82. Anthrax / Attack Of The Killer B's. 1991. 3.5/5.

This was brought out following the highly successful Peresistence Of Time album and tour, and the success of Bring The Noise. This album, though not actually containing actual B side tracks, is full of that kind of material.

There is some good stuff on here. The update on S.O.D's Milk is better than the original. The update of their own I'm The Man is OK too. The live versions of Keep It In The Family and Belly Of The Beast are also good to hear.
The rest is all of novelty value, and worth a chuckle. Certainly, when I first purchased the album, I thought it was brilliant. Older age has brought a different version of events, and my earlier thoughts are now not as enthusiastic.

Still, it is above average in an age where there are an abundance of below average albums.

Memories : When this album came out, in our band days, we used to laugh ourselves silly at Starting Up A Posse and Dallabnikufesin. And though I can still see the humour, I don't laugh like that anymore when I listen to them. The advent of middle age...

Rating : Oddities and rareities. 3.5/5.

81. KISS / Asylum. 1985. 2.5/5.

Kiss of the 1980's is a very different beast to that which dominated the 1970's in a blaze of pyrotechnics, blood and makeup.
Their faces (the two originals remaining) had been opened up for public viewing, and the band was competing in a whole new market.

To a certain degree, it feels to me that the band are trying to find themselves in amongst the new changes. Some of the songs here are up with the usual Kiss quality stuff – King Of The Mountain, Anyway You Slice It and Tears Are Falling. But there is some 'filler' in there too, and it seems to me they were running out of ideas.

Rating : Not quite up there with some of their other stuff. 2.5/5

80. Michael Schenker Group / Assault Attack. 1982. 4/5.

Three years after leaving his successful gig in the British band UFO, Michael Schenker and his namesake band, the Michael Schenker Group, had released two studio albums and a live album to both critical and popular acclaim. Both albums had combined a number of popular heavy tracks alongside guitar-laden instrumentals and some songs that could be described as experimental and progressive.
It was at this point that Schenker, alongside drummer Cozy Powell and the band manager, felt that the band needed a different singer. Gary Barden had been the frontman, but it was his live performances that caused concern, with his voice not considered strong enough for the live setting. Cozy had put forward David Coverdale as the perfect man, though he was currently fronting his own band Whitesnake. Schenker himself however wanted to recruit Graham Bonnet, whose most recent gig had been on the brilliant Rainbow album “Down to Earth”. Schenker eventually won out, and Bonnet was brought in for the new album. Unfortunately, Cozy and former UFO member Paul Raymond then left the band at this point, with both being replaced by session musicians.
Also coming on board for the album was legendary producer Martin Birch, who came into this album straight off having finished producing the little known band Iron Maiden’s new album, an obscure album called “The Number of the Beast”. With a new powerful voice and co-writer out front, and one of the great producers in charge of the dials, the Michael Schenker Group went forth to produce an album that would stretch what they had produced before, and hope to make a deep impression on all who would listen to it.

There is no doubt that, from the very beginning this is a much heavier album than what the band had produced before. And several things contribute to that. The first immediate one is Bonnet’s vocals. The imposing and strong presence from the start of the opening track “Assault Attack” are the kickstart to the album, and at the time must have been a real eye opener for the fans. This is exacerbated by the heavier tone in the song from what had come from most of the preceding two albums. And then we have Schenker’s guitar, which becomes the focal piece as it should be in this band. Later down the track it seemed to fade into the background as the band chased a more commercial sound, but here on “Assault Attack”, where the band was looking to bring a much harder and heavier presence to their music, Schenker’s guitar becomes as prominent as it should be. With these three focuses combining on this album, it draws together exactly as it should.
The first side of the album brings together a varying array of this revamped style of the MSG music. “Assault Attack” is essentially as the title suggests, an assault and attack both vocally and with the shredding guitar. “Rock You to the Ground” dials back the tempo to a more blues-based riff that is still ramped up by Schenker throughout, and Bonnet gives a great performance on hard core vocals. “Dancer” is a lighter tune, in fact has more in common with Bonnet’s future band Alcatrazz, before we delve into “Samurai”.
The second side opens up with what for me is still one of the best songs ever written. The brilliant “Desert Song” tops this album and most others with the MSG insignia on it. It is one of the most amazingly moody tracks ever written, building from the sublime to that first brilliant Schenker guitar riff, into the verse and bridge, and Bonnet’s vocals just supreme throughout. It is probably the highlight of Bonnet’s career, along with “Eyes of the World” from his Rainbow days. This is the star attraction of the album, one of legendary status. “Broken Promises” is followed by the song that feels like it should have been the single released from the album, “Searching for a Reason”, as it has the right lyrical content without compromising the heart of the album, and again showcases the best parts of the band in the process. While you can understand why “Dancer” was the single released from the album, I’ve always felt this would have been a better option. The album then closes with the Schenker instrumental “Ulcer”, something he excels at throughout his career in producing.

My introduction to this album was in fact back in the cassette sharing days – surprise surprise. My metal music dealer had recorded Dio’s “Holy Diver” for me, but with space remaining on the C60 tape, he put down three tracks from the “Assault Attack” album – the title track, “Desert Song” and “Samurai”. And – as much as “Holy Diver” is still one of the greatest ten albums ever released – those three songs blew my mind. And, as you will have guessed by now, it was “Desert Song” that just stuck out like a sore thumb. The switch to getting a copy of the whole album followed, and it was another album that was played to death over the following couple of years. There is a certain day that sticks in my mind, sometime when I had started Uni back in 1988. And in those mid-year days I was less than enthused about the tasks at hand nor attending the campus at all. The result was, during a five hour break I had between lectures, driving my car to Wollongong Harbour up near the lighthouse, buying $2 worth of chips, and playing this album and the following album, “Built to Destroy”, over and over, at a very loud volume, for three hours or so, looking out at the water and eating my chips, and wondering just where I was going in life. And that afternoon often comes back to me, not only through what I was feeling at the time, but how much this album made me feel so much about where I was at during that time. And it still does to today, reminds me of how much this album in particular at that time was a constant in my life.
Sadly, it was the only album Bonnet produced with the band. At the first gig they played to promote “Assault Attack”, a drunken Bonnet decided to expose himself to the crowd on stage, and was pretty much immediately fired, with Gary Barden returning to the fold in his place. And that remains a real shame, because given how terrific this album is with his writing and vocals, just wat would a follow up have produced?

79. B L A Z E / As Live As It Gets. 2003. 4.5/5.

Though this was not my first taste of B LA Z E (I had a couple of songs off their debut album, Silicon Messiah), it was the first lengthy listen I had had of the band, and of most of their songs. And it is a worthy first listen.

This was recorded on the Tenth Dimension tour, and is a veritable best-of the band's two albums released to that point, as well as some Iron Maiden songs from Blaze Bayley's era, and a Wolfsbane song as well!

The band are excellent, and the live versions of all these songs are awesome. Blaze sings his stuff fantastically well. The whole double album is a tribute to a band that have found a niche in the metal market, and filled it admirably.

Rating : Great live album, that would also act as a great starting point for the unindoctrinated. 4.5/5.

78. Michael Schenker Group / Armed And Ready : The Best Of The Michael Schenker Group. 1994. 4/5.

Releasing this in 1994, the title of the album conveniently allows the releasers to avoid anything from the latter day McAuley Schenker group – which is a shame, as there was a lot of good music that came from that partnership.

As such, this album concentrates on the early years of the group, which is not such a bad thing anyway. It was strange to sit down and listen to this again. Sometimes, if you are only looking at a track list, you can think “I can think of a dozen better songs that should be on this!” - which, of course, is what i did. And, then, you listen to the album, singing along to every song, and saying “Yeah – this rocks!”

Still, there are a couple of songs I would have exchanged with others. Overall though, a good collection of MSG favourites. Attack Of The Mad Axeman, Assault Attack, Desert Song. These are just great songs, and hold a lot of memories.

Rating : A collection of 80's memorabilia. 4/5.

77. Anthrax / Armed And Dangerous (EP). 1985. 4/5.

Anthrax had followed the same learning curve and hard-working route that most bands do on their way to recording and releasing their debut album, which came in January 1984 in the form of “Fistful of Metal”. The band had had a varied assortment of members in the lead up to the writing and recording of that album, but it didn’t end there. Tensions had been building over time between bass player Dan Lilker and lead vocalist Neil Turbin, and eventually Turbin fired Lilker without informing the rest of the band. In an interview after the event, Lilker is quoted as saying "After I was thrown out, the guys unfairly said, "Well, it took him 30 times to record the bass track for 'I'm Eighteen,'" and if you listen to the bass track, if you didn't know the whole story, you would say, "Well, that's weird, isn't it?" It's only, like, five notes." Lilker went on to form the band Nuclear Assault with another former Anthrax alumni John Connolly. In his place at drummer Charlie Benante and guitarist Scott Ian’s insistence, the band hired Charlie's nephew Frank Bello to replace Lilker on bass guitar.
Anthrax then went out on tour to promote the “Fistful of Metal” album, opening for Raven amongst other bands. During this period there were continuing problems with Turbin both within the band itself, and from outside influences. Eddie Trunk, at the time becoming an influential music journalist in the heavy metal scene, has openly admitted since that he pressured Jon Zazula, the creator of Megaforce Records, and Scott Ian that Turbin was not suitable for the band, suggesting his vocals were not of the same quality as the music that was behind them. Along with the other issues that were being played out behind the scenes, the band parted ways with Turbin in August 1984. He was briefly replaced by singer Matt Fallon but this also didn’t work out, leaving the band in limbo.
Then, from around the corner, the band found their man. Joey Belladonna. He was older than the rest of the band, and they did not like the musical background that he came from, but he had a voice that drew attention to him from the first note he sang. The band played a few gigs toward the end of 1984 to assess how the new combination would go, and the resulting success confirmed Belladonna’s position in the band.
As a way to introduce their new lead singer, and to keep their name out in front of their fans, the band and their record company decided to release an EP to introduce Belladonna to their fans, as well as give Bello his first chance to record with the band. The result of this was the EP titled “Armed and Dangerous”, released to the world in February 1985. It became the vanguard for the stretch of four albums that propelled the band to stardom.

