Limited pressing. Heavy high gloss cardboard cover, including lyric sheet and poster. Originally released in 1986. Transfer and mastering by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY in August 2018.
Following 1985's classic »Power From Hell« (originally issued by Children Of The Revolution Records and recently re-released by High Roller Records), »The Force« (recorded at Matrix studios in London in early 1986) was even more successful than the band's debut album. Compared to »Power From Hell« with its leanings towards early death metal, »The Force« was an altogether different beast. Thrash metal songs like "Let There Be Death", "Contract In Blood" and "Fight With The Beast" were much more complex than anything on the first album. The new style was also at least partly due to Sky Keeler having joined Onslaught as the band's new vocalist. His slightly more melodic approach to songs such as "Metal Forces" (a tribute to the London-based metallic underground magazine of the same name) made the Bristolians also appeal to fans of the first two Metallica albums.
Produced and engineered by Dave Pine and mixed by Roy Rowland, »The Force« received excellent reviews in the English press (as well as in European magazines such as Rock Hard and fanzines like Iron Pages). Although formed in 1982 and deeply routed in the UK hardcore and punk scenes, Onslaught went on to become one of the main protagonists of the late 1980's UK thrash metal movement (along with bands such as Acid Reign, Re-Animator, Slammer and Xentrix). When ex-Grim Reaper vocalist Steve Grimmett joined the band for the follow-up album »In Search Of Sanity«, Onslaught gained a major deal.
»The Force« was originally released by Music For Nations sublabel Under One Flag in 1986 and has been out of print for a long time.
