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| OZ - Roll the Dice LP | |
HRR 1035LP, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover with 5mm spine, lyric sheet, 8 page booklet, poster 1st pressing: ltd 500, 200 x black vinyl, 200 x aqua blue and 100 x electric blue w/ black & olive splatter vinyl (HRR mailorder exclusive) | |
| TAPANI ANSHELM - lead vocals MICHAEL LUNDHOLM - guitars FREDRIK THÖRNBLOM - bass JÖRGEN SCHELANDER - keyboards MARK RUFFNECK - drums | |
| 01 Roll the Dice 02 Lost Generation 03 Rock On 04 Midnight Lady 05 Runaways 06 Out of Touch 07 Thousand Miles 08 Alive 09 Not Enough 10 Night Crime | |
AVAILABLE | |
Transfer, audio restoration and mastering by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY in April 2025.
After their fourth studio album »Decibel Storm«, the career of OZ, with some really successful records such as »Fire In The Brain« or »III Warning« to their name, was taking a downturn. Drummer Mark Ruffneck explains: “All plans to release a new studio alum came to nothing, and even the back-up plans didn't go as well as they could have. »Decibel Storm« hadn’t become the success that everyone expected. And here's what happened to OZ and what happens to many other bands when reality doesn't match their dreams. The band members start complaining about their fate and bad luck and fall into despair. In addition, they want to do things they can't do and don't focus on the things they can do and in many cases, the band breaks up. Exactly that happened to OZ after »Decibel Storm«. We should have been focusing on writing new material and starting to prepare for a new OZ album but instead both guitar players and our bassist couldn't handle the situation and left OZ. First, guitarist Speedy Foxx announced that he was leaving OZ, and shortly after, guitarist Spooky Wolff announced the same thing. At the same time, Jay C Blade had been asked if he wanted to join the Swedish-American band Princess Pang, which he did. So all three had had enough of being in OZ and found something else to do with their lives.”
As a result, Mark Ruffneck had to start from scratch when it was time to enter the studio to record their fifth and last studio album »Roll The Dice«, which saw the light of day in 1991. Finding the right line-up wasn’t easy. In the end, OZ even hired a keyboard player by the name of Jörgen Schelander to play on the album. The reason was that they couldn't find a suitable second guitarist. Mark Ruffneck has the whole story: “After »Decibel Storm«, it was just me and Ape left. As you know, we had moved to Stockholm in 1983, and the reasons for that was our passion for heavy metal. We started looking for new members because we didn't want OZ's journey to end there. Finding new members was a time-consuming process, and sometimes we started to lose faith, but at last OZ mk III started to take shape. The new guitarist was Michael Lundholm and Tobbe Moen became OZ's new bassist. Michael and Tubbe had played together in the band Gotham City from Umeå in Sweden. We started practicing and writing new songs, and at the same time we were also looking for another guitarist, because we had noticed that OZ worked better with two guitars as this gave us a better chance to write heavy metal music in the way we wanted. In time we also found another guitarist and we had also written enough new songs for a new album. Somewhere in the city I bumped into Börje Forsberg, and after talking for a while he asked how OZ was going. I told him that the new line-up was working well and that there were a lot of new songs. He asked if he could come to OZ's rehearsals to listen to the new line-up. I said that next weekend would be a good time. Börje came to OZ's rehearsals as agreed, and after listening to our playing he said that we had the songs ready for the new album. We agreed that I would come to his office at the beginning of the next week to discuss making a new album. The new OZ members were surprised at how quickly things were moving, but Ape and I were used to it. Things could move really fast with Börje. I met Börje at his office and we quickly agreed that a new OZ album was worth making. For some reason, Börje got the idea to go to West Berlin to record it at Sky Trak Studio.”
“And now funny things started to happen,” continues the drummer. “Two weeks before we went to West Berlin, the other guitarist disappeared. He couldn't manage recording at Sky Trak Studio. Michael had to learn what the other guitarist had played before we went to Berlin. When we went there, we picked up Börje and he asked if anyone was missing. We said the other guitarist had disappeared in the forest, but don't worry, Michael could play all the guitar parts. Börje just said okay, and that was actually a good thing because now we had more space in the car when the other guitarist wasn't here. After returning to Stockholm from Berlin, we realized that it wouldn't be easy to find a new guitarist, and somehow we got in touch with the keyboard player Jörgenen Schelander. We tested how it worked with a couple of songs in the rehearsal room, and we were all happy with what we heard. We asked Jörgenen if he would be interested in playing with us. After receiving a positive answer, we told him that we were working on a new OZ album and that the songs were already recorded with guitars, drums and bass. We immediately started recording keyboards, vocals and missing guitar parts in Stockholm. This is the real story of why we had keyboards on the album.“
As already mentioned, »Roll The Dice« from 1991 was OZ’s fifth and final studio album. The press sheet of Black Mark Production, the name of Börje Forsberg’s record company by than, boasted: “It’s the heaviest, most powerful album Oz has ever made. A comeback that kicks ass.” “I partly agree,” says Mark Ruffneck. “It wasn't OZ's heaviest album, but it was really powerful in parts, and the comeback was incredible. As I said before, it took a lot of time to put the band together, but we also practiced a lot, so we played really tight together. In the beginning, we had really good opportunities, but like so many times before, when the band and the band members had dreams that didn't come true, the momentum can fade away really quickly. This has been a problem with OZ many times.”
For the first time, OZ had left Stockholm to record an album. They ended up using
Sky Trak studios. What kind of experience was it recording in the soon to be capital of Germany shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall? “The trip to Berlin to Sky Trak Studios was a great experience,” reminisces Mark Ruffneck. “On the way to Berlin we drove through the German Democratic Republic, and the authorities put stamps in our passports. When we drove back to Stockholm, the border barriers were removed and the GDR no longer existed. We were in Berlin at the time when the East German currency was abolished and West Germany won the World Cup in football. We also went to see different monuments in both East and West Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie had already been demolished when we were there. We had enough free time outside the studio, and the work Sky Trak Studios went brilliantly. The sound engineer knew his job and the studio was top-notch, so we were able to record what we had planned in advance. Of course, there were also negative things that come with weeks of studio work, but they were so few that I only have pleasant memories of my trip to Berlin with OZ. We saw a lot of nightlife in Berlin - the city that never sleeps. In addition to that, we got to know several attractions in Berlin, both on the West and East sides.”
With »Roll The Dice« in the bag, a very respectable record all in all, it came as a surprise that the end of OZ was right around the corner. “As far as I remember, we put OZ on hold in the winter of 1991/92,” concludes Mark Ruffneck. “The music world had changed, and the traditional heavy metal we played wasn't that popular anymore. Plus, all sorts of other things came into play, some of the band members had started families and had kids. So not everybody was 100% committed to the band anymore, and we probably would have had to change players again. So I told Ape, who also had a new family member, that we should put OZ on hold and think about what to do.”
So that’s how the story of one of the finest Scandinavian heavy metal bands ever ends. Any chance of a re-union? Only time will tell.
MATTHIAS MADER