After Metal Rendezvous, this is my next favourite Krokus album. Originally released back in ’83, it was the band’s seventh release, this is the 40th anniversary reissue on MOV.
This was the album that broke them in the US. It contains classics like Screaming In The Night, Eat The Rich, and Stayed Awake All Night. Screaming is a great tune and worthy of all the praise that comes its way, although I do love the opening double kick blast of the title track Headhunter. I have seen some reviews calling them AC/DC lite, which does not do the band justice. Sure, Eat The Rich has that DC groove but it’s a killer tune that gets the foot a stomping and there are way more frills and subtleties to Krokus’ music.
I have mentioned before how record companies load up the first side with killer tunes and this one is a prime example where everyone is a banger, with Ready To Burn and the ripping Night Wolf making up the side. After EVH’s Eruption appeared in ’78 it became fashionable for all bands to let their lead guitarists a have a little spot of their own on records, and Fernando Von Arb had his piece White Din on this one.
Krokus released some good music and you can’t go wrong with Headhunter.
8.5/10 from The Grooveman.
