662. Paul Di'anno & Dennis Stratton / The Original Iron Men. 1995. 3/5

Three or four years ago I was trawling music stores and second hand record stores and websites, trying to hunt down any material I could that former Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di'anno had been involved in. You see, he was about to tour Australia for the first time, and I wanted to know the songs he was going to perform before I heard them at the gig. I already had stuff from his Killers project and his Battlezone project, and I just wanted to find whatever I could. During that process, I came across this gem, and having first thought maybe I had found what could be one of the great undiscovered albums, and secondly thought I was going to be ridiculously disappointed if I thought that before I went into it, I took it home to see just exactly what I had.

What I found was somewhat amazing. No, it wasn't what Iron Maiden would have sounded like if these two had been kept in the band. In a way, it showed why they had to move on, because this album, recorded in 1995, is very much stuck between 1970's AOR and 1980's pop hard rock. The singing duties are shared between both main members of the band, with Di'anno's harder edged vocals on the rockier songs ("Lucky to Lose", "Let Him Rock", "Listen What Your Heart Says", "She Won't Rock", "I'll Be Miles Away" and "Death of Me") while Stratton's syrupy vocals settle in the softer rock songs ("I've Had Enough", "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over", "Bad Girls" and "Two Hearts in Love"). Both sides of the music are showcased. The faster hard rocks songs are still catchy, with Di'anno's vocals as good as ever, while Stratton's guitaring is still excellent. Some help from guests such as Fast Eddie Clarke and Paul Samson also help out songs such as "Lucky to Lose", "Let Him Rock" and "She Won't Rock". The backing vocals mostly sound like chorus girls, and really tie it to the 80's, especially in songs like "I'll Be Miles Away" and "She Won't Rock"
Yes, it's cheesy both lyrically and musically. "Let Him Rock" and "Death of Me" sound a lot like stuff Alice Cooper was doing in the mid-1980's, the fun stuff off albums like Constrictor. Everything about this album screams a time period long before its conception, especially in an age where it was grunge that had captured most people's attention. But here we have three and four chord rock riffs with a simple drum beat with repetitive vocals coming over the top. Except on Stratton's songs, which suddenly shift to a soft rock equivalent with smoother vocals.

This is one of those guilty pleasure albums, where everything on it is generally everything you dislike about songs or albums or bands - and yet, you can't help but like it. A couple of the songs are just trying way too hard to be something they can't be, and they tend to bring the rest of the material down. Mostly, it is just Paul Di'anno's energy and firepower that make you put aside the things you would normally dislike, and accept the songs for what they are. His vocals suit the songs he is involved in perfectly. Dennis Stratton goes a little too far into the wimpy section on his songs for my taste, but they are still worth listening to for the most part. Overall this was a very pleasant surprise on its discovery.

(As a footnote, on the tours I have since seen Di'anno on, he has only played songs off the first two Iron Maiden albums at those gigs. Go figure).