I guess because I always have such high hopes for each new Therapy? album, I am more often than not wrought with disappointment when they finally come along. This all stems of course from the absolute magnificence of Troublegum and what that album means to me.
Here though is High Anxiety which has all the elements that could make it a superb album, but which fails to put them all together in the right way to achieve this. The good songs here are pearlers - the opening blitz of "Hey Satan - You Rock" which delivers musically and lyrically in a way only Andy Cairns can. This is followed by the gutteral "Who Knows" which continues to push the hardcore element. All of the initial tracks stand alone.
"If It Kills Me", the single from the album, is the stand out track, and is the perfect example of the best of Therapy? Everytime I hear this song I wonder how this band has not become bigger throughout the world.
The second half of the album tails off, and fails to ignite the passion that the first half of the album does. This is a bit disappointing, because there feels like there is something really good building until it gets to that point. Then, for some reason, it just drifts away and it is easy to lose interest.
And that is really the problem. So much potential, totally unrealised. I'm sure it isn't easy, but you can't help wondering sometimes whether they would be better off just releasing six song EPs, because for the most part it appears that that is as many good songs as they can put together at one time. Having said that, this remains one of their better efforts.
Rating: Could have been something really special. 3.5/5
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
491. Def Leppard / High and Dry. 1981. 5/5
The reason that I started out (almost three years ago) to catalogue, rate and review all of my albums was because I was sure that there had to be brilliant albums I had totally forgotten about as my collection grew so large, and I wanted to hear them again. That has proven to be the case. Until I put High and Dry on my iPod two weeks ago, I had forgotten just how exceptional this album is. It has rarely been off my playlist since.
THESE were the days when Def Leppard was a band, when they wrote songs that had attitude, great rolling lyrics and a bit of edge to their music. Back in the day when they could certainly be classed as hard rock, with great riffs and great vocal melodies with Joe Elliott at his finest.
There is not a weak moment on this album. Each song has great anthemic sections, where you just can't help but sing along like you are in an English pub 30 years ago. Side One (for those that remember it on vinyl) is just sensational, incorperating the three great rocking tunes to start, moving into the single "Bringin' on the Heartbreak", which was basically the song that got me into Def Leppard in the day, and the brilliant instrumental "Switch 625". Awesome stuff. Side Two may not quite be as brilliant, but it loses nothing in comparison.
Has this album grown in my estimation purely from the fact that I haven’t listened to it for the better part of fifteen years, and that the stuff Def Leppard have released in that timeframe I consider to be pure trash? It’s a fair point, and may have a great deal of truth attached to it. Believe me, having indulged in the album a great deal in the past fortnight, the two things I have wondered is ‘why have I not listened to this in so long’ and ‘why can’t they put out an album like this now?’
But it isn’t the whole truth. When I first listened to it again, I remembered how much I loved it, and remembered sitting in front of the stereo with the album cover in my hands (ahhh, the days of vinyl…).This is Def Leppard at their best, when they were still a hard rock band and hadn't begun to soften and sweeten themselves into the parody they are now. The fact that it is rare to see a song from this album on their current playlist sums their current position up for me.
Rating: A brilliant snapshot of a band in their ultimate element. 5/5
THESE were the days when Def Leppard was a band, when they wrote songs that had attitude, great rolling lyrics and a bit of edge to their music. Back in the day when they could certainly be classed as hard rock, with great riffs and great vocal melodies with Joe Elliott at his finest.
There is not a weak moment on this album. Each song has great anthemic sections, where you just can't help but sing along like you are in an English pub 30 years ago. Side One (for those that remember it on vinyl) is just sensational, incorperating the three great rocking tunes to start, moving into the single "Bringin' on the Heartbreak", which was basically the song that got me into Def Leppard in the day, and the brilliant instrumental "Switch 625". Awesome stuff. Side Two may not quite be as brilliant, but it loses nothing in comparison.
Has this album grown in my estimation purely from the fact that I haven’t listened to it for the better part of fifteen years, and that the stuff Def Leppard have released in that timeframe I consider to be pure trash? It’s a fair point, and may have a great deal of truth attached to it. Believe me, having indulged in the album a great deal in the past fortnight, the two things I have wondered is ‘why have I not listened to this in so long’ and ‘why can’t they put out an album like this now?’
But it isn’t the whole truth. When I first listened to it again, I remembered how much I loved it, and remembered sitting in front of the stereo with the album cover in my hands (ahhh, the days of vinyl…).This is Def Leppard at their best, when they were still a hard rock band and hadn't begun to soften and sweeten themselves into the parody they are now. The fact that it is rare to see a song from this album on their current playlist sums their current position up for me.
Rating: A brilliant snapshot of a band in their ultimate element. 5/5
490. Megadeth / Hidden Treasures. 1995. 4.5/5
This is a collection of tracks that have appeared on movie soundtracks, B-sides to singles and other such places that are not always easy to track down.
As it turns out, I did have most of these songs from all of those places – the movie soundtracks I have bought for one or two decent songs over the years is quite enormous. If only I knew such collections would (eventually) come along, I could have saved myself quite a sum of money.
Anyhow, there is some good stuff here, mixed in with some slightly better than average stuff. As an album in itself (forgetting for a moment the cover songs here) this would be a pretty damn good release. I’ll bet there are a lot of bands out there that wish they could have ‘throwaway’ tracks like “Go To Hell” and “99 Ways To Die” and “Angry Again” and “Breakpoint”. Quite amazing.
Rating: An excellent collection of Megadeth material that doesn’t appear on their studio releases. 4.5/5.
As it turns out, I did have most of these songs from all of those places – the movie soundtracks I have bought for one or two decent songs over the years is quite enormous. If only I knew such collections would (eventually) come along, I could have saved myself quite a sum of money.
Anyhow, there is some good stuff here, mixed in with some slightly better than average stuff. As an album in itself (forgetting for a moment the cover songs here) this would be a pretty damn good release. I’ll bet there are a lot of bands out there that wish they could have ‘throwaway’ tracks like “Go To Hell” and “99 Ways To Die” and “Angry Again” and “Breakpoint”. Quite amazing.
Rating: An excellent collection of Megadeth material that doesn’t appear on their studio releases. 4.5/5.
489. Alice Cooper / Hey Stoopid. 1991. 5/5
Trying to follow up the mega-success that was Trash would have been no mean feat for one of the great icons of music. To help out, he pulled together an array of friends to help write and perform on the new album, and the end result was Hey Stoopid.
Like Trash this has a great mix of Alice Cooper rockers and ballads, and while it is probably rubbished by hard core Cooper fans as it is not a ‘traditional’ album of his style, it was perfect for the time. Having moved with the times (again) he and his buddies have produced an almost flawless combination of songs.
There is something for everyone here. Lyrically every song has its message, even the ‘love ballads’ have that Alice Cooper message infused into their words. As with all of Alice’s work in this direction, there is still enough rock in these songs to stop them falling into the same category as most soft rock ballads that many hair metal bands of the day fell into. Songs such as “Love’s a Loaded Gun”, “Burning Our Bed” and “Might As Well Be On Mars” are still great rock songs. “Might As Well Be On Mars” in particular showcases the best that not only Alice, but his band, has to offer, and is one of my favourites on the album – yes, that’s right, a ‘ballad’ is one of my faves.
Of course, there are the faster, heavier tracks here too. The title track for one, “Feed My Frankenstein”, “Hurricane Years” and “Little By Little” are up there with the best of this generation’s Alice Cooper works.
Not only does he have a great group of musicians around him as a part of his band, the guests on the album reads like a who’s-who of music at the time – Ozzy Osbourne, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Mick Mars, Slash, Nikki Sixx.
Though the ‘traditionalists’ may disagree, I think this is one of Alice Cooper’s finest moments. It is certainly one of my favourite of his albums, if not my absolute favourite. I guess seeing as I spent one night pumping about $45 dollars into a video jukebox, just so my mate and I could watch the video to “Hey Stoopid” about one hundred times in a row back when it was released (missing the movie we had specially gone out to see in the process), I’d have to like it a little bit…
Rating: A great album from one of the finest artists in his time. 5/5.
Like Trash this has a great mix of Alice Cooper rockers and ballads, and while it is probably rubbished by hard core Cooper fans as it is not a ‘traditional’ album of his style, it was perfect for the time. Having moved with the times (again) he and his buddies have produced an almost flawless combination of songs.
There is something for everyone here. Lyrically every song has its message, even the ‘love ballads’ have that Alice Cooper message infused into their words. As with all of Alice’s work in this direction, there is still enough rock in these songs to stop them falling into the same category as most soft rock ballads that many hair metal bands of the day fell into. Songs such as “Love’s a Loaded Gun”, “Burning Our Bed” and “Might As Well Be On Mars” are still great rock songs. “Might As Well Be On Mars” in particular showcases the best that not only Alice, but his band, has to offer, and is one of my favourites on the album – yes, that’s right, a ‘ballad’ is one of my faves.
Of course, there are the faster, heavier tracks here too. The title track for one, “Feed My Frankenstein”, “Hurricane Years” and “Little By Little” are up there with the best of this generation’s Alice Cooper works.
Not only does he have a great group of musicians around him as a part of his band, the guests on the album reads like a who’s-who of music at the time – Ozzy Osbourne, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Mick Mars, Slash, Nikki Sixx.
Though the ‘traditionalists’ may disagree, I think this is one of Alice Cooper’s finest moments. It is certainly one of my favourite of his albums, if not my absolute favourite. I guess seeing as I spent one night pumping about $45 dollars into a video jukebox, just so my mate and I could watch the video to “Hey Stoopid” about one hundred times in a row back when it was released (missing the movie we had specially gone out to see in the process), I’d have to like it a little bit…
Rating: A great album from one of the finest artists in his time. 5/5.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
488. Metallica / Hero of the Day [Single]. 1996. 3/5
So why buy the single? For the extras of course, for the same reason everyone has bought Metallica singles for the past 17 years!
Here we have Metallica covering two Motorhead songs at a live bash they did for Lemmy’s birthday – the songs here are “Overkill” and “Damage Case”, and they are both brilliant.
Then we have a remix of the single – “Outta B Sides Mix” – which is every bit as bad as the original.
Rating: 5/5 for the Motorhead covers, 1/5 for the actual Metallica song. Making 3/5.
487. Scatterbrain / Here Comes Trouble. 1990. 4.5/5
Their first studio album was titled “Immaculate Deception” and produced by Randy Burns and began to catch the attention of fans and record companies alike. Drummer and founder Al Batross left the group after Immaculate Deception was recorded, which left just the two original members of the band in Christ and Cummings when they came around to writing and recording their follow up, “Powertrip”. By this time the band and its music had become far more metallic in style and had abandoned their early hardcore style, while retaining the range of musical influences and being more overtly humorous in lyric writing and stage antics.
Leading up to the release of their third album, "Here Comes Trouble" on In Effect Records, the band took the decision to rename themselves as Scatterbrain. In essence, this was a decision made to circumvent the very real possibility at that stage of having boycotts made of their album from conservative Christian elements in both their record distributors and the big-name department stores in the US, who felt that the name Ludachrist was offensive and blasphemous. In doing so, the band created a new identity, which also gave the transition and growing of its sound over the last few years a chance to now shine on its own under a new name, and hopefully to break new territory as a result.
