 | ||||
| OZ - The Oz LP | |
HRR 1031LP, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover with 5mm spine, lyric sheet, 12 page booklet, poster 1st pressing: ltd 1000, 400 x 180g black vinyl, 450 x transparent beer + 150 x white w/ yellow & red dot splatter vinyl (HRR mailorder exclusive) | |
| Eero Hämäläinen - vocals Kari Elo - guitar Tauno Vajavaara - bass Pekka Mark - drums | |
| 01 Hey You 02 Call from Your Eyes 03 Runnin' the Line 04 Rather Knight 05 Saturday Night 06 Second-Hand-Lady 07 In the Chains 08 Capricorn Man | |
AVAILABLE | |
Transfer, audio restoration and mastering by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY in April 2025.
Cutting by SST Germany on Neumann machines for optimal quality on all levels...
The ultimate audiophile reissue!
Euro metal pioneers OZ were formed in Nakilla, Finland, in 1977. The original incarnation of the band consisted of Tapani Hämäläinen (Ape DeMartine) on vocals, Kari Elo on guitar, Tauno Vajavaara (Tani) on bass and Pekka Mark (Mark Ruffneck) behind the drums.
“I started OZ with our first bassist Tani (Tauno Vajavaara)”, begins Mark Ruffneck’s tale about the early days of the band. “One summer evening (in 1977) we were sitting on a bench in the sports complex in our small hometown and drinking beer. Right then and there we got a brilliant idea. We were going to start a new band together and we were going to play only heavy rock. No songs by the Beatles or Santana. We had played in different bands in our hometown Nakkila before, but this time we decided to only play music that we loved. So we started the band, without a name, it was a cover band and we were going to play only good heavy rock from Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, BTO and Alice Cooper. Our hometown Nakkila is a small village in the middle of nowhere on the west coast of Finland, near the city of Pori. There was no special rock scene in our hometown, just a small group of young guys who liked to play musical instruments, different bands with different line-ups formed and ended at short intervals.”
The drummer continues: “We searched for the right guitarist for quite some time. We tried a couple of musicians, but none of them worked out very well. When Kari Elo came home from his military service, we asked if he was interested. Tani, the first bassist in OZ, had played with him before and knew that he had the qualities required to play in OZ. Kari was interested, so the next step was taken. We tried a couple of other guitarists, because we wanted two guitarists in OZ, but we couldn't find anyone who fitted our plans, so we continued as a trio. The singer in OZ was the last step and Tapani Hämäläinen (Ape De Martine) was the right man to take the microphone and scream. We asked him to get on board. He was interested, and after his military service, OZ were ready to rock.”
In their formative years, it was not the band’s main objective to record a studio album, playing live was more important for them, as Mark Ruffneck explains: “As I have already mentioned, OZ started out as a cover band. We only played songs that we liked and that suited OZ as a quintet. Almost every weekend we played on stage somewhere in Finland, and we were happy with that. After a few years of touring, OZ's manager started talking about composing our own music and recording an album. We were happy as a cover band, but we started working on OZ's own music and later we recorded OZ's first album in Stockholm. OZ’s style and sound developed during those years when we played on stage almost every weekend, and of course we developed a lot as musicians.”
With raw, self-penned heavy metal anthems such as “Saturday Night”, “Capricorn Man” or the sleazy “Second-Hand Lady” OZ were quickly hailed as Scandinavia’s heavy metal band no.1 (well ahead of Heavy Load). In their home country Finland, the album was issued under the name of »OZ« on Kräk! Records (KRÄLP 12) in 1982, with a striking live photograph on the front cover (complemented by further live shots on the back).
“Our first album was a cross-section of the music we played when OZ was a cover band,” comments Mark Ruffneck. “‘Saturday Night’ is a fast song and ‘Capricorn Man’ more slow-tempo. These two songs probably have early Black Sabbath influences, and ‘Second-Hand Lady’ has more of a Rainbow feel. The early 1980s were a difficult time for OZ in cold Finland. We didn't have the latest technology in terms of instruments and equipment at the time, and we had to stick with what was available in Finland at the time. Making songs was also difficult, but in a way really educational. The songs were formed by jamming in the rehearsal room. There was no possibility to make demo recordings. We treated all the songs the same way on the first five OZ albums we released in the 80s. We played them live in the rehearsal room, and when the song sounded good, it was done.”
