OZ
III Warning SLIPCASE CD

Transfer, audio restoration and mastering by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY in April 2025.

Ape DeMartini - vocals
Speedy Foxx -- lead & rhythm guitars
Spooky Wolff - lead & rhythm guitars
Jay C Blade - bass & vocals
Mark Ruffneck - drums & Percussion

01 Third Warning  
02 Crucified  
03 Runner  
04 Rock'n'Roll Widow  
05 Samurai  
06 Born Out of Time  
07 Too Bad to Be True  
08 Total Metal  
09 Turn the Cross Upside Down

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 »The Oz«. 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. The follow-up album to »Heavy Metal Heroes – Hey You« was issued in 1983 under the name of »Fire In The Brain«, gaining fantastic press reviews (in England’s Metal Forces magazine for instance). Oz’s third album, aptly named »III Warning«, saw the light of day in 1984. It was once again produced in Stockholm, this time at Electra Studios and produced by The Boss (Börje Forsberg) for Tyfon Grammofon AB. In his »Collector’s Guide To Heavy Metal« Canadian author Martin Popoff wrote about “fables of anguish such as ‘Crucified’, ‘Runner’ and ‘Rock’n’Roll Widow’.” On »III Warning« Oz indeed sound like a well-oiled metal machine, best summed up by the last track on the record: “Total Metal”. Because of the cover artwork of »Fire In The Brain« and especially the »Turn The Cross Upside Down« EP Oz had sometimes been lumped in with early black metal protagonists such as Venom, Mercyful Fate or Bathory. This is why they began to tone down their image a bit on »III Warning«. In an interview with Rock Hard magazine (Germany) drummer Pekka Mark explained: “This is true. And it once again shows that people just don’t pay attention. According to my opinion, you need to have a close look at the whole package in order to make up your mind, and this includes listening to the actual music. We never compared ourselves with other bands, and we never fitted a certain category. It just transpired that Jay, our bassist and lyricist at the time, was fascinated by certain topics. He surely wasn’t into writing about birds and bees.”

MATTHIAS MADER