Old school album of the week is the debut release by Canadian metal band Killer Dwarfs from 1983. The band was led by singer Russ Dwarf, with Darrell Dwarf on drums and guitarists Ange and Bryce Dwarf rounding out the band. This is an album I had forgotten all about til just recently after going through the record collection looking for something to listen to. I had to give it a spin, and am glad I did. It's a fun album to listen to, it's got all the old school 80's metal cliches in it. It's not meant to be ground breaking, or political, just fun metal. It even has the requisite ballad, the last song of the record "Fire In Your Eyes", which is awful, worst song on the album. The stand out songs are,the opening song "Are You Ready" with it's classic metal riff and Geddy Lee (Rush) like voice, followed by the song "Can't Lose" with the opening lyrics "hard times and a bottle of jack, night train goin' off the track, I lost my money, got no fans, hard times come around again" how 80's metal does that sound. Side one end with the biggest song from this album "Heavy Mental Breakdown". I think every Canadian metal head from the 80's will recall hearing this song or seeing this video at one time or another. I remember this song being on the compilation album "Metal For Breakfast". All and all this album is a classic eighties metal album.
Killer Dwarfs were a fun band to see live as well, with lead singer Russ Dwarf being known to ride a tri-cycle around stage while performing.
My favorite memory of this album is the time back in 1987 when I was working as a dish pig at the restaurant Billy Budd's here in Edmonton, I was going to the front of the restaurant to get dishes when I spotted the drummer Darrell Dwarf and lead singer Russ Dwarf having dinner. The band was playing in town that evening at a bar, in which I wasn't old enough to get into at the time. I went back to the kitchen and called my Dad and asked him to go through my record collection and find my Killer Dwarfs record. If that's not funny enough, thinking of my Dad looking for a Killer Dwarfs album. I then asked him if he would be kind enough to bring me the record to my work as I wanted to try and catch them before they left to see if I could get my album autographed. Well, my Dad came through as he always does, but he brought me the record only, no album sleeve just the record. Oh well. I caught the guys just after they finished eating and asked them if they would autograph the record. Which they did, I had the chance to talk a bit with the guys, whom were both really nice. They were going to give me tickets for the show, but as I said earlier, I wasn't old enough to go. Nice gesture though nonetheless. I'm sure the guys left the restaurant wondering what the hell I was doing with a Killer Dwarfs album and the vinyl only in the kitchen. Good times!!!
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