Artist: OZ
Album: THE OZ REISSUE (CD SLIPCASE)

Release date: 17.10.2025
EAN/UPS: 4251267722327
Media type: CD

High Roller Records, slipcase CD, extensive booklet, poster.

Transfer, audio restoration and mastering by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY in April 2025.
The ultimate audiophile reissue!

Euro metal pioneers Oz were originally formed in Nakilla, a small town in Finland, in 1977. The band consisted of Mark Ruffneck (real name Pekka Mark) on drums, lead vocalist Ape De Martini (Eero Hämäläinen by real name), bassist Tauno Vajavaara and Kario Elo on guitar. It took the four Fins five years to come up with the material for their legendary debut album. With raw heavy metal anthems such as “Saturday Night”, “Capricorn Man” or the sleazy “Second-Hand Lady” Oz were quickly hailed as Scandinavia’s heavy metal band no.1 (well ahead of Heavy Load). In Finland, the album was issued under the name of »Oz« on Kräk! Records (KRÄLP 12) in 1982, with a striking live photograph on the front cover (complemented by further live shots on the back). The original pressing came complete with a lyric sheet. The album had been recorded and mixed at Decibel Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. It was produced by Börje Forsberg, aka The Boss, for his company Tyfon Grammofon AB (the predecessor of Black Mark Production) and engineered by a certain Acke Gardebäck. On the back of the album sleeve it also said: “album design/recording ideas: Tomas ‘Ace’ Forsberg”. Of course, this was the son of Börje Forsberg, who went on to write metal history with his project Bathory just a little while later under the pseudonym of Quorthon. In Sweden, the album was issued with an alternative sleeve (just a plain black cover with the title on it in white letters) under the somewhat strange name of »Heavy Metal Heroes – Hey You« (with “Hey You” being the opening song of the record for both editions). With the success of the album not only in Finland (but all over continental Europe), Oz decided to permanently move to Stockholm, a much larger city than their original hometown, in order to follow a professional recording career. In a special story on “Heavy Metal in Finland” in Rock Hard magazine (Germany) drummer Pekka Mark remarked: “Our first album was released in Sweden and in Finland, it was also exported to a few other countries at the time. The record sold pretty well and as a result our gigs in our home country became much more frequent. That’s typical for Finland – you need to be successful in a foreign country first before being recognized at home.”

CD/ LP:

01 Hey You  
02 Call from Your Eyes  
03 Runnin' the Line  
04 Rather Knight  
05 Saturday Night  
06 Second-Hand-Lady  
07 In the Chains  
08 Capricorn Man

Eero Hämäläinen - vocals
Kari Elo - guitar
Tauno Vajavaara - bass
Pekka Mark - drums