743. UFO / No Heavy Petting. 1976. 3.5/5

On a bit of a run after the Phenomenon and Force It albums, UFO followed these up with the No Heavy Petting album, one that for me includes a couple of their best ever songs, but also mixes it with some weaker ones that fills me with mixed emotions.
 
Personally I love the start of the album. Schenker's riff to break into the album in the form of "Natural Thing" is a ripper. This is a terrific song, setting a great tempo immediately. This has been one of my favourite UFO songs since the first time I heard it. Following this comes "I'm a Loser", another perfect example of the Schenker/Mogg writing partnership. Schenker's solo is a scorcher. I love the keys in this song too. I know that is somewhat of an anomaly in my music tastes and reviews, but I really do think this song is so brilliant because of the mix between guitar solo and keyboard bridge.
"Can You Roll Her" also kicks along nicely, again with a prominent dual between the two major instruments. "Reasons Love" is the other song that fits in with these tracks, while "Highway Lady" starts off side two of the album in a similar vein as "Natural Thing" does with side one.
On the flipside, there are those songs that for me fall a little flat. "Belladonna" is a letdown for me. Slow and mournful. I know people and UFO fans love this kind of stuff. For me it puts a big STOP sign out in front of the momentum the album had before this. "Martian Landscapes" is another song in this vein. It really drains out the end of the album, dragging along at a molasses pace with the lyrics being repeated and pulled out far too long over time. "On With the Action" is another mood halter, after the up tempo start of side two of the album. Not a bad song, but it just seems to be in the wrong place.

The good things about this album are fabulous. Schenker's guitaring is at its peak, and some of his solo's here are the equal of anything he's ever recorded. Phil Mogg's vocals are as clean as ever, emoting when needed in songs like "Natural Thing" and "I'm a Loser". The keyboards in those two songs are exceptional, but when they come back for an old-west, piano bar blues sound on a song such as "A Fool in Love", I find it a bit clichéd. In the long run, I believe the good outweighs the average, and continues the excellent catalogue of albums through the 1970's that UFO produced.

Rating:  You can look but please don't touch.  3.5/5

742. Stryper / No More Hell to Pay. 2013. 3.5/5

No matter what way you swing when it comes to religion and the matters of God, you cannot help but be impressed by the music that is produced by Stryper, and more to the point, you cannot help but enjoy this album. Whatever their thoughts were when they came into writing and recording this album, they have finally managed to find a formula that is reminiscent of their glory days back in the mid-to-late1980's, utilising their greatest assets to produce an at times scintillating album.

This goes back to their metal roots. There is a definite push on this album to make heavier songs and heavier music, and you can't argue with the results. The drumming and drum sound here is terrific. Rob Sweet appears to be playing his kit harder, and getting the maximum thump out of his toms. The 'visual timekeeper' of old is more than holding up his end of the bargain on this album. Listen to songs such as "Sticks & Stones", and you wonder how he has any unbroken drumsticks left. The always remarkable lead guitar of Oz Fox continues to astound. He and Michael Sweet have a unique and brilliant guitar sound, one that any band would give their eye teeth for. Not to mention Michael's amazing vocal chords once again. He still retains once of the most remarkable voices in music, let alone the hard rock and metal scene. The notes he still hits are ridiculous, without ever sounding like they are forced. The end of "Saved by Love" is a perfect example of this. His vocal harmonies with Oz Fox match those they perform with their guitars. Unbelievable.

I don't listen to Stryper for the lyrics or their perceived message. I listen to Stryper for the music, for those amazing guitars, and to hear Michael Sweet sing. I know every word off the album To Hell With the Devil because I was 17 when it was released and that's what you did when you were 17. Now I could barely tell you a line I remember from this album, but that doesn't mean I like it any less.
I'm not trying to oversell this album, because no matter what your music taste is you will find flaws here along the way. I'd be more impressed if the songs were faster, because that's what I like. My favourites from the album would include "Legacy" and "Te Amo" for that reason. And sure, after a while some of the songs will begin to repeat on you. But it is the style they have headed in that I like. If you enjoyed Stryper back in their golden years you should also enjoy this. If you haven't been a fan, this is unlikely to convert you. Pun intended.

Rating:  I’ve seen enough to write tale after tale.  3.5/5

741. Freddie Mercury / Mr. Bad Guy. 1985. 3.5/5

Freddie Mercury. One of the greatest frontmen and singers of all time. There is little argument about this. His incredible range and extroverted on stage presence is still praised today almost 35 years after his passing. And as the frontman for the band Queen, he brought all of that to an incredible quartet who changed the world of music over two decades. And while the band melded different styles and genres of music over their years together, there was no one true dominant figure who pressed the band into the direction that they felt the band was best suited. What this meant, at least from my own point of view, is that each member of the band had their say in the songs and music that Queen produced, but they would never have had a moment where they felt that they had been able to completely express their own musical direction. And in a band situation, as a group, that is how it works.
In 1982 Queen released arguably their most controversial and divergent album, “Hot Space”. Moving away from the hard rock style that the band had mostly sat within, this album infused many differing styles into the songs including new wave, dance and disco along with funk and R&B. While drummer Roger Taylor was quoted as saying that it was the influence of bass guitarist John Deacon’s love of disco and R&B that moved the album in the direction it went, guitarist Brian May was critical of Freddie’s personal assistant Paul Prenter, whom he said pushed Mercury to produce the music style on this album. Taylor was quoted in 2011 saying “Prenter wanted our music to sound like you’d just walked in a gay club... and I didn’t”. Suggesting that the band had overcorrected, they then returned to a more hard rock oriented style (albeit utilising the key and synths of the time) with their next album “The Works”.
Freddie though had other ideas. Following the tour to promote “Hot Space”, and no doubt knowing that both May and Taylor were less than happy about the music’s direction, and having also found the pushback from fans about the album difficult to accept, he decided to start compiling songs for a solo album, one where he didn’t have to answer or compromise to the group’s decision making basis. He was quoted as saying "I had a lot of ideas bursting to get out and there were a lot of musical territories I wanted to explore which I really couldn't do within Queen”. Queen producer Mack, who would also co-produce this solo effort, was quoted: "he used to get pretty annoyed working with the others, because there was always Brian saying, 'It needs to be more rock 'n' roll.'”.
The process, from beginning to compile material to recording and releasing the album took two years. Queen had taken a year off following the tour for “Hot Space” which is where Freddie’s process started, but once Queen had returned to work and ramped up production on “The Works” and then begun the tour to promote it, he had to split his time between the two projects. The recording and release of the single “Love Kills” with Georgio Moroder for the soundtrack to the restoration of the film “Metropolis” was met with fan appraisal, which no doubt would have been a boost to Mercury as he finished off his solo album. With recording completed, the album “Mr Bad Guy” was released in April 1985, one that gave a clearer indication of what style of music Freddie Mercury was fascinated with in an era where anything seemed possible.

