POWERSURGE - POWERSURGE (MCMXCI) - 1991

Since their unforeseeably early inception, Florida ’s Powersurge has been a musically gifted band that’s spent its lifetime on the wrong side of the binoculars. They’re a speck in the scene’s distance that hardly ever gets any clearer or closer, and this label-backed, self-named (or 1991, which is stamped in steel on the cover) ‘debut’ shines on them only a modicum of illumination that looks like a sputtering lantern to us way over here. However, when one squints through the lens it’s pretty clear Powersurge is in great physical shape for a band not getting much workout time out in Limbo.

After original name Andzvolts was rightfully buried, the five-piece put together their ’86 Elements of Metal demo under the sharpened moniker Powersurge (electrical motif intact), released it on vinyl later that year, shuffled some members, and then, unbeknownst to them, would have to survive the oceanic tide of time. With no apparent recording stretching between the demo and this ten-tracker (which is highly unlikely, considering Roadrunner wouldn’t have signed them on the strength of a five year old demo, I would think), it must’ve been one long string of practice sessions and shows opening for bands like the ones below.

While metal school classmates of Hades, Toxik, Sweden’s Agony, Realm, and even Whiplash when they got all scrubbed and bubbly (circa. Insult to Injury), Powersurge manages to loop itself between the seams, revealing a harder head than Toxik while tightrope-walking a much thinner thrash line than the rest. In a nutshell, they stand at the intersection of burly power metal and tech thrash-threshed speed with an overhang of scream queen vocals. Be on guard though. Unlike the above bands (except maybe Toxik), Powersurge doesn’t try to steer you away from the bike trail that leads to a place where the ballad and rock anthem rule with a tasseled, soft-soled boot.

But first things first. Coerced by a clinical Morrisound/Tom Morris production, the guys strut their precision proficiency wherever possible (after a five year wait, who wouldn’t?) like true graduates finally in the work force. Guitarists Eddie Rice and Todd Boese seem to let their potency ride more on sweaty, tightly sewn rhythms rather than solos that sometimes bound with intensity as confirmed by “Pulled Over”, “Engine Rail” and “Wall of Power”. Immodest James Marra easily throws his vocal weight around, shearing mountaintops effortlessly like a less loony John Cyriis trying to impress a young Geoff Tate. Too bad no one knows he’s alive. Energy, where it exists, is not in short supply and among blister-makers, the aptly titled “Burning Revenge” and “Stress Attack” are placed perfectly on the lp, the first roasting the door of side two with growing fire breath while the other hammers pulsating sonic nails into its exit.

Back on the bike trail that the band doesn’t go out of its way to camouflage, the pursuit for the radio staple lives on in the celibate “Call Me” and “Tear up the Pavement”, a demo-born track that plants a declaratory, vocally-backed chorus that’s such an obvious toss back to the band’s Loudness and Keel anthem-soaked days of ’86 that it leaves me with nothing more than a chuckle. Similarly, side one ender “Battle Call” simmers in juices of dusky ballad, basic blues rock plod (like AC/DC’s crappy “The Jack”), and a downwind, fairly generic chorus spiced with a needed dramatic lead in for an after meal nap. Some may see this as variety. Some see it as something to fast forward over.

Well, the thrills outshine the spills, making this an exceptional piece of metal non-history that should be cited more than every once in a blue moon, kinda like Phantom, but these guys are better.
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