
\n11.\tBlitzkrieg Bop<\/p>\n

Label: Heaven and Hell<\/p>\n

Website: www.blacksmithusa.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 8.25\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist — Originally recorded in 1991, but never officially released until present day, Time Out of Mind is the second full-length album from New York-based cult heavy metal heroes Blacksmith. […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6772],"tags":[1290,2491],"class_list":{"0":"post-21058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arcrvws2012","7":"tag-heaven-and-hell-records","8":"tag-heavy-metal"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}