Band:	Lääz Rockit
Album:	No Stranger To Danger
Style:	Bay Area thrash metal
Release date:	1985
Guest review by:	DayFly

01. Dreams Die Hard
02. I've Got Time
03. Town To Town
04. Backbreaker
05. Stand Alone
06. Spared From The Fire
07. Off The Deep End
08. Tonight Alive
09. Wrecking Machine
10. Leatherface

Lääz Rockit's second album No Stranger To Danger explored the more melodic and commercial aspects of their debut album. However, this hardly bears similarity to glam metal - not even to the heavier first wave - as often derided. Save for a ballad, the album is made up of pure if rather polished slightly sped-up heavy metal that occasionally gives nods towards the band's speedy peers. Still, even a die-hard thrash fan would be hard-pressed to pinpoint these moments as the album has a very light-hearted, perhaps even boyish feel atypical for the continuously dour underground metal scene. It is mainly Michael Coons' fault, one of the most versatile vocalists of the genre, and to a lesser degree that of the guitarists who just seem to run with it.

After a few supposedly futuristic sounding effects the album kicks off with one of the band's catchiest songs "Dreams Die Hard", a hook-laden slab of 80s metal with some great ganged-up vocals in the chorus. The quirky "Town To Town" and the more uplifting "Stand Alone" follow the same template similarly successfully. Along with the atmospheric yet quite intense ballad "Spared From The Fire", these songs alone are enough to make No Stranger To Danger appealing to fans of such US bands like early Savatage or Malice but the album has more to offer. Both the excellent "Wrecking Machine" and a slightly strained but still powerful "Backbreaker" are faster, heavier, leaner and meaner and would not sound out of place on say Kill 'Em All. The remaining tracks occupy a musical middle ground (i.e. something power-metallish) and are solid, if not equally remarkable.

Even if No Stranger To Danger offers a great deal variety it will probably be most appealing to traditional metallists (and the band's only album to do so). Lääz Rockit would pursue a more extreme (and widely more acclaimed) direction in the future and when listening to this album one might be inclined to think it was for the better. Though it is hardly perfect, topping No Stranger To Danger with a similar record would likely have proven to be a hard nut to crack.