Thus came the rise of Scatterbrain the band, and what became their debut album titled “Here Comes Trouble”.
The first thing that becomes noticeable about this album when you first listen to it is that there is a surprising amount of variety in the songs here. Not just musically but lyrically, in style and substance. The title track opens up the album and hit the ground running, their funk style of heavy and even thrash metal comes at you in charging style, announcing that they, as trouble, are coming. This track has some excellent changes in riffage and tempo without losing the wholesome energy of the song at any time as it continues to blast out of the speakers. It really sets up the album for the quirkiness that is to come. That appears immediately with a cracking cover version of Cheech and Chong’s “Earache My Eye”. Everything that you would expect from that duo is in the lyrics, and although other high-profile bands have also covered this song over the years, none do quite as good a job as Scatterbrain do here. The increased power of the guitars and funkability of the bass and drums draws out a different dimension to this track, as well as adding to the humour element that the band was looking to infuse into this album.
The funkier side of the band comes out on “That’s That”, with themes and tones that remind you Suicidal Tendencies especially with the bass guitar slapping throughout the song. Some of the great parts of Scatterbrain can be heard in this song, the funk bass and the wonderful guitar solos. Along similar lines is “I’m With Stupid,” a song about a guy who gets some justice karma for making fun of others. The lyrics tell a fun and epic story of a guy who grows another head on his shoulder – I'm with stupid! he’s with me! - and is backed by more awesomeness in the music. Indeed the opening guitar riffs almost remind you of some Marty Friedman magic ala Megadeth. The great pace of the first minute is then replaced by the tougher tempo and harder riffing as the tale is told. It’s a beauty, a fun song that does not skimp on the thrash funk either.
The band then pays tribute to some of the greats on the track “Down with the Ship (Slight Return).” Apparently, it is the reworking of a song that appeared on a Ludichrist record. The original part of the song is the chorus and the lyrics. The rest is taken from well-known guitar riffs and drums fills from some of the great songs of music history. It is mixed with the almost goofy lyrics of the captain not wanting to go down with his ship, but it is the fun of trying to place all of the riffs and fills while listening to the song that is the treat. And mixing in all of that from the artists of Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin (multiple times), Metallica, ZZ Top, Billy Squire, Aerosmith, Phil Collins, Yes, The Doors, Van Halen and Iron Maiden, along with the Star-Spangled Banner and the Woody Woodpecker theme, is quite the task. It is still a terrific song to sing along to. To back this up, they then unleash with a metal version of Mozart’s “Sonata No. 3”, which sounds as though it should have been in a Bill & Ted movie. In their live shows, Scatterbrain was often known to play medleys of Mozart, or Motorhead, or on occasions both together.
While some of the material here so far on the album has been brought in from other sources, there is still plenty of wholly original material here, mostly utilising the humorous aspect of the bands character. Juvenile humour is in steady supply, as on “Mr. Johnson and the Juice Crew,” which starts out ina real thrash metal vibe before transforming into a swinging and grooving hard rocker. Lyrically, it is pretty much as you would expect from the song title, but that great heavy vibe and chanting of the song makes it a beauty. And though the following track is also based in humour, “Goodbye Freedom, Hello Mom” actually seems like a prediction from Nostradamus in the past, as the song speaks about censorship and the desire from the top to control everyone else. Lyrics such as “We'll ban that book and T.V. show, forget that movie, no you can't go, can't sell that record, don't like that song, we know what's right we know what's wrong, can't have abortions, what's yours ain't yours, just obey the laws” and “1984 has past, forget about Big Brother, welcome to the 90's where the government's your Mother, they'll tell you - don't do that, they'll try and tell you - it's for your own good” and “Goodbye Freedom, Hello Mom
The Bill of Rights just disappeared, there it is - whoops it's gone! Goodbye Freedom, Hello Mom, All your rights just disappeared, Everybody stay calm”. Sound familiar?! Scatterbrain just Nostradamus’ed 2025!
The band could take on some serious subjects, too, though they tended to veer away from it. “Outta Time,” for instance, despite its upbeat sound, is a hard-hitting tale about drug addiction and its aftermath, and really hits all the right spots. Another case of terrific songwriting.
If there is one song that anyone might remember from this album when it was released, it is the song “Don’t Call Me Dude”, which apart from its constantly changing time structure and genre hopping had an amusing and highly watchable music video that went along with it, telling the tale about a guy who snaps when his girlfriend leaves him for a burly lifeguard on the beach, triggered by being called ‘dude’. The song goes through several movements, with the band mimicking various eras of rock ‘n’ roll from doo-wop to 1980s glam. It’s a fun track, one that was a big hit in Australia when it was released, reaching #14 on the singles charts, which drove the album up to #54. The album he concludes with “Drunken Milkman,” a spoken word “poetry” piece over bongos and sparsely strummed guitar about the unfortunate results of a drunk-driving delivery man.
What Scatterbrain deliver here is an album that no doubt had some trouble being sold to the public. It’s a thrash metal-based band that introduced a funky beat as well as lyrics that border on a comedy album, all thrown together to create a reasonably unique masterpiece, one that was probably always going to be a hard sell in the first place, but one even harder to follow up.
I can’t say with any accuracy when I came across this album let alone bought it. I remember seeing the video for “Don’t Call Me Dude” on the music video shows that were around at the time this was released and enjoying both the song and the video, but I don’t recall rushing out to buy the album. I know I had it well before May 1992 though, because my mate and I – my heavy metal music dealer in fact – went to see them play at Waves in Wollongong at that time and I know I knew the album very well at that point. So, there is a two-year window when I must have purchased my CD copy of the album that I still own, and that is the best I can narrow it down.
I do know that when I had the album, it sat in a period of my life when I had several albums that I listened to together because they had a similar style – Faith No More’s, “The Real Thing”, Suicidal Tendencies “How Will I Live Tomorrow When I Can’t Even Smile Today”, D.A.D’s “No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims”, and this album. I had them all clumped around my stereo in my bedroom, and remember changing between them often.
As I said I was lucky enough to see them live in 1992, where they played the entire album and a couple of other pieces, and I thought at the time “wow, I can’t wait to see them live again!” Of course, that was never to be.
I’ve always loved this album. I love the humorous lyrics and the way they are obviously having fun in the songs. I love the clashing of styles within the music, and the way they chop and change within the structure of the same song without ever losing the intensity of what they are playing. And yet, even now, where some of their lyrics touch on serious subjects, they are still relevant in the modern day.
Breaking out the CD again for the past week has been amazing. Every day when I’ve come home from work, I have pressed play and let its short but sharp access flood the metal cavern with its goodness. It has been an album that has never sat on the shelves for long before getting another chance in the stereo. It is an album that I can put on at any time and in any mood and enjoy every time I do. Albums like that don’t come along every day.
Scatterbrain didn’t quite catch on as they may have liked. They released another album, “Scamboogery”, and album that is equally as enjoyable as this, before they split and went into other areas. That’s a shame. But as we have seen in the music business, it is rarely for lightning to trike once left alone twice. In the case of Scatterbrain, at least the one strike was well worth it.
486. Brides of Destruction / Here Come The Brides. 2004. 2.5/5
Starting off at a cracking pace with “Shut the Fuck Up”, it is a shame they couldn’t maintain that kind of intensity for the entire album. Sure, the lead-off track might be clichéd, but it works and has the kind of galloping beat that this music really needs to grab your attention. As an example, as much as I like “Brace Yourself” as a song, it lacks that same intensity and drive that the opening track has. Halfway through the song you can feel yourself losing interest, which certainly shouldn’t be the case.
There are other good songs here, including “2X Dead”, “Natural Born Killers” and “Revolution”, but nothing that comes close to reproducing the energy of “Shut the Fuck Up”. Even more disastrously, however, they leave their worst for last, the very average “Only Get So Far”, which as a soft rock ballad still doesn’t measure up at all.
In the end, this is somewhat of a disappointment. There was a great deal of potential from this line-up for something great, but in the end, despite a couple of good pieces, it falls into the bracket of “heard it all before”.
Rating: Not quite three stars, a little better than just average. 2.5/5.
485. The Beatles / Help! 1965. 4/5
This album doubled as the soundtrack to the film starring The Beatles, also coincidentally named “Help!”
As an album it probably rates as one of their best with consistency of tracks all the way through. It mixes the light and fluffy with the moody and sensitive, and does it in a way that doesn’t detract from the album.
Songs like “Act Naturally” and “Another Girl” and “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” start the album off on a light, marshmellowy note. There’s no genius songwriting here, but just a gentle carefree way to begin.
“I Need You” and “It’s Only Love” are just a little too slow and reflective for my taste (that’s what you get when you love heavy metal music I guess), and probably tie down the middle of the album a tad too much for my liking.
The second half of the album is where Help! really brings home the bacon. The tempo picks up with “The Night Before”, leading into the upbeat “Ticket to Ride”, McCartney’s wonderful and eternal “Yesterday”, the strains of “You’re Going to Lose That Girl” and “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love” and the lasting memory of the title track “Help!”
It is with this style of album that I believe The Beatles are at their best. On Help! they combine what I would term their ‘kiddie’ songs with their pop tunes. Some of their best ever songs can be found here. What is more, the album progresses without a hiccup, rolling along and flowing so well that before you know it, it’s over, and you feel the desire to listen to it all over again.
Rating: One of my Beatles favourites. 4/5.
As an album it probably rates as one of their best with consistency of tracks all the way through. It mixes the light and fluffy with the moody and sensitive, and does it in a way that doesn’t detract from the album.
Songs like “Act Naturally” and “Another Girl” and “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” start the album off on a light, marshmellowy note. There’s no genius songwriting here, but just a gentle carefree way to begin.
“I Need You” and “It’s Only Love” are just a little too slow and reflective for my taste (that’s what you get when you love heavy metal music I guess), and probably tie down the middle of the album a tad too much for my liking.
The second half of the album is where Help! really brings home the bacon. The tempo picks up with “The Night Before”, leading into the upbeat “Ticket to Ride”, McCartney’s wonderful and eternal “Yesterday”, the strains of “You’re Going to Lose That Girl” and “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love” and the lasting memory of the title track “Help!”
It is with this style of album that I believe The Beatles are at their best. On Help! they combine what I would term their ‘kiddie’ songs with their pop tunes. Some of their best ever songs can be found here. What is more, the album progresses without a hiccup, rolling along and flowing so well that before you know it, it’s over, and you feel the desire to listen to it all over again.
Rating: One of my Beatles favourites. 4/5.
Monday, June 23, 2008
484. Hellyeah / Hellyeah. 2007. 1/5
Following the demise of Damageplan after the murder of Dimebag Darrell, from the ashes came drummer Vinnie Paul’s new project Hellyeah.
Now nu-metal is not my perfect cup of tea, and while there are certainly things to like about this album, I think it falls short on too many issues.
For a start – it isn’t unique. That’s not an inherently bad thing, but originality does help in new bands. This sounds like a thousand other bands out there. The similarity of the songs also creates some confusion when trying to decipher which song you are listening to. Again, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as long as you can pull it off and make it your own. That isn’t the case here.
Indeed, I would back most schoolboy garage bands in the modern day to be able to come out and write and play stuff just like this, and in some cases probably even better it. There is nothing spectacular in the guitars, or the drums, or the vocals, or the lyrics. Kids in the garage would probably play something more inspired.
