Krokus - Rendez-vous
#274
by Chris Jackson
June 30 1980
Krokus
Metal Rendez-vous
Genre: Hard Rock? Butt Rock?
Allen’s Rating: 3 out of 5
Chris’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Highlights:
Heatstrokes
Tokyo Nights
Lady Double Dealer
Krokus. Just let that band name soak in for a minute. When I hear it, I immediately think bad 80’s metal. Admittedly, that assessment was never based on ever actually HEARING the band, but I was aware of their existence and just thought they were another in a long line of hair metal acts from my youth. Happy to say, I was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong by most of this album. True, this is pretty early on in the development of “metal”, but this album is pretty straight-ahead rock more than anything else. Clearly, they’re fans of AC/DC and Slade (as I am myself), so there’s some pretty listenable stuff to be found on here. Not sure I’ll be going back to it again anytime soon, but it was worth a listen. The opener, “Heatstrokes”, begins with a guitar line that could easily turn into a metal wank-fest, but then the actual song kicks in with a very catchy riff that takes us into a rather good song. Unremarkable? Kinda, but pretty cool. More of that follows with a couple exceptions. One track that stands out is the requisite metal ballad, “Steamer”. Interestingly, it has a long introduction that sounds like it could have been an outtake from Pink Floyd’s The Wall (released about 7 months prior to Metal Rendez-vous, so likely another influence), but once the vocals kick in, we’re back to pretty standard rock/metal territory. Finally, it would be remiss of me to not discuss the track, “Tokyo Nights”. A lot of cringe-worthy boxes are ticked right from the start: 1. “Asian” gong? Check! 2. “Asian” riff? Check! 3. Offensive lyrics? Check! Allow me to expound on item 3: “Last night when I was laying in my bed, Had a dream of a flag in white & red, Swiss cross turned into the Japan dot, A yellow girl appeared and made me hot She took me to her place - a Geisha house, There was tea rice-booze & ceremony, I got undressed, she had me washed, I felt her body and I was lost” Yeesh. You know what though? This album is 40 years old and the world was considerably less sensitive about things like this then (we could argue long into the night as to whether or not things are better now, but, generally, we don’t see much of this kind of lyrical nonsense anymore). If you can get past that, I have to admit, it’s a standout track on the album. Also, it does something that I’m guessing has to be a first AND a last in metal history: about 3 minutes in, the fairly typical rock/metal music suddenly shifts to a pseudo-Police/reggae rhythm. It’s quite odd and somewhat jarring, but, hey, it’s different.
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