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| OZ - III Warning LP | |
HRR 1033LP, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, lyric sheet, A5 photo card, 12 page booklet, double sided poster 1st pressing: ltd 1000, 400 x 180g black vinyl, 450 x magenta + 150 x black ice w/ bone + magenta splatter vinyl (HRR mailorder exclusive) | |
| Ape DeMartini - vocals Speedy Foxx -- lead & rhythm guitars Spooky Wolff - lead & rhythm guitars Jay C Blade - bass & vocals Mark Ruffneck - drums & Percussion | |
| 01 Third Warning 02 Crucified 03 Runner 04 Rock'n'Roll Widow 05 Samurai 06 Born Out of Time 07 Too Bad to Be True 08 Total Metal 09 Turn the Cross Upside Down | |
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!
OZ’s third album, aptly named »III Warning«, saw the light of day in 1984. It was once again recorded in Stockholm, at Electra Studios and produced by The Boss (Börje Forsberg). What was the musical difference between the first two albums and »III Warning«?
Original drummer and founding member Mark Ruffneck puts the record into perspective: ”»III Warning« was probably a more straight forward album overall compared to the previous two albums. Our intention was just to make a heavy metal album that we liked. »III Warning« was the first album for which all the compositions were done in Stockholm. The whole band was now living in the same city, and our only task was to make a good heavy metal album. We practiced all the songs as well as we could, because now we had the opportunity to do so. Before the recordings, we talked to Börje about an outside producer, but we got a NO. Börje wanted us to produce the album together, like we had done with »Fire In The Brain«. Instead of a hired outside producer, we got more time in the studio than before. We all were under pressure to come up with another great heavy metal album, after the success of »Fire In The Brain«.”
“The beginning in the studio went great and we got good results,” continues Mark Ruffneck, “but the last day changed the situation drastically. Börje was in a terrible hurry to finish all the recordings, and many things that we wanted to record on the album were left out. Furthermore, Börje’s dictatorial behavior came out strongly on the last day in the studio. Later on, he did the mixing and mastering all by himself, without OZ, and also called himself the sole producer of the album. We were not 100% satisfied with the sound of »III Warning«, but we also had no chance to influence it because Börje did what he did.”
The photograph on the cover was once again pretty heavy. And there was a song on the record with the title of “Total Metal”. Was this the band’s overall approach at the time? “Yes, that was OZ's attitude: Total Metal!,” states Mark Ruffneck. “»III Warning« was the album after the maxi single »Turn The Cross Upside Down« and we continued with the Total Metal line. No ballads or attempts to get played on the radio. At that time, in 1984, heavy metal was very popular in Stockholm, so there was no excuse to think anything other than Total Metal.”
Around this time, partly because of their imagery and heavy looking cover artworks, OZ were lumped in with first wave of original black metal protagonists, such as
Mercyful Fate, Venom and Bathory. Did this bother them? “No, we weren't bothered by being put in the same class as Mercyful Fate, Venom or Bathory,” says Mark Ruffneck. “We were rather wondering how people could put OZ in the same class as those bands. We played more traditional,classic heavy metal. Neither I nor anyone else in the band has been that interested in analyzing OZ music and which category it belongs to. We just play music, let others analyze it, if they want.”
Through the contract with Börje Forsberg and his label Tyfon Grammofon AB, OZ were handled by major company RCA in a lot of territories. According to the drummer, this partnership worked really well: “I think RCA did a good job for OZ. They visited OZ in Stockholm and sent a journalist to Stockholm to do interviews with us. RCA did some promotion for the album »III Warning« and also included OZ's song ‘Rock And Roll Widow’ on the compilation album »Metal Hammer Vol II». I have no idea how RCA worked with the other bands, so I can't say if they did more or less for OZ compared to other bands. I just have a feeling that they did a good job with OZ.”
Although their records were doing fine sales wise on a global scale, touring was quite a different matter, as Mark Ruffneck explains: “In 1984 we only toured in Sweden. When we lived in Finland, we played on stage every weekend, on Fridays and Saturdays. Before we moved to Stockholm, we had played some gigs in Sweden, mostly in Stockholm. We thought that Sweden would be a similar place to Finland in terms of gigging, but everything would be bigger. We got this idea from the gigs we did in Stockholm. But after moving to Stockholm in 1983, it started to become clear to us that Sweden and Finland were completely different countries. If you think about rock bands gigging, the situation is still the same. In Finland, gigging mostly takes place on weekends and the bands do continuous touring in this way. In Sweden, the operation is similar to the rest of the world, bands do a tour. They go on a longer tour and try to play as many days a week as possible. In addition, in Sweden, venues are organized differently than in Finland, which is why the number of live performances by the OZ band decreased dramatically when we moved to Stockholm in 1983.”
MATTHIAS MADER