Force - Set Me Free (From This Pain Inside My Head)

Here’s an English band that flew under the radar back in 1984 that should’ve gone onto bigger things. From the Midlands, Force played a pompous form of traditional heavy metal, in the vein of Demon, Grand Prix, Saracen, Valhalla and early Magnum.

Written by: gdmonline

ARTIST: Force
ALBUM: Set Me Free (From This Pain Inside My Head)
LABEL: Heavy Metal Records
SERIAL: HMR LP16
YEAR: 1985
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: England

LINEUP: Graham Careless – lead vocals * Garry Chapman, Stu Clarke – guitars * Pete Wayne – keyboards * ‘Fez’ Ferriday – bass * Roger Whitehouse – drums, percussion

TRACK LISTING: 01 King’s Fury * 02 Don’t Throw My Love Away * 03 Footsteps * 04 Hesitate * 05 I Want To See You * 06 Break Away * 07 Day To Day * 08 Time Is Right * 09 Hold On To Your Love

WEBLINKS: NA

Table of Contents

Background

Here’s an English band that flew under the radar back in 1984 that should’ve gone onto bigger things. From the Midlands, Force played a pompous form of traditional heavy metal, in the vein of Demon, Grand Prix, Saracen, Valhalla and early Magnum.

This one off album really was quite an eye-opener when I happened to stumble across a few tracks on YouTube a month or so ago. For those of you with a Trainspotters Eye in the NWOBHM movement, Force previously went under the handle of Cryer, and released some singles back in the early 80’s. Thanks to the inclusion of keyboards, this album is an ideal fit for GDM regulars who remember the early 80’s like it was yesterday.

The Songs

Getting past the gruesome cover art (a bad sci-fi movie cover perhaps?), ‘Kings Fury’ leads us on our merry way. Quite pompy for an opener, and less about heavy metal. ‘Don’t Throw My Love Away’ sees a change, toward a charging style of hard rock, and with keys/organ to the fore, Uriah Heep meeting Baby Tuckoo makes for a good comparison.

‘Footsteps’ hovers in Magnum territory, again those stacked keys makes this a treat to listen to. ‘Hesitate’ is the album’s ballad, but I much prefer it when Force are going for it, as on ‘I Want To See You’, which emulates Grand Prix‘s pompous AOR style, whether by accident or by design.

‘Break Away’ and ‘Day To Day’ continues the good work, while the last two tracks ‘Time Is Right’ and ‘Hold On To Your Love’ are filled with swirling keyboard work.

In Summary

Somehow I came away after listening to this, and thinking the band were highly mis-represented at the time. A different cover, a different band name, a photo of the band dressed up looking like AOR gods may have had a different impact on their fortunes.

However, this would be the only album from this impressive line-up. The album was reissued in 2015, although cryptically, it was under the banner of their original band name Cryer. Refer to Greek label No Remorse Records, who have done a swag of NWOBHM reissues recently.