MARSHALL LAW – Power Game

Marshall Law has always been likened as the sons of Judas Priest by the press; they were formed in Birmingham in the Midlands during the latter half of the eighties and carried on the tradition started by the aforementioned Metal Gods both where image and music were concerned, though it’s probably safe to say Birmingham was not quite the same towards the 90s as it had been some 20 years prior. Furthermore, the album title and cover of Power Game, the band’s second full-length effort of original material, can be viewed as a bit of a rip-off, intentional or not, off of the first classic release by fellow countrymen Jaguar, what with the chess plate and all. Where the Judas Priest likeness is concerned, it’s fair to say Marshall Law could never better Priest, but then again, who could hope to better what the Gods had already perfected?

By the time of Power Game in 1992, Marshall Law had not evolved remarkably from its 1989 self-titled debut. A certain draw into more melodic territory can be heard, which works especially well in the slower “No Justice,” which makes for probably the best one can hope to find here and maybe the band could have tried to explore this side further. Though, fist held anthems like “Rock The Nation” or a bona fide crusher as “Under The Hammer” that graced the debut does unfortunately not have its like-counterparts here. “Dead Zone” for instance makes for barely average Metal, “Edge Of The World” manages to climb atop further, but not by much. Marshall Law didn’t turn heads around with excitement on this release. In “Leviathan,” the band’s style comes along stronger, but by the 40-minute mark or so it takes to get there, it’s too late to bother with any excitement at all. This is the case throughout the whole album; the modes switch back and forth between that of bad, average, and decent. Plod slackers such as “Psycho Drama” witness of a lack of energy that would make sense had Marshall Law been a band onto its eighth album and running out of ideas, but a second album should instead witness a hungry band urging to prove and further perfect its style and formula.

In 1992, True Metal certainly needed stronger ambassadors than this in order to help a comeback happen for the genre and on Power Game, Marshall Law, even at their best, fails to provide anything more than decent Metal. And, with this re-release having only a so-called “radio edit” of “Naked Aggression,” a track available on the album anyway as extra material, does not make it anymore tempting for purchase.