At the time of this album’s release, the most interesting thing for me to hear was what the difference would be of Freddie’s songs without the influence or input of his other three band mates. While Queen's true balance was hard rock, here Freddie has a much more dance disco pop style and vibe in his songs, while retaining his amazing vocal performance to make them instantly recognisable. So, while there are certainly differences between these songs from Queen songs, that doesn't make them any less likeable.
“Mr Bad Guy” uses a lot of synths and programming, all of which was the popular culture of the mid-1980's and of which Freddie wanted to experiment. And as with many solo adventures from artists away from their known band, about half of this works terrifically well, and the other half perhaps falls a little flat. You know, the other half of the songs where input from other members of a band would either improve them or replace them with better songs.
The opening side of the album is well put together, the structure of the songs all complementing the other and fitting into a style that showcases what Freddie was obviously looking to portray with his own music in his own way. “Let’s Turn it On” has an almost calypso or Mexican beat about it though utilising synths and keys rather than the instruments of those musical styles. It has that very upbeat dance vibe from the beginning, heavily influenced and led by Freddie’s bright and breezy best vocalisations. There’s not a lot of necessitated lyrical output here, a simple repeating of a few lines is enough to make the track what it is. It is the music which is the basis of the song, aiming for dance clubs and 80’s parties with the style. By way of contradiction however, this is followed by “Made in Heaven”, a glorious and beautifully crafted track that's structure is of guitars and drums but having synths substituted in to create the sound of the era. Freddie’s vocals soar within this song, moving away from the party style of the opening track to his perfectly emotional styled vocals here. Already you have the two sides of what Freddie was probably aiming for with this album, the opening track which showcased a style he couldn’t hope to do with his band, and then this song that showed he wasn’t going to abandon the style of track that he certainly have used in his band. So too you can put in this class “I Was Born to Love You”, released as the first single from the album. This received wide radio airplay at the time, and most probably had success because, like “Made in Heaven”, it was still close enough to what Queen might release as a song that it didn’t turn fans of that band away. It is more synthesised than a Queen song, but it has the harmony and melodic vocal choruses, a catchy beat and fun to sing lyrics which Freddie again sounds like he is having fun singing. Both of these songs were released as singles which is not a surprise. What is also not a surprise is that they were the two songs that Queen chose to re-record after Freddie’s passing for the band’s “Made in Heaven” album, where the three remaining members “Queenified” the songs by recording new music to put with Freddie’s vocals. Arguments remain as to which are the better versions.
Arguably one of the best tracks on the album is “Foolin’ Around”, one that fully captures the pop sound of the era. Drenched in synth and drum machine, Freddie croons his way through the song in a style that sets it above most similar songs of the era, even though it is hardly recognised. Bands like Tears for Fears and Foreigner and Huey Lewis and the News and Hall and Oates dominated the charts with songs like this, that were no better or worse than this. The side closes with “Your Kind of Lover”, delving deeper into the same lyrical content we have had throughout the album to this point with a very Harold Faltermeyer sound to the synths.
Side Two opens with another of the best and most underrated songs of the album, the title track “Mr Bad Guy”. A dystopian harsh look-in-the-mirror themed track where Freddie offers some thoughts on how he feels he is portrayed by sections of the fan base and media base, the overblown musical passages offer a ‘pomp and ceremony’ about the song, giving it the sound of majesty, the majesty of Freddie Mercury. As always, he pulls it off wonderfully. “Man Made Paradise” falls back into the love theme for the lyrics, but perhaps more surprisingly it is the guitar, bass and piano that is the dominant factor of this song, and in places very much resembling Freddie’s band rather than this as a solo output, including the layered vocal harmonies at the end of the song. It remains an interesting song as it is so obviously the style that Queen would have done excellently but with more prominance on the harder elements of guitar and drums if it had.
“There Must Be More to Life Than This” started life as a collaboration with Michael Jackson, along with two other songs, “Victory” and “State of Shock”. No versions of these songs were ever released, and “State of Shock” was eventually recorded by The Jacksons on their “Victory” album, with Mick Jagger rather than Freddie providing the duet vocal. Some sources say that “There Must Be More to Life Than This” was then slated to be the closing track on Queen’s “The Works” album before Mercury and May wrote "Is This the World We Created...?". And so it eventually was recorded here by Freddie alone for his solo album (side note: a reworked version of the Mercury and Jackson duet version was later released in 2014 on the “Queen Forever” album along with a ballad version of “Love Kills”). “Living on My Own” is perhaps the best convergence of styles on this album. Freddie manages to sing in a beautiful and romanticised style without making it a cheap copy of the style of the age. It combines the theatre of dance club remix styled songs filled with synths and repeatable rhythm with heartfelt vocals that gives the track an emotive content that similar tracks can’t and don’t match. “My Love is Dangerous” which follows channels a reggae theme without actually falling down that pathway. Another repeated rhythm track of drum machine tracks through the song with a tougher vocal line from Freddie as the basis, with an actual guitar solo that sends it through to the fade out. The album then concludes with “Love Me Like There’s No Tomorrow”, another Freddie love ballad that is saved from being mediocre because Freddie Mercury is the one who sings it.

