Gotham City

Here's the highly sought after debut single from Gotham City, one of the coolest of the FWOSHM (first wave of Swedish Heavy Metal) bands there ever was. Though this record doesn't even begin to hint at how brilliant this band became, and it suffers from horrible production, and the vocalist sounds a bit bored, it is still a favorite of mine. Perhaps because there is an undeniable, naive charm to this little slab of metal, the sound of youthful promise. Gotham City hailed from Umeå and formed in 1980. A demo was recorded in 1981, and this single in '82. In 1983 the band recorded another demo and the classic EP Black Writs. Then singer Ola Ohlsson was replaced by the far more adept Anders Zackrisson. With Anders at the helm, the band refined their sound and released their only full-length album The Unknown, also fantastic. Then in 1986 the band did the unexpected, they released another two song demo of astounding quality that far surpassed any of their previous work, and promptly broke up. Recently a Gotham City retrospective CD was released through Metal Crusade Records, but foolishly these two cuts were omitted. Anders went on to sing for first wave retro thrash act, Nocturnal Rites, and drummer Jonas Östman did a stint bashing buckets for everyone's favorite Swedish meatball, Yngwie Malmsteem. Gotham City, another incredible Euro-metal treasure glossed over for far too long. Like I always say: Nej Sverige, Nej Metall. Veta Sverige, Veta Metall.

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