Rating: Lackluster and without any hooks. 1/5.
Now nu-metal is not my perfect cup of tea, and while there are certainly things to like about this album, I think it falls short on too many issues.
For a start – it isn’t unique. That’s not an inherently bad thing, but originality does help in new bands. This sounds like a thousand other bands out there. The similarity of the songs also creates some confusion when trying to decipher which song you are listening to. Again, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as long as you can pull it off and make it your own. That isn’t the case here.
Indeed, I would back most schoolboy garage bands in the modern day to be able to come out and write and play stuff just like this, and in some cases probably even better it. There is nothing spectacular in the guitars, or the drums, or the vocals, or the lyrics. Kids in the garage would probably play something more inspired.
Rating: Lackluster and without any hooks. 1/5.
483. Various Artists / Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth [Original Soundtrack]. 1992. 1.5/5
Soundtrack albums are always on a hiding to nothing. It’s very difficult to find the right balance of songs to please everyone in order to get the public to buy the album. As it is, I doubt I would have purchased this if I hadn’t received it as a birthday gift all those years ago.
Quite simply, this is full of average songs from unknown bands – apart from the two star attractions. Motorhead’s version of “Hellraiser” is here (as written with Ozzy Osbourne), along with Bruce Dickinson’s version of Alice Cooper’s “Elected”. Both songs are brilliant. The rest is just not inspiring at all, even when heard in the background throughout the movie.
Rating: Take out the two songs mentioned, and it would rate a 1. But you can’t live off two songs. 1.5/5.
Quite simply, this is full of average songs from unknown bands – apart from the two star attractions. Motorhead’s version of “Hellraiser” is here (as written with Ozzy Osbourne), along with Bruce Dickinson’s version of Alice Cooper’s “Elected”. Both songs are brilliant. The rest is just not inspiring at all, even when heard in the background throughout the movie.
Rating: Take out the two songs mentioned, and it would rate a 1. But you can’t live off two songs. 1.5/5.
482. Edguy / Hellfire Club. 2004. 3.5/5
Another in the production line of power metal albums, and as with most bands of this genre, there is nothing new here. There are the stock-standard faster metallic songs, interspersed with the two or three comfortable soft metal ballads, that announce themselves full of keyboards and strings.
Edguy are a band that I have given a lot of time to over recent years, probably mainly because they bothered to tour Australia (at least twice) when our dollar was a poor performer on the world stage. And a lot of their stuff I enjoy – especially Mandrake which is the album I first heard of theirs. However, as with most power metal bands that like to dabble in the ballad, I feel it is their downfall. It does just halt the progress of the album. “The Spirit Will Remain” is one of those songs here on Hellfire Club. The fact that it is also the final song on the album (barring bonus tracks) is also a mistake. It kills the entire mood of the album, and defeats the conscious thoughts of listening to it all over again.
Fortunately, the remainder of the album is saved by songs like the terrific “We Don’t Need A Hero” raising this album’s ranking in the long run, and containing the flying drums and guitars along with Tobias Sammat’s amazing vocal range that make this band what they are at their best. The positives here outweigh the negatives however. The album begins wonderfully well with “Mysteria”, and clambers along with help from great tunes such as “Down to the Devil”, “King of Fools” and “Under The Moon”, showcasing the best that this band has to offer. In so many ways, bands of this genre can be far too similar in style and substance. If its done well, though, none of that matters. Hellfire Club is one of those albums.
Rating: Another great effort from the lads. 3.5/5.
Edguy are a band that I have given a lot of time to over recent years, probably mainly because they bothered to tour Australia (at least twice) when our dollar was a poor performer on the world stage. And a lot of their stuff I enjoy – especially Mandrake which is the album I first heard of theirs. However, as with most power metal bands that like to dabble in the ballad, I feel it is their downfall. It does just halt the progress of the album. “The Spirit Will Remain” is one of those songs here on Hellfire Club. The fact that it is also the final song on the album (barring bonus tracks) is also a mistake. It kills the entire mood of the album, and defeats the conscious thoughts of listening to it all over again.
Fortunately, the remainder of the album is saved by songs like the terrific “We Don’t Need A Hero” raising this album’s ranking in the long run, and containing the flying drums and guitars along with Tobias Sammat’s amazing vocal range that make this band what they are at their best. The positives here outweigh the negatives however. The album begins wonderfully well with “Mysteria”, and clambers along with help from great tunes such as “Down to the Devil”, “King of Fools” and “Under The Moon”, showcasing the best that this band has to offer. In so many ways, bands of this genre can be far too similar in style and substance. If its done well, though, none of that matters. Hellfire Club is one of those albums.
Rating: Another great effort from the lads. 3.5/5.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
481. W.A.S.P. / Helldorado. 1999. 3/5
The previous album, “KFD”, released in 1997, and the episode on which you can find in Season 2 of this podcast, had seen both the return of several members to the group after Blackie had gone rogue for the “Still Not Black Enough” album, and spirits had lifted in the fan base. “KFD” itself though saw an interesting change in the sound for the band, an almost total abandonment of the fun times, hair metal shock rock band that had existed prior to this, and saw an infusion of alternative and almost industrial metal in places that may well have been the defining genre of metal at the time but one that did seem as though it had strayed too far from the formula that had made W.A.S.P. the band they were, and how they had garnered their success and fan base. Despite this, the live album that was recorded on this tour, “Double Live Assassins” was received very well, and showed that those songs in the lie environment were still very strong.
Blackie’s response to the views of “KFD” from critics and fans alike was that, in retrospect, he may have gone too far down a path that was not familiar to the fan base, and that for the next album the band would look to retrieve some of that ground by moving the band back to more traditional ground. A lot of fans took that news in great glee, perhaps anticipating an album that could combine the energy and drive of the first three albums, hopefully incorporated with the maturity of the following two albums. That of course would appear to be a practically impossible task. What the band produced instead was an album that took the essence of much of the perspective of those first three albums, and tried to recreate and transpose that onto an album some 15 years after the event. The result perhaps spoke more of the struggle within the band leader’s demons than anything else in the music, and in retrospect may have been a turning point for his future music ambitions.
From the very start of the album, it is obvious that the songs on this album are directly tied to the style and formation of the bands first three albums. Because let’s face it, “Drive By”, the opening sequence on the album, is just a throwback to the opening of the “Inside the Electric Circus” album with the preamble to get the album off to a start. Then, much like the segue into the title track of “Inside the Electric Circus”, the segue here into the title track “Helldorado” jump starts the album. It is catchy in the same way old W.A.S.P. was, with Blackie’s vocals at the top of his register screaming out of the speakers at you, the music is bright and breezy, and Chris Holmes unleashes with a trademark solo. It’s a great start, with the hope of more to come. This could be seen to be a bit presumptuous.
“Don’t Cry (Just Suck)” is pretty much exactly what you would expect from the title lyrically, the kind of juvenile nonsensical song that doesn’t have any innuendo which would make it slightly more charming like old school W.A.S.P. Instead, it's just a song that makes you wonder exactly what Blackie was going for when he began to write this album. It was out of place in 1999, let alone on playback 25 years later. This is followed by “Damnation Angels”, which feels like Blackie is trying to come to terms with his abandonment of religion and just where he’s heading in the future. This is back to a much more mature sounding W.A.S.P. with the tempo dialled back, a great solo from Chris and Blackie almost pontificating from the pulpit. It’s simple and lyrically repetitive but still enjoyable in its own way.
However, the arrival of “Dirty Balls” is from the same production line as “Don’t Cry (Just Suck)”, a song that has no pretensions about what the subject matter is. Again, no innuendo, the lyrics are straight up what the title suggests it is about, and to be honest it just feels childish. It is literally impossible to enjoy these two tracks in particular. I honestly couldn’t bring myself to sing these kinds of songs at the age of 16 or 21 let alone 29 when this came out, or 54 now. Childish immature crap, with a lack of anything that makes the song enjoyable. Honestly, what created this decision in Blackie’s head that firstly, this was a good subject matter to fall back into after so many years, and secondly, that THIS is what the fans were looking for?! But more on that later.
“High on the Flames” goes down the same path as “Damnation Angels”, once again lyrically repetitive and focusing on Blackie’s ongoing battle with having left religion behind, and the consequences of that, and perhaps speaks more of his creeping ever slowly back to where it all began for him in his childhood. “Cocaine Cowboys” again addresses exactly what the song title suggests, with the solid musical backing and Blackie’s top range chorused vocals and Chris’s solid riff making this song a more enjoyable experience. “Can’t Die Tonight” feels like a reprise of “Blind in Texas” but in the modern “KFD” style serious tone rather than the fun time joy that the classic original song provided on “The Last Command”. “Saturday Night Cockfight”. Really? I mean, Elton John nailed the “Saturday Night’s All Right for Fighting” theme 50 years ago. And here, Blackie has just gone with a song title that again shows no ingenuity, no innuendo in the lyrics (which are sparse anyway), and just espouses exactly what you would expect from a song with this kind of title. The song has a fast tempo, a solid solo again by Chris, who does seem to be playing without much enthusiastic thought on his solo pieces, and that’s the song.
The album concludes with the bookended “Hot Rods to Hell (Helldorado Reprise)”, which basically channels the opening track, changes a bit of the composition and stylised verse and chorus, and offers us almost the same song to go out of the album. Sure, it’s clever enough, but does it hold together an album full of songs that have gone down two distinct ideals? It is essentially the same song but rejigged.
As I’m sure I have mentioned on other W.A.S.P. related episode of this podcast, I became a fan of the band almost from the first moment I heard their first album. I couldn’t really say what it was about them, but the music grabbed me, and the look was interesting. Blackie’s vocals and enthusiasm in everything he did was electric, and Chris Holmes’s guitaring was fabulous. And I didn’t fail to get each album as it was released in the first week, such was my desire to hear what they were going to offer up next. So, I most definitely had this album when it was first released, and I was excited to hear what it contained.
How has that enthusiasm survived? There is no doubt that “Helldorado” is a completely different beast from “KFD”. The opening track is enough to convince you of that. And I still don’t mind that opening. But from that point on, it’s a real mishmash of ideas. The songs themselves have an obvious influence of AC/DC in the basic rhythm structure of all the tracks, and even into Chris’s guitar solos. Maybe it isn’t obvious from the first listen, but on multiple spins that similarity to the AC/DC style is patently there. A somewhat frenzied one, yes, but there all the same. And the lyrical content is basically sold towards the outlandish acts of sex and desire, or the punishments of sinning. And without knowing exactly what Blackie’s thoughts were in writing the words to the songs for this album (as he is the sole credited writer on this album), it does feel as though there is a conflict going on. The desire to put out an album that musically and sonically was closer in origin to those initial releases than what they had performed on their previous album is there for all to hear. But within those songs come lyrics that either extend beyond the ability to shock to a point of ... in my opinion, just bad taste and unnecessary vulgarity, or reflect back to the basis of his long-disposed of faith and the promises of hell for those that ... indulge in exactly those things he has written and sung about. It feels like there is a war in Blackie’s head over just what he believes and what direction he wants to go. This may be completely incorrect, but given that just a few short years later he became a born-again Christian, and tended to shy away from the songs highlighted here, perhaps this was where he started having that conflict, and here on “Helldorado” he decided to express that conflict in the lyrics.
