Grim Reaper
"See You in Hell/Fear No Evil"
- "See You in Hell" (4:16)
- "Dead on Arrival" (4:31)
- "Liar" (2:45)
- "Wrath of the Ripper" (3:10)
- "Now or Never" (2:50)
- "Run for Your Life" (3:39)
- "The Show Must Go On" (7:30)
- "All Hell Let Loose" (4:23)
- "Fear No Evil" (4:01)
- "Never Coming Back" (3:39)
- "Lord of Darkness" (3:01)
- "Matter of Time" (4:17)
- "Rock & Roll Tonight" (4:06)
- "Let the Thunder Roar" (4:05)
- "Lay It on the Line" (4:10)
- "Fight for the Last" (3:01)
- "Final Scream" (5:23)
I think my new adage is going to be, "If you wait long enough, it will eventually be
reissued..." After several unsuccessful searches & negotiations with other ppl for the
See You in Hell CD, considering everything from super-expensive Jap imports to shoddy
bootlegs, I did a search on CDNow and what do you know, it's just been re-released! And
not just one, but BOTH albums on the same CD!!
Okay, now for the history/review: S.Y.I.H. was one of the coolest, most eeeevil-looking
album covers I'd run across, back in early '84 when heavy metal was gradually, deliberately
seducing me with its icy grip. Then, an article appeared in the L.A. Times Sunday Calendar
section, with the album cover plastered across the entire page -- they had reviewed several
current metal albums, using a specialized 100-point rating system which counted 30 points for the
actual music, 20 points for the artwork, etc. Needless to say, this album was ranked #1 (the
cover got a perfect 20, of course. :))
The music was another surprise -- saw the "See You in Hell" video on MTv, and I thought
it was quite wicked (and not nearly as heavy as I expected...their sound is more like NWOBHM
on steroids.) But the real shocker was when the radio played their ballad, "The Show Must Go On" --
fuckin' beautiful! Even the DJ remarked, "Not what you expect from a band called 'Grim
Reaper', eh?" It was on the strength of those two songs that I finally bought the crappy
vinyl. Unfortunately, those are the album's only 2 strong points. "Dead on Arrival",
"Wrath of the Ripper", and "All Hell Let Loose" are pretty good too, I suppose, but the others
were kinda derivative. Their follow-up, Fear No Evil, was pretty much a watered down
retread of the same music, nothing impressive, and I really could care less that they were
included as bonus tracks here (although the intro to "Final Scream" is pretty cool.)
Grim Reaper put out a 3rd album, Rock You to Hell, where they went completely
MTv-glam style...ack!! The band then split up, with Steve Grimmett joining Onslaught
for one album, and ultimately scattered to the four corners of the earth.
Oh yeah...the cover art here I did myself, piecing together bits and pieces of existing
images to form what the reissue cover looks like. I do impress myself sometimes. :-)
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