EP’s can be a tricky thing, because if they contain material that is available elsewhere then there seems to be no reason to buy them. This is where this EP is one of the best, because every song has its own individuality and while the title track was eventually available elsewhere, the other tracks can only be found on this EP which made it a perfect buy at the time and still is today.
“Armed and Dangerous” was a song that had already been composed by the band, but was finessed up here for this EP release. Both Neil Turbin and Dan Lilker had been involved in the writing process, and while they received writing credit for it, so too did their replacements Joey Belladonna and Frank Bello. It is a terrific song to introduce Joey especially to their fan base. It utilises his vocal range exceptionally well, while also showing how far the band had progressed in maturity to the playing of this track. The band is tighter than they were on their debut album, the rhythm seems clearer and more focused, and the rough edges have been sandpapered back. This song also eventually appeared on the band’s following album “Spreading the Disease”, and it is no wonder because it is a beauty.
The rest of the EP stands up just as well. “Raise Hell” was a fully formed song that didn’t make the cut for the first album, which when you hear it here makes you wonder why. Why would you decide to have a cover version of the Alice Cooper Band’s “I’m Eighteen” rather than a song that you had composed yourself? No doubt a record company decision. I also wonder how Turbin would have sung this song because it would have been different from the way Joey sings it, one would suspect. Its not a bad song, certainly not worthy of getting the cut from the first album. The band then does a rendition of the Sex Pistols “God Save the Queen”, which sounds good, but lacks any of the spitting venom of the original. It’s funny really, because you would expect a thrash band would have really gone to town on this song and drawn every piece of irony and venom from the track, but that’s not the case.
The final two songs on the original EP are the new line up of the band playing two songs from the debut album in the studio. And they both sound fantastic. The version here of “Metal Thrashing Mad” with Joey on vocals and Frankie on bass is surely the definitive version of this song. Joey’s vocals are perfect, hitting the heights when they need to, rathe than the forced scream that Neil uses on the original, and much the same from John Bush when they did this song again on “The Greater of Two Evils” album two decades later. This is fast, thrashy and combines all of the great talents that the band possesses. Much can be said of “Panic”, which again sounds like a huge upgrade on the original version from the “Fistful of Metal” album. The band races along at top speed through this song, and Joey does a great job on vocals again. I suspect that everyone who heard this on its release, having heard the original line up and the debut album, could only have been impressed, and thought that the second album was going to be a superior upgrade on that first release. They would have been correct.
Some years later when this was re-released on CD, another two songs were added, those being the two tracks from the band’s first single released from “Fistful of Metal”. “Soldiers of Metal” was the single and “Howling Furies” was the B-side. An added bonus for those that came across this in the age of the spinning discs.

I didn’t own this EP when it was first released. I must have gotten it pretty soon after it was released on CD in 1990, because I know I knew the song “Metal Thrashing Mad” prior to seeing the band in concert for the first time in 1990, and I know I heard this version of the song sung by Joey well before I heard the original version from the debut album. So that dates me getting this in mid-1990, which does make sense. And because I got the later CD version, I also had the two B-sides from the original single released, with the first version of the band, which was great for me, as it was my first exposure to them and their sound, before I finally heard the “Fistful of Metal” album.
EP’s are an interesting beast. How often would you reach for an EP to listen to when you could just reach for a full-length album instead? Why listen to this when you could have “Spreading the Disease” on instead, for instance? Well, as I’ve rediscovered this week, because it might sound bloody amazing! I’ve always loved this EP, but just rarely think of putting it on. So, when I dragged it out last week, I was ecstatic. I put on my CD player in the Metal Cavern and loved it so much I played it three times in succession. And then again over the following days. There is a great feeling about the tracks on this EP, a feeling of hope, a feeling of enjoyment. The band sounds like they are having fun, something that Anthrax almost always seemed to be doing on stage anyway.
There’s really not much more to say. I think this is a great EP. It does the job that an EP must do. It publicises whatever tracks the band wants to put out there in order to either keep the fans sated until the next album comes out, or pushes a song from the next album to try and get fans to buy that as well. It also has the bonus tracks that are not available anywhere else, so to buy it means you will have those songs and be able to snigger quietly when others talk around you saying, “I’ve never heard that song!!!” Of course, in this day and age of streaming and downloading that becomes a less likely event. But if an EP is not on those platforms – much like THIS one isn’t out there on a streaming platform – then you, like me, can enjoy it in your own home, and feel smug all over again.

76. Fear Factory / Archetype. 2004. 4/5.

Though I had heard a little Fear Factory before this, Archetype was the first album I really sat down and listened to. And perhaps I like it because it was the first.

There is no denying the musicianship of the lads. How the drummer has any legs to stand on is a constant source of amazement to me, such speed does he expel behind that kit of his.
The songs are raw and aggressive, but with melody as well. Though, I must admit, I have tried to understand what was behind the recording of Ascension, and am still at a loss. It sounds like 7+ minutes of silence. Am I mistaken? What was behind this?

Fear Factory had had some dramas leading up to this album, but Archetype puts them right back at the top of their game.

Rating : A great return to form. 4/5.

75. Michael Schenker Group / Arachnophobiac. 2003. 4/5.

Yet another formation of the old MSG, with Schenker himself the only person to retain his position. On this occasion, it doesn't detract from the music.

On first listen, in fact, I swore it was Chris Cornell singing. Of course, I was mistaken (his name is Chris Logan), but the songs themselves are great. This is almost like it has been taken straight from the golden years of MSG, in the 1980's. The style of the album is straight from that era, which of course means it incorperates Schenker guitar style perfectly. Rather than trying to update and upbeat this album to the new millenium, the band has stuck to their strengths, and come up with an excellent album. So long as you like that style, of course!

I am impressed with it. The vocals are great, Schenker's guitaring is as good as ever, and the songs are good (for a change...). Overall – an impressive effort.

Rating : MSG back in force. 4/5.

74. Guns N' Roses / Appetite For Destruction. 1987. 5/5.

Where the hell did Guns N’ Roses appear from? It’s an interesting story, but my intention is not to go through the entire history of the lead up to the band coming together. In short, the members of two bands, Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns, came together to form a new band, taking a piece from each of the band's names to create a new name – Guns N’ Roses. As the band progressed, all of the members of L.A. Guns moved on back to their original grouping (and of course did their own thing with some success), and as each member left, another former member of Hollywood Rose came in to replace them. As it turned out, a number of Hollywood Rose songs would turn up on releases by Guns N’ Roses, including on their debut album, “Appetite for Destruction”.
The band eventually signed on to Geffen Records for less money than they were offered by other record companies, but with Geffen they were offered the ability to do their own things, whereas other companies had wanted to change the band and image and music to their own terms. Having signed in March 1986, the band had released a four track EP, “Live Like a Suicide” in December of that year, in order to keep peace with their record company as well as keep their name in the minds of the fans out there, as Geffen had feared that the band didn’t have enough material to release a full album. The writing and recording of “Appetite for Destruction” took place over the first six months of 1987. Several producers came in and help produce songs, in order to gauge their suitability to work with the band. In the long run Mike Clink was the man who got the job, a producer with a wide experience and with different genres of bands. With songs from a wide variety of timelines of the band and its members, in hindsight it probably always boded well for the album to have a varied and interesting progression. The album was eventually released on July 21 1987, to the massive sound... of crickets...

