Rejoice, lovers of Oldschool US Metal, for here's a re-issue of Bay Area's indie-hit wonder Ruffians' 1985 self-titled mini album...with added bonuses! But first, some history? Well, Ruffians was born out of friendship and the mutual musical interests of its founding members Craig Behrhorst, Chris Atchison (both guitar & backing vocals), and Luke Bowman (drums), and saw its live debut in December 1983. Soon after, longtime friend and bassist Dan Moura entered the fold, leading to the necessity for a strong frontman to take things to a higher level. After numerous ads and too many auditions to count, and just in the nick of time to make the band's gig with Alcatrazz, the four find vocalist Carl Albert, who was more than could be asked for. Because his melodic style enabled the band to hit the Bay Area club circuit with a band, not only securing support slots for the likes of Loudness, Y & T, Dokken, UFO, Saxon, and Savatage, but also playing headline and co-headline shows with hometown friends Exodus, Death Angel and Vicious Rumors.

Following, was the recording of the band's 4-track 1984 demo. Featuring the songs "Fight For Your Life", "Wasteland", "Bad Boys Cut Loose", and "Eyes Of Fire", the demo scored high among fans and Metal press both in the US and abroad, but did not lead to instant success among the record labels of that time! Ruffians was neither a 'big hair', nor a Thrash Metal band, and the Metal genre was not part of the mainstream in that era.

Finally, the band and their management took things in their own hands, forming their own label Victory, and releasing their one and only 6-track mini-LP (to the songs of the demo were added the Ruffians classic "Run For Cover", and the balled ""You're All I Need") in May 1985. The EP was quickly picked up by over 200 college radio stations in the States, charted in Europe as well as Japan, and got splendid reviews from all over the globe (it also got a CD release later on). Eventually, the EP was licenced to Steamhammer/ SPV in Germany, FEMS in Japan, and to Whiplash in Belgium (a copy of which I am the proud owner). The song "Run For Cover" was released on the "Eastern Front – Live At Ruthie's Inn" compilation (Restless), and "Wasteland" was featured in the movie "American Ninja II".

All of this success, however, would not hold Carl from leaving the band at the close of '85, moving back home to join his longtime boyhood friends Villian (later, he was to join Vicious Rumors, but he died in a tragic car accident on April 22, 1995). Personally, I feel Carl's leavingonly made the band stronger, for in his place came Alaska native Rich Wilde (born Elkinton), who joined the band in early 1986. His strong voice and additional song writing skills would aid the band in their efforts to maintain momentum, and in '87 the band re-entered the studio to record a new 4-track demo (with the tracks "Do Or Die", "Unchained", "Only The Strong Survive", and "Through Your Eyes") which was circulated throughout the Underground Metal scene. Regretfully, none of those songs was ever released officially, but it díd help the band in continuing to tour up and down the West Coast, and to further enlarge the band's fan base worldwide.

Eventually, due to lack of interest from the 'regular' music industry, the band split in early 1989. But the fans and supporters remained to this day (and quite deservedly so), making a Ruffians reunion a reality when the band was invited to play the Bang Your Head festival in June of 2004 (also the very first European gig for the band). Following the raving reviews that came after, the band realised that their cult status in Europe was still alive and well. [Above text was based largely on the liner notes from the album's booklet – Tony] Now, all we can hope for, is for the band to give us a album's worth of new material real soon. But first, there's this double disc to be reviewed.

Disc 1 opens with all 6 songs of the "Ruffians" mini-LP. Then come 6 live songs, recorded at The Stone nightclub in San Fransisco on September 28, 1985. We knew "Whiplash", "Bad Boys Cut Loose" and "Run For Cover" from the album, but with "I've Got To Know", "Desert Of Tears" and "Ruffian", we also get 3 previously unreleased tracks (the total sum of what was just described was already (re-)released through Victory and Hellion of Germany, in April 2004; a limited vinyl version of the 2004 release even included the 1987 demo). Finishing off the first disc, are the four songs off the 1984 demo, featured here because the sound on those songs was somehow fresher than on the vinyl EP. This closes the Carl Albert period of the band. Disc 2 is seemingly shorter, with only the 4-track 1987 demo as audio material, but there's an additional video for the previously unreleased "Darkest Of Light", recorded live at the Bang Your Head festival of last year with Eric Wong in stead of Dan Moura, and there's a quite extensive picture gallery (well over 100 photos!). In short, this is a document well worth having. Momentarily only available through OSM (contact www.osmrecords.net for your copy), we can only hope the album to be available on a wider basis soon enough!

And, would you know...here's some additional nice news to digest, because the band has already spent time in the studio (in April of this year) to record their long awaited full-length debut! "Should" be available in September...!!! Anyway, what is already certain, is the band's European gigs in October and November (for Belgium, go to Den Auwel in Vorst-Laakdal, on November 2 nd; Holland sees the boys on October 10 th in Leeuwarden -TBA). Check the band's website ( www.ruffians.org ) for further details.

88/100

Tony.