OZ - The Oz [Beer]

The Oz collects Finland's own answer to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, raw and unpolished and somehow more Scandinavian for it, now pressed on beer-coloured vinyl.

Formed in 1977 in the tiny town of Nakkila, Oz spent five years building toward a debut that would make them the biggest heavy metal band in Scandinavia, ahead of even Sweden's Heavy Load, which is no small claim given how seriously that country takes the genre. Mark Ruffneck on drums, Ape de Martini's vocals, Tauno Vajavaara's bass, and Kario Elo's guitar built something that owed real debts to Priest and Sabbath while sounding unmistakably like four guys from a small Finnish town who'd figured it out largely on their own.

Saturday Night is pure weekend-anthem swagger, riffs built for a room full of denim and leather. Capricorn Man leans into the theatrical, slightly mystical posturing the genre demanded at the time, and Second-Hand Lady earns its racier reputation with a strut that never once apologises for itself.

Raw, direct, and entirely unconcerned with subtlety. Finland's metal scene owes this band more than it usually gets credit for.

Tracklist

Side A 

1. Hey You
2. Call from Your Eyes
3. Runnin' the Line
4. Rather Knight

Side B

1. Saturday Night
2. Second-Hand Lady
3. In the Chains
4. Capricorn Man