ORACLE — Oracle (review)

Album · 1989 · Heavy Metal

4/5 · 2023-12-26
siLLy puPPy

The world truly is crazy. When you look at maps you think you have a good idea of a nation’s borders but if you looks closer it’s not always so smooth. The Spanish map is particularly weird. Not only do you have the Canary Islands situated way down next to Southern Morocco as a fully-fledged Spanish province but there are also two Spanish enclaves on the African continent on what should be northern Morocco - Ceuta and Melilla! And then across from these enclaves bordering the Spanish mainland is the British blast from the past - Gibraltar next to the Andalusian city of Algeciras. Gibraltar is a tiny little overseas territory that is only 6.8 square km (2.6 square mi) and a population of 32,000 but people are people and this little unlikely setting spawned this 80s heavy metal band named ORACLE.

The band name ORACLE these days has been taken by dozens of bands but this one featured lead vocalist Alan Alman, guitar-slinger Peter Montegriffo, bass player Steward Cavilla and drummer Peter Corea. The band existed from 1987-89 and only released this one self-titled album in 89 before disappearing and being relegated to the obscurity bins and only dug up by future musicologists like me decades later simply because they emerged from a strange little anomaly on the map of the European continent! But every once in a while when searching for such treasures one will actually yield an amazing discovery that makes you wonder why this particular group didn’t find more success in their day. But like everything in the music industry, talent rarely equates to international success stories.

In many ways ORACLE was a typical 80s heavy metal band that existed somewhere between the AOR ballad styles of glam metal acts, hard rockers like Cinderella and Tesla and the more biting heavy metal bands like Queensryche, Crimson Glory and other epic sounding NWOBHM groups. The album has found a bit of revived interested when in 2015 the Greek label No Remorse Records obtained a licensing deal with the original Cambayá to release this obscurity on CD for the first time. Info about this band is actually more obscure than the album itself as there is virtually nothing to be found so in effect ORACLE remains a mystery as even the newer CD with liner notes fails to yield any of the band’s historical secrets but then again sometimes some things are better left the imagination. After all there are only so many paths an 80s metal band could take to get to the recording studio.

The 80s metal scene ranged from utterly brilliant to extremely cheesy especially in the high vocal styles but ORACLE crafted a really tight well written album with extremely competent musical arrangements, catchy melody driven composiitons and although the operatic vocals could be hit and miss, Allan Alman had a cool as cucumber style that wasn’t too over the top and yet able to have a wide range. Montegriffo was also a gifted guitarist with the ability to shred like the best of them but mainly focused on tight beefy riffing frenzies that the bass and drums perfectly played in unison. If you ask me ORACLE was sort of a blend of the short-lived band Orion The Hunter and the 80s American US power metal / heavy metal band Virgin Steele. While i wouldn’t call ORACLE the most original band, the musical performances are top notch and therefore if you are seeking more obscure examples of excellent 80s metal music then this is a highly recommended addition.

While not every track is a doozy the majority of the album consists of high calibre heavy metal of the era. While mainstream metal in 1989 was entering its last days as Motley Crue, Skid Row, White Lion and Warrant were quickly driving the entire 80s scene off a cliff, it’s refreshing to know there was an entire underground across the world keeping tasteful metal alive even as extreme metal was simultaneously gurgling up behind the scenes. A rare and surprisingly excellent album from 1989 Gibraltar. Don’t let the cheesy album cover art throw you off. This album is better than a lot of what was being pushed back in the day. Definitely a welcome a worthy extrication from the vaults of antiquity.