Back in January of this year I did a Patreon-only episode in my ongoing series called The Creation of Me, which follows my life of music through a chronological discussion on how my music tastes have developed over the years, on which I discussed both the album “The Works” and the single “Love Kills”. If you are interested, you can find me on Patreon at RealMetalKevin. No pressure. For those that have not heard that episode - I still vividly recall when Freddie Mercury released his solo single “Love Kills” that he had done with Giorgio Moroder. For those that are not familiar with the song, it is the synthiest poppiest 80’s electronica song as you could possibly imagine. Even at that stage of my music journey, where I was just beginning to get into bands rather than singles off the radio, and was beginning down a path that would shortly lead me to the joys of heavy metal music, I had absolutely no interest in the type of music that this song was drenched in. And yet – I became absolutely obsessed by it. I bought the 7” single and played it to the death of several turntable stylus’s and the actual album itself. Completely and utterly taken in. Thus, when it was announced that Freddie was then going to release an entire solo album, I was immediately on board. Hey, “The Works” had been a shining moment in my music story, “Love Kills” had now also become a part of that, so now there was no doubt that this new Freddie Mercury solo album was going to be another watershed moment. Welllllll... you know how sometimes you just build something up too much, and then that thing has zero chance of meeting your expectations?... that’s pretty much what happened here. For a start, “Love Kills” was not put on the album. That annoyed me tremendously. And then the other songs... well, it’s funny how I really wasn’t prepared for 11 songs that were so differently musically from what I enjoyed from the bands I was listening to at that time. I know, right?! Who would have thought?!
So there was stuff I liked. In the main at that time, it probably came down to “I Was Born to Love You”, “Foolin’ Around” and “Mr Bad Guy”. The rest I tolerated to a certain point. And then it went back into the box with my other cassettes. Likely never to see the light of day again. But then Freddie died, and in the aftermath of that event and the constant rotation of Queen albums in memory of that, I dug this cassette out of the box and tried it on for size again. And perhaps, most probably, because of the nostalgia of the situation, I found it far more palatable than I had seven plus years previously. I was older, more rounded, willing to briefly look beyond my instant disregard for music I didn’t immediately like, and hear it as it was no doubt intended – an album that Freddie had more or less written and recorded for himself. Not for record companies or friends or anyone. Just an album that he wrote to be able to explore different styles of music that he was unable to do with his band.
Did I suddenly love it? Well no. But I certainly appreciated parts of it more than I had before. And then a couple of years later I lost all my cassette tapes, and I was without the album again. In more recent times I have bought it again, more for nostalgia than anything else. In fact I now own it on CD and on vinyl, both because the price was too good to pass up. And I have had the album playing regularly over the last week. And it hasn’t been unpleasant at all. Mind you, 40 years on from its release (and that number of years is a crazy thought) it is truly stuck in that era through the synth saturation, so it is an album that has to be listened to with a particular ear if you are going to get anything out of it. So yes it has been interesting to listen to all the way through this many times over the past few days (ten if you are interested). It is an album that I like. There’s nothing more than I can say but that. It still is an album that whenever I listen to it, it is with raised eyebrows. It’s a different time. That more than anything is what this album constantly reminds you of.

740. Various Artists / Metal For Muthas. 1980. 3.5/5

What constitutes what became known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, or NWoBHM as the acronym and shortening of the long and clunky description has become, could well be laid at the feet of a man called Neal Kay. In the period between 1975 and 1980, Kay managed a rock club called The Bandwagon Heavy Metal Soundhouse, which was a back-room venue of the Prince of Wales public house in Kingsbury, North London. Kay built this venue up from humble beginnings, promoting bands and utilising playing songs in a music venue dedicated to the more traditionally raucous sound of hard rock and heavy metal, at a time when punk music was in its prime. Offsetting this, Kay was able to get promotion of his club in the major music publications of the time in th UK, “Sounds” and “Melody Maker”, and with their help in promoting the acts and the venue, Kay was able to establish The Bandwagon as the place for new upcoming bands and like-minded fans of the heavy metal genre. Following a two page centre spread in Sounds written by music journalist Geoff Barton, demo tapes started to arrive in their hundreds at his door, looking to play at his venue. This then led to Kay beginning to help arranging and producing demos of new bands, recorded at Spaceward Studios in Cambridge. Amongst these bands were, Saxon, Praying Mantis and Iron Maiden, at the time new unsigned up and coming bands which would become key players of the NWOBHM, a phrase first coined by the then editor of Sounds.
On May 9, 1979 at the Music Machine, a venue that would later metamorphose into the Camden Palace, a gig took place with three bands on the bill. The opening act was a band named Samson, and he headline act was a band named Angel Witch. Sandwiched in the middle was a local up and coming band by the name of Iron Maiden. This was when, by popular belief, the NWOBHM was born.
Kay championed these and other acts and even went on to tour with those bands on full UK tours. The resulting popularity of Iron Maiden's recording, eventually self released as “The Soundhouse Tapes” led to a record contract for them with EMI. Several other NWOBHM bands also gained contracts due to their Soundhouse demos. And t was through all of this that Neal Kay worked with EMI Records compiling many of these demos onto an album that would showcase this new uprising, this new movement. And that compilation album was called “Metal for Muthas”.

