Reviewed by Andy Long

When the first flood of "white metal" hit the UK in the late 80s amongst all the American bands like Saint, Messiah Prophet and Bride were an Australian band, Light Force, with their 'Mystical Thieves' album. This compilation contains the cream of both that album and their earlier 'Battlezone' release as well as live cuts that were intended for their third album 'Epidemic Of Injustice', which was never released as the band split due to "musical differences", to quickly re-emerge as death dealers Mortification. It has to be said that Light Force had a very different sound to Mortification. This is solid crash chord based power metal full of the revelation imagery that was the lyrical banquet of bands in those early days. Tight, choppy riffs, plenty of overdrive, pounding rhythms that we all used to headbang to, with Steve Johnson's powerful voice carrying it all along nicely thank you very much. 'Best Of...' is an interesting look at the development of both Light Force and Mortification and, considering much of it has been previously unavailable in Britain, a pretty good buy with over an hour of music.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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