OZ - ...Decibel Storm... LP HRR 1034LP, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover with 5mm spine, lyric sheet, 8 page booklet, poster 1st pressing: ltd 1000, 400 x 180g black vinyl, 450 x neon yellow and 150 x grey w/ red & yellow splatter vinyl (HRR mailorder exclusive) APE DE MARTINEZ - vocals SPEEDY FOXX -- guitars SPOOKY WOLFF - guitars JAY C BLADE - bass, synth & vocals MARK RUFFNECK - drums & Percussion 01 Eyes of the Stranger 02 Starrider 03 Teenage Rampage (The Sweet cover) 04 Disaster Dreamer 05 Firestarter 06 Exterminator 07 Black Tattoo 08 Sound of Speed 09 The Show Must Go On 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! In 1985, »III Warning« was followed by »Decibel Storm«, OZ’s fourth studio album. According to drummer Mark Ruffneck, it was basically on the same quality level as its two predecessors: “I think »Decibel Storm« is a good album. It hasn't gotten the same kind of global recognition as »Fire In The Brain« and »III Warning«, and that's partly because things happened with the record company that shouldn't have happened.” He continues: “All the band members wrote songs for »Decibel Storm«, we produced the album ourselves, and we played really tight together as a band. These were the ingredients needed for a good OZ album.” This time around, the band produced the album on their own, with the help of recording engineers Johan Wallin and Per Blom. There is a long story behind that: “We already asked Börje Forsberg about using an external producer for the »III Warning« album, but the answer was NO. We had a feeling that the producer would make OZ sound much better than on the first two albums. We especially compared the sound of »Fire In The Brain« to albums from other, more famous heavy metal bands albums, and we thought that an external producer would improve the overall sound of OZ, especially the guitar sound. Börje Forsberg's other band, Trash, made their second album with Max Norman as the producer, and we thought that Max Norman or some other producer would make OZ better in the studio. The »III Warning« album was originally produced by Börje Forsberg and OZ together, just like »Fire In The Brain«, but towards the end of the recordings in the studio we had a disagreement about how things should be, and Börje took over and did the mixing, mastering and the cover art all by himself without contacting OZ during the process. We were not very impressed with his work and we told him about it, which was not good. The tense situation between OZ and Börje Forsberg gradually improved, and when we were planning the next album, »Decibel Storm«, the external producer came up again, and again we were told that it was not possible to get the external producer involved in the recordings. After long discussions I agreed with Börje that we could instead produce the album ourselves without Börje's presence. Getting things to the point where OZ would produce the album themselves and without Börje's presence was not easy, but over time I had learned to talk to Börje in such a way that I got some of the things I wanted approved by him. Over the years, Börje Forsberg had become a really difficult person to deal with and to top it all off we had a record contract with him.” »Decibel Storm« included a cover version of “Teenage Rampage” by The Sweet. Was that the band’s decision or had the record company (Börje or RCA even) been searching for a hit single? “No, this was our own invention,” answers Mark Ruffneck, “but the record company approved it of course. »Decibel Storm« was an album aimed at the American market. Therefore we wanted a song that was well-known, but had been released a while ago. The song wasn't heavy metal, but it would work like heavy metal. The Sweet song ‘Teenage Rampage’ was exactly that. We tried to do what Quiet Riot did with two Slade songs.” MATTHIAS MADER