So when I first got the album, I listened to it a bit, enjoyed it some days and less so on others, and it eventually passed back onto the CD shelves. And when it has come out over the years, it has generally been for only one listen as a catch up before returning to its housing.
The past three weeks is the most I’ve listened to the album since I bought it, and my enthusiasm hasn’t changed. The characteristics of the early albums, with Blackie’s screaming vocals over the top almost without a break, are fine. It does remind you of those times, but the QUALITY of the songs is nowhere near the same. The songs here are almost passionless, whereas those early albums had passion in bucket loads. Do I enjoy it? Honestly, if I ignore the lyrics in half the songs, and just listen to the album in a dispassionate way, I still find moments to enjoy.
But, here’s kicker. Blackie wanted to go back to the band’s roots, to move away from the style of “KFD” because he felt the fans were unhappy with the direction the band had been trending towards. But with “Helldorado”, he dialled it back too far. They over corrected what may be seen as the overly serious nature of the subject matter of the previous album, and came up with this album. Bring back the tempo and vibe of those early albums, and bring back a less serious tone in the lyrics and music? Absolutely, bring that on. But this took the basis of the early sound of W.A.S.P. and tried to reinvent the wheel when it didn't need it.
There are some above average songs here, but overall it makes too many mistakes to be entirely enjoyable. It was the final album that Chris Holmes actively participated in, and with it effectively consigning W.A.S.P. to a Blackie Lawless solo band. There are some solid albums that came out over the next two decades, and while “Helldorado” overall is a flawed attempt at a reset, perhaps it was the album the band needed as it rode on in to the next century.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
480. Slayer / Hell Awaits. 1985. 4.5/5
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With so much initial success - “Show No Mercy” had become Metal Blade Records highest selling release – there was an attitude of wanting to once again strike while the iron was hot. This time around Brian Slagel financed the album, and hired more professional assistance for the studio to capture the true essence of the band. Drummer Dave Lombardo in particular felt that the sophomore album was done more professionally than the first. "I didn't have to overdub the cymbals, and we had a really good engineer”, he was quoted as saying later on. However, Tom Araya was not of the same opinion. In an interview some years later he was quoted as "Nowadays, production-wise, it's so under par. But for what it was at the time, those are amazing records to me. I guess we could go in and redo it. But why ruin it?"
Coming off 12 months of recording and gigging, Slayer had a lot of influences that they could take on when it came to composing songs for their sophomore effort. And as amazing as their first album had been, and as influential and foundation building their next album would become, what was laid down here at Eldorado Studio in Los Angeles in early 1985 saw a progression that would be as important to the thrash metal genre as any other release in that year. Arguably, in any year.
With only seven tracks and a little over 37 minutes long, expecting a long review of this album here is probably not something that is going to happen. But making a study of the opening title track is absolutely something that is worthwhile, because the triumph of the track is that it contains everything that is great about the era of the band. That opening fade in of squealing guitars, almost making you think of screaming souls in hell, with the backwards masking spoken word of “join us” which to me has always sounded like “sell your heart”, is a terrific opening, before the final growl of “welcome back” heralds the opening tom hit followed by that opening riff and rolling drum beat that builds and flows like a well-oiled machine. The entire three minutes that starts the album gives you no idea as to what is going to follow, the tempo steady and not overpowering, allowing the music to drag you in. And then, the break, and then, the cascading over the falls into the pure speed metal adrenaline that follows, with Tom Araya barely able to keep up in singing Kerry King’s lyrics as the band tears it up. The speed does not relent in the back half of the song, crashing into the solo guitar break as well which drives to the close of the song. This is the opening track of Slayer’s sophomore album, and yet it remains one of their best, most popular and most iconic songs. It captures the essence of the band, the speed at which they were at their best, the aggression and power, and yet the amazing technicality with which they played. Just an awesome song, and it never fails to deliver.
The speed and aggression continue into “Kill Again”, picking up from the end of the previous track and starting in overdrive. There is no let up throughout as the band rifle through another wonderfully paced song that again showcases those excellent riffing guitars and Lombardo’s crazed drumming. Tom Araya’s scream towards the end of the track is like hell unleashed, a forerunner to how the opening song of the next album would be introduced. That high pitched scream that follows the supersonic guitar solos is insane and adds greatly to the enjoyment of the song. Deranged psychotic killer is replaced by vampiric tendencies in “At Dawn They Sleep”. The progressive nature of some of these songs is an elemental piece of this album, and this song is one of those examples. It has been quoted as coming from the love of the band Mercyful Fate by both Hannemann and King. Mercyful Fate had by this time released their first two albums, and you can hear where parts of this album could easily have been influenced by them. “At Dawn They Sleep” in particular has those elements that King Diamond and his merry bands of mercenaries incorporated into their music. It closes out the first side of the album, all three songs of it, in a terrific conjuring of the dark and satanic.
“Praise of Death” treads a more traditional path of Slayer song, if you consider ‘traditional’ coming from a similar style as to what they produced on their only other studio album to this date. Fast to the point of overkill, with screaming guitar solos from Hanemann and King that shatter out of the speakers, and a terrific rumbling sound of Araya’s bass guitar holding fort underneath. Then the breakdown in the middle, before Lombardo’s drums drive the song to the peak of the movie Spaceball’s ‘ludicrous speed’ once again to play out to the end of the track. Another terrific track. “Necrophiliac” follows this, and though the lyrics conjuring up the satanic rituals and sinful lusting of the protagonist of the song may not be everyone’s cup of tea, the song itself is another encapsulating of the best parts of the band. Those satanic rituals continue in the lyrics of “Crypts of Eternity”, along with the ripping solo breaks from King and Hanneman which are the real highlight of this track. The album concludes with “Hardening of the Arteries”, an almost mirror reverse of the opening track, starting off at top speed of riff and drums and vocals, blazing through the first half of the song, before hitting the wall and coming in with the opening riff and rum roll of the opening title track, which then plays us to a fade out to complete the album. It is the perfect bookend and even allows you to turn the album over and continue that on once again into the start of the opening track without missing a beat. And the never-ending loop begins again.
Listening to this album in a modern light, against modern heavy metal bands and Slayer albums themselves, and comparing it against modern production techniques and advancements, and you would wonder why people saw this as such a radical employment of musicianship. By today’s standards it sounds quite tame. As Tom Araya suggested in his quote I used in the opening stanza, perhaps the band could have gone in and re-recorded it and utilised a better production sound to enhance its reputation. But is that ultimately true? Perhaps it doesn’t sound as threatening as these songs do when they are played live, but that is the environment where you can ramp things up anyway. “Hell Awaits” was always going to be a song that was a live monster. But isn’t the same thing said about the production sound of “Hell Awaits” as is also said about Iron Maiden’s debut album, of Metallica’s “Kill ‘Em All”, Exodus’s “Bonded by Blood”, Armored Saint’s “March of the Saint” and Megadeth’s “Killing is My Business, and Business is Good!”. All sound less polished than each band’s later albums, but in the long run that is a combination of differing recording techniques being used as technology improves, and also the fact that the band’s themselves improved out of sight. So yes, listening to “Hell Awaits” might not be the same as what you hear from the band on their following albums, but it is still terrific all the same.
I didn’t come onto Slayer until 1989, initially through the two albums that followed this one, “Reign in Blood” and “South of Heaven”, and more fully with the release of “Seasons in the Abyss” in 1990. The centralising of Slayer’s albums into my own collection all occurred during that time, with this one being a part of that. So, the discovery of Slayer’s discography, that being the first five albums that had been released up until that point, all came together in a short space of time, and thus my listening to all of those albums al came as a conglomerate. And in that kind of situation, my enjoyment of this album could have gone two ways. It could have been dragged along with all of the great music that Slayer produced on those albums, and I could have loved it as a part of the whole. Or it could have got buried under albums that have been praised for their legendary status since their release, and perhaps be tarnished by the slightly inferior production or lyrics or songs themselves.
I can guarantee you here that it was definitely the first option and not the second.
“Hell Awaits” is a great album. I have had it running for a little over a week now – a bit longer than has been the case for recent albums – and I haven’t tired of it. Part of that perhaps is its length, but each time I start it again, I am met with the title track, and how can you not want to hear that over and over again?! And on vinyl at home in the Metal Cavern, it has been superb.
Of Slayer’s 12 studio albums, this is really hard to rank, but mainly because so many of their albums are equally as good as the others. It can be as high as four and as low as seven or eight, depending on the mood. As a classic, and as an album I discovered reasonably early on, I think it is probably ranked at #5. But that would be a conversation worth having with other fans.
As terrific as this album is, what came next is legendary. Three albums that defined a genre and a generation at a time when thrash and heavy metal music dominated half a decade and created fans that would last a lifetime. “Hell Awaits” of course is a part of that, but the next three albums created a legend.
479. Michael Schenker Group / Heavy Hitters. 2005. 3.5/5
The fact that this has been released under the MSG moniker is a bit misleading. It is in fact a collection of covers played with Michael Schenker on guitar, and a number of guest musicians lending their support to different songs. Like other ‘tribute’ albums he has been involved in, Bob Kulick again put together this compilation, and in reality it probably should have been promoted as such.
Anyhow, leaving that behind us, here are ten songs, selected from the word of hard rock and heavy metal, featuring the legendary guitarist on all tracks, with different vocalists lending their voices. For me this is a rather strange selection of songs, and most sound better in their original environment. I mean, why would you try and do “All Shook Up”? Sure, Joe Lynn Turner tries to do something different with the vocal, but why would you ever try and beat the original? Then, for some reason they do a ‘cover’ of “Doctor Doctor” which he’s played a billion times in his life. Why? “War Pigs” with Tim “Ripper” Owens is worth a listen, and though I like the song, the version of “Out In The Fields” is a bit blah really, certainly compared to the original.
Most of the other songs? Well, average fare again.
As a way of showcasing his talent, I don’t think this quite pulls it off. Most of us know how great a guitarist he is, and listening to him playing cover songs does nothing to diminish that, but nothing to enhance it either. From someone who has helped to write some of the best songs of all time, as well as some of the most well-known lead guitar breaks, what purpose does this album really serve?
Rating: It sounded better in promotion than it turned out to be. 3.5/5
Anyhow, leaving that behind us, here are ten songs, selected from the word of hard rock and heavy metal, featuring the legendary guitarist on all tracks, with different vocalists lending their voices. For me this is a rather strange selection of songs, and most sound better in their original environment. I mean, why would you try and do “All Shook Up”? Sure, Joe Lynn Turner tries to do something different with the vocal, but why would you ever try and beat the original? Then, for some reason they do a ‘cover’ of “Doctor Doctor” which he’s played a billion times in his life. Why? “War Pigs” with Tim “Ripper” Owens is worth a listen, and though I like the song, the version of “Out In The Fields” is a bit blah really, certainly compared to the original.
Most of the other songs? Well, average fare again.
As a way of showcasing his talent, I don’t think this quite pulls it off. Most of us know how great a guitarist he is, and listening to him playing cover songs does nothing to diminish that, but nothing to enhance it either. From someone who has helped to write some of the best songs of all time, as well as some of the most well-known lead guitar breaks, what purpose does this album really serve?
