MYSTERY - Mystery CD

In 1988 an employee of Noise Records went into business for himself and founded TRC (The Record Company). Alongside the Dirty Strangers (with members of the Rolling Stones) and the Spanish hard rock band Helpless, there was this weird record with the futuristic eye on the cover: MYSTERY. When it was released in 1988, the LP polarized mercilessly. While the German Metal Hammer had to be satisfied with three points and a somewhat helpless-looking criticism, the English Kerrang received a four-K rating and statements like "What we have here is the most interesting progressive thrash crossover I've ever seen." heard for a long time". Looking back, it's clear that the world wasn't ready for this album in 1988.

If you listen to the highly idiosyncratic and definitely also unique pieces of Mystery, then you can already assume that there were no young Heavy Metal fans at work here who wandered in the paths of their idols. The songs are packed with ideas that most Metal musicians would never have had in this form. And the implementation has always raised the suspicion that professional musicians from a different genre were commissioned to write and record a heavy metal album - of course with stage names like The Lion or Mike Battista, befitting their status. Exactly this has now come true after years of research and will be revealed on the release day. After that, the disc should also become an object of desire for another target group...but more will not be revealed here and today.

The booklet includes liner notes by singer "Gerald L." that tell the background (including names and locations). They are joined by Neudi (Manilla Road, Trance, A&R at Golden Core), who, as a big fan of the LP, has been working on the "solving of the mystery case" since the nineties and only had success with it in 2022. At the same time, this led to the re-release after the rights situation (there is only one living musician from the mystery cast) could be clarified.

Even today, not every metal fan will find their way into the world of Mystery, but whoever manages to do so has found an album for life and has to surrender to the danger of addiction. There have been enough uniform metal albums in the last 40 years...