The 1981 Listening Post - Killer (CH) - Ladykiller

 Reviewed by Rod Brogan

Released: 1981 Killer (CH) Ladykiller Genre: Treble Metal Rating: 3 out of 5 Highlights: Get Up Get Down Ladykiller In the incestuous 80s Swiss metal scene, the band name Krokus was taken, so guitarist and band leader Edgar Kocher called his band Kaktus. He and Kaktus singer Mark Broman started a new band called Lady Killer, which is a flower variant of the snow crocus. See what they did there? The band's debut 7" was then co-produced by Krokus bassist Chris von Rohr. They then signed with Vertigo, the stalwart label for progressive rock in the 70s. Ladykiller is proto hair metal, before the clothes caught up with the glam production, or perhaps treble metal is a better genre name. The bass is the low part under thin toms and kicks, with layered pop metal choruses with a 2 part harmony and lots of reverb. The title track forgoes a guitar solo entirely, with just a slight breakdown before the intro riff revives for the party vocals chorus about being wanted for killing a lady in NYC. Throughout the record there are hints of early Def Leppard (Get Up Get Down and DL's Hello America from one year prior are kissing cousins) meets Hanoi Rocks. Alas, Killer may have had ambitions of arenas, but they wrote material for bars. You may dismiss it on first listening, but I'll be damned if you don't find yourself humming a hook from one of the album's guilty pleasures like the title track and Midnight Highway Rider 20 minutes later. No review of this album would be complete without mention of the album cover, which depicted a dead young lady on a bed with blood coming out of her mouth. It may have been a career killer, because stores wouldn't stock the album without black bars covering the offensive (and offensively silly) cover, and who knows how many just didn't carry it at all? Post Killer, co-founding guitarist and bassist Many Maurer and Beat Koflmehl started Headhunter, and were produced by Krokus' Rohr, and Maurer then played on, you guessed it, Rohr's solo album Hammer & Tongue.