There was a point in the late ‘80s, when "melodic metal" basically meant pop bands hiding behind a pretty boy frontman, big hair, and a few metal-y riffs -- case in point,
Poison,
Winger,
Warrant, etc. But a few years earlier, melodic metal still had some, well, cajones -- including the oft-overlooked
Killer Dwarfs. Rising up through the same Canadian metal scene that had also spawned
Anvil and
Helix a few years before, early on the band could perhaps be compared to a
Judas Priest/
Iron Maiden/
Saxon hybrid that also managed to have its eye on mainstream radio. And certainly one of their better releases was their 1983 self-titled debut. The band had no problem putting the pedal to the metal on such rockers as "Are You Ready" and "Prisoner," but it's on the less intense material that the group showed the most promise ("Drifter," "Fire in Your Eyes"). And as with quite a lot of bands from this era,
the Killer Dwarfs just couldn't resist including a ditty titled after their favorite rock music style, "Heavy Metal Breakdown." To borrow a phrase from the great Terry Malloy,
Killer Dwarfs "coulda been a contendah," as evidenced by their debut offering. ~ Greg Prato