Band:	Lääz Rockit
Album:	Know Your Enemy
Style:	Bay Area thrash metal
Release date:	September 16, 1987
Guest review by:	DayFly

Disc I [CD]
01. Demolition
02. Last Breath
03. Euroshima
04. Most Dangerous Game
05. Shot To Hell
06. Say Goodbye M.F.
07. Self Destruct
08. Means To An End
09. I'm Electric
10. Mad Axe Attack
11. Shit's Ugly

Disc II [re-release DVD live at Aardschokdag, Eindhoven 1986]
01. Blackstabber
02. Prelude
03. Dreams Die Hard
04. Guitar Solo
05. Forced To Fight
06. Spared From The Fire
07. Wrecking Machine
08. Caught In The Act
09. City's Gonna Burn

Few bands skimmed genres as effortlessly as Lääz Rockit did. Starting with the obviously Judas Priest-influenced No Stranger to Danger the band would get heavier with each release until settling three albums later with a sound similar to Slayer. Know Your Enemy, the immediate follow-up and the album reviewed here, is a curiosity as it's fusion of traditional, non-speed metal sensibilities with thrash was something no other band attempted for more than a song or two.

Taking a look at the individual performances, one can see how this unlikely mixture came to pass. The melodies (vocal or otherwise) are quite similar to tight and yet roomy traditional metal (and strangely enough, not audibly rooted in the NWOBHM) while the gaps in between are filled out by a crunchy, thrashing rhythmic work. In particular the drumming performance is one of the most tasteful to be seen on an album of this kind. Of course, that approach does not allow such dense and ambitious compositions as later Dark Angel or Metallica which hardly matters as what Know Your Enemy does, it does extremely well.

Usually the songs alternate between rapid verses and slightly slower and therefore more enunciated choruses, the probably best examples being "Euroshima" and the closing "I'm Electric". Two tracks branch out a bit, one being the dramatic semi-ballad "Means To An End". "Most Dangerous Game", the other such song, starts off slowly and without any true build-up launches into a furious onslaught of riffs. Try as they might, even the last two obnoxious pieces of noise do nothing to tarnish this album. An unheralded masterpiece of a far-too-little-explored facet of the genre.