For an album that has become one of the biggest sellers of all time, it is amazing how little anyone knew about it for so long. There’s little doubt that much of the album was uncommercial, songs whose subject matter and explicit language made them impossible to play on the radio. It was also one of those albums that had the ‘explicit language’ sticker prominently displayed on the cover, which may or may not have hindered its sales.
Eventually, it was two singles that broke the band firstly into the mainstream, and then into the stratosphere. The alternative flavoured “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, not a ballad but with lyrics that makes radio stations stand up and think ‘that’s a hit’, was the first to make a splash, with Slash’s uniquely harmonic guitar riff to open the song, and then his solo later on, making a song that atmospherically made the band marketable on the basis of it being a great track that ticked all those commercial boxes without being the atypical radio hit. This was the song that powered the album sales, such that it finally reached top ten around the world, a year after its release. Six months on from that, the band then released “Paradise City” as its next single, and this sent sales soaring again. “Paradise City” had a film clip of Guns N’ Roses playing live, and the song drew on that to continue the sales surge of the album, with its repeatable lyrics and rock sensibilities, giving kids of all ages a chorus that they could cling on to. These two songs were the driving force that propelled the sales of the album well into two years after its initial release.
And the thing is, once people bought the album, they discovered that the rest of the songs on the album weren’t really like those two songs at all. Some found disappointment in this, but many found the true joy of what Guns N’ Roses had compiled for their debut opus. The incredible energy of the tracks throughout is something to behold. The lyrical content and in your face style of each song is like a freight train, or perhaps even a Nightrain, bearing down on you. Both the album opener “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Nightrain” were released as singles, but both had more impact on people once they began buying the album. The opening trio of songs in “Welcome to the Jungle”, the hard rock jingle “It’s so Easy” and the rollicking “Nightrain” make for a terrific start. “Out Ta Get Me” and “Mr Brownstone” leave nothing to the imagination as to their lyrical content, and the excitable enjoyment that they are performed at both musically and by Axl’s vocals make them fantastic songs to sing along to. Both have such brilliant riffs, and the groove of “Mr Brownstone” is awesome. After the lengthy overhaul of “Paradise City”, the two songs sandwiched between it and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” are probably my favourites on the album. “My Michelle” and “Think About You” are arguably the most unlikely songs to appear on this album, and perhaps that’s why they attract me so much. At opposite ends of the scale when it comes to the lyrical aspects of singing about the ‘girl in your life’, for me they have always picked up that middle part of the album. And of course, once we’ve crossed over “Sweet Child O’ Mine” you have the three closing tracks, with the fast paced “You’re Crazy”, the hard jumping of “Anything Goes” and the lengthy extolling of “Rocket Queen”, a song I’ve always felt may have fit better on one of the Illusion albums. But what it does do is close out a most remarkable album given the circumstances of its release and growth over the years.

I know full well I didn’t have this album until well into 1988, because no one in my high school had this album, to my recollection, in our final year of high school. I know I had this on cassette recorded for me by someone in the first half of 1988, and I don’t think I bought this until sometime in that year, probably at the time they really began to get noticed. I remember seeing the album in record shops that I frequented in those days, with the big warning sticker on the front, but because I hadn’t heard anyone who listened to them, or heard any of the songs off the album, I ignored it and looked at the other wares in the racks. And I guess I followed the crowd a little when it came to finding and enjoying this album. I don’t feel any problem with that. Sometimes being a sheep is a good thing and leads you to something you may otherwise have missed, and I think this album in particular is a good example of that. I know the band toured Australia at the end of 1988 and I didn’t feel overwhelmed to attend, so I know my feelings on the album were still ambivalent at that stage, some 18 months after it had been released. One of my funniest memories of the time is when one of my best mates bought the UK 12” single of “Welcome to the Jungle” because he loved that song, but found that “Nightrain” was on the B side, and he claimed he was going to go home, and drag a razor blade right across the B side to make it unplayable, because he hated that song so much. Of course, within a few months he then claimed that he did actually enjoy the song after all. Funny times.
It is an eclectic and unique album that has crossed genres, and indeed is one that cannot be categorised into any one format as a result. It’s a metal album, and hard rock album, a rock album, an alternative album, a post punk rock album... and probably another half a dozen genres rolled into that as well. One thing that I’ve always attested to is that I love the album much more than those two songs that drove its eventual popularity, “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “Paradise City”. They are good songs, but not in the best half of songs that appear on this album. They did their job in getting the album airplay, and for me it was discovering everything else here that is the real bonus.
In the years since this album has held up surprisingly well, perhaps because there has been so little other material released beyond 1991, that it doesn’t have much to stand up against in the GNR discography. Maybe that’s it. Or maybe this is just a unique album that stands the test of time because it had to fight so hard to be recognised in its time. Whatever the reason, 35 years on – or in reality I guess 34 years on, from the time most of us actually discovered it – this album is still a pretty damned good listen.

73. Anthrax / Anthrology : No Hit Wonders 1985-1991. 2005. 5/5

In line with the Big Reunion Tour of 2005, Anthrax brought out this double CD compilation of the best of their years together - basically, the albums Spreading The Disease, Among The Living, State Of Euphoria and Persistence Of Time.

The song selection is perfect (I mean, they condensed 4 albums into 2, and added a couple of extra tracks, so you should certainly have the best!), and the remastered editions have great sound quality.

There is little else really to say. Great songs, great performances. Of course, if you already have the albums, as most people will, it is money spent on items already procured.

Rating : You can't beat it. 5/5

72. Brian May / Another World. 1998. 2.5/5

Brian's second solo album is, in my opinion, not as solid as his first. Having moved on from Queen and its retirement, he has put together an album that seems to move away from the elements that made Brian May a great guitarist.

Don't get me wrong. It isn't a bad album. But it is different from anything he has released before, and it struggles to hold my enthusiasm for the entire album. It doesn't contain the same Brian May guitar pieces that I remember, and while his vocals are still good, the songs to me are not as strong as in the past.

Memories : Seeing Brian May in Sydney on this tour. Having never seen Queen (unlike some corkheads like Kearo...) it was brilliant to see him. Not only doing his own stuff, but Queen stuff as well. Terrific live performance.

Rating : Worth a listen, and to decide for yourself. 2.5/5

71. Motörhead / Another Perfect Day. 1983. 3/5

I’m sure that after the success that Motörhead had had with their first five albums that it was an unexpected occurrence when ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke decided to move on just after the tour to support the Iron Fist album began. Given that the band seemed to find plenty of faults with that album almost immediately, perhaps it wasn’t unexpected. It did give drummer Phil Taylor the opportunity to coerce Lemmy into agreeing to hire former Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson as his replacement, who then went on to help write and record the follow up, Another Perfect Day.

The most obvious thing to say about this album is… it is different. For everyone who has heard the first five studio albums, the style is immediately different. But all of those five albums had a degree of change along the way, none of them were an exact match for the previous one, so if you take this album as just a natural progression and not focus too much on the different guitaring styles of the previous guitarist and the new guitarist, you are halfway there to being able to appreciate this album for what it is rather than just dismissing it offhand because of the change. I know that I initially went down this path, completely put off by the change in guitar style especially. But once I sat down and just listened to it as an album, and not an album that Clarke had had no part of, I found a lot to like. Indeed, having been a fan of sections of Thin Lizzy’s work over the years I admired most of what Robertson has to offer here. I don’t think it always works, and I don’t think it really settles into what you would call a Motörhead sound, but there’s no denying it is catchy. There is almost none of the typical Lemmy bass lines and even the drumming appears much less frantic and rebellious.
Was the world ready for piano on a Motörhead album? Robertson contributes this on the songs “Shine” and “Rock It”, and while it isn’t a big thing it is a noticeable thing. Opening track “Back at the Funny Farm” has that classic bass sound to start, as does the closing track “Die You Bastard!”, but apart from that there is little that makes it stand out. “Dancing on Your Grave” is probably the closest this album has to a song that fits in with the past.
The most irritating song on the album is “One Track Mind” which closes out the first side of the album. It feels like five and a half minutes of the track title being repeated over and over and over again, and it is so different to most of the other material on the album. It sticks out like a sore thumb. Both “Just Another Day” and “Marching Off to War” are dominated by long instrumental breaks, including long solo sections from Robertson. The length of these is another point of difference between earlier albums. While Clarke had solo breaks they didn’t dominate songs by their length. That is not the case here, Robertson seems to have plenty of time to ensure he is noticed. It’s not unlikeable at all, in fact for the most point they are enjoyable, except maybe they just sound a bit too similar to each other? Perhaps. “I Got Mine" follows on a similar vein, with plenty of upbeat tempo, while “Tales of Glory” is a short, sharp burst of what has come before.
By the end of the album, and in real comparison to the other albums that preceded it, what really pulls this back just a little bit ends up being those extended solo breaks from Robertson. It feels a bit formula-oriented, a bit too try-hard for what would make it a better or equal album to the first albums. They are not bad or Malmsteen-esque in the show-off department, but they do perhaps tend to over dominate which was not a trademark of the earlier material. Overall the songs are good. Lemmy’s vocals are as good here as they probably ever got, and Taylor’s drumming sounds good as well, though it feels as though it has lost its intensity and is more interested in just keep time in places. Robertson is excellent, but his style eventually holds firm that it is indeed a different era that the band has moved into. Given that it was the only album he played on, no doubt the other extenuating factors proved to be a problem as well.

I enjoy this album more now than I did when I first listened to Motörhead and that probably has more to do with my maturing years and willingness to accept change than I used to in my youth. This is a good album (barring one notable song), but you need to take it on trust to get the most out of it.

Rating: “Let me hear it 'til the end of time”. 3/5

70. Sevendust / Animosity. 2001. 3/5.

This again was a pleasant surprise when I first heard it. Having been pestered by young cricketers (21 year olds...) that I play cricket with of a Saturday that I should listen to this album, I finally got around to getting a copy of it.

What I heard was not what I had expected. Indeed, it was in fact an album that immediately showed the various strengths of this band, and their versatility in the music they produce.
The early songs are very raucous (along with some of the trademark screaming that bands used at the turn of the century). As the album moves along, the songs flatten out into a more melodic metal sound, that is pleasing to the ear (at least, more pleasing to the ears of those who came in to work tonight when I was playing it at 1000 decibels).

