Mass is a band that formed in the mid seventies in Germany, and since then put out eight full-length releases in total. For 2010, SPV/Steamhammer reissued four of their midto late career catalogue releases, with Angel Power being the earliest. The original release consisted of fourteen tracks, and the reissue is to include a bonus fifteenth track. However, the review copy provided came only with eight tracks, so let's just get into it, shall we?
To call Mass a traditional Heavy Metal band is a little pushing it for this album honestly. If anything, the material here sounds more like some kind of Southern Rock outfit then anything, with a huge similarity floating around in the back of the brain to the music ZZ Top has issued, just with complex and often impressive for their time guitar solos. While tracks like "Angel Power" and "Hate" showcase this nicely, there's also a slight Rock and Roll/Punk vibe to some of the material here, including some tracks like "Good Times". Some of the tracks very short, and in many cases wind up being too short, such as "Hate", which feels like it's overall incomplete. It seems that Mass actually tried to keep a consistant around two minute cap on their songs as there are plenty of short tracks for this release, such as "It Must Be Evil", "Too Much Business", and "Flying Into Mexico" all just a little over that two minutes. Luckily, "Hate" really comes off as the only song that doesn't feel complete, as the rest play out like the band didn't just give up at one point with the song, though "Too Much Business" seems to just cut out rather abruptly and could, for certain listeners, give that same incomplete feeling.
The reissue of this release is nice to have as there's no information about this album being made available on CD prior to this release. However, it's basically a digital reissue of the original album, and was not remastered in any way, and considering the time period and that it was taken from vinyl, it should have been. You can really hear some digital distortion through the release, especially on the vocals, and unless you have a tin ear, it can be really frustrating to hear, and once you hear it you can't really block it out, it's just so obvious, especially on "Flying Into Mexico" and "Rock Baby". Other then that, it's practically the same quality that you would get on a vinyl EP, but obviously more clear with them on CD. However, the long solo that kicks off "Bad Times" winds up sounding atrocious through overmodulation and general quality restrictions back in the late seventies that cause a static sound to the mix, which today could easily be cleaned up for reissued materials.
If you're into older Rock and Roll, or just like the earliest level of Heavy Metal, which this album really seems to only showcase in the guitar solos for the most part, then Angel Power is a nice little collector's piece. The only problem with this release, overall, winds up being the quality of the material on this release, which could really have done nicely with some remastering to make the overall level of the audio not as atrocious as it sometimes comes off. Much of the material presented here is light enough that you can just kick back with some friends and crack open a beer while enjoying the whole experience without it getting too light, boring, or even mainstream for it's time. Angel Power winds up being a nice release and handy to finally have on CD, and for the most part it's about what you would get out of the original vinyl pressing, so it's worth giving it a chance, but overall the quality, and many of the short song lengths, wind up leaving this album feeling a little amateurish for it's time, and even for today.
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