Metal Rendez-vous

Metal Rendez-vous
Studio album by
Krokus
Released30 June 1980
RecordedOctober–November 1979
StudioStudio Platinum One, Oberehrendingen, Switzerland
GenreHard rock, heavy metal
Length43:39
LabelAriola
ProducerMartin Pearson and Krokus
Krokus chronology
Painkiller
(1978) 		Metal Rendez-vous
(1980) 		Hardware
(1981)
Singles from Metal Rendez-vous
  1. "Bedside Radio"
    Released: March 1980 (UK)[1]
  2. "Heatstrokes"
    Released: May 1980 (UK)[2]
  3. "Tokyo Nights"
    Released: August 1980 (UK)[3]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal6/10[5]
Record Mirror[6]

Metal Rendez-vous is the fourth studio album by the Swiss hard rock band Krokus, released in June 1980. It is the first Krokus release to feature vocalist Marc Storace; Chris von Rohr had formerly served as the band's lead vocalist but appears on Metal Rendez-vous as the band's bassist. The track "Heatstrokes" charted number one in the British Heavy Metal Charts, and arguably opened up markets for Krokus in Britain and the United States, along with "Bedside Radio" and "Tokyo Nights".[7] Strangely, the song "Tokyo Nights" features a reggae beat halfway through.[4] The album sold more than 150,000 copies in Switzerland and was certified Triple Platinum.[7]

UK-based company Rock Candy Records reissued the album on CD in 2014.

Seven of the songs on Metal Rendez-vous - "Heatstrokes", "Bedside Radio", "Streamer", "Shy Kid", "Tokyo Nights", "Lady Double Dealer", and "Fire" - along with an eighth song, titled "Sweet Inspiration", were originally demoed with singer Henry Fries who fronted the band for a period in 1978/'79 before being replaced by Storace.[8] The Fries demos are available digitally on iTunes under the name Henry Fries & Friends[1]. In 1982, Fries and fellow Krokus alumni, Jürg Naegeli and Tommy Kiefer, would release the album Downtown Cocktail under the name Henry Freis & The Cityleaders.

Track listing

All songs written by Fernando von Arb and Chris von Rohr, except "Bedside Radio", "Shy Kid", "Tokyo Nights" and "Back-Seat Rock 'n' Roll" by von Arb, von Rohr and Jürg Naegeli.

Side one
  1. "Heatstrokes" - 4:00
  2. "Bedside Radio" - 3:22
  3. "Come On" - 4:29
  4. "Streamer" - 6:44
  5. "Shy Kid" - 2:33
Side two
  2. "Tokyo Nights" - 5:54
  3. "Lady Double Dealer" - 3:13
  4. "Fire" - 6:07
  5. "No Way" - 4:02
  6. "Back-Seat Rock 'n' Roll" - 3:15

(A re-recording of "Back-Seat Rock n' Roll" appears on the band's 2017 covers album Big Rocks).

Personnel

Krokus
Production

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[9] 4× Platinum 200,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ^ "Krokus singles".
  2. ^ "Great Rock discography". p. 472.
  3. ^ "Krokus singles".
  4. ^ a b Bregman, Adam. "Krokus Metal Rendez-vous review". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  5. ^ Popoff, Martin (November 1, 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 190. ISBN 978-1-894959-31-5.
  6. ^ Harrigan, Brian (8 March 1980). "Krokus: Metal Rendezvous". Record Mirror. p. 12.
  7. ^ a b KROKUS ONLINE - official homepage - Discography - METAL RENDEZ-VOUS
  8. ^ "The curious story of Krokus: drugs, fistfights, and the very end of the road". LouderSound.com. May 1, 2020.
  9. ^ "The Official Swiss Charts and Music Community: Awards ('Metal Rendez-vous')". IFPI Switzerland. Hung Medien. Retrieved 15 November 2021.