Any notable article or long form document looking back at the start of the so called New Wave of British Heavy Metal will often refer to this release, if for no other reason than it was a part of the history of one of the greatest heavy metal bands of all time, Iron Maiden. Given that they were afforded two song positions on this ten track release, it really does state just how far advanced they were as a band compared to most of their fellow bands of the era by this period of time. Just as viable a question is, given the success Iron Maiden attracted following “The Soundhouse Tapes” and then this initial release, what happened to the other bands featured here? Is there any particular reason why they did not go on to huge international careers such that Iron Maiden did. In fact, where did they go from here? It remains an interesting conversation piece when you compare the success of Maiden, and the relative obscurity of every other artist on this album, and indeed of the NWOBHM movement.
You can accept the fact that the two Maiden tracks here are excellent, but it is interesting to hear the earlier versions of "Sanctuary" and "Wrathchild". “Sanctuary” of course was eventually re-recorded and released as the second single by the band, a non-album single (although it did appear on some US versions of the debut album... I’m not counting that...) and “Wrathchild”, although it missed the cut from the debut album did appear on the follow up “Killers”. These earlier versions of these two songs, like the ones that appeared on “The Soundhouse Tapes”, are an interesting historical counterpoint to the versions everyone knows so well.
The self-titled track by Sledgehammer immediately comes across as impressive and fits in well with the album's direction. The band had initially released this as their first single in 1979. The band went on to record their one and only album “Blood on Their Hands” in 1983. This is followed by another faster track, "Fighting for Rock and Roll" by E F Band, an interesting development because the band was actually from Sweden, and had only relocated to England weeks prior to the release of this compilation album. The "E.F." portion of the band's name was derived from the first letter of Par Ericsson and Bengt Fischer's last names. This is another song that you can see why it was put on this compilation at the time, as its basic structure and sound all have the elements necessary to be popular with the era.
But then... let’s talk about a song that really has no place being anywhere near this compilation album. The band is Toad the Wet Sprocket, named after the skit by Monty Python's Flying Circus, and the song is "Blues in A". And it is exactly that, a blues track, and does NOT fit in at all with the album's direction. How in the hell does this artist and track get on an album that publicises itself as promoting heavy metal? That would be the first point, that this is not a metal song. Secondly, it is a very weak and ordinarily average song, and it has no place in this collection when you place it alongside the other songs on the album. They must have slipped Neal Kay a fiver to get amongst this collection. The first side of the album concludes with Praying Mantis, who was seen as a band from this compilation that would be the one to "make it" and were heavily promoted by Kay in this direction. "Captured City" is the song they have here, which is okay, but the vocals are just a bit weedy. However, you can sense greater things in the music than the vocals allow to improve it. They released their debut album “Time Tells No Lies” the following year but found management and record company problems too big a burden to overcome.
Ethel the Frog, another band named after a Monty Python's Flying Circus skit, are showcased here by their song "Fight Back", and possesses what I would call the atypical NWoBHM sound based on fastish guitars and drums, but suffers from not having a hook that would really drag you in and have you searching out the band to hear of the music from the band. Perhaps it also suffers from the following three songs, as Angel Witch's "Baphomet" is probably my favourite from the remainder of the album, and my favourite band here apart from the obvious top dog. Angel Witch suffered a similar fate to most of the bands here, which seems unfortunate when you listen to this song, and then check out their self-titled debut album that landed later that year. This is followed by Iron Maiden’s “Wrathchild”, and then the Samson track, "Tomorrow or Yesterday" is an early taster of their material, a song that had come from their debut album “Survivors” released the previous year. It is fair to say that while it is fine for the environment their music improved dramatically over the next two years with the recruitment of a different lead vocalist who went by the name of Bruce Bruce, a third Monty Python reference on this album. The closing track on the album, "Bootliggers" from a band called Nutz is another unusual one. The band had formed in 1973 and had already released three albums by 1979. The addition of their song here gave them a boost, with which they changed their name to Rage and released three further albums before disbanding for good in 1984, but it again makes you wonder whether a fiver had changed hands to make this song appear on this album.

45 years on, and this is still an interesting look back at what was happening in the metal scene in the UK at the time, in what was perhaps a breeding ground for the genre. The cross section offered here shows almost precisely how the whole NWOBHM movement exploded and then faded with such a bright burning intensity. It offers bands that in 1979 looked on the cusp of great careers, with music from demos that were proving to be extremely popular in one of the biggest metal venues of the UK. And then from those bands, we see the different levels of success each eventually came to achieve. And that covers the gamut of success, from ‘none at all’ to ‘superstardom’. From Iron Maiden at the top, to Praying Mantis and Angel Witch and Samson in the middle, to the remainder in the lower regions.
I chased this album down in the early 2000’s mainly to satisfy an itch I had developed in trying to find music from all of the UK bands of that era, to listen to their best material and research for myself why some bands made it out of that era, and most seemed to struggle onwards for a short while before disbanding and going out to find real jobs. I found this album in the middle of all of that, and discovered that some of the bands were familiar and that others were not. And it also was obvious after just a couple of listens as to whom the star of the pack was, and why they rose so quickly to such popularity. But it the long run there are only two songs here I just didn’t enjoy at all, and that was “Blues in A” and “Bootliggers”. The rest were interesting enough for the way the project was put together, and of course led to many of them getting a record contract and being able to pursue their dream of releasing an album.
Funnily enough, it turns out that more bands made it to the big time after this period, having been inspired by what these bands were producing, than the bands who produced the material in the first place. Sometimes you just can’t pick what the future holds.

