16. Samson Head On 1980 (Rock Hard)
Heavy Metal
Can you hear the hammerhead in the wind?
Album
Samson were the perfect example of a band who just a year earlier in 1979, would’ve been classified as hard rock due to the obvious blues influences that could be heard on their debut album
Survivors. Now just a year later they were being classified as both heavy metal and essential NWOBHM listening, largely due to their recruitment of a certain Bruce Dickinson on vocals. Bruce Dickinson still known as ‘Bruce Bruce’ had appeared on the album cover of
Survivors, but didn’t actually appear on the album though, as Paul Samson had been the band’s lead vocalist. As the band’s name would suggest, Samson were the band of guitarist/vocalist Paul Samson as Montrose had been the band of Ronnie Montrose. Whereas Ronnie Montrose had recruited lead vocalists, Paul Samson had initially decided on vocal duties himself and despite
Survivors being a decent album, it was never going to get any singing accolades! So with Bruce Dickinson on board and with a vocal range to mirror the likes of Ian Gillan, the band were putting out a diverse sound that was aptly led by Paul Samson’s melodic guitar leads and Bruce Dickinson’s strong vocal array. Musically the band played a mid-level volume brand of metal and they were also capable of piling on the speed across the album as well of which “Take It Like a Man” “Too Close to Rock” and “Take Me to Your Leader” are prime examples of this speed. Another highlight of the album is certainly the drumming of Thunderstick, who like some NWOBHM outfits had a gimmick and in his case it was two, as he would perform wearing a mask (like the album cover) and also perform on-stage in a cage! The
Head On album cover is the perfect example of another corny home-made design, again designed to shock the buying public and to get them to query the actual record itself, and like most of these album covers it was largely non-offensive melodic metal fare underneath, that also had a hint of Deep Purple on several of the tracks. Whenever I see the cover, it always reminds me of the classic Manhunt video games! Bruce Dickinson’s vocals on
Head On had also transformed the band’s overall scope from a bluesy hard rock act, into that of a melodic if somewhat patchy metal band. Despite the obvious talent on show here and despite having some good albums (especially the following
Shock Tactics) Samson never ever quite realized their own ability and also failed to tap the true talent of Bruce Dickinson, even though the future Iron Maiden sound was being forged here. Bruce of course just a few short years later would front Iron Maiden and as they say the rest is history!