Rating: It sounded better in promotion than it turned out to be. 3.5/5
478. Black Sabbath / Heaven and Hell. 1980. 5/5
Following the tour, Black Sabbath returned to Los Angeles and rented a house again as they had in the past and spent nearly a year working on new material for the next album. While all four members were dousing themselves with alcohol and drugs, it was agreed that Osbourne was on another level entirely. While band was still coming up with song ideas, Osbourne showed little interest and would actually refuse to sing them. With so much time being taken for almost no reward, the pressure from the record label and the frustrations with Osbourne's lack of input coming to a head, Iommi believed the only options available were to fire Osbourne or break the band up completely. In the end Tony made the decision to sack Ozzy in 1979. "At that time, Ozzy had come to an end", Iommi said in his autobiography. "We were all doing a lot of drugs, a lot of coke, a lot of everything, and Ozzy was getting drunk so much at the time. We were supposed to be rehearsing and nothing was happening. It was like, 'Rehearse today? No, we'll do it tomorrow.' It really got so bad that we didn't do anything. It just fizzled out". Bill Ward, who was close with Osbourne, was chosen by Iommi to break the news to the singer on 27 April 1979.
Meanwhile, the band Rainbow, formed by Ritchie Blackmore on his exit from Deep Purple, had released three excellent albums and risen in popularity over their four years in existence. Led by Blackmore and the vocals of Ronnie James Dio, the band had sold out concerts throughout Europe and done well in America. However, following the tour to promote the “Long Live Rock and Roll” album, Blackmore was looking to take the band in a more commercial direction, hoping to make a big break in the US market in particular. To this end, he wanted to move away from the themes and imagery that the band had been highlighting in the lyrics Dio had been promoting and create songs with a more obvious message to gain commercial airplay. Dio was against this, believing that the success they were already achieving was reason enough to stay the course. Blackmore though was the band leader, and he was adamant that a change was necessary. This led to Dio leaving Rainbow and into an uncertain future.
What did the future hold for all of the characters in this story? Blackmore soon hired Graham Bonnet to fill Dio’s spot as lead singer of Rainbow, and set about writing for their next album which would become “Down to Earth”. Ozzy set about trying to put together a new band, one that was supposed to be called the Blizzard of Ozz, and set about composing what would eventually become the album of that name. Meanwhile, the chance meeting of Tony Iommi and Ronnie James Dio became a focal point in both men’s lives. An initial discussion between the two was about the possibility of them forming a new band together, without the ties of any other name. While there was no follow up on this first meeting, a chance encounter sometime after at The Rainbow in Los Angeles saw the discussion resume in earnest. ‘It must have been fate,’ Dio said later on, ‘because we connected so instantly.’
After a series of follow-up phone calls with Iommi, the pair agreed to meet up at Tony’s house in Los Angeles for a low-key, get-to-know-you jam. Fate stepped in again, as in that first session together, they wrote ‘Children of The Sea’, a song that blended their talents right away. ‘Tony had this great riff he played me but nothing to go with it,’ remembered Ronnie. ‘I said, ‘Gimme a minute’ and went into the corner and started writing down the words. Then we recorded it. When we played it back it was obvious to both of us, we really had something here.’ As Iommi recalled: ‘it was exciting and challenging because we were doing things that quite frankly would have been beyond us with Ozzy. He wasn’t that sort of singer.’ Indeed, Iommi in years since has said that he still has a recording of Ozzy singing an early version of a song featuring the same riff that Dio had just created the lyrics and vocals for what became “Children of the Sea”.
Dio and Tony soon agreed to team up, and although there was a sense for a time that this would be a different project, eventually Dio agreed to become Black Sabbath’s new singer. The drama surrounding the band was not yet ready to sign off however. Not long into the process of writing for the new album, Geezer Butler took a leave of absence, with no surety that he would return. He had taken time off to deal with his divorce from his first wife, and he was in no head space in which to contribute. The story of what occurred over the next period of time has had several versions over the years. Craig Gruber, former band mate of Dio in both Elf and Rainbow, came in to help play on demos of the album, a role that Geoff Nicholls also filled during this time. In a 2009 interview with journalist Malcolm Dome, Gruber claimed that not only had he co-written much of what became the new album, he also played bass on all tracks. He later stepped this back to suggest that he had only helped to compose the song “Die Young” and had reached a financial settlement with the band at the time for his contributions. In his autobiography a few years later, Iommi did concede that Gruber had recorded all of the bass parts on the album, but that on his return to the band in January 1980, Butler had re-recorded all of them as they appear on the album, and that Butler had never heard anything that Gruber had played prior to his re-recording of those parts. Nicholls, for his part, then moved to the keyboards, a role he would fill for the band for years to come.
One other addition suggested by Dio prior to the recording process also came to pass. It involved hiring Martin Birch to come on board as producer. Birch had been the producer of the two enormous Rainbow albums “Rising” and “Long Live Rock and Roll”, and as a fan of his work Dio suggested he should also come on board to produce this new album. On the back of this, Iommi was quoted as saying the following: ‘We recorded very fast. We’d been used to taking longer and longer with things getting out of hand, but this time it was a joy to be in the studio. We all knew that the album was something very special… Sure, there was a definite concern about the fans. But we had so much confidence in the strength of what we had, our belief was that we’d ride through any criticism.’
With a notably different vocal style from Osbourne's, Dio's addition to the band marked a change in Black Sabbath's sound. Iommi continued: "They were totally different altogether. Not only voice-wise, but attitude-wise. Ozzy was a great showman, but when Dio came in, it was a different attitude, a different voice and a different musical approach, as far as vocals. Dio would sing across the riff, whereas Ozzy would follow the riff, like in "Iron Man". Ronnie came in and gave us another angle on writing."
But the leap of faith that looks so easy to take in retrospect, was anything but. Dio and Sabbath were hardly an obvious fit, and the proof would only come out with the pudding. And so, on April 18, 1980, the world held a collective breath on the release of Black Sabbath’s ninth studio album, titled “Heaven and Hell”. The world was not to be disappointed.
What exactly did everyone expect to hear when they first put this album on their turntable? What did the two sides of the divide think would come out of the speakers after the needle hit the vinyl? History tells us that there were many fans who believed Black Sabbath should have folded after Ozzy’s departure which is a ridiculous notion that we will address later on. How much trepidation existed of course is by the by. Because the needle moves smoothly across the vinyl to the start of track one, and then the immediate introduction of the drum beat, bass run and guitar riff that marks the transition of the band into its new era. And then comes the first offering from the new vocalist Ronnie James Dio, who immediately soars into his work. “Oh no, here it comes again. Can't remember when we came so close to love before”. Tony and Geezer’s guitars thunder along underneath as Ronnie climbs above them, and the opening stanza brings two things to the surface immediately – yes this is a different Black Sabbath than has come before, and it also crushes from the very beginning. Everything that defines this new lineup comes at you in the first three minutes of the first song. Tony’s inspiring guitar riff is a great introduction, Geezer’s bass line complements it perfectly and Dio’s vocals floats above with the power he had brought to those great Rainbow songs. Dio lifts the tempo as he climbs into the bridge of “Bloodied angels fast descending, moving on a never bending light” before descending back to the call of Neon Knights... all right... and then Tony breaks into his solo, guided underneath by Geezer’s wonderful bassline that offsets it all beautifully. Apart from that solo break the music itself holds to its own most of the way through, still as important as ever, but it is Dio’s vocals that steal the show on the song, stamping his mark on the album from the outset.
Following this comes the aforementioned “Children of the Sea”, a game changer when it comes to the band and the new path they were building for themselves. Imagine being in that room when Tony first played the riff to this song, and then Ronnie going away for five minutes to write some lyrics, and then putting them both together to experience this for the first time. They obviously knew then that they had something together, and when you hear this song on this album you can understand why they felt there was magic from the beginning, because this is what this song glows with all the way through. That opening guitar passage from Tony and Geezer literally makes you feel and see the ocean and the mist all around, and Dio’s vocals gently explaining “In the misty morning, on the edge of time, We've lost the rising sun, a final sign, As the misty morning rolls away to die, Reaching for the stars, we blind the sky”... as Dio’s vocals and the music all rise in conjunction as the song bursts into the heavier headbanging riff that brings the song to its next level. The vocals rise in power to match the progression of the music, and the rise and fall throughout the track is beautifully conceived and performed, the genuinely emotional solo that flows back into the opening riff again, which builds again to the end of the track – all of it is the best example of the maturing and morphing of the band into something that retains the old and welcomes the new. Moving on from the neon knights and the children of the sea we have the magical mystical woman from witches valley, “Lady Evil”. Those that beholden a grudge on Dio and the direction the band takes on this album hold this song up as the example of why it doesn’t work and why it shouldn’t be called Black Sabbath. The lyrical content, the lack of any doom with either the music or the lyrical content, is used as the stake that is driven through the Heaven and Hell heart. It is true also that some of those that are champions of this album also hold this song in lesser esteem than the other tracks on the album. It does sit in between two of the better tracks on this album. But it is an upbeat track with Iommi’s guitar stylising the song as Ronnie tells his tale of a woman he seems to know quite well.
The success or otherwise of the second coming of Black Sabbath probably always hinged on the band being able to create a song that would capture the imagination of its fan base and beyond, to anchor this album as the go-to song to which fans could insist that you listen to this album because of this song. And without a doubt the band did that with the title track of the album, “Heaven and Hell”. A song that has spanned the generations and continues to act as a beacon to the world of music. An epic track from the outset, the genuinely brilliant but simple riff from Iommi that is tied together with Geezer’s atmospheric tones that both match Iommi’s riff but also take on their own life beyond that, and arguably make the track as wonderful as it is. Ward and Butler hold their own as Ronnie sings the opening verse, highlighting his amazing voice as he talks about singing songs as a singer, doing wrongs as a bringer of evil, into the second verse as Tony’s guitar comes back to full life and drives into the chorused backing vocals over Dio’s cries, and then the song descends into the heavy middle section with all instruments on hand and Dio asking if it seems real then it is illusion, for every moment of truth there’s confusion in life. And we are on and on and on and on... and we flow into the solo section as Bill and Geezer tow the line while Tony almost gently takes us to the breakdown, where Bill’s drum pattern and Geezer’s rollicking bassline cascades into Tony’s disposition and Dio charging to the front of the stage, imploring with passion and steel “They say that life’s a carousel, spinning fast you've got to ride it well, the world is full of kings and queens, who blind your eyes and steal your dreams, it’s heaven and hell”. Nothing in music comes across as powerful as the final two minutes of this song. This is the moment when the detractors are finally defeated, that Black Sabbath can exist without Osbourne’s vocals and Geezer’s lyrics. Everything else about this album also proves this point, but the finality of the title track is like Harry Potter exclaiming “expecto patronum” and casting out the dementors. This song has always been a classic since the release of this album. Personally, I believe this is the finest song ever written.