739. McAuley Schenker Group / MSG [McAuley-Schenker Group]. 1992. 1.5/5

Having listened to this album a couple of times, you can't help but wonder whatever happened to the man who had been so impressive in bands like UFO, Scorpions and his own M.S.G. No, not this M.S.G, but the Michael Schenker Group, when the songs had some depth and brilliance, and Michael reigned supreme on the guitar. Now into the third release from the remonikered McAuley Schenker Group, and it all seems to be going a little pear shaped.

Even though I can hear and admit the limitations of the first release Perfect Timing, I still enjoy it. It's an album from that era which spoke to me at the time, thus nostalgia plays a part. The follow up Save Yourself had some good tracks, but also fell apart for the majority of the album. Here, MSG [McAuley-Schenker Group] sounds amazing musically, with Robin and Michael joined by former Dokken bassist Jeff Pilson and future Scorpions drummer James Kottak - but oh dear, whatever happened to song writing?
We are treated to some shocking songs here, such that you have to wonder at what market they were aiming this record. "When I'm Gone" and "Nightmare" are truly average slow ballads, surely purpose written to eventually have their day as acoustic numbers on a later release, as was the rage in the early 1990's (this of course did come to pass). I would call them gut-wrenching only to describe the way I feel sick to the stomach whenever I hear them. To this you can add "This Night Is Gonna Last Forever". Awful. Truly awful. Now I know the subject matter of this band is different from Schenker's earlier bands, and that the lyrical content is therefore of a different direction. But honestly this combined with the wimpy, limp and steel-less music on these songs is catastrophic. The songs that do attempt to elevate themselves to the status of a rock song (and that's being generous) have nothing of any value. There are no hooks, nothing that asks you to remember this song, to play along with it, to sing the nonsensical rubbish lyrics that are a part of them.
The irony probably is that Schenker's guitaring makes a return to something like front and centre on this album, whereas on the past couple of albums it has really taken a back seat to be a part of the background of the soft metal songs that have been written, rarely breaking out for more than a few seconds to poke it's nose out of the water. While the song structures here are generally the same, Michael does have solo spots where the real reason we buy his albums comes to the fore. It's just a shame that it all seems buried in average and uninteresting songs.

When this first came out, and I (unfortunately) paid for this album, and then put it securely in my shelves after the first half a dozen listens, I hoped that it would get better with time. That the next time I gave it a try, it would have gotten better, that it would have grown on me. I don't recall when that time was, but I'm pretty sure that listening to it now to review and re-rate it, it has been something close to 15 years since I last heard it. And "Crazy" is still a terrible song, and "Nightmare" is still a nightmare, and this still is one of those albums that I can never get my money back for.

Rating:  Bang bang, shoot 'em all down  1.5/5

738. Scorpions / Love at First Sting. 1984. 5/5

Scorpions had been on a steady rise in the years since the late 1970’s, where Uli Jon Roth left the band because of musical direction differences, and was replaced by Matthias Jabs. Then came the first of the classic lineup releases “Lovedrive”, reviewed just recently in this season of the podcast, and was followed by the almost as excellent “Animal Magnetism”. Then came the brilliant album “Blackout”, the episode of which you can find in season 2 of this podcast, an album where Klaus Meine’s vocals were so bad he had had them operated on, and Don Dokken had done guide vocals on tracks until Klaus was fit to return to the microphone. There had been doubts he would return, and it wasn’t the last time this was to occur for members of the band for the recording of a Scorpions album. Indeed, it occurred on this very follow up to that album.
There are so many stories tied up in the recording of this album that is it still hard to work out what the truth actually is. When it came to recording the album, both bass guitarist Francis Buchholtz and drummer Herman Rarebell were not on the original recordings. The facts are that Dio and Rainbow bass guitarist Jimmy Bain was asked to come in and play on the album, and he spent the recording process there apparently with the blessing of Buchholtz, who sat in the studio while Bain lay down all of the bass tracks for the album. According to Rudolph Schenker, the band felt a new sound was required, and Rarebell actually suggested Jimmy Bain as the perfect person for the role. Following this Bain headed back to the band he had just joined – Dio. Then towards the end of the studio time, Rarebell was taken ill and couldn’t play, and the band had to find someone else to play his parts. This was where Bobby Rondinelli, another former Rainbow drummer, was called in to complete the recording process. None of this is disputed by any of the parties involved.
Schenker has then suggested that, following a short tour after this with all core members of Scorpions back in the swing of things, that the band decided to return to the studio and re-record all of the bass and drum parts in particular, so that both Buchholtz and Rarebell would actually be playing on the album. This is where the stories start to branch out. The band suggest that the five original members of the band are all playing their instruments on the released version of the album, while many still believe that Bain and Rondinelli’s parts are still on the album, though uncredited on the album sleeve. What’s the truth? Will we ever know? I do know that in many places on the album, the basslines seem familiar to what Jimmy Bain has offered over his long career, and that not all of the drums have that familiar Rarebell beat. Of course, in the long run it makes little difference. But wouldn’t we all like to know just for our own curiosity's sake?...

