OSTROGOTH Feelings of Fury SLIPCASE [CD]

HRR 896CD, slipcase, poster

Transfer, mastering and audio restoration by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY in April 2022.
Cutting by SST Germany on Neumann machines for optimal quality on all levels ...

The first half of 1985 had been great for Ostrogoth: recording and releasing »Too Hot«, followed by a bunch of gigs to support it. All of this came to a sudden end in August of 1985, when the classic line-up of the band quickly fell apart.

It took Ostrogoth until late October 1986 to present a stable line-up again, consisting of vocalist Peter de Wint, guitarists Rudy Vercruysse and Juno Martins, bassist Pierre Villafranca, drummer Mario Pauwels and Chris Taerwe on keyboards. In the meantime, Mausoleum Records had ceased to exist and the band was on the lookout for a new label. There was talk of Holland’s Roadrunner being interested, but that didn’t work out in the end. Fortunately former Mausoleum boss Alfie Falckenbach had started a new label, called Ultraprime, and he expressed a desire to sign Ostrogoth for their next release.

From that moment on the band continued to shape and re-shape their new repertoire during rehearsals. Especially as it was Ultraprime’s plan to have the next Ostrogoth record out by April of 1987 already. Actually, the band went to Aalst to record a pre-production demo, including nine songs, in early 1987. By February of 1987, the band was able to play all of them in an impeccable manner, and they were very eager to record them properly at last.

The recording sessions for Ostrogoth’s third full-length, to be entitled »Reincarnation«, took place at Rainbow Studios in Heist o/d Berg in March and April of 1987. Ward Kuczynski was the producer and engineer, while Alfie Falckenbach and François De Caerlé acted as executive producers.

The songs, once again, were a band effort, with every member chipping in their bits here and there. The lyrics were credited to Peter on the insert, but actually Juno came up with the lyrics of “Vlad Strigoï” and “Samurai”. As a trivia fact it’s worth knowing that the band also had a new song called “Blind Fury” at the time, however, it was never recorded properly at Rainbow Studios for the album. Reason being that, due to the limitations of how much music fits on vinyl releases, it wouldn’t have fit on the record anyhow. As mentioned earlier on already, the title for the album was initially supposed to be »Reincarnation«. God only knows exactly why and when this title was ditched for »Feelings Of Fury«, but most likely this was up to Ultraprime, rather than the band.

Not long after the release of the album, the band split up in mid-1988. As it turned out, it would be almost 14 years until an Ostrogoth reunion would happen. But that’s a totally different story.

Eddy Vermeiren