Samba Party

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Despite delivering a pair of underground classics in their first two LPs, Belgian metal ambassadors Acid never came within sniffing distance of America during their short career, but they did manage to take their S&M-inspired stage show across Europe numerous times (on tours with major names like Motörhead, Black Sabbath, Venom, Loudness, and Manowar), steadily gathering fans along the way. Yet, by the recording of their third album, Engine Beast, in 1985, the wear and tear of all this hard work was finally beginning to show -- both on the bandmembers' personal relationships and their music. Keep in mind that Acid were never the most eclectic or sophisticated heavy metal stylists to begin with (their bread and butter was speed metal born of the NWOBHM, with a few remnant ‘70s hard rock influences thrown in), so at a time when rising forces like Metallica and Slayer were preparing to unleash their third thrash metal masterpieces in a row, Acid were still squeezing the last drops of vitality out of their quaint little recipe, having essentially stood still while the movement evolved at light speed (no pun intended) all around them. Therefore, even though Engine Beast's brighter spots, like "S.T.C.," "Halloween Queen," and "Let Me Die," provided a certain amount of nostalgic entertainment value, they were surrounded by twice as much rampant mediocrity ("Big Ben," "Warriors of the Dark," the title track, etc.), or, worst of all, the failed Pat Benatar experiment called "She Loves You." Bottom line, the Belgian quintet's future looked bleak! And, in the end, the members of Acid decided not to bother facing any more of it, disbanding to the four winds shortly after Engine Beast's release, before their modest but respectable legacy could be tarnished any further.

© Eduardo Rivadavia /TiVo