In some ways, they are an updated, perhaps heavier version of Faith No More. They share a lot of similar characteristics with them, which certainly come through to me in songs such as Redefine.

I was very impressed with both this album, and the band as a whole. Great stuff from a more modern metal band than this dinosaur is used to listening to.

Rating : One of the better recent arrivals. 3/5.

69. KISS / Animalize. 1984. 3/5.

By 1984, Kiss had had an almost complete makeover from those heady days through the 1970’s. Not only had Ace Frehley and Peter Criss moved on, but the makeup had been removed, and the band was now promoting itself as a band rather than as an act. Album and concert sales and popularity had taken a hit, but with 1983’s “Lick it Up”, those seemed to be on the rise again. But it wouldn’t be Kiss if there wasn’t some sort of internal drama, and that had certainly been the case between the release of that album and their next. Firstly, Frehley’s replacement in the band, Vinnie Vincent, was having trouble fitting in with the leaders of the band. Vincent had contributed to a lot of the songwriting on “Lick it Up”, and no doubt felt that he should be considered a big part of the Kiss machine as a result. Unfortunately, his ego was no match for the egos of both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, who expected their junior partner to tow the line. Vincent’s desire to showcase his skills didn’t fit in with the show that Stanley and Simmons were interested in providing, and at the conclusion of the tour to promote the “Lick it Up” album, Vincent was moved on. Persistent rumours circulated for years among Kiss fans about what may have been the real reasons for Vincent's dismissal from Kiss, though the only statement that came was from Gene in an interview some years later, where all he would say was that Vincent's firing was for "unethical behaviour", and not because of lack of talent.
The job opening was filled by Mark St. John, whom Stanley described as a goofy oversized guy obsessed with the Eddie Van Halen method of guitar playing. In the studio however his reported inability to play the same solo twice was just the start of the arising problems.
It was during this period of Kisstory that Simmons had almost checked out from the band. He was pursuing an acting career, with small roles funnelling into a lead villain role in the Tom Selleck film “Runaway”. His relationships with band and members were said to be at an all-time low, and Stanley was more or less left to run the ship himself. In his book “Face the Music”, Stanley wrote "Gene had basically disappeared by that point. I felt abandoned when it came time to make Animalize. After informing me without any warning or discussion that he wouldn't be around for the album, Gene went into a studio and crapped out some demos as fast as he could. Then he was off to do a movie. He left me with a pile of mostly unusable junk."
With Stanley now left with the responsibility of songwriting, production and direction of the new album, as well as coming up with the TITLE of the album, the band, or at least pieces of them, moved to the studio to create what would become their 12th studio album titled “Animalize”.

Kiss had already become a band by this stage that utilised outside musicians and song writers to help fill in and flesh out the albums they created, but the necessity for that here on “Animalize” was obviously even greater given the growing absence of their bass player and the difficulties faced with their new guitarist. Simmons only contributed bass guitar on the four songs he is credited as composing, with Paul Stanley doing the job on two of his five songs, while Jean Bouvier came in to play bass on his other three songs, including receiving a co-writing credit on “Thrills in the Night” It was a role, both composer and bass player, that he would repeat for the same reasons on the band’s following album. So, did Gene just phone in his performance on the album? Apart from recording his ‘crappy demos' as Pual put it, Stanley also commented in his book that "I fixed Gene's songs, fixed the band situation, pulled solos out of Mark and saw through the making of the album. I also named the album, designed the album art and arranged the cover photo shoot. On top of it all, I spent big chunks of time in our office personally promoting the album, glad-handing radio people, cajoling MTV into playing the videos and doing all the things a manager would normally do." To me, Gene’s songs do not resonate with the same power as they usually do and are on a different level from Paul’s. And that seems to come from the fact that they were written separately from the band. Paul’s songs, co-written in the main with the hit maker Desmond Child, are electrifying, upbeat, exciting, driven by Paul’s more commercially sounding vocal lines and melodies, and the excellent solo’s he has extracted from St John. Gene’s songs are fine, and in fact many would say they are the same quality that he had produced over the previous run of albums, but I feel they lack an intensity that Gene usually brings to the table. “Burn Bitch Burn”, questionable lyrics and all, does have some kick about it, with St. John’s guitar solo a highlight. “While the City Sleeps” is also amenable to the process, while “Lonely is the Hunter” and “Murder in High Heels” both have a special guest brought in to complete the songs, one that was to be an important component in the band going forward. As Mark St. John was quoted as saying on Kiss: Behind the Mask, "There are two songs on Animalize that I didn't play on: 'Lonely is the Hunter' and 'Murder in High Heels. That's Bruce [Kulick] playing guitar.”
So, Gene’s songs aren’t bad at all but are not up to the standard you would expect. On the other hand, Stanley and Child’s contributions light up the album. The opening song “I’ve Had Enough (Into the Fire)” immediately grabs your ears and pulls you towards the action. It is amazing how you can almost always pick a Stanley/Child composition, with that light-hearted yet compelling vocal melody and song structure, with an excellent solo from St. John again sealing the deal. The first single from the album “Heaven’s on Fire” has been one of the most popular songs released by the band in the past 40 years and is played at almost every concert the band does. It soared into the charts upon its release and drove the album sales with it. Which, for me, has always been strange, as I don’t think it is that great a song, and there are better on the album. Maybe I’ve just heard it played too many times. “Get All You Can Take”, with Mitch Weissman on guitar and Jean Bouvier on bass, is almost a Paul Stanley solo song, and is a greater counter point to his other penned songs on the album. “Under the Gun” and “Thrills in the Night” open up side two of the album, and shoot along at a furious clip, totally transforming the way you listen to this album. Mark St. John is terrific here as well, providing a couple of great solos but also showcasing a couple of other frills along the way that play into the tracks perfectly. Paul’s vocals are at their best here too, belaying the stress he must have been under while recording this album, and instead making it sound like he’s having an awesome time.

Kiss. My cousin’s bedroom walls and stereo at my grandmother's house. The songs on the radio in primary school. And the “Crazy Nights” album. Yes, I’ve told my entry point to Kiss on previous episodes that I have done on Kiss albums, so if you don’t know it by now, you haven’t listened to enough of my episodes on Kiss.
When it came to “Animalize” that was a different story. I didn’t get this or most of the pre-1986 Kiss albums until the 2000’s. I knew the songs of course, but just didn’t have copies of the albums myself. So “Animalize” came with a lot of other albums, but the thing that did immediately resonate with me was the greater heaviness of the album, and the greater speed at which a majority of the songs were endowed with. And I really enjoyed Mark St. John’s guitaring especially, little knowing that there are parts of the album that he didn’t play on. And I get now how Paul Stanley’s description of him as an Eddie Van Halen disciple fits, because he wants to play fast and flashy, which I really enjoy here.
Listening to the album again over the last month, I again have trouble understanding the fans of the band out there that like to diss the albums the band released in the 1980’s decade. I have certainly felt that about “Creatures of the Night”, and to a certain degree with “Lick it Up”. And of course, “Crazy Nights” is one of my favourite Kiss albums. But “Animalize” is a truly terrific album, full of licks and solos and riffs, of Paul and Gene’s vocals, and that solid to fast tempo kept perfectly by Eric Carr on drums. 1984 is a year when so many amazing albums were released that have become iconic institutions and defined the bands that released them. And “Animalize” did very good business on its release, and was arguably the album that brought Kiss back to the status that they deserved after the decline that had come four years previously. But I sometimes feel this album doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, because it still divided the fans who wanted them to be exactly the way they had been in the past. And that’s unfortunate in so many ways.
Being Kiss, there always has to be more drama, and the demise of Mark St. John as lead guitarist after just a handful of gigs on the tour to support this album probably fits the story perfectly. That led to the recruitment of Bruce Kulick into the role, the fourth over a period of just three years, but it also began a period of stability that led the band through the remainder of the decade, and beyond.

68. Scorpions / Animal Magnetism. 1980. 3/5.

It is always a challenge to follow up an album that has done particularly well on the charts and also is a massive hit with the fans. It doesn’t matter how long you have been around for as an artist or a band, or how many albums you already have in the bank in that regard, if you produce an album that captures the imagination of the music listening public, you know they are going to expect more of the same when it comes to your next release.
This is the quandary that faced Scorpions in 1980, after the release and tour that followed for their album “Lovedrive”. Though long time guitarist Uli Jon Roth had left the band prior to its composition, the return of the prodigal son Michael Schenker after his stint with UFO had ensured that it received peak promotion, and along with Roth’s replacement Matthias Jabs the band had produced an album full of metal anthems and power ballads that found an audience in every genre. Of course, with Michael Schenker around you just know there are going to be problems that come with him, and this proved true again. For the tour following the release of the album, Michael was once again made a full member of the band, which required Scorpions to let Jabs go, something that didn’t sit well with anyone. Of course, with Michael being... Michael, it wasn’t long before his attitude and eccentricities caught up with him and the band, and less than two months into the tour Schenker had quit the band. Again. This forced the hand of the band, who then had to come back to Jabs on their knees and ask him to come back to the band permanently. Thankfully for everyone involved he agreed and has been with the band since then until the present day.
The other problem that was a minor issue at this point in time but would soon become a greater one was Klaus Meine’s vocal chords. He had begun to experience some soreness during the writing and recording process for this album but nothing that was serious enough to cause issues. That was to come after the tour to promote this album, when Meine had to undergo surgery on his vocal chords during the sessions for the following album. Here, for the album that would become “Animal Magnetism” there were only slight niggles that suggested anything was wrong. And when you listen to the album, you certainly can’t hear anything that might suggest there was a problem.

