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Brand new, sealed. 
OBSESSION Marshall Law LP RED
High Roller Records, reissue 2024, red vinyl, ltd 250, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, insert, restored & mastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony. 01 Only the Strong Survive 02 Hatred Unto Death 03 Execution 04 Marshall Law 05 Shadows of Steel (Demo) 06 Hard Road (Demo) 07 Evil in Her Eyes (Demo) 08 In for the Kill (Demo)
OBSESSION - Marshall Law LP

  MIKE VESCERA - vocals ART MACO - lead guitar BRUCE VITALE - lead guitar MATT KARAGUS - bass JAY MEZIAS - drums
01 Only the Strong Survive 02 Hatred Unto Death 03 Execution 04 Marshall Law
05 Shadows of Steel (Demo) 06 Hard Road (Demo) 07 Evil in Her Eyes (Demo) 08 In for the Kill (Demo)

AVAILABLE

Audio restoration and mastering by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY in December 2022.
American metal band Obsession formed in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1981. It took the band two years to ink a deal with Metal Blade Records and come up with their debut 12” EP »Marshall Law«, featuring the songs “Only The Strong Will Survive”, “Hatred Unto Death”, “Execution” and the title track “Marshall Law”. The line-up on this legendary piece of US Metal vinyl (bearing the catalogue number MBR 1010) consisted of Matt Karagus (bass), Jay Mezias (drums), Art Maco (guitar), Bruce Vitale (guitar) and Mike Vescera (vocals). Mike Vescera, who later went on to find fame and fortune singing for both, Loudness and Yngwie Malmsteen, explains: “I was the last member to join the band in ‘82. New Haven, CT, was our stomping ground and a big part of the success of Obsession. I was in various other local bands previously, but nothing to the level of Obsession.” According to Mike, Obsession started out as a cover band: “Yes, this is true, we were doing what was obscure metal at the time. There was no one covering these bands. We did stuff by the Tygers Of Pan Tang, Angel Witch, Michael Schenker, Accept as well as The Scorpions, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden.” The shining star of the original Obession line-up was indeed Mike Vescera, even in the early stages of his career, his versatile, powerful and dynamic voice (featuring a healthy dose of high-pitched screams) was hard to match. Being initially trained as a classic pianist, Mike really admired Freddie Mercury and was also influenced by Steve Walsh of Kansas fame. Entering his metal phase, Ronnie James Dio and Rob Halford became his heroes. He adds: “Before Obsession, I was in band called Castle. We covered quite a bit of Rainbow and Deep Purple.” When Mike Vescera joined Obsession, considerable progress was being made in a relatively short period of time. All the hard work paid off, when the band managed to place “Shadows Of Steel” on the compilation album »Metal Massacre II«, put out by Brian Slagel’s Metal Blade Records in 1982. “We started recording original music early on,” elaborates the singer. “We knew of Metal Blade and the first »Metal Massacre« record. We submitted a demo we had recorded, and Brian Slagel thought we would be a good addition to »Metal Massacre II. After the release and success of the second »Metal Massacre« record, we approached Metal Blade about releasing an EP with him. Brian signed us on, and we released »Marshall Law« with him and Metal Blade.” But why an EP and not an album? Mike Vescera: “At the time, EPs were quite popular and common, we just felt this would be the best option for us. Mind you, we did have enough material for a full-length, but felt the EP would be the best for us at that point in time. We did have quite a few songs to pick from. We were still finding our way musically, so I believe these songs we picked best represented what Obsession was portraying at that point.” “We were quite young at this point, I had just turned 18, so pretty new to the recording world,” reminisces Mike Vescera about his first time in a professional recording studio. “We were learning as we went along. Luckily, we had Brain Keene as a co-producer and his great experience helped quite a bit. Brian was actually a quite famous Jazz/Progressive guitarist, so his input really helped create something special with the band.” Having started out as a cover band playing tunes by Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, amongst others, it’s no wonder that Bruce Vitale and Art Maco, the two guitar masters of Obsession, performed some killer two-way six-string battles on songs like the heavily Exciter influenced “Only The Strong Will Survive” as well as “Hatred Unto Death”, “Execution” and “Marshall Law”. Unsurprisingly, Obsession gained a lot of respect for their four-track debut EP: “The reaction to the record was great. We were surprised how well it was received. College radio was a big part of Obsession’s success. We were a favorite of many college radio stations across the country.” All this resulted in some more than respectable sales, at the time reported to have been somewhere in the region of between 10,000 and 15,000 copies. However, Mike Vescera begs to differ: “From what I understand, it was quite a bit more than 15,000 copies, but very hard to verify at this point. After »Marshall Law«, we started getting quite a bit of interest from a lot of labels. We wanted to be on a major label (Atlantic, Capitol etc.), as most bands at that time. Enigma (Greenworld), who was the distributor for Metal Blade, approached us to sign with their new label. We felt it would be the best option for us and the deal they offered made sense at the time.” Over in mainland Europe, SPV licensed »Marshall Law« (a good while after the American release), even placed a few ads in German metal mags and did a bit of PR for the record as well. Mike’s memory proves to be as sharp as his singing voice: “I remember when SPV released this, I believe I was touring with Roland Grapow in Germany. I was in talks with SPV about a possible solo deal at the time, so they did keep me informed.” After the release of »Marshall Law«, apart from playing extensively in the New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Massachusetts area, Obsession “toured quite a bit on the East Coast of the US, mainly the Northeast all the way down to North Carolina”, before dedicating more time to the songwriting of their first full-length album. But this, as they say, is another story. The deluxe vinyl re-issue of »Marshall Law« on High Roller Records features four bonus tracks from the original demo tape which was sent to Metal Blade Records. “These were the first original compositions we recorded as a band,” closes Mike Vescera.
MATTHIAS MADER

If you've never heard Obsession, then you are missing out. For the most part this band was one of those 80's Metal Blade bands. Taking on a similar Judas Priest power pack -fronting two lead guitarists, a drummer, bass guitar, and a singer. Guitar wise the music is similar to Judas Priest, but not the singing.
The singer of Obsession happens to be Mike Vescera, who sang for Malmsteen and helped the Japanese metal band Loudness hit the scene in America. The singing is pretty good; heading more for a mid-ranged performance with some high pitched screams here and there. The singing reminds me a lot of Dokken, especially when the back-up vocals come in (see the song Hatred Unto Death).
The drumming is decent and the bass even gets some pretty cool, hearable licks. However, what tops this sound off is the duel lead guitars of Art Maco and Bruce Vitale. I guarantee there is at least three good riffs in each song. The lead guitars are spectacular, tending to sound like Judas Priest during the Defenders Era. Some of the solos are even harmonized, which I imagine would be hard to do when the solos are being played at break neck speed. There are a lot of solos on this EP. In fact the song Execution has a solo after most of the verses. To some this may seem repetitive and boring, but when the solos are played wonderfully it really doesn't matter how many there are.
I am very impressed with this band. Imagine mixing Dokken with Judas Priest! The guitars throw this music up on the line. But everything else is good too. I am hopping this EP is just a show of what this band sounds like. Because this is how heavy metal should be played. Recommend to every metal head.