Having OD-ed on The Dagger's '1978' and the recent “High Spirits” CD, why not delve back in time, to the vaunted NWOBHM, and re-acquaint myself with Quartz? Occasionally venturing to a vintage minded European festival, the UK outfit currently includes original drummer Malcolm Cope, guitarist Mick Hopkins and ex-Black Sabbath keyboardist Geoff Nicholls (now doubling on guitar) in their midst. While a brand new CD, all the recordings date back to '81-'82 and have yet to be released, although nine of the 16 did appear, in different versions, on the “Against All Odds” album, which surfaced the following year.

Despite the UFO title, the opening track is an original, all old school guitar tones and hard rock prowess, from an era when people were still writing songs in hopes of getting guitar music on the radio. Ditto ‘Gold Digger’. Culled from different sessions (“Against All Odds” required three studios to finish) and undoubtedly some left on the cutting room floor, only to be “pieced back together” three decades later, the production (levels/clarity) varies between tracks. Only two cuts eclipse 5 minutes and another pair fail to break three. Musically, the sound inhabits similar territory to late 70s contemporaries Starz, Triumph or Foghat, although ‘Frontline’ sounds like an audition for Foreigner. ‘Hard Road’ sees the guitars unleashed. The gritty, heretofore anomaly ‘Buried Alive’ is bona fide metal, (oddly enough, given Nicholls' eventual home) Black Sabbath style. There's also a couple of keyboard laden, progressive leaning numbers, like ‘Avalon’. Days of future past, in a bizarre way.