FWOSHM!!

You gotta love an LP with a trailer, surely?

Jobcentre Rejects Vol.4: Ultra Rare FWOSHM 1978-1983, the name just trips off the tongue doesn’t it? welcome to the best of the many, many, many FWOSHM compilations I own.

For those of you far less hip than me* FWOSHM stands for First Wave Of Swedish Heavy Metal and Jobcentre Rejects Vol.4 is On the Dole Records’ first foray into the metal scene of their native Sweden after the estimable job they carried out on the NWOBHM scene in the first three volumes^. FWOSHM! also sounds like a great comic book sound affect too.

So saddle up your great grey owls and prepare for a swoop through the rural Swedish rock scene 42 years ago.

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We kick off with the enthusiastically amateur-sounding Mercy ‘State Of Shock’, complete with strangely-timed gong usage^^. It’s great of course, an uncomplicated teenage rush of excitement and energy fuelling some energetic boogie.

Upping the metal ante are Stitch and ‘Devil’s Deal’, primarily known these days for being Ian Haughland’s first band I agree with the lines notes that this track really packs a punch. The guitar solo is absolutely, brilliantly, utterly wired-to-the-tits and brief.

The rest of the side veers from the good, if underpowered Highbrow ‘Loser’, the energetically muffled Maiden-meets-punk of Ironside, the danceable rush of Greensleeves ‘Fire’ and the punkish boogie-choogie of Turbo ‘Asfaltshock’ (which I love unreservedly).

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Side 2 of Jobcentre Rejects Vol.4 deals us more and heavier rock. The absolute highlight for me is the bracingly mean drinking song ‘Heavy Water’ by the Squetters – I love this, sandpapered vocals, ace guitar sound and all.

Other highlights here are the air guitar-worthy ‘Axeman & The Virgin’^* by Silver Mountain, the keyboard-heavy highly-polished Paradize ‘Caress Of Steel’ which just oozes great melodic rock, the musicianship of Quix and the speed-over-subtlety*^ ‘Deathwings’ by Behemoth; not that anyone could ever go wrong with a title like ‘Deathwings’!

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At the risk of repeating myself I absolutely love these compilations, many of the tracks here were their band’s only issue and so many of them just burn with a great naiveite and enthusiasm. I love that point where ambition and drive collide against musical limitations and inexperience, that’s the exact point for me where the musical atom gets split into beautiful shards; Jobcentre Rejects Vol.4 gives me this in spades.

If I had a criticism it would be that unlike the three British compilations there is no map showing where the bands are from, very possibly because a Swedish record company did not think this was necessary, I get that but I wanted one.

So before I sign off to drink ‘Heavy Water’ under the Christmas tree, let me commend this one to you metallers out there as my favourite compilation LP of 2020.

I’m out of here … FWOSHM! (as I blast into the sky yellow and blue cape trailing behind me).

1041 Down.

PS: F-king Block editor! there’s a gap in the middle of my post, seemingly attached to the bottom of the Stitch video that I cannot get rid of. Not happy.

*it wouldn’t be right for me, ensconced on my throne of cool atop the mountain of hip, wearing the T-shirt I won for being ‘2020’s hepcat of the year’** to say what percentage of the population is actually less groovy than me.

**as voted for by the readers of Zeitgeist Magazine.

^I have them all and they are brilliantly curated, selected and presented.

^^8 seconds in to usher in the riff.

^*not necessarily two different people in my teenage experience.

*^a trade-off I cannot ever imagine not thinking was musically worthwhile.