Opening with Matthias Jabs' marvellous crawling guitar riff, "Bad Boys Running Wild" opens an album that combines lyrical references that young men around the world could relate to with a thumping and heavy back beat, blazing guitar riffs and stadium-filling vocals that make this such a huge recording. "Bad Boys Running Wild" sets the tone, with great singalong lyrics from Klaus and that damn fine guitaring from Schenker and Jabs. It’s a great opening track, and kicks the album off in fine style. It ends perfectly, before crashing straight into the 80's anthem and opening riff that everyone in the world knows, "Rock You Like a Hurricane", a song that propelled the Scorpions to stardom in the US and around the globe. Anthem is stating it mildly, as this became the band’s signature tune, setting the tone for their future live shows, at least until the release of "Wind of Change" on the “Crazy World” album changed that focus. "Rock You Like a Hurricane" was played everywhere and became an air guitar classic in bedrooms all over the world. Still is, in fact. “Here I am...!!” Indeed.
"I'm Leaving You" deals with the teen angst (though, maybe surprisingly from the male perspective, again perhaps only surprisingly because I never had to worry about this sort of thing when I was a teenager), rolling in with a guitar lick to a simple chorus, and then leading into Matthias' brilliant liquid guitar solo. Another great Scorpions track that transcends hard rock and rock balladry. After this comes the no doubt autobiographical "Coming Home", with a beautifully understated beginning before crashing in with the whole band on fire immediately, then blazing into the heart of the song with lungs pumping and guitars sizzling. “The Same Thrill” continues the fast pace of the album, with Klaus’s over the top vocals leading the charge and charging the pace of the song with unbounded joy. It is a fantastic first side to the album, one that is hard to top in the Scorpions discography.
The remainder of the album continues in the same vein - but okay, it's hard to top the first half of the album. "Big City Nights" opens up the second side with a great hard-hitting rhythm from the drums and bass, followed with another anthemic-like chorus that just encourages you to join in and sing along. "As Soon as the Good Times Roll" combines the hard rock and rock balladry once again, another example of this amazing way Scorpions can create this kind of track, and have it appeal to both sides of their fan base. "Crossfire" is another great song, more than holding their own against the heavyweights in the first act, utilising a dramatic drum beat along with Schenker’s super rhythm guitar plucking to create a superb atmosphere throughout, and exemplifying the lyrics and bringing them to prominence. Like all of their songs it has those sing-along choruses that just drag you in each time you play the album.
The closer is a creeper, in a similar vein to Lovedrive's closing number "Holiday". Yes, it is a slow track, in essence a power ballad. And yes, for the most part I believe you can take your power ballads and shove them up your... shirt. But this is a rarity, one of those power ballads that is written and performed so well in the context of the album that you can't help but like it. For a start, it doesn't stop the momentum of the album, because they hold it back to the end, after they have finished ripping out your senses with their awesome tracks. As a result, it fits in perfectly, and ends the album in amazement of Klaus's vocal range and Rudolph's great solo to the fade out. So, on this occasion, it is a worthy addition. And again is yet another example of a song written and performed by this band that can transcend all areas of the fan base and not disappoint any of them.
Klaus Meine's vocals are absolutely magnificent throughout this album. From the opening strains of "Out on the streets!..." from "Bad Boys Running Wild" he nails it immediately. His anthemic triumph in "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and "Coming Home". His soulful crooning in "Still Loving You". His vocal performance on this album is quite possibly the finest in his tenure. He has to find every range, and every emotion, and he does so with aplomb. Matthias Jabs and Rudolph Schenker are again superb on guitars, combining brilliantly throughout, and trading lead duties on different songs along the way.
The bass and drums, no matter whose versions finally make this album, are also terrific and play their part in making the atmosphere of each track a superb moment time.

It wasn’t long ago that I reviewed “Lovedrive” for this podcast – 16 episodes ago if I am to be accurate – so anyone who has listened to that episode knows how my introduction to this band came to pass. Suffice to say, the “World Wide Live” album, then the “Lovedrive” album. After that, it was a matter of picking up the other albums from the 1980’s as quickly as possible. One of my best friend’s, who is now my brother-in-law, was the one who had this first, and I borrowed it to transfer it to cassette, on which the other side I had UFO’s “No Heavy Petting” album, also borrowed from Joelsy.
This album was amazing at the time. I got this some 4-5 years after its release, but when I first heard it all in its completed form, I don’t think I ever turned back. That first side of the album is just as amazing now as it was when I first heard it. That opening riff of “Bad Boys Running Wild”, and the transition into “Rock You Like a Hurricane”, and the gentle build of “Coming Home” to when it bursts into bright light and rages out of the speakers. It’s just so powerful and melodic and perfectly performed. I spent 30+ years just hoping I would get to see “Rock You Like a Hurricane” live, and went from never believing it would happen, to having my dream of it occurring being smashed to pieces three times... before it finally occurred. And it was as amazing as I hoped it would be.
This album took on a life of its own for me. It would be fair to say that I became obsessed with it at one stage, never letting it leave my car’s cassette player, indeed just going out for a drive so I could wind the window down, put the elbow on the edge and have this album turned up to extreme volumes as I blasted around town. In my opinion there is not a weak moment here,
So to finish where I started - the late 70's and early 80's is this band's finest era, with the albums “Lovedrive”, “Animal Magnetism”, “Blackout”, “Love at First Sting”, and the live album “World Wide Live”. It is where their greatest tracks reside. And if I was forced to separate the albums listed, well... I know on my review of “Lovedrive” that I would lean towards that album as my favourite... but I’ve now spent a month listening to this album all over again... and having done that, then I guess my vote would go with this one as the best Scorpions album. It is one of the classics. But it is still an amazingly close call between all of those albums.
There are plenty of arguments that can take place in regards to the greatest era of the Scorpions - 70's, 80's, 90's - and also as to what is their best album. Everyone will have their own opinion in both regards. In many ways it will depend on when you came to fall upon the band and their work. Whichever way you may lean, this album brought them to light worldwide in a way that they had been unable to do beforehand, and which was the concluding act that cemented them as one of the world’s biggest bands.

