Together with Grim Reaper and the mighty Savage, Chateaux from Gloucestershire form the Big 3 of the legendary Ebony label from Hull. Alec Houston (bass, vocals), Andre Baylis (drums, vocals) and Tim Broughton (guitar) originally found each other around 1981 under the name Stealer. It didn't take long and the piece "Young Blood" found its way to the compilation "Metal Maniaxe" released by Ebony in 1982. In the same year, Chateaux's debut single "Young Blood" was released (with "Fight To The Last" on the B-side). 1983 saw the light of day with "Chained And Desperate", one of the most undervalued debut albums of the entire NWOBHM. Chained And Desperate "moved on a quite high level of playing technique and changed stylistically between traditional metal (" Chained Ad Desperate "or" Straight To The Heart ") and epic songs (" Shine On Forever "or the incredible" The Dawn Surrendered "). A certain Steve Grimmett is only listed on the back of the album as a "guest musician", but at the time of recording he was a permanent member of Chateaux and shines with his vocal performance on the whole album. 1984 could have been the year for Chateaux, but before the second LP "Firepower" could be tackled, the line-up was redesigned. Chris Dadson on drums and Krys Mason as bassist and singer joined the band. (Steve Grimmett had meanwhile formed his own group with Grim Reaper. Chief Tim Broughton explained the changes as follows: "There had been a great deal of apathy at Chateaux, so I had to react." Stylistically, the second Chateaux album was far less varied than "Chained And Desperate". Similar to Jaguar, Grim Reaper or Savage, the focus was on an uncompromising approach, which is why "Firepower" is sometimes regarded as the British precursor of speed and thrash metal. For more than three decades "Firepower" was no longer available on vinyl. The album is generally considered an essential part of any good NWOBHM collection.
