High Power: High Power (1983)

Ah, the 80's.  Only that decade could have produced such an atrocious album cover.  I am not even sure what is going on here.  Is this a man transforming into a were-leopard-like creature?  I have no idea, but this cover is just laughably bad.  Of course I had to check it out.

High Power is a French metal band whose sound seems rooted in the NWOBHM style taking over Europe in the late 1970's/early 1980's.  This is their first album, which is something of a forgotten gem that has recently been unearthed.  The music is fairly typical for the era, high-energy, raucous riffs, catchy hooks and soaring vocals.  It sounds largely like a mix between Accept and Judas Priest.  A sound that was fairly popular at this time period.

So why is this album so forgotten?  This album likely had a very limited market, even though it could have caught on with the trend in music at the time.  The reason for this is quite simple: all the lyrics and song titles are in French.  Something like that simply would not have attained mainstream success at that point in time.  There have been the occasional mainstream foreign language songs, but they were often treated as a novelty and not had much staying power.  So High Power likely would not have been able to reach mainstream success unless they started playing in English, they could have attained more of a following.  Alas, they never did, and after a follow-up album in 1986, disbanded.

This album is something of a curiosity, a band who could have done a little more if not for one detail.  It is a fun album to listen to, due to the high energy of the performances, particularly if in the mood for early 1980's-style metal.  Unless lyrics are important.