737. KISS / Love Gun. 1977. 3.5/5

In my experience with the band – and don’t get me wrong, I love the band in all of its era’s and enjoy pretty much everything they have ever released – I still find that KISS tend to have an unnerving ability to write albums that are so uneven that it makes it hard to listen to, review or rate without bias. Apart from what I consider to be three or four outstanding exceptions, this could well be true of every KISS album. And, for me at least, It most certainly is the case with “Love Gun”, an album with two or three brilliant songs, mixed with some songs that almost defy explanation. Then it becomes a question as to whether the love of the band outweighs the possible unevenness of the tracks on the album, because if you desperately desire to, you can always find a way to make an album feel as though it is better than it perhaps in reality is.
“Love Gun” came on the back of some pretty heady years for the band. Their double live album “Alive!” had risen them from a good band with reasonable popularity to supergroup status, and this was followed up by the amazing “Destroyer” album that kicked them into the stratosphere. “Rock and Roll Over” came next and had great sales as well, and the band was flying. Their coverage seemed to be everywhere, on radio and TV, and the stage get up and personas only increased their interest. Something they didn’t have at this stage was a number one album in the US, and going into the studio that was something that was on all four band members minds.

When it comes to the songs here on “Love Gun”, I really believe that the good is brilliant. The opening track "I Stole Your Love" kicks everything off in the right direction, a jaunty rocking number of the type that Paul Stanley does so well. Just a great opening track. This is immediately followed by the much more sappy and less energetic "Christine Sixteen", which apart from the song's lyrics can just end up annoying you with the repeated ‘Christine Sixteen’ words from Gene, which are then repeated again by the other three members. This, along with Gene’s quite provocative spoken word in the middle of the song makes it a pretty creepy kind of song listening to in the 2020’s. It’s a tough one to completely love, but it is one of those songs that I mentioned earlier that you tolerate because of the band and not for the song’s greatness. And I do. I don’t know what it is about it… well, yes I do. It is quintessentially Kiss. And if you love Kiss you will like the song. Another Gene song "Love For Sale" is next, and it holds itself up better until the last minute of the song, where we just hear "I've got Love For Sale" over and over. That's great Gene, sell away, just come up with a less pop song ending to your song. Again, I enjoy this but through somewhat gritted teeth.
Ace Frehley's first lead vocal track, his own number "Shock Me" is a good song that is probably made a little average by the fact that he is singing it. Written about his own electrocution on stage on the previous tour, apparently he wrote it for Gene to sing, who then suggested he do it himself. Personally I think Paul singing it with enthusiasm would have made it a much better track. "Tomorrow and Tonight" closes out side one (for those that remember vinyl) on an upward note. Once again Paul's ability to write a track that gets you rocking is highlighted here. Apparently it was supposed to be this album’s “Rock and Roll All Nite”, but it certainly doesn’t reach those heights.
More is to come with Paul's title track. "Love Gun" is the best song on the album, and is still one of my favourite KISS songs. This is the moneyshot when it comes to this album. Gene’s bass line through the song is probably the highlight for me, it plays off Paul’s vocals superbly. Still one of the greatest ever Kiss songs. Peter Criss's solo vocals of "Hooligan" is another to add to the good songs category, but there is more unevenness in "Almost Human" and "Plaster Caster". They're not top shelf, but not complete losses either.
The pièce de résistance is the final song on the album, a cover version of The Crystals' 1963 pop song "Then He Kissed Me", reverse gendered to be "Then She Kissed Me". Now, I do not like the original song, so I may be biased from the start. But this version lacks any great enthusiasm, it hasn't been improved, and it feels as though it is forced. The question is, why is it on this album in the first place? Did they need one more song, had no ideas, and then just threw this on there? I don't know what the answer is, but I really, REALLY dislike what they have done here. It ends the album on a sour note that is hard to take. I’d almost settle for a power ballad...

How do you rate an album that probably has as much average material on it than absolute gems? I guess it depends on how often you play it, and how you are able to ignore the ordinary to get through to the brilliant. It may not be their best overall, but there are those timeless great songs on here that just keep you coming back for more. This album in particular gained a lot of late support with the release of the 1999 movie “Detroit Rock City”, which focused on a bunch of mates trying to get to a Kiss concert. “Love Gun was the album focused on it the opening scenes, and the opening credits rolled with the title track blazing over the top.
“Love Gun” was one of the first Kiss albums that I heard regularly. My older cousin was a huge Kiss fan in the days this was released, and the room he lived in at our grandmother’s in those days was covered in Kiss posters, and he would play this and “Destroyer” very loud from his bedroom. At the time I didn’t really get it, but when hard rock and metal music began to take hold of my senses a few years later it was Kiss and this album that again came into focus.
As you can probably imagine with many Kiss songs and albums, as they get older they tend to date a bit, perhaps more in subject matter than the music. But as I’ve said, I’ve known this album for a very long time, and it was easy to love it for what it is at the age I grew up with it. On occasions now when I listen to it I may offer the odd cringe moment – especially that closing track, I mean, really, what the hell were they thinking of with that? But for me “Love Gun” remains one of the band’s highlights, and is one of those albums that I didn’t listen to a lot in the process of recording this podcast episode, because I still put it on more often than not all these years later, because it is one of the classics.

