HOLY MOSES – World Chaos [Reissue]

A few years after their debut Queen of Siam, via the release of World Chaos in 1990, Holy Moses were a well-oiled Thrash Metal machine. The delivery was noticeably tighter while the music itself was even harder and precise.

Vocalist Sabina Classen, by this time also a well-known TV personality in her native Germany, and guitarist Andy Classen, continued to be in charge of the creative process, the former as a lyricist and the latter as songwriter and producer. Andy went on to produce other artists, and continues to do so to this day. The writing, it’s fair to say, had improved, the early naive clumsiness much replaced by, comparably at least, more technical arrangement ideas, and far-improved guitar work, not the least in the lead department. Thankfully, rawness proved intact, even years later when Sabina would go on to restore the band, after further working as a media personality in the meantime, this time with the Internet medium, and a couple of albums with the band Temple Of The Absurd, which also featured members of Warpath.

Lyrically, World Chaos served the mature title track on one hand, as well as the more peculiar titled ”Guns ‘N Moses.” A slight Hardcore style, akin to band’s like D.R.I., can be heard in songs like ”Education,” where splendid precise riff-age meets unison chorus chants.

The extraordinary talents of then very young skin beater, Uli Kusch (who would later the same year left for Gamma Ray before joining one of the best Metal bands ever – Helloween), sadly don’t come through as well as they should due to the slightly muddy mix in places. But, that’s Holy Moses for you! That said, his powerhouse performance comes through clearer in places, such as during ”Summer Kills.” Production values come across great where the guitars are concerned, though. Before the cut and paste days, musicians actually played their parts throughout and the results came through with much more personal warmth. Thrashy guitars don’t sound as good in these Pro-tools days, where it’s often a case of recording bits at a time and then pasting them all together afterwards.

”Deutschland (Remember The Past)” invites listeners to more stomping, groovy, riff-age complete with hook-laden lead guitar work. More well-executed guitar mannerisms can also be heard during the dark-ridden beginning of ”Jungle Of Lies” before the track takes off.

A cover of the Dead Kennedy’s ”Too Drunk To Fuck” would almost become to Holy Moses what the cover of ”Green Manalishi” became for Judas Priest; many Metal fans hardly knew about Fleetwood Mac’s version and thus recognized it more as an original Priest number. Seemingly Punk-influenced anyway, this number fit Holy Moses very well. The inclusion of another cover, namely ”(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party),” seems kind of redundant, though. One cover version per album is more than enough, and the original was still too recent and well known anyway. Due to its Metal structure (Slayer’s Kerry King even played on the original), most of Holy Moses’ audience probably knew the original well enough anyway.

The somewhat redundant second cover version aside, World Chaos is a great display of Thrash Metal. If you’re a Thrasher (and you ought to be if you’re reading this in the first place), you owe it to yourself to pick it up if you haven’t yet done so.

Among the extra features on this re-release is video footage of the aforementioned ”Too Drunk To Fuck” recorded at Wacken 2001, featuring the absolutely amazing Doro Pesch joining Sabina in German Sister Babe Metalhood, belting out the chorus simultaneously. Why can’t more women be as cool as these two foxes?