If you just clicked this review, chances are you’re asking one of two questions: 1. Who is Quartz?, or 2. Quartz is still around?! To answer question #1, Quartz formed way back in 1974 under the bizarre moniker, Bandy Legs. Hailing from Birmingham, England, they quickly became mates with another band native to the town that you may have heard of, Black Sabbath. This friendship resulted in an opening slot for Sabbath, and subsequently, guest appearances from Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne on future releases. Ironically, Quartz guitarist/keyboardist Geoff Nicholls would go on to join Sabbath as a fifth member in 1979.
That answers question #1. As for question #2, yes, Quartz is still alive and well! Despite disbanding in 1983, the band reunited in 2011 to play a successful run of shows on the euro festival circuit. Not only that, but this wasn’t simply a case of one original member assembling a group of hired guns and capitalizing on the name for a late career cash-in. The modern day lineup of Quartz is near identical to the one who recorded their self titled debut in 1977. Mick Hopkins handles guitars, Malcolm Cope lays down the beat, and Derek Arnold unleashes the low end, while Against All Odds singer Geoff Bate triumphantly returns to front the band. Together, this lineup, plus other classic era vocalist David Garner and former Black Sabbath singer Tony Martin, has assembled to create the fifth Quartz studio offering, On the Edge of No Tomorrow.
Musically speaking, Quartz lie somewhere between the rough and ready NWOBHM that dominated their era and the Sabbathian darkness of the early 70s, which would be further accentuated by acts like Witchfinder General and Pagan Altar. The latter is showcased heavily on this release. Whether it be the cryptically slow “World of Illusion”, powerfully epic “Death or Glory”, or groovy hard rock infused “Night of the Living Dead”, Hopkins’ riffs boast a menacingly morose and devastatingly heavy quality throughout. That said, I wouldn’t go so far to label this a doom album, but rather a traditional metal album with plenty of doomy moments.
Relentless cuts like “Angels at the Crossroad” and “Highway to Madness” make one wonder if the NWOBHM ever truly ended for this band of heavy veterans. There’s also smatterings of simplistic AC/DC style arena rock (“Keep Up the Fight”, “Babylon is Burning”) and tinges of AOR for good measure (“What Love Is”). One thing’s for certain: Quartz is no one trick pony. Even at this age and stage of their career, they can still crank out an album that’s as compelling as it is diverse. Perhaps most amazingly is that yet again, here’s an example of a classic band blowing the so called NWOTHM crop out of the water.
Although I don’t see myself spinning On the Edge of No Tomorrow as regularly as their self titled, Against All Odds, and the mighty Stand Up and Fight (their best), this is most definitely an album that deserves to be heard by old schoolers and new schoolers alike. The “Mainline Riders” are still “Stoking Up the Fires of Hell” with metal that’s “Too Hot to Handle”! Also, good luck finding another metal site that’ll fit 3 Quartz song titles into one sentence!
6 out of 10
Label: Hear No Evil Recordings
Genre: Heavy Metal
For fans of: Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Witchfynde