Terms like "forgotten gem" or "underrated album" are often used today, but in the case of WAR MACHINE from England, they fit like a glove!
In 1986, not only was NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) already history, but the Neat Records label, until then an important pioneer with Raven, Venom or Tygers Of Pan Tang, was weakening and losing influence internationally. In 1986, the attention of fans and journalists turned more to the USA, and speed/thrash metal also began to take off. A bad time for female-fronted power metal, whose strength lies in mid-tempo.
Formed in 1983, Newcastle band WAR MACHINE released their first demo in 1984. The line-up included Steve White, who can be heard on both ATOMKRAFT demos from 1981 and 1983. The utterly hard-bitten but melodic heavy metal with Bernadette Mooney‘s vocals appealed to Neat Records, also based in Newcastle, so the debut album 'Unknown Soldier' was recorded in the label's Impulse studio. The material fits in with traditional British heavy metal, but also features a few riffs that might have suited a thrash metal band.
The LP was released in 1986 on Neat and also on Roadrunner Records (Holland). After another demo in 1988, War Machine went quiet. In the early Nineties, they appeared with several songs from the album on cheap CD compilations, the Neat Records catalogue having been cannibalized during these years.
'Unknown Soldier' itself appears for the first time on CD via Golden Core/ZYX.
The booklet includes scans of Neat's 'Lead Weight' promotional booklet of the time.