For this album, Rudolph Schenker composed almost all of the music, with only two songs having other composers of the songs. The Lyrics however were shared between Meine and drummer Herman Rarebell, and their fairly typical writing tropes stick hard to the ‘girl and boy’ thematic that pushes the majority of Scorpions material in this decade.
“Make It Real” is just the perfect atypical Scorpions track, with that beautiful lead guitar opening the song from Matthias, and Klaus coming into the verse with Rudy and Matthias rhythm riff underneath, all held together with that lovely bassline from Francis Buchholtz and Herman’s solid as ever drum beat. Everything that makes Scorpions the band they are can be found on this opening track. “Don’t Make No Promises (Your Body Can’t Keep)” opens with a riff that seems very familiar and does seem to have extremely similar connotations to a song from the previous album “Another Piece of Meat”. Some of the lyric lines even get close to the mark in that way. It has always been a little off-putting, because that other song always comes into your head when you are listening to this one because of that opening riff. It’s interesting, because Matthias write the music for this song, while Rudolph did the music for “Another Piece of Meat”. Coincidence? Probably. But surely, they must have noticed the similarity when they were recording it? “Hold Me Tight” pulls back into a harder mid-tempo with the start-stop guitar riff and emphasis on the drum beat that also has a similar Scorpions template to it. It is at a tempo and riff stage that makes it very reminiscent of the way metal devolved in the 1990’s, here however with a lighter feel. It’s an interesting song when compared to what happened 15 years down the track. This is followed by “Twentieth Century Man” which is either a very weak track or one where the band just got lazy. The rhythm doesn’t excite, the riff throughout sticks to the same and Klaus sings in an almost monotonal way just over the riff, something he doesn’t do often. There is no energy coming through here, and it feels and sounds like filler.
“Lady Starlight” is the first power ballad of the album, utilsing a full range of strings including violins, and woodwind such as the oboe and French horns, along with the double bass. It’s a true production beautifully performed vocally from Klaus, and it isn't until the four minute mark of the song that the guitar and drums make their belated arrival. It is an interesting segue from the band, who had always mixed their hard rock tracks with their softer ballad tracks on albums reasonably seamlessly, but here we are pushing the boundaries once more by introducing these other instrumentalists into the framework of the song. It is the only song on the album that it occurs, and it closes side one of the album in a quiet and thoughtful way. Depending on your music preference.
On the other hand, the song that sounds like it should be the power ballad, “Falling in Love”, is actually one of the hardest songs on the album, with the return of the basic Scorpions sound including the rhythm, the great guitars and Klaus’s directed and upbeat vocals. The opening riff sounds like a Def Leppard song of the same era, and the resulting energy pushes this song to a better level than much of the first half of the album. It’s interesting that Herman Rarebell is credited solely as the only writer of this track, and suggests some more input into the music of other songs from him may have been warranted. “Only a Man” is Herman’s lyrical predecessor to “Rock You Like a Hurricane”, with lines such as “Well it’s hard to say no when you’ve done a good show and they all want you to celebrate, well I try to refuse, try to make some excuse, but at this point it’s mostly too late”. Aahh, the life of the rock star. Musically it’s takes a bit to get going but eventually it gets into the track and it is bouncy enough to keep you entertained.
The absolute standout song on this album is “The Zoo”, one that has rarely left live set lists since this album was released. It is an unusual one for the Scorpions, as the tempo is backroom slow, hardly getting upwards through the whole song. What it does possess is energy throughout, in both vocals and music. The rhythm of bass and drums is the standing pylon of the song, the base of the track that stands alone at times and then at others as the glue that holds it together. Rudolph’s rhythm guitar riff bangs that up a notch, and Matthias’s lovely guitar licks add the punctuation point. And Klaus’s vocals are supreme, enunciating with the right emphasis and passion as the song requires, and Matthias’s voice box is an added bonus. The tempo mirrors the lyrics of the song, of walking along the streets of the metaphorical zoo. It is still just brilliant to this day.
“Animal Magnetism” is the album closer, and one of the strangest Scorpions songs ever recorded, in my humble opinion. It actually harks back to their earlier albums, very late 1960’s progressive rock, something you need to be using LSD for to get the full range of music and colours being emitted by the track. The lyrics are certainly channelling the flower power era of free love, and it is an interesting call back to that time, a decade earlier than the album being produced here. It ends the album on a strange note, one that is fine once you are familiar with the album itself, but a strange choice if you are coming in for the first time.

For those who are not up to date with my Scorpions discovery history, the first album I ever had of theirs was a taped copy of “World Wide Live” which came my way from my heavy metal music dealer back in 1986. I used to play that to death. Then when I began university in 1988 and began my regular Wednesday afternoon pilgrimage to Illawarra Books & Records, I bought my first two Scorpions albums which were “Lovedrive” and “Love at First Sting”. And from there the Scorpions obsession began in earnest. The collection of the remaining of their albums then became a process over a number of years. In the main that didn’t occur until the turn of the century. Like most people I knew songs from that awesome live album and various best of’s that were floating around, but actually acquiring a copy of “Animal Magnetism” didn’t occur until 2002, at a time when there was a little more money in the purse for such things. Not much more, mind you.
I know when I first listened to the album, I found it average. Having been raised on those three 80’s albums along with “Blackout”, every new Scorpions album I picked up had a lot to live up to. Judging their catalogue against those three studio albums and the live album is a harsh call. And yet, that’s what this album had to compete against, and for me it couldn’t do that. Yes, there are some good songs here, and some that were familiar to me from the outset, but overall, as album I felt this was not in the same class. So I gave it a listen for a time, and then it went back to the shelves. In the years since when I have put it on, not much had changed. It was okay, I listened to it without any qualms, and then moved onto whatever the next thing I chose to listen to.
Here again though, it has returned to my rotation, this time the second-hand vinyl copy I have picked up in recent times as I rebuild my vinyl collection. And this time, it was first just played in the background at work, before I brought out my discerning ear over the last couple of days to pick up how I really feel about it now, some 45 years after its release. And to be fair I think I have enjoyed it more than I remember doing so in the past. It is an album that is stuck between arguably the best two Scorpions albums released in “Lovedrive” and “Blackout”, and so comparatively it is up against it. For me, the main problem it faces is the somewhat boring and perhaps averageness of songs such as “Twentieth Century Man” and “Only a Man”, and the different shades offered by “Lady Starlight” and the title track “Animal Magnetism”. “Make It Real” and “The Zoo” are so far in front of every other song on the album that it feels unbalanced in that respect. When listening to the album on vinyl, with a designated halfway point where it needs to be turned over to continue, to me there is no stronger half of the album, both have their very strong songs and then a couple that let them down. It is hard to pinpoint why this is the case on this album, but from my perspective not on the preceding or following albums. Perhaps it is just personal preference, and this one just doesn’t have the strength of song I am looking for when it comes to this band.
There are 19 studio albums in the Scorpions discography, and while the album releases may have slowed down over the years the band has not. Of those 19 albums, I rank this as #8, which I guess is still not terrible, despite my obvious reservations on parts of this album.
Scorpions went on from this point to absolutely dominate the 1980’s decade, with three further studio albums that brought the band its highest profile of its career. And while this album made small impacts on charts around the world, their next album took them to a whole new level.

67. Dio / Angry Machines. 1996. 1.5/5.

Seriously – what the hell was Dio thinking when he released this album? It is, in general, one of the vilest pieces of junk it has ever been my misfortune to spend money on. I never imagined that I would ever say that about something that involved Ronnie, but Angry Machines has done it.

The direction of Dio's music had been heading towards slow and grunge for a while, but this took it too far. And it is a shame, as some of the songs could probably have been saved by a half decent producer with a love of Dio and the ability to deal with the man himself!

The lyrics are not the typical Dio, but the music is nothing like it was at this band's peak in the 80's. There are songs with some merit here, but not enough to save it. This is what I would consider to be the unfortunate black mark in Ronnie James Dio's stellar career.

