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One of the lesser known Bay Area metal bands to emerge out of the 80s, LÄÄZ ROCKIT formed in Berkeley in 1982 by the teenage duo of vocalist Michael Coons and guitarist Aaron Jellum who had become smitten with the developing heavy metal trends emerging. The two quickly recruited a second guitarist in the form of Phil Kettner along with drummer Victor Angelo but it would take another year to find the right bassist which finally filled the band once Willy Lange joined the band.
LÄÄZ ROCKIT quickly released the “Prelude to Death” demo which caught the attention of Target Records and in 1984 released this debut album CITY’S GONNA BURN which featured eight punchy period speed metal tracks that found the band in the same camp as bands like Metal Church, early Overkill and Running Wild. At this point mmLÄÄZ ROCKIT didn’t conquer the world with its by the books speed metal but the band would soon play with many of the much more successful bands like Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Exodus, Ratt, W.A.S.P. and many others.
CITY’S GONNA BURN is a fairly typical release from the mid-80s with thundering heavy metal twin guitar attacks, bantering bass and drum rhythmic bombast and those classic 80s vocal styles which in the case of Michael Coons alternates between a grittier proto-thrash style that would prognosticate the band’s later direction along with the lean and mean more operatic style of US power metal bands like Queensryche. The compositions are direct and to the point with no time wasted with intros or other bells and whistles. This is heavy metal thunder with no messing around.
The album is actually quite short and just misses the 30 minute mark but the tracks are all well constructed with instantly accessible melodic hooks and fiery performances with the biggest drawback resulting from the rather by the books approach which feels like the tracks could have used a bit more variety. The album is notorious for its awful production and for the original release that is quite true however the album was remastered and reissued in 2007 on the OSM which improved the production quality.
LÄÄZ ROCKIT was always one of those bands playing keep up with the big boyz and never really set the world on fire itself but in retrospect, this band was excellent at what it did even if originality wasn’t its strong point. CITY’S GONNA BURN is one of those albums that would’ve probably been buried beneath the more successful bands to emerge during this period but this debut is actually a decent slice of early speed metal with all those scrumptious classic 80s attributes without sounding like a derivative of any ban in particular. Coon’s excellent control of his vocal style prevents this from becoming cheesy and the musicians all deliver excellent performances. A very good if not downright spectacular speed metal album from metal’s early years.