“KRÄK! was a Finnish rock record label founded in 1978 by a company called Finnlevy,” elaborates the drummer. “Finnlevy was the largest record company in Finland in the 1980s. We went to Finnlevy twice to present OZ’s music, and both times they laughed at us and said they weren't interested in us. After we also received rejections from other Finnish record companies, we went west to Stockholm. We met several record companies on our trip to Stockholm, and the most interested was Börje Forsberg and his record company Tyfon Grammofon AB.
In time we signed an artist contract with Börje Forsberg and went to record OZ’s first album in Stockholm, at Decibel Studio. The choice of studio and sound engineer was made by Börje Forsberg. Both the studio and the sound engineer, Åcke Gårdebäck, were top class, much better than the studio in Finland where we used to record the OZ demos. OZ was one of the first Finnish bands to sign a record deal with a Swedish record company. As a funny detail, when OZ's first album was finished, Börje Forsberg signed a licensing deal with KRÄK!, a record label that had, as mentioned earlier, previously laughed at OZ's music. This is a good example of how difficult it is to break through in your own country. We only had contact with KRÄK! once, when we played at OZ's album release party at Tavastia in Helsinki. Everything was handled by Börje Forsberg and his record label.”
So whereas it should have been the other way round, OZ were first signed in Sweden and then the album was licensed back to their home country Finland. As the saying goes, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
“I can't exactly say how many copies the album sold, it's been over 40 years since it was released,” laughs Mark Ruffneck. “Thousands of copies. But it didn’t reach gold level in Finland or Sweden, although in Finland, where we were still living at the time, we got much more publicity. OZ appeared in a special programme about heavy metal on TV. We were featured with two songs, and of course we got more gigs through that. Other Finnish bands in 1982 were Zero Nine, Riff Raff, Hard Rock Sallinen, Sarcofacus and Hanoi Rocks. We played with all these bands at different festivals, and at the beginning of their career Hanoi Rocks was the support band for OZ several times. It should be noted here that heavy metal was not so popular in Finland in 1982 as it is nowadays.”
On the back of the album sleeve of the OZ debut it said: “album design/recording ideas: Tomas ‘Ace’ Forsberg”. Of course, this was the son of Börje Forsberg, who went on to write metal history with his project Bathory just a little while later under the pseudonym of Quorthon. What was the actual input of Quorthon for OZ’s debut album? “I don't remember any specific recording situation in the studio where Thomas ‘Ace’ Forsberg had any influence on the final result of the recording,” is Mark Ruffneck’s answer. “I met Ace earlier in Finland, before OZ started recording at Decibel Studio. He was with Börje, on the trip to Finland, when Börje wanted to see OZ perform live. Generally, Ace and I discussed, before and during the recordings, how heavy metal should sound, and as his nickname suggests, KISS was involved in these discussions. There were probably some suggestions in the studio about how certain parts should be played, and generally everyone in the studio (OZ, Börje, Åcke and Ace) was always asked if the work was done. Since OZ was Börje Forsberg's /Tyfon Grammofon AB's first foreign band and the first band to play heavy metal, it was natural that Börje turned to Ace for consultation. Ace was a big KISS fan and often had very clear ideas about various things, despite being the youngest of the people involved. He influenced the design of the album cover, as it is clear that the »KISS Alive!« album has given direction to the realization of the album cover. When we had finished the recordings at Decibel Studio and returned to Finland, we had agreed with Börje and Ace about what kind of pictures we would take for the album cover. We rented a suitable house in our hometown with a suitable stage, and there we took the pictures used for the album cover. I want to remind you that in the early 1980s it was not as easy to photograph a band on stage, and especially with explosions, as it is today. With this first OZ album we did groundbreaking work for Finnish heavy metal.”
In Sweden, however, the »OZ« album was later re-issued with an alternative sleeve (just a plain black cover with the title on it in white letters) under the somewhat strange name of »Heavy Metal Heroes – Hey You«. “The idea for the new cover for OZ's first album came from the record company,” says Mark Ruffneck. “After having released the album »Fire In The Brain« in 1983, a re-issue of the first OZ album was manufactured with the new cover. By then, OZ had a new line-up and the record company liked using the new cover without the old line-up on the front. We only found out about the new cover after the new edition had already been released, so we had nothing to do with the new cover. Of course we also liked the idea of the new cover without the old line-up being shown, but our main focus was on the new OZ album »Fire In The Brain«. The alternative cover of the first OZ album didn't get much attention from the band.”
MATTHIAS MADER