OZ • III Warning LP

Combat Records 1984
Imagine, if you will, a bleak and desolate world in which OZ's 1983 sophomore outing Fire In The Brain doesn't exist. This world, so devoid of warmth and joy is little more than a living Hell. It's here, in this godless realm, that OZ's III Warning is considered a good album, because the undeniable greatness of Fire In The Brain has left a void, and isn't looming over it, casting an oppressive shadow that few follow-up records could escape. Life in this alternate reality is grim, so you turn to III Warning for comfort, it's cold, but it's something. The brutish and neanderthaloid pound of opener "Third Warning" gives you hope for greater things, new vistas of Metal opportunity, but your hopes are senselessly dashed by the time you reach the naff "Rock 'N' Roll Widow" at the end of the first side. Sure there's sparse flashes of greatness here and there, but they're few and fleeting, and you're left with the sinking feeling that things ain't gonna get any better. Your mind wanders to an unreal place, a new and better world, where OZ's full potential is not only realized but cherished and revered. With a jolt you wake from your nightmare, dopey and dazed. "Phew! Only a dream", you think to yourself as you reach for the only thing that will erase that horrible place from your memory... Fire In The Brain.
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