Red, Hot and Heavy

Red, Hot and Heavy, released in 1984, is the band's first full album. Formed in Horsens in 1981, Pretty Maids had self-financed a demo, signed to the English label Bullet Records and issued a self-titled EP in 1983. In 1984 CBS Records Denmark signed them and reissued that EP remixed with new artwork; this record followed the same year. It opens on "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi (Carmina Burana) - Intro," lifted from the beginning of Carl Orff's work, and falls straight into "Back To Back." The first half — the title track, "Cold Killer," "Battle Of Pride" — runs on momentum, while "A Place In The Night" and "Queen Of Dreams" give the melody more room. Ten songs, made by a band barely into its twenties, already holding both speed and song. The line-up of this period included Allan DeLong on bass and Rick Hanson on guitar, both from Shylock. After Hanson left, Benny Petersen, formerly of Mercyful Fate, played guitar for a time. No day is given for the release above: the sources document only "October 1984," and this site does not invent one.