Fire Down Under

Fire Down Under was recorded in 1980 with Steve Loeb and Billy Arnell producing, Rod Hui engineering and mixing and Howie Weinberg mastering. Capitol rejected it, as commercially unacceptable by one Wikipedia article and too heavy by another, and Elektra released it; it reached 49 on the Billboard 200. The line-up was Speranza on vocals, Reale and Rick Ventura on guitar, Kip Leming on bass and Sandy Slavin on drums. According to the Rock and Roll Globe retrospective by Nathan Carson, Loeb and Arnell got Elektra to buy out the contract and the rhythm section was dismissed, and the band had toured with Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult and then was Rush's only support on the Moving Pictures tour. "Flashbacks" is dedicated to Neal Kay. Speranza left after it.

AllMusic's Jason Anderson gave it 4.5 stars and Popoff gave it 10 out of 10 in The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal. It was reissued in 1997 on High Vaultage with a controversial Loeb remix, in 1999 on Metal Blade in the original Elektra mix, and in 2014 and 2018.