THIS WEEK I’M LISTENING TO...VETO – Carthago/Veto (Golden Core)

Originally formed as a German language trio in 1980, Veto finally blossomed in 1985 when guitarist Klaus Schiele, the only original member of a seemingly revolving door group, started working in English and reformatted the band as a five-piece in the Accept / Judas Priest vein. Completed by vocalist/keyboard player Harald ‘Hari’ Liebhäuser, guitarist Roger Bredel and bassist Peter Schlattner the band had enough material to record but, unable to find a drummer in time, Peter Garattoni, one of the co-owners of the German music publishers Gama International and an experienced musician in his own right, filled the gap. The resulting self-titled album, which appeared in early 1986, is a good, dependable, traditional metal album for traditional metal fans. Comparisons with Accept are unavoidable, given the song structures and the habit of sneaking snippets of classic music into the flow of the music, and the title track and ‘Metal Servants’ in particular are straight from the top drawer.

Veto_band

With the drumstool vacancy filled by Alwin ‘Yogi’ Rainer Veto were showered by a thundercloud of apathy, but after a couple of years of gigs and support slots the band set to work on their second album. Drummerless again, and with Garattoni helping out once more, the Augsburg / Munich / Stuttgart band completed ‘Carthago’ as 1987 became 1988, and both albums are included on this CD. “‘Carthago’ is definitely one of the underrated albums in Germany heavy metal history,” writes Golden Core metal guru Neudi in the package’s sleeve notes, and he’s not wrong there. It’s a superb release, with an Accept-style ‘Metal Heart’ / ‘Russian Roulette’ swagger and a clutch of quality songs. It boasts the sound of a band who are ready to take on the world, and this CD is rightly sequenced with ‘Cathago’ coming before its chronological predecessor which, by comparison, comes across as a band who know where they want to be but don’t quite know how to get there. ‘Veto’ is a good release, strident and confident in places, but by the time of album number two the band had become serious contenders, as the Eastern-tinged epic title track is keen to demonstrate. Another drummer, Raimund ‘Muck’ Langmair, joined the band but the time was running out and, regrettably, it appears that little more was heard of the band after this quite stunning release.

A bonus track from an obscure compilation album, ‘Thunderstorm’ (a short drum solo by Garattoni, and credited to Veto), completes the CD running order, while a vinyl pressing of ‘Carthago’ itself adds ‘Veto’ and ‘Hard As Steel’ from the band’s self-titled debut as well. For fans of Eighties’ German metal, this is a band well worth checking out.