The thing about Savage Grace was, they had great record covers, man. You can say what you want about 'em, call them second stringers or also-rans, but with the very possible exception of Bitch, none of the LA flash metal hordes could touch Savage Grace for sheer record label raunch. And, to be honest with ya, when yr dealing with an audience that's, like, 95% 14 year old boys, that's pretty much all ya needed to sell records back then.

I first heard Savage Grace back in 1982, on the Metal Massacre II compilation (Metal Blade) which, if yr keepin' count, was not the best one, MMIII was. Still, it had some rockin' flash metal tracks - the awesome headbanger crunch of "Rivet Head" by Surgical Steel, the chick-led speed-thrills of "Heavy Metal Virgin" by Aloha (soon to be Hawaii, naturally), the shred-head of "Mind Invader by Third Stage Alert (featuring a pre-Steeler Yngwie Malmsteen!), and the weird neo-Christian epic metal of Hyksos (although I only THINK Hyksos were good - their sole album, the cleverly named "Hyksos", sells for like, $150 a pop now, so don't expect their Flash Metal Suicide entry anytime soon). Oh, and although the band was godawful, it also featured Molten Leather, which has gotta be the greatest metal band name ever. Molten Leather! Anyway, Savage Grace had a song called "Scepters of Deceit" on it, and even at the age of 12, I knew "Scepters of Deceit" didn't make any sense, man. Musically, it was a total Priest/Maiden cop. Luckily for them, it was still early enuff to rip those two bands off and not sound like complete hacks. I mean, unless you started making WHOLE ALBUMS of the stuff, or something. Oh, wait-

On the strength of their MMII track, Metal Blade signed Savage Grace (not to be confused, by the way, with the 70's prog-psyche Savage Grace from Detroit, or the 80's "Melodic Metal" Savage Grace (also from Detroit), which probably happened way more often 20 years ago than it does now, I reckon), and in '83, they released "The Dominatress" EP, which had a really excellent cover, man, featuring a curvy, curly haired, uh, dominatress, welding a whip. Other than that, I don't really know what to tell you. I had a copy, sure - I mean, just look at, you want a copy too, dontcha?- but I never actually LISTENED to it. I think that mighta been why I always figured Savage Grace to be this sleazy, evil, proto-thrash porn metal band, ya know, cuz that's what they looked like. Which is probably why I bought their first full-length, 1985's "Master of Disguise", which has one of the most outrageous fuckin' covers ever - a naked, gagged chick handcuffed to a motorcycle, while a cop grins broadly in the foreground- but who wanted to blow the curve by spinning the thing?

By 1986, Christian Logue, the guitarist that founded Savage Grace, had gone through so many line-up changes that he'd pretty much used up every long-haired shredder in town. You start losin' band members to fuckin' Omen and yr in trouble, Jack. Savage Grace managed to release one more full-length, "After the Fall from Grace" (Metal Blade) in '86, and a rarely heard but righteous looking pic-disc EP, "Ride Into the Night" (Semaphore) in 1987, and then, they were no more. But a funny thing happened on the way to oblivion- somehow of another, a "True Metal" cult grew in Europe, and they somehow decided that Agent Steel (guitarist Mike Marshall was briefly a member of SG) and Savage Grace were the pioneers of speed/power metal, and now, they're like, Gods over there. So, good for them. Savage Grace have yet to reform- the various members split into about 100 different bands, and I reckon some of 'em are still operating, but it's only a matter of time before they do, I'm sure. Me? I don't like power metal, man. It's like doing math with my ears, and all the singers do this girly screeching, and they sing about fuckin' dragons too much. So, then, why does Savage Grace rate as a Flash Metal Suicide? Well it's like I told ya, I thought they were gonna be a sleazy, evil, proto-thrash porn metal band, cuz that's what screams off of the covers, dig? I mean, I just laid down $7.00 for "After the Fall From Grace", expecting tunes about Backseat Sallies and chugging, punky riffs and all kindsa good stuff like that, and what I got was songs like "Destination Unknown" ("To guide us now, we must somehow let out heart's desire light our way") and "Tales of Mystery" ("We seek to find/stories of fiery dragons, witches, monsters, magic spells") which sound just like Queensryche, way before shit like that was even necessary, ya know? So, I don't know what kinda geek-metal mind-tricks Savage Grace were trying to pull on people, but there's a lesson to be learned here, and I gotta sneaking suspicion it's "Don't judge a book by it's cover". Book, 80's metal record, whichever.

Oh yeah, and I oughta mention that on said cover, there's a chick about to get her head chopped off. Rumor abounds that said head-chopper was the then 15 year old Gene Hoglan from 80' speed metal band Dark Angel (now in Strapping Young Lad, I think), but the guy's torso looks more like 300 pound middle-aged fella, so I kinda doubt it. Unless Gene looked like that back then.