As Creme Brulee’s Les McQueen so lyrically put it, “It’s a shit business”.

I’m moved to remember this piece of music industry wisdom because Eonian Records‘ latest signal from the ‘where are they now’ cabinet, I Want It All by N.Y. Fury, would seem to back the statement up in spades…

The ‘Fury, ya see, coulda been contenders. Mid-to-late eighties American music history is littered with the corpses of these bands; As a Britisher, it seems almost incomprehensible that so many highly serviceable units never got the chance ‘back in the day’ to be thrust into my ever-voracious musical maw. As a hair metal-hungry teen I’d have loved the attitude-filled hi-jinx of Sit On This or the superb, classic hard rock of Hopin’ Love Will Come had I been able to do so, but… It’s a shit business.

Not that you’d know that when reading through the liner notes of this nicely put together package. The band’s leading light, Gene Hunter, is justifiably proud of his band and their place in hair metal history, and listening to the drama-filled big ballad If Only You Could See Me Now, which is easily the equal of many a more successful mid eighties outfits’ contemporaneous output, you can see why. Great singing, great playing, an image designed to please both fans of Judas Priest and Poison; this is a band that really does seem to have been dudded by the cold, dead hand of ‘the industry’…

Still that’s a rant for another day – better now to simply alert you to the fact that, if superbly executed hard rock gets your motor running, then some of those xmas vouchers currently burning a hole in your all-of-a-sudden too-tight strides may be well deployed in the acquisition of this nice little time capsule. It is a shit business, it’s true – but why let that spoil your listening pleasure? Dig in and enjoy!

I Want It All releases on December 30th.