Blitz - The Best Of Blitz
1994 Anagram Punk UK

Track Listing:
1.  Attack
2.  Fight To Live
3.  45 Revolutions
4.  Someone's Gonna Die
5.  Time Bomb
6.  4Q
7.  Never Surrender
8.  Razors In The Night
9.  Voice Of A Generation
10. Nation On Fire
11. Youth
12. Warriors
13. Bleed
14. New Age
15. Fatigue
16. Suffragette City
17. Overdrive
18. Those Days
19. Killing Dream
20. Walkaway

Line-Up:
Vocals:  Tom Araya
Guitars:  Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman
Bass:  Tom Araya
Drums:  Dave Lombardo

Horatio's Rating:  D
Overall Rating:  D

Horatio's Review:
Out of the wastelands of early 80's Manchester came this group of punk rejects, which judging by their photos, were comprised of two Oi! freaks and a couple of NWOBHM followers.  I remember when my brother bought this budget compilation, only because of the titles, which were suitably ludicrous, like 'Never Surrender', 'Attack', 'Fatigue', 'Time Bomb', 'Youth', 'Warriors' and 'Bleed', pretty funny if you ask me.  I was in a band with my brother and a few friends called Driffter at the time and we had written songs with similar titles, although we leaned towards political based thrash with Kreator and Napalm Death overtones.  We pumped out eight albums in a year, and as homage to Blitz covered 'Razors In The Night'.

Blitz began as a Clash style punk act with Motörhead rip off tendencies, and then as the CD booklet reliably informs me descended into a new wave act and lost all their credibility.  This particular greatest hits set looks to have been manufactured in someone's bedroom with an iron on patch on the CD in an attempt to make it look professional.  The company is named Dojo which says it all.  I admit to getting a cheap buzz from the crude production and flimsy arrangements of these tracks, but after a few listens it's too much to take.  Predictably they were the center of riots and brawls at their gigs from skinheads and bov ver boys, a stale remnant of that era.

In 1997 I contacted Nidge, the erstwhile leader of the band and asked if he would collaborate with Driffter.  Without e-mail I had to send this request by traditional letter so it took a while.  He sent me some demos, titled 'Dachau', 'Shot From The Tower', 'Centipede' and 'Bomb Scare'.  He also designed a concept album based on a corrupt Australian prison called 'Suffer The Serve', with a track called 'Die, Nigger, Die!!??'.  The shocking twist was that Nidge lived down the road in Foxton and was an unemployed bum, on the run from the authorities.  He apparently had become part of a West German fascist group in the late 80's and tried to blow up the Berlin Wall, but instead killed a group of Turkish construction workers and ex German football star Paul Brietner.

The killings were seen to be racist and Nidge's faction came undere fire.  A huge rally was held by German football star Karl Heinz Ruminegge, to combat racial intolerance, which attracted half a million people.  Nidge and his faction attacked the masses with Molotov Cocktails, but Nigde set himself on fire with an aborted bottle and ran through the streets ablaze.  Badly burned he boarded a tanker and hid in a crate for three months, the Indonesian tanker destined for the Pacific.  At his wits end, and surviving on rice grains, Nidge fled the tanker, only to find himself in Napier, New Zealand.

Nidge hitched a ride to Foxton where I finally met him.  One night in the bedroom of a guy called Bailey he told us this story, as he drunk a slew of non alcoholic beer and ate two bags of burger rings.  I never saw him after that.  I left the country shortly after.  I shopped him in to the pigs for reward money which funded my trip.  He was busted by Interpol a few days later, running nude down the street in a dawn raid.  He ran into the ocean and was never found............Wait, no Nidge, you're alive, no man don't cut my balls off man!!!...stop!!!!!!!............ahhh!!!!!....oh wait, it was just a dream, just the cat licking my nuts...here's my asshole as well mate......Christ it's him in the mirror behind me, a nude figure laughing!!!!!!!!!!! 
Horatio's Rating:  D

Discography (last updated 9.24.06):
All Out Attack EP - 1981
Never Surrender/Razors In The Night - 1981
Voice Of A Generation - 1982
Second Empire Justice - 1983
All Out Attack - 1989
Blitzed:  An All Out Attack - 1993
Best Of Blitz - 1994
Complete Blitz Singles Collection - 1994
The Killing Dream - 1995
Warriors - 1999