Side 2 opens on a high with the terrifically uptempo “Wishing Well”, dominated by Geezer’s fantastic bassline that moves up and down the fretboard, showcasing all of the traits that have made his bass playing over the years so crucial to the band’s sound. All three of the other members of the band are also excellent on this song, but it is Geezer’s work here that makes this such an absorbing track. Take a listen again and you’ll be amazed at how dominant he is here. The fact that he wrote this bass track AFTER the song had been completed is perhaps the most remarkable part of it all. This song also contains some of my favourite Dio lyrics, such as “Throw me a penny and I’ll make you a dream, you’ll find that life’s not always as it seems” and “Love isn’t money, it’s not something you buy, so let me fill myself with tears you cry” and the lead of the song with “I’ll give you a star, so you’ll know just where you are, someday someway you’ll feel the things I say, dream for a while of the things that make you smile, don’t you know, don’t you know, oh you know that I’m your wishing well”. But there are two lines in this song that, pretty much from the moment that I first heard them back in 1986, that I have written on birthday cards and wedding cards, and posted on social media and absorbed into part of my mantra, so much do they mean to me. And those simple lines are “Time is a never ending journey, love is a never ending smile”. They are two simple lines in a song that only those who listen to this album even know, and yet they have become two of the most important lines in my life. I have pretty much lived my life by them. And I still feel a great lifting every time I listen to this song and hear Ronnie singing them back to me.
Doubling down after that is “Die Young”, another supremely uptempo fast track opened again by the dreamy keys and Iommi guitar melody. Two songs on the album open this way, and neither loses any of its power or integrity by doing so. This then blasts into the band crashing back into action, and the song is away. Like “Children of the Sea” it has its changes from soft to heavy and back again, but the intensity throughout is retained. This is probably the heaviest song on the album, a great rhythm drum and bass anchoring the song, which allows Tony to throw riff after solo riff over the top and Ronnie to bring his high energised vocals into the mix as well. This takes us to the breakdown in the middle of the song, a time of reflection to contemplate what has come, and then what is to follow. Geoff Nicholls keys lead into the heavy guitar and drum contribution, and then we cascade again down the rapids into the pits of hell, Tony’s riff building and rising in power and ------ as Dio again takes centre stage as he cries from his pedestal “Gather the wind, though the wind won’t help you fly at allllllll... your backs to the wall” before calling the class to end by reminding everyone to “live for today, for tomorrow never comes”. It’s another altogether magnificent song on an album that is filled with brilliance.
“Walk Away” is another song where Geezer Butler is the dominant force throughout. His bassline throughout this song is not only front and centre in the mix, it is the driving force of the song. Most of the time when I listen to the song, I’m not singing the words, I’m humming the bassline instead, that is how prominent it is. Even during Tony’s guitar solo, Geezer’s bass is what makes it work. This song is one of the many that you can mention when it comes to that tired argument of ‘who’ is Black Sabbath. Some say Sabbath without Ozzy isn’t Sabbath. Some say Iommi is the sound of Sabbath. I think it is more accurate to say that Sabbath without Geezer just isn’t the same. You can call it Sabbath, but it is a different sound entirely when Geezer isn’t in the band.
The closing track on “Heaven and Hell” is “Lonely is the Word”, the slowest tempo song on the album, the most introspective and moody track on the album, with a very bluesy sound to the song as it winds its way from start to finish. The second half of the song is almost entirely down to the three instrumentalists. Bill Ward’s drumming is superb, not the bombastic and hard hitting style that he originally brought to the band, but his feel for the track and the way he plays emphasises pieces and places in the perfect manner. That leaves Geezer and Tony to create an amazing section over the top, Geezer again wandering all over the fretboard in a way that brings his moody translation onto the song, and then allows Tony to just solo over the top to bring an emotional flow to the fading conclusion of the song and the album. Some show no enthusiasm for this song. For me it is a true rollercoaster of passionate overflow that not only showcases yet another part of this new foursomes amazing style but also their genius.
I need to start off this personal overview of this album here by making this statement. If you have not listened to the podcast in podcastland titled ‘And Volume For All’, to both the episodes on which it covers the first eight Black Sabbath albums, and then the 11 episodes dedicated to the career of Ronnie James Dio, AND IN PARTICULAR the episode dedicated to the album “Heaven and Hell”, then you really must do it. Quinn hosts the very best heavy metal podcast on the planet, and his efforts outshine anything I have done here by a very large percentage. So please, when you are finished here go and check it out. I promise you that you will not be disappointed.
Though I was not old enough to be aware of the commotion as I was ten years old at the time, it must have been a dire time when Ozzy was finally moved on from Black Sabbath, and when Dio had left Rainbow. Two bands and two lead singers had so much riding on their next moves, and amazingly out of all of that turmoil, all four entities would go on and continue their careers for some time. Each had their challenges and risks, but it feels as though Iommi and Sabbath probably had the most to lose.
This is not a traditional Black Sabbath album, in the mould of what had come before “Heaven and Hell”. While the basics of the music remain in the riffs and drum beat, there is no doubt that the arrival of Dio in the band pushed them into a new dimension lyrically as well as musically. Dio had a different style melodically than Black Sabbath had utilised previously, and while the guitars and bass and drums are still in ‘Sabbath mode’ there is little doubt that Dio had some influence in where they went melodically. And lyrically... it was the best thing that could happen for this album. Geezer has admitted that he was burned out after years of being lent on to provide the lyrics for the band and that he had little left to offer, and then Dio came on board and took over that role. It gave Geezer the chance to step back and that was a good thing for him, certainly given the headspace he had been in at the time this album was being written and recorded. And it is one of the major ways this album differs from what had come before it, because the lyrics writer has changed, and thus the content of the songs goes in a different direction what it had been in the past.
Arguments still exist over the legitimacy of the band Black Sabbath in the years since, because the lead singer had changed. Do you really want to argue over that, and the music along with it? Has there ever been an instance that suggests Iron Maiden should have changed their name with the introduction of Bruce Dickinson, or Blaze Bayley? How about Deep Purple when Rod Evans left and Ian Gillan arrived? Or then when Ian Gillan left and David Coverdale came on board? Are “Burn” and “Stormbringer” not Deep Purple albums because they went in a bluesier and funkier fashion than previously? Fans can argue all they want about the so-called legitimacy of Black Sabbath the band following 1978. The simple truth is, the band is still Black Sabbath, even with the substitution of one member. It happens in music all the time, and Black Sabbath is not just Ozzy Osbourne. You can proclaim your love of the years of the original foursome all you like, and you won’t get any argument from me because I too love those years. But trying to suggest Black Sabbath ended in 1978 is still one of the most ridiculous statements in music history.
This album is a true masterpiece. My most immediate early memories of listening to the album are in high school in 1986, after my heavy metal awakening had occurred and I was trying to find as many bands and albums as I could to experience. I had discovered Dio the band through the arrival of an American exchange student called Steve who had come for a couple of months in those early weeks of Year 11, and from that it had led me to the albums “Heaven and Hell” and “Mob Rues” with Dio on lead vocals, with which my heavy metal music dealer kindly furnished me with copies on the cassettes I provided him. These two albums were in fact my real introduction to Black Sabbath, though I knew songs from the earlier albums I didn’t hear any of those albums in full until after this period. We had sport on a Wednesday afternoon, amusingly titled “Double Games”, and we had to walk from school to the local leisure centre to get out fix of basketball and badminton and whatever other sports they allowed us to play in those days. The walk would take about 20 minutes, and along the way I would bring my portable tape deck and play music. Eventually my friend group would forego the sport and sit on the top balcony of the gym and listen to music, and this album was one of the most played in those mid-months of 1986. We would crank it and sing along, and they were great times. It still brings back memories of those times whenever I listen to the album today.
As you could imagine, I have had this album out on heavy rotation for the last couple of weeks. To be fair, it is rarely very long before it comes out for a listen anyway, but here and now it has been getting a lot of airplay. It has been bloody marvellous. A couple of days ago I put it on in the Metal Cavern, and my 17 year old son Josh walked, sat down and listened to it with me, and we both sang every word. When it finished, he got up, said “thanks Dad, that was awesome”, and went about his day. Dad goals achieved.
As I wrote and composed this particular part of the episode that I am saying now, I was on my 27th listen to the album in the last two weeks. And I could quite happily put it back on now and listen to it again.
No review that I could do, not even one that has gone on as long as this one has, could ever possibly fully explain to you how much I love this album. This has everything for me. It offers me joy, it offers me tears, it draws from me emotion that even today I can’t explain as to why it does this. Ronnie James Dio and his music has been my talisman for almost 40 years. And this album has lyrics and music that I truly live my life by. It is a lifeforce for me. These songs all have something that ties them to me. If I ever had to choose one album that is all I could listen to for the rest of my life, it would most probably be this one. The magic that these four created on this album is almost unmatched. It has resided in my five favourite albums of all time... practically forever. And when I sat with three of my best friends at the Wollongong Entertainment Centre on August 7, 2007 to see Heaven and Hell play live, and hear these songs and the others from “Mob Rules” and “Dehumanizer” performed by Butler, Iommi and Dio, it was one of the greatest nights of my life.
477. Queen / Heaven For Everyone [Single]. 1995. 4/5
This was the first single released from the ‘final’ Queen album, Made in Heaven. It obviously got heavy radio exposure, especially as it was released almost four years after Freddie Mercury’s death.
It contains the single, plus three remastered classics, “Keep Yourself Alive”, “Seven Seas of Rhye” and “Killer Queen”. Funny then that the single is the weakest of all tracks.
Rating: The single is reasonable, backed by great followers. 4/5.
It contains the single, plus three remastered classics, “Keep Yourself Alive”, “Seven Seas of Rhye” and “Killer Queen”. Funny then that the single is the weakest of all tracks.
Rating: The single is reasonable, backed by great followers. 4/5.
476. Hear 'n Aid / Stars [Single]. 1986. 5/5
One of the greatest events during the 1980's for heavy metal fans like myself was the Hear 'n Aid project which produced this single. Bringing together the cream of the industry at the height of its collective powers, this single, and the accompanying video, was a beacon for me. Not only could you see and hear your own favourites perform, but I even picked up on some new bands and individuals in which to test out.
OK, it might be cheesy, and it might be overblown, but where else can you have this many great metal stars all together - lots of great vocalists get a line or two, many great guitarists get to shred for a few seconds or so, and all in all it is just a fun collection of great people.
I still think this is great after all these years. The video of course is more enlightening, but for 80's metal sing-a-longs, this is a necessity.
Rating: Laugh and sing. 5/5
OK, it might be cheesy, and it might be overblown, but where else can you have this many great metal stars all together - lots of great vocalists get a line or two, many great guitarists get to shred for a few seconds or so, and all in all it is just a fun collection of great people.
I still think this is great after all these years. The video of course is more enlightening, but for 80's metal sing-a-longs, this is a necessity.
Rating: Laugh and sing. 5/5
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
475. Cinderella / Heartbreak Station. 1990. 1/5
A hair metal band that wants to be a country and western band? An interesting career choice, I would have thought. Send in the steel guitars, bring in the piano. It’s all here, and it’s all a bit of a change.
Though I was never a huge Cinderella fan, this album surprised me with what seems to be a huge change in direction musically. Honestly, when you first put on the album, and “The More Things Change” starts, you would dead set start looking at the CD cover to see why you had put on a rockabilly country album.
So what was the reasoning behind this? I don’t know, I must admit. But it isn’t one of my favoured genres of music, and therefore this album really doesn’t rate at all. I guess, in a morbid kind of way, I can listen to this and try to appreciate it for what it is, like for instance Gary Moore’s Still Got The Blues. But it really doesn’t appeal to me at all, and I wonder (still) why they went in this direction.
Rating: No, no, no… this just isn’t right… 1/5.
Though I was never a huge Cinderella fan, this album surprised me with what seems to be a huge change in direction musically. Honestly, when you first put on the album, and “The More Things Change” starts, you would dead set start looking at the CD cover to see why you had put on a rockabilly country album.