Rating : It only got this much because of my undying respect for the man. 1.5/5

66. Judas Priest / Angel Of Retribution. 2005. 3.5/5

Much as had been the reaction in 1999 when Iron Maiden had announced the return of Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith to the band after a lengthy absence, when Judas Priest had announced the return of Rob Halford to the band in 2004 the masses went wild. The experiment with Ripper Owens had passed, and now that the band was back together again everyone could expect a massive new album and world tour. Not only that, Roy Z had come on board to produce the new album, and after what he had done for the solo releases of both Dickinson and Halford, you could only expect that the album was going to be outstanding. Well… no…

Hey, I can admit it. I got way too excited and was looking forward to this far too much. I hyped it up in my head so much that I didn’t see where problems could lie until they had already passed. And they were there, no doubt. Because so many people had problems with the two albums that were done without Halford, it was almost forgotten that they had been almost completely written by both Downing and Tipton, and they were again two-thirds of the writing team for this new album. OK, so Halford had returned to bring back the triumvirate that had composed so many legendary tracks in the past, but still, his recently released second album under the Halford banner Crucible was in my opinion very hit and miss. Mostly miss. So the recent history of song writing wasn’t in the most popular class.
Did I want something comparable to Painkiller? Yep, I’m not ashamed to admit it. That’s what I wanted. I wanted Roy Z to make sure this band produced another album exactly the same as that. They did not. Is it all bad? No, and far from it. It’s just that the best songs on the album in no way approach the great songs from previous albums.
“Judas Rising” is a good starting point, giving us a little bit of everything we were looking for – a Halford scream, fast drums, heavy guitar. “Deal With the Devil” comes back to the heart of the best Judas Priest songs with a great drum back beat, perfect bass line running underneath while Downing and Tipton riff over the top, and Halford gives a great vocal performance. It’s a hard rocking song that grabs your attention. “Revolution” sounds like it is trying to parallel the T-Rex song “Children of the Revolution”. It has a very 70’s sound to it and is not what you would call a typical Priest sound. To be honest I can’t say I love it, but it isn’t the worst available here. On the other hand, “Worth Fighting For” is very understated, and I love the mood that the music creates for the song, along with Halford’s moody vocals. It’s a real changer for Judas Priest, it doesn’t hit you with speed or heavy attitude or off the scale guitars, but it has a great heavy and brooding mood about it all the way through, and the solo break adds so much to the atmosphere. This is probably my favourite song on the album which is a surprise to me, but it works.
“Demonizer” comes with a rush, full of that great Scott Travis double kick and Rob Halford screaming vocals all overlaying the hard ripping riff and a super solo section from Tipton and Downing. Honestly, if the whole song had been like this it would have been a classic. As it stands it is one of the better songs through the back half of the album, even though I feel it could have been so much better if it started like it finished. “Wheels on Fire” doesn’t do anything fancy and doesn’t proclaim itself to be the fastest or heaviest track around. Indeed, it is a solid Judas Priest track that sticks to its own pace throughout while Rob discerns his vocals in a sedate but forthright manner. It seems pretty standard, but I think its simplicity is its strength. It’s a good song that can sometimes be glossed over. “Hellrider” leaves nothing in the bag, giving us more screams and energy in the vocals than “Demonizer” does which probably lifts it above that song for me.
“Angel”, “Eulogy” and “Lochness” are three of the final four songs on the album, and this is where I think there is a huge letdown. “Angel” is very much the power ballad of the album, and while it isn’t terrible I just think it doesn’t fit with what has come before it. But this doesn’t even compare when you talk about the closing tracks. “Eulogy” is the quiet contemplative song that feels so out of place. I know bands feel as though they have to do songs like this, but this is where other artists fall down, because they get trapped thinking this is a great move. This segues slowly and quietly into the final track, the ‘epic’ track “Lochness”. I have ‘epic’ in quotes, because to me this is a poor finish. The track is thirteen and a half minutes long, it meanders along like a slow moving stream, lazily trying to gain momentum without ever able to do it. This is not “Beyond the Realms of Death” or “Victim of Changes”. This is a somewhat painful way to end the album. It was probably a great idea in the studio, but for me it really does not work.

My opinion of Angel of Retribution has mellowed over the years. In 2005 I had great reservations about it and was probably overly harsh in my rating of it. I have played it twenty times over recent days in revisiting it and I find that the first half of the album is much better now that I probably thought it was a decade ago. My opinion of the close of the album hasn’t changed, but as an album overall this is above average. The plus marks are the rediscovering of the Judas Priest sound that wasn’t overly prevalent on the two Ripper-era albums. It won’t rank as one of their best ever but it still has plenty to offer to fans of the band.

Rating: “From what I knew before, some things are worth fighting for”. 3.5/5

65. Faith No More / Angel Dust. 1992. 4/5.

I guess after The Real Thing, Faith No More had to sit down and wonder, “Where do we go from here?”.
The answer is Angel Dust, an album that quickly sorted out who was a fan of the band, and who had just come on for the popularity of the previous release.

Full of great guitar riffs from Jim Martin, the 'maturing' vocals of Mike Patton and the pounding drum beats of Mike Bordin, this is as far away from The Real Thing as this band could muster. There was no doubting their intentions. They wanted to shake things up.

This is a real shock to the senses. From Land Of Sunshine, Midlife Crisis and Everything's Ruined, to Be Aggressive, Crack Hitler and Jizzlobber, this is an album that you literally either love, or abhore to the depths of hell.

Memories : In 1992, friends of mine were living in a house in Kiama Downs. I walked in one day to hear this insane album being played at a million decibels upstairs. It was my indoctrination to Angel Dust.

Rating : Madness. Absolute madness. 4/5.

64. John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess / An Evening With John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess. 2004. 1/5

Well, this certainly wasn't what I expected. I was hoping for some drilling solos and fast driving music. Instead, what you get here is mainly classical.
And don't get me wrong. What they play is brilliant. There is no doubt both are brilliant musicians, who are just unbelievable at what they do.

The problem here is – I was expecting something completely different when I acquired it.
And even now, listening to it again, and knowing what it was, I was unable to like it.

Rating : Ooooohhh...nasty. 1/5.

63. Anthrax / Among The Living 1987. 5/5.

A lot of bands tend to find their feet by the time they come around to writing and recording their third album. Think about it, think about your favourite bands, and think what their third album is, and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Everything just seems to come together. And that is exactly what occurred for New York thrash legends Anthrax when they released their third studio album “Among the Living”, an album built on the kind of live and life experience that can only come from both touring with a band at their peak, and the tragedy that can sometimes follow it.

Anthrax had made quite a jump in quality from their debut album “Fistful of Metal” to their follow up “Spreading the Disease”, not just from the acquisition of Joey Belladonna as lead singer, but in the refinement of their sound and the tightening of their music. On the rise at the same time as bands of their ilk like Exodus, Slayer and Metallica, you get the feeling that they were learning on the go, and by being around these bands they found a way to improve their own skills in order to get to that next level.
No doubt being asked by Metallica to support them on their European tour promoting “Master of Puppets” must have been eye opening, seeing that band as they were hitting their theoretical peak, and watching them destroy audiences night after night. And who wouldn’t have wanted to see that tour, with Anthrax thrashing serious carnage as the support act? The amount that the band must have improved on that tour is immense. And then the tragedy struck, with the bus crash that killed Metallica bassist Cliff Burton, and the shock that came with that, and how the members of Anthrax rallied around the members of Metallica in the days and weeks afterwards.
How does something like that change you? How do you cope with it? How do you move on deal with the consequences. For Anthrax, with the remainder of that tour cancelled, they entered the studio to record their follow up to “Spreading the Disease”, and the emotions that had built up over recent weeks all went in with them. But that wasn’t all. There was a fury in the new songs, something that had begun on “Spreading the Disease” but had reached a whole new level on the new album. There was fury in the guitaring and drumming and there was anger and emotion that mixed in with that as well. In a 2012 interview, Scott Ian was quoted as saying that part of the reason the album sounds so angry is because Cliff died. They’d lost a friend and it was so wrong and unfair. The album itself is dedicated to Cliff Burton’s memory, and there seems little doubt he would have been proud of what the band produced. Indeed, it became one of the greatest thrash metal albums ever released.

The more you listen to this album, and the more you break it down, the better and more impressive it becomes. Each song has its own ability to build the tension and momentum, to drive the speed of each song and to draw the listener in to participate in the while process. The way that the songs are structured lyrically are the crowning jewel of the production, because not only are they designed in a way that they become instant crowd favourites, but they utilise that to get the fan involved just by listening to the album at home, or in the car, or on their way to work. And it is literally impossible not to join in. With Joey Belladonna creating the lead vocals, and guitarist Scott Ian and bassist Frankie Bello chanting in the back up lyrics, the whole album comes across like you are listening to it in a live setting.
From the opening bars of the title track “Among the Living”, you are dragged in, and it is still an anticipatory exchange that collectively occurs as the song builds to the beginning of the vocals.
And the subject matter of the songs is just brilliant. From riffing on their love of Stephen King novels with “Among the Living”, which is based on the antagonist of The Stand, and with “A Skeleton in the Closet” which is based on the novella “Apt Pupil”, to their love of comic book literature with “I Am the Law” based on the Judge Dredd character in the graphic novels. All of this is mixed in with social conscience issues such as “Indians” which harps on the plight of the native North American Indians, to “One World” which talks about the risk of nuclear war, to NFL (Efilnikufesin) which deals with drug abuse which from a 2019 interview was inspired by the death of John Belushi. All of the lyrics are terrifically written, serious when they have to be, laced with humour when they don’t have to be. It all helps make the mixture of songs so interesting and intricate in developing the mood of the album.
And that mood? Well, it is fast, furious and generally without a resting point. “Among the Living” kicks it off in style, scintillating guitars and Charlie Benante’s hard hitting drum beats. And there is no way you can’t chant along to “I’m the Walkin’ Dude!, I can see all the world”, and the at the end once Joey has said “follow me or die”, and Scott and Frankie chant along “Among! Among! Among! Among!” through to the song's conclusion. Truly awesome. This is then followed by the headbangers anthem “Caught in a Mosh” which takes this to a different level. Frank’s brilliant solo bass riff into the main guitar riffs, before Charlie’s solo drum smashing launches the song proper is a fantastic way to give every member of the band a piece of the action so early in the album. And of course, the chorus again unleashes the crowd participation chanting with the duelling vocals of “Ain’t gonna live my life this way” and “STOMP STOMP STOMP!”, before the chorus of “What is it?” “Caught in a mosh”. Brilliant. And we leap into the opening riff of “I Am the Law” which again showcases everything the band has to offer and the crowd surfing chants and lyrics again enhance the song from the outset.
“NFL (Efilnikufesin)”, apart from hilariously having some people believe it is a song about American Football, and “A Skeleton in the Closet” both close out the first side of the album superbly, ripping lyrics that confused those that believed all heavy metal music was about the devil, instead being thoughtful, provocative and meaningful while the music was fast and thrashing.
“Indians” opens the second half of the album and is probably the least thrash song on the album but one where the heart is the lyrics. And then you get to the middle of the song, and Scott Ian starts stomping along to the drums and cries out “WAR DANCE!” and the song leaps to another level. Charlie’s drumming throughout this song is also just superb, it truly sets the mood perfectly for the subject matter at hand. And it doesn’t let up there. “One World” is ridiculously thrashing, and then climbs into “Horror of it All”, which was written about Cliff Burton, and having to deal with his death, before “Imitation of Life” concludes an album that, even for 1987, was an absolute triumph.

