Predator

Although its striking cover art -- featuring a stylized mutant insect designed by famed artist Rodney Matthews (Asia, Praying Mantis, Diamond Head, etc.) -- hinted of a high-quality New Wave of British Heavy Metal listening experience within, Bitches Sin's debut long-player, Predator, was in fact a pretty coarse and wildly inconsistent affair. Released in mid-1982 by the aptly named Heavy Metal Records, it followed just one year after the group's highly praised contribution to the Heavy Metal Heroes compilation via the classic song "Strangers on the Shore" (part Diamond Head, part Saxon, part Holocaust), and yet that short time span was enough to leave the band's initial promise unfulfilled. In fact, not having enough time to prepare was probably the main culprit behind Predator's uneven material -- although the intermittent sacking of the entire band by its founding guitar-playing brothers, Ian and Pete Toomy, certainly couldn't have helped matters either. As it turned out, Bitches Sin's every attempt at versatility on Predator became a glaring showcase for the Toomys' songwriting weaknesses whenever they stepped outside of their heavy metal comfort zone -- none more than its comatose opening track, "April Fool," which came off like a sloppy reworking of AC/DC's "The Jack." The ensuing two-minute thrash of "Haneka" (dedicated to a supportive Dutch DJ) also failed to leave much of an impression, but it did have a pulse at least, and then the similarly energetic, tautly written metal nugget "Runaway" finally reminded fans of what it was they'd liked about Bitches Sin in the first place. So, too, the slightly more commercial "Lady Lies," with its easily memorized chorus, but then the clumsy "Dirty Women" -- featuring a histrionic vocal, nowhere near as suave as its lascivious lyrics required -- came along to wreck the band's momentum, even though it precedes another excellent heavy rocker in "Fallen Star." Next up was a sped-up re-recording of the aforementioned "Strangers on the Shore," and while it was still among the best songs to be found here, it too fell short of the definitive Heavy Metal Heroes version, which was nearly one minute longer thanks to tasty guitar soloing at its coda. By this point, Bitches Sin had just three tracks left with which to improve Predator's chances, but neither the aimlessly marching "Loser" nor the unusually melodic but barely finished "Riding High" were up to the task, leaving only the pretty decent "Aardshock" (yet another tribute to Holland, this being the famous outdoor festival) to send them off -- if not triumphantly -- at least without further embarrassment. Even so, the public disappointment over Predator's erratic contents ran deep among not only their followers, but also the heavy metal press, including an especially vicious shellacking by Kerrang! magazine, from which Bitches Sin would never recover.