The cliché „quality prevails“ has unfortunately often been proven wrong, especially in heavy metal. After Sudden Death or Hellbreath, the Golden Core label, which currently focuses on high-quality rarities, once again presents a German metal band from the second half of the eighties, which was highly talented, but only made it to one LP on its own. „Pictures Of Reality“ is the name of the impressive result, which was released in 1989 on Rockwerk Records, the label that the Rockmusikerverein provided to the bands, including the label code. The partly epic metal, which also likes to pick up speed sometimes, would have had chances with one of the relevant companies (Noise, Steamhammer, Roadrunner etc.) back then, before traditional metal got its troubles in the nineties. This is ensured not only by very expressive vocals but also by an incredibly professional production (for a self-pressing). Typical „Teutonic steel“ is also not present at every second, because over long stretches the material reminds of US bands like Omen or Liege Lord. In addition, two songs break the eight-minute mark without falling into progressive fiddling. Unfortunately, the A&R managers of the record companies at that time sat on their ears and preferred to take care of shortlived trend music... The original LP is a small investment today, but the factor „rare“ does not automatically mean good music! Exploder are one of those bands that would almost have more chances today than in the late eighties. They have the songs and the sound that many young metal bands from the underground would kill for - something that simply cannot be reproduced exactly in this form. The album was overdubbed from master tape by Eroc (Grobschnitt) and remastered by Neudi. For the vinyl edition, additional mastering was done by Vadim Kulin (ZYX Studio).