It will forever be one of those dark questions that hangs over my head until it is my time to leave this existence as to how I did not find either this band or this album until about 18 months after this had been released. 1987 was my final year of high school and it was during this and the preceding year that I had been exposed to and experience so many new and exciting bands and albums, that it is really quite remarkable that Anthrax and “Among the Living” was not one of them. And I often wonder to myself just how much that final year of high school would have been significantly improved if I HAD had that album to help me through those final few months.
Instead, it wasn’t until mid the following year that I bought my first Anthrax album (which happened to be ‘Spreading the Disease’) before picking up this album after that. And to say that I had my mind blown would be an understatement. At that point in time the peak of thrash for me had been Metallica, but this just went way beyond that. Songs such as “Caught in a Mosh” and “Skeleton in the Closet” and “Horror of it All” were just amazing, there is no restraint, those drums just fly and drag the guitars along with them, and somehow Joey not only has to keep up, but then hit those high notes in the same instance. I still can’t get over “Horror of it All”, it is just an amazing song.
And like I said, the ability of these songs to draw out crowd participation is immense. Driving to Sydney or just around our hometown with four people in the car, singing these at the top of our voices, is still such a strong memory, as well as seeing the band for the first time at the Hordern Pavilion in 1990 and jumping around like madmen at these songs.
All five members star on this album. It is still incredible at times to think that Charlie not only plays the drums as amazingly as he does, but creates the guitar riff and melodies as well for the majority of Anthrax’s songs.


As with the majority of bands who were labelled as thrash metal in the early to mid-1980's, Anthrax’s sound did revert to a more traditional heavy metal appearance over time. But this album, this moment in time, when they were on the ascendancy and when they were firing and when they had fury and anger to deal with, stands as a testament to the greatness of the band and the joy of thrash metal. Because this is pure unadulterated genius, where the combination of live interaction onto a studio album to create a perfect moment in time cannot be faulted. Except that I didn’t discover it until 18 months later.

62. The Offspring / Americana. 1998. 4/5.

The Offspring may not have exploded on the scene when they released their first two albums, but with their third album “Smash” and then its follow up “Ixnay on the Hombre”, the episode of which you can relive on Season 2 of this podcast, the band not only had hit singles but had found their marketplace, and an audience waiting to hear what they had to say and how they would deliver it.
On “Ixnay on the Hombre”, The Offspring had taken a couple of leaps out of their comfort zone, ones that not only allowed them to grow out of that pure post-punk style that had graced their previous album and given them a road also into the alt rock sound that bands were beginning to utilise. While some fans were disappointed, probably because they were looking for a “Smash 2” rather than the next development of an Offspring album, that album gave the band more scope to spread their wings.
Dexter Holland, who is the primary composer for the band, was quoted in Rolling Stone in August 1998, "I wanted to write a record that wasn't a radical departure from what we've done before. I feel like we have managed to change stuff up from “Ignition” to “Smash” to “Ixnay”. We're in a place where we more or less set the boundaries where we can do a lot of stuff without having to stretch it out farther”.
A little over a week before this album was released, the band had put out their first single, “Pretty Fly for a White Guy”. Along with the catchiness of the track, the music video also caught the attention of the music loving world, and was soon number one in a dozen countries around the world, and drove the interest in the band’s new album to new highs. Given the goofiness of the video yet the biting commentary of the lyrics, it couldn't’ have been a better lead in for an album that was about to storm the charts on the back of this success.

What comes across the most on “Americana” is that even though the subject matter being sung about is not always the most uplifting or positive or happy, the music and the way the songs are sung makes them entertaining and not morose. Because if you delve deeper into the lyrics of “Have You Ever” and “The Kids Aren’t Alright”, these songs in particular could be extremely dark and depressing. Given a whole different mood by the music they could be mood killers – terrific commentary on the world as the band and Dexter in particular sees through their eyes, but not as wonderfully embracing as they are. The dark matter that the songs address could have been accompanied by moody long drawn-out music, harping on the negative aspects of the lyrics and while perhaps still being excellent songs, just leaving the listener in a depressed or even angry mood.
But when you listen to “Americana”, you don’t come away in that way at all. That wonderful punk-influenced hard paced track style that comes across so perfectly with “Have You Ever”, “Staring at the Sun”, “The Kids Aren’t Alright” and “The End of the Line” in particular is what becomes the main focus of the mood of the track rather than the lyrical content, until they merge and become one, and the songs become eminently enjoyable. Classic even. A perfect amalgamation of lyric topicality and angsty music.
“The Kids Aren’t Alright” in particular is arguably the band’s masterpiece and is relatable to just about everyone in life. The dreams of youth, locked in your safe world that is your neighbourhood, and then going back years later to discover what everyone had become and finding that it isn’t all peaches and cream, and that life outside of the days of high school become a different challenge than you would ever have expected. This could have been a depressing song, and if you just read the lyrics, it is a sad story. But put it with the terrific guitar riff, and the fast pace, and the wonderful vocals from Holland who gives enough emotion to make it clear it isn’t a happy story, but keeps it up-tempo and jumping to make you forget that and just enjoy the song, is pretty special. Holland was quoted as saying that the song was inspired and derived by a trip back to his hometown, where “The neighbourhood looks like Happy Days, but it’s really Twin Peaks”. And the song shines a light on that. You grow up hoping you and your friends are going to have a successful and happy life, but reality doesn’t always go that way.
Listening to the album, it is clear that it has become a social statement on the world as the band saw it, and in particular America, thus the title of the album. Each song is almost its own self-contained short story in a book of short stories that becomes the album. “Why Don’t You Get a Job?” and “She’s Got Issues” are pointed in their barbs but with that tinge of humour that keeps them light. On the other hand, the opening of “Have You Ever” and “Staring at the Sun” are shooting straight from the hip, firing shots at society and the way it breaks down at the slightest sign of people standing up for their rights. “Walla Walla” talks about not only crime being punished by being sent to jail, but the lax convictions that just encourage the same people to do the same crime over and over again without being made to truly pay for it. “The End of the Line” and “No Brakes” both deal with the onset of death in different ways. And the title track riles against middle class America and form it has taken. And of course there is the major single hit from the album, “Pretty Fly for a White Guy”, which pokes fun at the teens and twenties who will do anything for what they see as popularity, not realising that it is ridicule they are receiving instead.

I loved “Ixnay on the Hombre” when it was released. One of the perfect albums for me at that time of my life. It was played to death, and it was the angst and segregated anger of that album that made it so perfect for me. So when “Americana” was released, and my life had changed again (this time for the better) I did wonder if I would find the same things at that point of my life as I had with that previous album. The answer indeed was a resounding yes. Because by then I was in my late 20’s, and was seeing more and being affected more by what was happening around me, and seeing and feeling the influences of things like lifestyle and political ramifications and the changes in people's attitudes to life and the surrounding areas where I was living at the time. Yes, sure, I was becoming more adamant and steadfast in my own thoughts, and was happy to start publicising that more than I had. And “Americana” spoke to me in that way through the lyrics. I was trying to work out just what the world was trying to do, and I was then trying to work out WHY it was doing what it was. And most of what The Offspring threw at me through their lyrics on this album was the same as what I was thinking on all of those subjects. So yes “Americana” spoke to me.
But more than that, the music perfectly framed those songs, and the lyrics they contained. The band framed a song so that you could sing it with anger and frustration in your voice, but it wasn’t the way the band actually performed it. It was just the way I interpreted it and allowed how I felt to come through in the enjoyment of the songs. They also framed a song so you could be emotional about the content and allow that to come through in how you heard and sang the song, but again it wasn’t the way it was performed, it just allowed your interpretation of what you were feeling to come through. And to me, that has always been the genius of the album. This is, for all intents and purposes, mostly a punk rock album, and that inspiration that is the fast paced hard clocking songs is what makes The Offspring at their best. Sure, there is the Latino flavoured comedy infused big selling single, and the very Beatles-ish style of their second single (listen to “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da" and then “Why Don’t You Get a Job” and you’ll hear what I mean), but mostly this is punk inspired rock with lyrics that shake their fist at authority and the state of the world, and that’s why it was so good when it was released, and still so relevant in the modern day. And why The Offspring are still so necessary.