So what was the reasoning behind this? I don’t know, I must admit. But it isn’t one of my favoured genres of music, and therefore this album really doesn’t rate at all. I guess, in a morbid kind of way, I can listen to this and try to appreciate it for what it is, like for instance Gary Moore’s Still Got The Blues. But it really doesn’t appeal to me at all, and I wonder (still) why they went in this direction.
Rating: No, no, no… this just isn’t right… 1/5.
474. W.A.S.P. / The Headless Children. 1989. 5/5.
The three albums themselves had been somewhat of a revelation. The debut self-titled album had brought with it a frenetic energy that captured exactly what the band was producing live, with songs that covered the extremes both lyrically and musically. Their second album “The Last Command” had toned down a touch and settled into a great rhythm, while the band's third album “Inside the Electric Circus” comes across like a mixed metaphor in places, with great tracks and perhaps some average ones thrown into the mix. Then came the live album “Live... In the Raw”, an album that put a pin in the band’s first era, showcasing the best of their material in the live environment, and in many ways running a line underneath that time.
Over 2.5 years separated studio albums for W.A.S.P. which given their live and touring popularity seemed a long time for the era. There had been a revolving door in regards to the drummer position in the band following Steve Riley’s departure for L.A. Guns, with several people having been tried out on the stool. As the band slowly inched their way into the studio again to record their follow up to “Inside the Electric Circus”, they procured former Quiet Riot member Frankie Banali to come on board to record the album, though at this stage only as a guest musician and not a full member of the band.
Entering the studio, it was Blackie Lawless who took up much of the writing of the songs for the album, somewhat shunning the partnership he had enjoyed with guitarist Chris Holmes on earlier albums. The result was a turning point for W.A.S.P., with songs that came in a more mature fashion and with much more serious and world-wise lyrics than had been the case on previous albums. Such was the course set for “The Headless Children”, an album that became a high water mark in the career of W.A.S.P. the band.
The differences that have come with this fourth album are noticeable immediately from the opening strains of “The Heretic (The Lost Child)”. Indeed, this song is such an amazing turn from what had preceded it on the first three albums that it is sometime hard to believe there wasn’t another album in between that acted as the missing link. What the band has done on this album is difficult to explain in the correct terms, because it is truly amazing. For a start, it is fast, and it is heavy, and the emotional anger comes across in Blackie vocals from the outset. With lyrics such as: “And soldiers keep coming - like warriors they die, but gang land's alive when mothers cry. Cause hate's blind addictions, a killing machine, and it burns on the fuel of shattered lives” Blackie is not leaving anything unsaid. Then as he rages through the middle of the song, “Rise and see, it's the down of insanity, keeper of the gates of fire. And the Heretic has said ‘You don't have to be afraid, until I - until I come to get ya’” it picks up more intensity. That raging guitar solo that enters the final chorus still sends shivers down my spine listening to it, and then the second solo that plays out to the end of the track. W.A.S.P. has many amazing opening songs on their albums, but none better than this. It sets the mood for the whole album going forward, and from the very outset shows that this is not to be anything like what the band has produced before.
This is followed by the perfect punctuation of the cover version of The Who song, “The Real Me”, but completely W.A.S.P.ified. Blackie takes centre stage and fires his vocals through the speakers with the passion of a man who is in love with this song – which he is, and of the band The Who. W.A.S.P. was in the habit of putting cover songs on their albums, and they were all generally excellent versions, and this is no different.
The darker tones of the music, especially in the brilliant title track, are part of that journey. Lyrics shooting from the hip on political warmongering and the resulting images that come from it. Blackie’s struggle with what his own concept of God was at the time comes to the fore in lines such as “Father come save us from this madness we're under, God of creation are we blind? Cause some here are slaves that worship guns that spit thunder, the children that you've made have lost the minds”. Having taken hold of this ship in regards to the songwriting and therefore the direction, Blackie has shown a penchant for a much more serious look at the world as a whole. Whether this came from a desire to be taken more seriously as an artist or songwriter or a person, who can tell. But it certainly succeeds through “The Headless Children”. The main riff throughout is an instant headbanger, played perfectly and driven even harder by Blackie’s vocal delivery. Just a great song.
“Thunderhead” follows and is belligerently hard and direct in describing a drug addicts' woes, and the battle between the addict and the drug itself. The lyrics here continue to show a much more serious side to the band’s thought processes on this album, and again is perfectly played and presented in that theme.
Side two opens with the masterpiece “Mean Man”. This is classic and brutal W.A.S.P., the song written by Blackie about his bandmate and comrade, guitarist Chris Holmes. The exact kind of tribute that Holmes deserves, with barrelling lyrics and rollicking guitar riffs and solos, this is the exact kind of maturing in the songwriting that fans would have wanted, with the core of the band’s sound from years past dialled up a notch, and yet with great lyrics that are more thoughtful and appropriate. And yes, it is ironic that Holmes left the band within six months of this album being released, and that a spate of words went public between the two – but this is still a great song and a great tribute.
“The Neutron Bomber” follows, another great song whipped up by great singalong vocals guitar riff again. Some people at the time that the mention of the name Ronnie meant that this song was about former US President Ronald Reagan, which in one interview Blackie had actually said was the subject of the lyrics. However, the more likely scenario is the one that Blackie suggested in a different interview, that it was about a serial arsonist called Ronnie that he knew growing up. Certainly, the lyrics focus more on that scenario than the first.
In fact, the most unusual songs on the album are the acoustic instrumental “Mephisto Waltz” that then leads into “Forever Free”, the power ballad that takes a completely different course from every other song on the album. Now it's not as though W.A.S.P. are incapable of doing a power ballad. “Sleeping in the Fire” from their self-titled debut album is a stomping song, one of the best power ballads ever in my opinion, in the very small category of songs ranked ‘good power ballads’. And Blackie produced a couple of very solid ones on the band’s next studio album. But this is a standout because it is such a change from the road this album had travelled with every other track. But while it is a power ballad, it has enough moments of greater force and guitar riffs that make it rise above the other applicants of this genre. I sing along still every time I listen to this album.
The album closes in a fit of fury with “Maneater” and “Rebel in the F.D.G”, which the linear notes explain stands for Fucking Decadent Generation. Both of these songs are more of a throwback to the songs from the first two albums, carefree with the lyrics, fast tempo with great guitars and sing along lyrics to boot. It’s almost like Blackie saying ‘yes this album is different, but we can still do those old style songs’. Fun, fast and energetic, with more Chris Holmes soloing to take us out with a bang. “Maneater” has Blackie again channelling his motorcycle roots, while “Rebel in the F.D.G” has him expanding and expounding on his callow youth. It tops off what is an amazing album in the best possible way.
The maturity of this album is frankly astounding. The band has gone from singing about girls and sex and school days, to making direct commentary and statements on the way they see the world around them at that time. Or, more precisely, the way Blackie sees it. And that should not be confused. As stated earlier, Blackie wrote this album, or at least all of the lyrics himself. So this is his change from the band’s initial position in music genre and status, and it really makes its mark. It’s a long way from “Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)” and “L.O.V.E Machine” to “The Headless Children” and “The Heretic (The Lost Child)”. It’s an amazing transformation – lyrically from those types of topics to the ones generally addressed here on this album, and musically becoming a heavier and darker album throughout. W.A.S.P. is not mucking around here, they aren’t playing games. This is an intelligent and hard hitting album that steps it up in almost every way possible from their first three studio albums.
In the late 1980’s I had my flirtation with a university degree, and in the process just made myself miserable. In 1988 I had become almost irretrievably obsessed with W.A.S.P. and had picked up those first three albums and the live album on vinyl at my favourite second hand record store in Wollongong, and played them ad nauseum through that year. Then this album was released, just a couple of months before the termination of that uni career. I bought this album on vinyl within the first couple of weeks of its release... and went bat shit crazy with love. I was depressed and angry, and my word this album just amplified that, and at the same time drew that frustration out of me with the joy it gave me. And I still love those early W.A.S.P. albums, but this is just another level.
Everything about this album is as close to if not perfect as it can be. Frankie Banali’s drumming is superb here, creating the platform for each song with its power and timing, and yet subtlely staying in the quiet corner when needed. Johnny Rod, on what would be his final album with the band, has some terrific moments, especially within “The Real Me” and “Thunderhead” where he is especially present, and his contribution to backing vocals is terrific. Chris Holmes on lead guitar again steals much of the show for me. It is difficult to explain how important his guitar is to the W.A.S.P. sound, until you hear the albums where he is not a part of the band. He dominates again on this album and provides some of the best moments with his soloing out the final moments of those tracks. And Blackie Lawless is almost at the top of his tree, especially his vocals on this album. You really do feel what Blackie is singing about on this album, his frustration and anger and desire to preach to the masses.
This album was the star attraction for 1989. To me it is still a masterpiece. It became one of 3 or 4 albums that was my soundtrack for that year, and I never tire of listening to it. Indeed, this has been back on my playlist for 6 weeks leading up to this episode. I put it on my playlist EARLY, just because I wanted to. And I have listened to it a lot, and listened to it loud. It is a gem, one of those great albums that most W.A.S.P. fans would agree with, and yet it still seems almost hidden from most of the metal community who only know the first two albums and then the one that followed this album. I hope that for everyone who happens to listen to this episode of my podcast, it changes your world. It changed mine 35 years ago.
And yet, it signified the end of the great era of the band. Chris Holmes left in August 1989, citing that he wanted to do stuff he liked, while Blackie kicked him on the way out suggesting he was being pulled by his apron strings, a harsh reference to his then partner Lita Ford. Johnny Rod also found the door, and the band actually ceased to exist for a while, until Blackie decided he was ready to get going again, but perhaps as a solo artist. That of course is a story for another day... or an episode of this podcast that has already been recorded... search it out if you aren’t sure of what I am talking about.
473. Gamma Ray / Heading for Tomorrow. 1990. 5/5.
The warning signs had been there for a couple of years. Following the tours to promote the Keepers 1 album, Hansen had asked the band to take a break from live gigs, feeling that the intense period of two and a half years of non-stop touring and recording was beginning to get overbearing. However, the record company and other members of the band were unwilling to this this given the momentum that the band had gained and wanted to continue to strike while the iron was hot. This was a topic that continued to raise its head over the next 18 months, along with other driving concerns from Hansen which not only included the direction that their music may be heading in the future but also the current contact the band was under with their record company and whether or not the band was now getting its fair share of the pie. Hansen growing disillusion with the situation came out very publicly in his song “I Want Out”, one that remains one of the bands best known tracks. In an interview in 2017 on his return to the band, Hansen was quoted, "It was a statement, yeah. It wasn't just wanting out of the band, it was a general thing relating to everything that was going on: poor management, other people telling us where to be and what to do, never-ending internal discussions… I just wanted to rock."
Despite the continued rise of the band, including playing at the Monsters of Rock festival, supporting Iron Maiden on their Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour, and then touring the US, Kai had finally reached the end of his tether. He announced to the band that he was leaving Helloween, with the news confirmed in January 1989.
