Here are two bands that should have gotten more attention.

FRANCE-BASED SORTILÈGE have been called a cross between Iron Maiden and Mercyful Fate 'with a little taste of France thrown in.' Holland's premier metal mag Aardshok has dubbed them 'melodic and ultra heavy at the same time.

They formed around 1980 in Paris, calling themselves Blood Wave. In 1981 they underwent some changes, including the name to Sortilège, and said they were 'bewitched' after the translation, and they were on their way.

In  January 1983 they played their first major show in Paris, supporting European metal giants Ocean and Samson, which resulted in a radio station picking up the tab for a four track demo tape. The next month brought them their first solo gigs at the Forum des Halles in Paris, which sold out. They did a video the following week which was broadcast all over France. In March they did two support gigs for Def Leppard. After this they went to England to record a couple of tracks for the British Metal Warriors sampler and a five track mini-LP available on Holland's Rave-On Records.

H-BOMB STARTED OUT as a five-piece group in 1982, featuring Didier Izaard on vocals, Gerard Mitchel on drums,  Philly Garcia on bass and Christian Martin and Armando Ferreira on guitars. They specialised in quick, hard-hitting heavy rock music.

In early 1983 they played four shows in the Paris area after just six weeks of intensive rehearsal. One of the shows led to a support slot for one of Def Leppard's French dates. This in turn led to a French TV appearance.

They went to Holland in September of that year to record a six track EP, Coup de Metal, for the Dutch record label Rave-On. While they were there they played Holland's number one rock club, Eindhoven Dynamo, where they were greeted with tremendous success. A week later they were asked back as the headline act.

Martin was replaced by Ferreira's younger brother Paul and they placed highly in Holland's Aardshok magazine in a number of polls. They have opened for such groups as France's Trust and Germany's Accept and fellow countrymen Satan Jokers. Record labels throughout Holland, France and Germany tried to woo them from Rave-On but they remained steadfast to the label that broke them.

Another major achievement came in the form of the 10 June Heavy Sound Festival in Belgium where they shared the bill with Mercyful Fate, Twisted Sister, Manowar, Lita Ford and Motörhead.