61. L.A. Guns / American Hardcore. 1996. 3.5/5.

When you first hear this album, it is quite amazing the change that L.A. Guns have made from their first two releases. If you didn't know their history, you would be hard pressed to be convinced that they began their lives in the heyday of L.A glam metal.

American Hardcore is the name of the album, and the direction they have taken their music. And some of these songs really rock. And yet, there is the classic 'metal' ballad (a slight contradiction in terms I know, but you know what I'm getting at) with Hey World, which, given my usual contempt of such songs, isn't bad.

What I've Become, Pissed and I Am Alive are great tracks, that are the norm on an album that is a significant release in the order of a band who came from an era of glam, and has transformed themselves into a band of higher standing on a different plane.

Rating : Still a pleasant surprise to be had. 3.5/5.

60. Fozzy / All That Remains. 2005. 4/5

After two albums that were generally laden with great metal covers, Fozzy got serious, and put out this album full of only originals.

The combined talents of wrestler Chris Jericho and former members of Stuck Mojo have put together a great 'debut' album. Special guests such as Marty Friedman and Zakk Wylde appear here also, but the songs the band has written and performed hold up well.

Nameless Faceless, Enemy, It's A Lie and Born Of Anger are just some of my favourires from the album. It's interesting to see that, despite what could have been made of the 'novelty factor' of a wrestler doing an album, that the success of this has nothing to do with that at all. The songs are good, Jericho's vocals are good, and the whole package comes together well.

Rating : We knew they could play, but they proved a whole lot more with this. 4/5.

59. KISS / Alive! 1975. 4/5.

This was probably the album that started it all for Kiss. The double live blast of the band live on stage caught the imagination of the world, along with the make-up and the pyrotechnics and the stageshow. But being captured in their element – the live music – was what transformed their popularity to skyrocketing proportions.

This contains the best of their material that they had released to that time, and most of them are classics that are still so to this day. Any KISS best-of would have Deuce, Strutter, C'mon And Love Me, Parasite, Cold Gin and Rock 'N' Roll All Nite on it.

I don't believe it holds up today as well as other live albums of the period, but for the time, it was something...

Memories : My older cousin David was a mad Kiss freak, back when I was just a kid. At one stage, he was living at our grandmother's when he first got work in Newcastle. I well remember his collection of Kiss records at Nan's house whenever we went up there for the holidays, and was exposed to them at a rather early age as a result.

Rating : Not too shabby. 4/5.

58. Bruce Dickinson / Alive In Studio A. 1998. 4/5.

Bruce Dickinson’s career post his split with Iron Maiden in 1993 was one that started off with ambition but with varied difficulties in getting it fully off the ground. His debut solo album, the one that had initially began getting him thinking about leaving the band with whom he had conquered the world, was three years in the past, and now that he had cut ties with the band with which he had risen to fame he was under as much pressure as they were to show he could make it on his own. After some false starts he teamed up with all rounder Roy Z and his band, and wrote and recorded his second solo album with their backing.
“Balls to Picasso” was released in 1994, and Z and the Tribe of Gypsies left to work on their own material for the next step of their career. This left Dickinson with the task of recruiting new members to fill out a touring band with which to promote the album. In this pursuit, he found guitarist Alex Dickson, bass guitarist Chris Dale and drummer Alessandro Elena to fill out the empty places in his band. The new band then went out and toured throughout Europe and the UK as well as North America. The setlist comprised only of songs from his two solo albums, “Balls to Picasso” and the pre-Maiden split debut of “Tattooed Millionaire”. This tour was concluded with the visit to Sarajevo in war-torn Bosnia on December 14, 1994, where the band played a gig to ecstatic locals, the documentary of which was eventually released under the name of “Scream for Me, Sarajevo”, a documentary that everyone should watch.
During this tour, there were two performances that were recorded. One was at Metropolis Studios in London, where the band ran through their live set list in the studio but played entirely live. This was recorded with the intention of being used on American radio to help promote the upcoming tour to North America, but apparently this never occurred, and the recording was held in limbo. Then there was the final date of the first leg of the tour which was at the Marquee Club in London, the site of many early gigs for a band called Iron Maiden before a certain lead singer had joined the band. This show was recorded as well on October 18, 1994. Now the band had two live recordings, but what to do with them?

The good thing about these two discs and two gigs is that they are quite different. “Alive in Studio A” of course is still a live recording of the band, but it is in the studio and is restricted to how it sounds by the way the setup was for that day. It sounds great of course, and the versions of the songs played here pop off the CD more than the studio versions, which is always a great indication of good material, because they sound better in the environment that they are ultimately designed for. And Bruce’s vocals singing these songs live in the studio showcases just how superb he really is. The band takes ‘live’ liberties with the songs here, which is terrific, and is the real reason to listen to this particular CD of the double album.. The version of “Shoot All the Clowns” and “Son of a Gun” especially on the Metropolis recording is far superior to the album versions. And of course, the full majesty of “Tears of the Dragon” comes to light here, perfectly played by all four members in this environment.
Bruce in later years was critical of the record company promoting this album as containing new material when of course it was just live studio re-recordings of songs that had already been published. But in a way, it really is a new album full of updated versions of all of these tracks. Alex Dickson in particular adds his own touch and flavour to each song, which could not have been an easy thing to achieve given the excellence of the two guitarists who actually recorded the original versions, Jannick Gers and Roy Z. And, as well as both Chris Dale and Alessandro Elena play on this recording, Dickson is the out and out star of the first disc. His solo spots are especially enjoyable. And of course Bruce’s vocals are supreme, and without the overdubs and doubled vocals that come on the studio albums these songs actually are improved because we get the REAL Bruce, just him and his voice. And every song is improved by Bruce and Alex on this release. Only three songs are taken from “Tattooed Millionaire” here, and all three are improved here. The extra pace of “Born in ‘58” makes this a better listen than the original.
Onto the second disc, and we have the Live at the Marquee recording, taken from the final gig of the first leg of the tour. And you can hear by the atmosphere in the venue and the vibe of the band itself that it was a good gig to record. As a snapshot of where Bruce and his band was at this point it showcases exactly how much of a groove they were in, and how they were able to take the studio versions of these songs and make them come alive on stage. Whereas the first disc has that studio sound, warm and comfortable because of the surroundings, the second disc has that more open set sound, the slightly less perfect sound of the drums and the bass, both mixed in a different way for the actual live setting that the studio setting. This is more exhilarating, because the band are reacting to the crowd in attendance, and given the live setting they are played slightly differently with added pieces as bands will always do when playing live, and that is the main point of difference between the two discs. Both are excellent in their own way.
The Marquee performance sounds great. Bruce is in perfect form, and gives songs such as “Cyclops”, “Laughing in the Hiding Bush”, “1000 Points of Light”, “Sacred Cowboys” and “Tears of the Dragon” a real kick which brings out the best in all of them in this environment.

Look back in retrospect, it’s a shame that I didn’t pick this up at the time of its release. It would certainly have changed the way that I listened to the Bruce Dickinson discography. After having had a customer where I worked give me a copy of “Balls to Picasso” about a year after it had been released, then listened to it, I didn’t feel the need to investigate more Dickinson releases down the track. 1995, as regular listeners to the Music from a Lifetime podcast would be aware, was a black hole for me in my life, which resulted in a lot of things being missed by me over that 12-month period. So, I missed this release, and indeed everything Bruce did up until January 1999. That in itself is a story for another episode. After that time though, I became reacquainted with his work, and one of those albums was this one, which I first came across in 2001 or 2002. At that time, I hadn’t listened to either of the first two albums for some years, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. As a matter of fact, I remember looking forward to hearing more of the first album live, as had been the case in the live video “Dive! Dive Live!” from back in 1990. But once I got the album and saw that the song list was mostly taken from “Balls to Picasso” I was slightly disappointed. But I still put it on and gave it a listen. And it was great! Both sets sound fantastic, all of the songs sound better, and all four members of the band put in sterling performances. I actually went back to “Balls to Picasso” with a much more positive mindset having heard this album and heard the versions of these songs in those live environs. Hearing the way that Dickson in particular played the songs on the first CD was really ear opening. It gave me a far better appreciation for that album than I had had previous to that.
Nothing much has changed having had this back in the CD player for the past week or so. I still enjoy both discs and the differences between the two live recordings. And I still love Alex Dickson’s performance on guitar, I think it is a standout, and his interpretations of the songs is excellent. And it goes without saying how terrific Bruce is, and the continued amazement that he can sing all of his songs the same way he laid them down in the studio. Sure, none of these songs stretch his vocals like Maiden songs do, but it is still so comforting to listen to a live album and hear him so naturally keep everything just as it should be.
I would be remiss if I didn’t state my usual line about live albums, that they should almost always be 5/5 albums because they contain the best tracks in their best environment. Perhaps this feels like it shouldn’t be a 5/5 live album because the majority of tracks come from one album so early on in the band’s career, and that many just don’t like a lot of those first two Bruce Dickinson albums. But the performances are terrific and make this an easy and enjoyable couple of hours. If you haven’t experienced this album or have not been back to it for a while, then I think it is worth going back and listening to what Bruce and his band have compiled here. 30 years on, it may make you change your mind.