Review by Greg on January 26, 2024.

In 1985/86, becoming one of the most acclaimed extreme metal bands in Italy wasn't exactly difficult like climbing the Everest or trying to remain heterosexual after hearing of Myles Kennedy for the first time, since not so much competition was present in the land of pizza and mainly heavy outfits like Strana Officina, Vanadium, or the first incarnation of Death SS, and the shadow of the prog giants of the previous decade (PFM, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Le Orme) was also huge. Therefore, you would expect that releasing a new Kill 'Em All wasn't necessary in order to emerge in this scenario. Indeed, Bulldozer did it with a heavily Venom-worshiping debut, The Day of Wrath. But it also meant that very few people outside my country considered them as a real force to be reckoned with. So, when it was time for another album, they could have moved on and unleashed a totally different work, showing evolution, musical prowess, capacity to walk out of the shadows of... well, you should imagine which band I'm talking about by now. That would actually happen. But we had to wait another year, while in the meantime we got the missing link of Bulldozer discography.

The Final Separation's cover simply exploited a photoshoot of an year earlier, without permission of the band. It had the worst production (somehow worse than its predecessor), and apparently didn't spread many live-favorite songs (barring maybe the title-track, whereas The Day of Wrath had 'Fallen Angel', 'Cut-Throat' etc.). It's never mentioned amongst Bulldozer full-lengths, be it for the 'cult' value of The Day of Wrath or for the blatant superiority of the subsequent two offerings. Currently it has also the lowest average rating here. A chronicle of an announced disaster? I don't think so. But something that I can agree with is that The Final Separation is, even if by a slight margin, the weakest offering of Bulldozer's impressive run of 4 albums in as many years: it has enough flaws to stay far from reaching a 'classic' level, but it still remains a fairly good album with some strong points. It's not a complete change in style (yet), but the acquired maturity is tangible even after a single year from the debut.

I admit that I expected an all-out thrasher from the title-track, even more so considering the opening riff, and though it's not bad at all, with all the tempo changes and that recurrent lead harmony, it's not my favorite here. 'The Cave' is another mid-paced track, much in the style of their debut, with amazingly disturbing lyrics in a debatable English. Conversely, the following 'Sex Symbols' Bullshit' is the most up-tempo number, and a surprising, good track, with solid double bass courtesy of Don Andras. Speaking of him... what kind of drugs did he assume during the solo on 'Don't Trust the "Saint"'? Anyway, it's 'Never Relax!' which aims for the spotlight, and one can forgive the blatant 'Creeping Death' rip-off in the post-chorus section. 'The Death of Gods' is worth it for the haunting, slightly dissonant melodies of Panigada which occupy the most part of its huge running time, albeit a real chorus, maybe in the vein of 'Welcome Death', would have been the icing on the cake.

'"Don" Andras' is probably the most controversial song; I'm not completely familiar with the dialect of Naples (home town of the drummer, who handles also vocals... er, random yelling here), but I can tell that many of the lines are a collection of curse words, like that 'Non me scassà 'u cazz'!' [approximately the equivalent of 'Don't break my balls' (literally: 'dick')] at 1:10: that was the moment I nearly fell off my chair laughing, something that one shouldn't expect to happen when listening to a speed/black metal album released in 1986! It seems something Nanowar would write... so I can't deny it sounds really unsettling in the context of the album, but it's just another way to reaffirm Bulldozer's peculiar taste for humor in each album. Haters (read: non-Italians) gonna hate.

Onward to the production. Yep, it's really the worst one. The sound quality even changes from song to song. The killer 'Ride Hard - Die Fast', in particular, features inexplicably subpar production even for the low standards of the album. The guitars and drums sound completely digitalized, something which reminded me of late Ministry or Open Hostility-era Razor... not something you would expect from a major label. By the way, the main riff is also very Razor-esque, and the solo is seriously one of Panigada's best. In the aforementioned 'Sex Symbols' Bullshit' the vocals are ridiculously low in the mix during the chorus. Fortunately for the most time the quality is, at best, acceptable and it doesn't spoil the music further. However, it's quite a shame since the material could have been worthy of some more points in the overall rating.

The turning point: along with the cover incident, more and more discontent raised against Roadrunner. The label also refused to insert lyrics in the booklet, and probably it was the one to blame for the band's overtly influenced sound, judging from the drastic changes that happened in the year between this and the follow-up, IX, after AC Wild and crew had detached themselves from RR and found another label which wouldn't keep them only as an inferior/cover band because of their provenience. No doubt they have made the right decision.

Rating: 7.9 out of 10

Review by Felix on October 25, 2020.

Glorious ancient times! Back in 1986, an Italian band still had an almost exotic touch. The US of A and the UK ruled, the Germans were as always a little bit behind… but Italy? Of course, they had more to offer than, let’s say, Norway. But if we knew one thing for sure, then we were absolutely convinced that Norway would never spit out a serious rock band. Not to mention metal. Or black metal – ridiculous!

Speaking of black metal, Bulldozer, the South-European bastard of Venom and Motörhead, had some percent of this style in their music. But as real bastards, it goes without saying that the dudes presented a mix of different styles like speed metal, black metal, dirty rock and some more or less funny elements showed up as well. I rather think they are not funny at all, but I am a German and this means I’m an expert in unconditional surrender or blind obedience, but definitely not in terms of humour.

The three-piece (of course the band had to appear in the classic Venom / Motörhead / Tank line-up) recorded some pretty cool numbers for The Final Separation, for example the galloping title track, the surprisingly mature 'Never Relax' and the straight 'The Cave'. Unfortunately, the material sounds pretty thin sometimes and especially the moronically titled 'Sex Symbol’s Bullshit' suffers from this mix. It remains pretty powerless in view of its feeble guitars. Fortunately this is an exception and already the following '"Don" Andras' sounds relatively vigorous again. It’s the piece that wants to emphasise the comical side of the band. To me it sounds like cheers of a group of semi-military joggers in the park on a sunny Saturday morning and I admit that it’s an original track – but I also must say that I do not fully understand why the trio recorded this number.

Anyway, Bulldozer did not sound anymore like amateurs who wanted to piss with the big players. The riffing of songs like 'Don’t Trust the ‘Saint’' is fairly on an equal footing with that of songs like Venom’s “Don’t Burn the Witch”. The boozy voice of the lead singer lies in close proximity to the hoarse rattle of Lemmy (R.I.P.) and with regard to these components, there can be no doubt that supporters of shabby underground formations don’t waste their time with The Final Separation. Nevertheless, an open question remains. Which idiot had the idea to record 'The Death of Gods'?

The closer crosses the ten-minutes-mark and to call it overlong would be correct, but simultaneously a euphemism. Bulldozer wanted to pen a monumental number, but the only thing that happens is that they fail monumentally. The song drags on and on with some drug-imbued guitar lines which have absolutely no impact. They are uneventful and pale and even the obligatory tempo changes don’t add something like dynamic, fire or spirit. It’s really sad that The Final Separation has to end like this, because with another crunchy, compact speedster instead of 'The Death of Gods' it would have been a truly casual work from the beginning to the end. But later songs like 'Yum Yum' proved evidence that sometimes the dudes of Bulldozer did not know their limitations… Given this fact, we can be happy that The Final Separation houses a lot of stable, solid and somewhat exciting metal tracks. In default of their own bands, every Norwegian metalhead should lend an ear to the album.

Rating: 7.1 out of 10