All this left Hansen at a fork in the road. With the opportunity to now start afresh once again, to have his own management and record contract, Kai went about finding like minded musicians to be a part of a new project. Kai also performed on two tracks Of Blind Guardian’s sophomore album “Follow the Blind”, providing vocals and guitar on the track “Valhalla” and a guitar solo on “Hall of the King”. His first port of call following this was longtime friend and former lead singer of the band Tyran Pace, Ralf Scheepers. Scheepers had the vocal range and energy that suited the kind of band that Hansen was going to look to construct. While Kai had no intention of creating a band that was a carbon copy of Helloween, there was no doubt that his new project was always going to have that type of sound anyway, given he had been such a heavy contributor to his previous band’s songwriting – that wasn’t something that was going to change just because he had left the band. With Scheepers on board Kai then brought in Uwe Wessel to play bass guitar and Mathias Burchardt on drums and complete the band lineup that would record the first album of his new project.
All that was needed now was a name of the project. Hanson’s record company wanted the project to just simply be a Kai Hansen solo project under his name, but Kai was having none of it. This project was a new band, not a solo outing. It is endemic of the situation that Kai still found himself in, that his record company, on the original release of the vinyl for this album, actually had an outer sleeve put over the cover, a plain light grey that proclaimed loudly “Kai Hansen – Heading for Tomorrow” and ignoring the actual band name. At the very least, it meant that when you removed that outer sleeve, you could actually witness the actual album cover, with the name of the band Gamma Ray emblazoned upon it, and both Kai and Ralf looking into the distance – no doubt “Heading for Tomorrow”.
Despite the fact that Kai was forthright that this was going to be a band and not a solo project, he still provides the writing of eight of the nine tracks on the album, the other coming from Ralf. But that doesn’t take away from the band aspect. It was always going to Kai heavy to start with, as he was the one who had left his previous band and was the main man when it came to this first album following that. At this point in time, there was also no second guitarist (something that was rectified by the time the band went on tour) so he played all of the guitars on the debut album, along with backing vocals as he had done on the last two Helloween albums. In support of Ralf’s soaring tones, it was a perfect starting point for the new band. The album was recorded over a four-month period, with demos being finessed into songs, and lyrics being coerced into vocals when Ralf and Kai were able to find time to be in the studio together. There was no rush from the band as they made sure that everything was in place for their first outing together.
What came together over the nine tracks showed a combination of the old and the new. The so-called ‘happy guitars’ that had proliferated Helloween’s albums with Kai and Michael on guitar continued here, with Kai utilising that technique in several of the songs of the album. It also had the instrumental opener that had been a part of those Helloween albums, and the epic closing track with the grandiose length and style. All of this could be seen to be similar to Kai’s previous band, but there is a change in the style of those songs as well, that showcase this is just one writer’s vision.
The opening of “Welcome” immediately breeds a familiarity, an opening composition that announces the arrival of the album, and that the show is about to begin. From this the opening track proper bursts forth with a cascade of the fast paced riffing that fans would have expected from this new project, and the rolling of drums crashes into the convergence of all instruments, and then Ralf comes alive with his vocals that also immediately showcase what he brings to the table. “Lust for Life” is the song that flies out of the speakers at you with those great vocals sprouting positive lyrics - “Let us fly away, let us praise the days, when the lust for life is stronger than the fear, though we shiver and shake and we sometimes need a break, it's the lust for life that never disappears.” Great guitars, double kick drums. Everything peaks to set the album off in style. This segues straight into “Heaven Can Wait” which continues with the same themes. Kai is pushing hard when it comes to the pressure he was under in leaving Helloween and starting up again on this track, with lyrics like - “Some little angel tries to tell me that it's over, it's just a bad reflection from above, the load upon my shoulder makes me stronger, even bolder, Oh no no, I haven't had enough.” Kai’s happy guitars light up this track as well, and Ralf’s passionate exuberance in singing the vocals again make this a great song, while proving that although the style of songs on this album have their genesis in his previous band that this really is an album that stands on its own merit already.
Having said that, the follow up of “Space Eater” is lyrically a challenge to decipher exactly where Kai is going. Is this a metaphor for something? Is it a theme of outer space and aliens? Is it referring to something else entirely? I confess I don’t know, but I still love this song, especially the riff that runs through the final minute to the outro of the songs, the melody there is perfect and heavier than it is given credit for. It sounds better when played live. “Money” jumps back into happy mode, despite the fact that Kai is obviously referencing former management and record company people who are only interested in fleecing as much of it as they can while keeping their artists on the line. It was to be a theme that would crop up occasionally through Kai’s career, but the lyrics here on “Money” are upfront about his own morals - “I don't need no money, I will stick to my ideals, you better get some money, you better get yourself a deal, I won't change my habits, and I throw it all away, No, no, you better keep it all together for another day.” The song itself rocks along in true speed metal fashion, with Burchardt’s hard hitting drums driving Uwe’s bass and Kai’s guitar to faster pace throughout.
“The Silence” is the one song from this era that seems to have stuck in the setlist throughout the band’s existence, and is Kai’s first delving into a world that he eventually reimagined into a concept that the band developed into two albums further down the track. It is a song with moving parts, from light, quiet and introspective moments and then diving into a heavier outcourse of guitars and drums that reintroduce a similarity. It’s an epic song in composition and offers a point of difference from the other songs on the album. The status quo is returned with “Hold Your Ground”, which charges back into the light on the back of Burchardt’s double time drums and Ralf’s screaming vocals and a great solo from Kai in the middle of the song. Once again Kai’s lyrics are looking for the average to person to “Hold your ground, or tomorrow it will be taken” which can be interpreted as further language he is using to highlight the troubled years he has just lived through. Then comes Ralf’s “Free Time”, which is more in tune with the opening to the album, the positive lyrical outlook that is a highlight of this album. There’s no hidden agendas here, just Ralf explaining how much he loves to have free time – like all of us! And those lyrics speak volumes - “How happy life could be without any work, there ain't no doubt we're gonna have a party, til Monday morning, no one can disturb.” and “Free time is one of the things that I love, free time is one of the things I enjoy. free time - - - we want more!”. I’ll raise my glass to that Ralf!
The album concludes with the magisterial epic of the title track “Heading for Tomorrow”. Clocking in at 14:30 minutes, it encompasses every aspect of this band’s strengths – awesome vocals from Ralf, heavy riffage, melodic moodiness, a ready-made crowd chant in the middle of the song to draw in the punters at the live gigs, and an anthemic conclusion. Kai in Helloween had been a party to amazing album closers - “How Many Tears”, “Helloween” and “Keeper of the Seven Keys” - and no doubt he had decided all along that he would need a similar grand conclusion to his first album with his new band. The rise and fall of platitudes of the track, weaving in and out of pure metal to atmospheric silences and then crashing back into the heart of the song, makes for a fabulous end to this album. Surely a risky take on your debut opus with a new band. But it works on all levels and is still just magnificent.
I was devastated when I found out Kai Hansen was leaving Helloween. I had just spent 18 months falling in love with the band, playing their first EP and three full length albums over and over perpetually. I had come to find a single love of Kai’s guitar and solo’s, his songwriting, and his vocals on the EP and the “Walls of Jericho” album. He had grabbed me with both hands – and now he was leaving, and I feared the band would never be the same again. That feeling proved to be accurate, for so many reasons.
So I began to wonder just what he would do. And eventually, in Hot Metal magazine, it was announced that he had a new album and a new band coming out, and I was excited beyond belief. And I still remember the day I was walking through and searching the racks of Utopia Records in their original storefront in the Challis Arcade of Martin Place in Sydney, and I found this album on vinyl, with the aforementioned sleeve proclaiming it was Kai Hansen and not Gamma Ray. Stuff that, who cares! The purchase was made, and i spent another many long hours waiting until my friend group and I headed for home so I could put it on my stereo. And from the very first time I put the needle on the vinyl, this album had grabbed me. The instrumental opening of “Welcome”, the speed and screech of “Lust for Life”, the flow into “Heaven Can Wait”, the majesty of “Space Eater”. These opening tracks blew away any doubts I had that Kai could reproduce the brilliance that he had had in Helloween. In Ralf Scheepers he had a vocalist who could hit the notes at both ends of the spectrum. As a songwriter, there was never any doubt about Kai’s quality, and his new band performs those songs superbly. The 'happy guitars' that were prevalent in Helloween are just as much so here, enhanced by the keyboards in the background as well. It is just one of the things makes this album a joy, because the mood is up and lively, not down and dark in any way.
The other motivating factor in keeping the mood and feeling of the album so positive, and what I so love about it, are the themes of the majority of the songs. Every band has certain ways they like to approach song writing and what they want to sing about, and the messages on “Heading for Tomorrow” are brilliant. “Money” preaches that there is more to life than being rich, and that money doesn't necessarily bring happiness. “Free Time” is simply about wanting to spend time with your family and friends and not feel like you are working your life away – something I can relate to fully. “Lust for Life” begins the album with much the same message – get out and enjoy your life and not get bogged down in drama. These are just simple themes but put together here in song in a genre of music that doesn’t necessarily have those themes attached to it in many people's minds makes this a positive change.
For me, the only song I have slight doubts about is “The Silence”, which is amusing in a way because it is the one song they still have in their live set today. It isn't a bad song, and it does sound much better live than it does here, but it has always been one of those Gamma Ray songs that has bugged me, and there aren't many of them! It does kick in once you reach the solo section, but you have to get there first. For whatever reason, the structure of the song nags me. It doesn’t stop me bouncing along with the songs when I listen to the album, but I’ve never been able to understand why THIS song has stuck in the live set list for so long in front of so many other great tracks.
You know what? I get that people listening to this album today may think that it has dated, or that it has always been tied to the era, and that it may not be as wonderful as I think it is or have built it up to be here. I can understand that, not only from the band itself at that time but also in listening to this album again this past month. And of course, those thoughts are valid for the individual in that respect. But for me, it has barely lost anything over the years. I have spoken about “The Silence” and how that song has never really worked for me, despite it still being in the setlist 35 years later. I know people find songs like “Money” and “Free Time” a little childish, but it is the positive message behind both those songs that I think makes them great songs to this day. “Heaven Can Wait” is the same, while “Space Eater” and “Lust for Life” are super tracks. The overall upbeat positive aspect of the lyrics, backed up by the light, happy guitars of the music is the hallmark of this album, and what was to drive the band Gamma Ray from this point on. While their songwriting became more complex and intricate, while their lyrics became more compelling and interesting, all of it came on the base set up by this album.
I lost my original copy of this album in the flood of 2001 but have had copies of the CD and the 25th Anniversary remastered release on CD as well. And then last year on his journey through Europe, my Vinyl Procurement Officer found an original copy of this album replete with outer sleeve, and bought it for me to compete my vinyl collection once again. And, it still sounds great on vinyl, something I have confirmed over a dozen times in the past week. And every time I have listened to it, it takes me back to those heady days of 1990, in a new job that gave me money to buy albums and go to gigs, and reminds not only of this album but of the wonderful albums I was to experience that were released in that year. By the time this album was released, Kai Hansen had reached a higher plane for me when it came to favourite musicians and artists. This album was the beginning of what has become a lifelong love affair with the band Gamma Ray, one that continues as strongly today as it was when I first bought this album.
After all this, perhaps it will surprise you that of Gamma Ray’s eleven studio albums, this ranks only at #10. But believe me, this is only an indication of the brilliance of the albums that follow this rather than any comment on this album’s credentials. I can still put this on at any time and enjoy the hell out f it. And I have for the past couple of weeks. And I will again.
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