TRACK #446:

Count Dracula by Quartz

More European Dracula metal is coming at you at #446 with English rock band Quartz. Despite playing during the height of the NWOBHM era, Quartz is a bit more of a standard rock band with some NWOBHM overlap, particularly in the company they kept.

Formed in the mid-70’s, they could be caught across England supporting all the greats from Black Sabbath, AC/DC and Saxon to Maiden, Rush and UFO. The list is insane. In fact, their 1977 eponymous debut was produced by Sabbath guitarist Toni Iommi. Even keyboardist Geoff Nicholls left the band in ’79 to join Dio’s incarnation of Sabbath, and spent the next 25 years playing keys and writing songs with them.

The original run from Quartz only lasted about 7 years and saw the release of 4 official albums during that span.

None of those albums contained tonight’s song however.

Cause apparently, Count Dracula never received an official recording, as it comes from their 1980 release Live Quartz. Fortunately for us, that’s a super clean live album and the mix is great. I can’t say the same for Stormwitch, who also have an exclusively live performer called Halloween that was never officially laid down. The bootleg recording of that show is fairly poor though, which is a shame. I’d love to add that one to the playlist. Maybe one day I’ll come across a cleaner version of the song.

Quartz’s Count Dracula sounds great though and is a classic literal Drac-Track that doesn’t mince its words. It offers listeners a very clear warning about the world’s most famous monster. There’s even a that prerequisite “live song breakdown” where singer Geoff Bate cautions the females members of the audience about going home with a Dracula type, before the big finale.

This makes for an epic sendoff to our Dracula Rock block and is a long suffering member of the Shindig Bullpen that we’re proud to add to the list.

Here’s Quartz, live from Transylvania, with Count Dracula.