736. Testament / Low. 1994. 4/5

The early 1990’s saw a changing of the guard when it came to the metal world, and 80’s thrash metal bands were no exception to this rule. Testament had come off a five album stretch that through natural progression had seen their early furious thrash metal sound refine itself into something that retained those characteristics but showed a maturing through the music, and a slow change in the vocals.
Coming off their previous album “The Ritual”, Testament began to feel the winds of change as it were. The first strike was the departure of lead guitarist Alex Skolnick, who decided that he wanted to experience other sides of music than just the thrash metal scene he had been a part of for almost a decade. Not long after, drummer Louie Clemente also left the band. This left holes in the framework that had to be filled. The first addition was guitarist James Murphy who had played with Death, Cancer and Obituary (and yes, those are band names not just a really bad run with his health), and drummer John Tempesta, who had played on the previous three albums for Exodus and with other solid work on his resume.
These two additions, along with what was happening around them in the music world, set up and interesting writing session when they converged to begin preparing for the new album. And while those thrash roots would remain on the music on this album, there is a more diverse sound once again bleeding through into their music. But while it had been an advancing maturity in the music that had been heard on the last two albums in particular, here there influences of the growing onset of alternative metal, but even more so of a death metal and groove metal combination.
Chuck Billy’s vocals take a decidedly more deep throated aspect on “Low”, as the band’s direction follows the lead of the musical progression the world had taken at the time this was recorded. There are still those elements of the band’s thrash metal roots on this album, but in a decidedly different tone. The changing of lead guitarist from Alex Skolnick to James Murphy was no doubt a major influence, and his contributions to the writing on the album does show the direction he was looking to have the guitars at least travel. And this wasn’t such a bad thing. Most of the world’s leading thrash bands had made some technical adjustments to their sound by the middle of the decade, finding their own voice that was a closer fit to what exactly was coming at them.

“Low” is opened up by the title track, which covers the full range of Chuck Billy’s vocals, opening up in the style all fans know from the early albums, before slowing descending through his improving lower range. Musically it's a great start as well. “Legions (in Hiding)” continues in the same direction, showcasing the excellent drumming from Tempesta, who has a great drum sound on this album.
“Hail Mary” is a ripping song, straight from the band’s salad days but with the new sound skewing the way it sounds. The pace of the song increases from the opening tracks, the trading solos from Petersen and Murphy tie in nicely through the middle of the track, and Chuck charges out of the speakers. John Tempesta on drums is also particularly effective here. This is followed by “Trail of Tears”, another excerpt from the Testament acknowledgement that they apparently have to throw in what is effectively a power ballad into the mix. And it sounds great, and Chuck shows that he can still sing in that clear and higher than regular register even at this stage of their career. Interestingly though, even though it sounds like a song being written for commercial radio airplay, this was not released as a single from the album. Yeah, there is a bit of that chasing Metallica again about this track, much as there was on “The Ballad” (the song title in this case) from the “Practice What You Preach” album. This builds nicely throughout and is performed excellently, along with the dual solos that takes the song to its crescendo. At six minutes long though, this outstays its welcome. “Shades of War” is a perfect example of a song that sounds like it should have come from the bands earliest incarnation, but played in that 90’s era mid- fast tempo instead of an out-and-out thrash metal triple time tempo. Even today I wait for it to break out at that 1987 speed, and it does not. Still a great song, but I believe could have been so much better. Then we jump into “P.C.” which is a short sharp jolt of a similar variety.
“Dog Faced Gods” is just a full-on death metal song. It is such a change from what you expect from this band, that it is as shocking as it is brilliant. Chuck Billy’s vocals go full rogue and reach depths that you just would not have expected them to ever reach. I love the story of how this song eventuated, with the band’s record company asking for an album that sounded alternative. The band took this to mean they wanted an alternative sound, a different sound from what they had produced before, and produced this song, and said this is how the album is going to sound. The record company said no no, we want it to have a sound like the alternative bands that are prevalent right now in the world, and the response they got was, this is what the album is, take it or leave it. Eric Petersen said in an interview in 2013, “'Dog Faced Gods' gave us a whole different perspective of what Testament was all about; we were now entering the realm of Swedish black metal, we were flirting with that vibe and mixing it with our stuff. It took on a whole new vibe; by the time we got to The Gathering we reinvented ourselves.". Fantastic. This then bleeds straight... “All I Could Bleed”, ripping along with more Chuck Billy vocal awesomeness, now (mostly) from his great early thrash era, and dominated by the fantastic guitar solos through the middle of the song that rise this to a level of brilliance. Another great song by Testament that defies the era that they recorded it in.
The (mostly) instrumental “Urotsukidoji” is next and is just brilliant, dominated by the fan-bloody-brilliant bass guitar solo from Greg Christian, who just rips things apart in a style not heard since Cliff Burton was dominating the stage. This track co-written with Peterson is a gem, and while Christian’s bass is the star, the trading guitars of Peterson and Murphy, and the hammering drums from Tempesta, make for a seriously awesome track. The segue into “Chasing Fear” is perfect, and here again we are treated to another awesome track, transcending the fast and heavy into the mystical and radical. “Ride” charges on the back of the heavy thumping of Tempesta drums with the precision riffing from Peterson and Murphy, another hard core song that packs a lot in to its 3 minutes. The album then concludes with the instrumental outro “Last Call”, a somewhat tame end to what has been a raucous album.

I have always loved “Low” as an album. It has a great sound, and with the drumming of John Tempesta and guitaring of James Murphy, the band is set up for the time this was recorded. Both add a real oomph to the album that is exacerbated by Chuck’s growing direction with his vocals, and the evolvement of Eric Peterson on guitar and Greg Christian on bass. It is actually an evolutionary step the band has taken. There are still those songs that are drawn straight from their salad days, but overall the band has incorporated the best parts of that time in heavy metal and coloured them as Testament and made their own variation of it.
I didn’t hear this album until a few years after it was released. As I have mentioned along the way here on this podcast, the years between 1994 and 1996 were a time in my life where a lot went on, and in the case of music and bands and albums, a lot of them got missed in that evolving turmoil. So for “Low”, it wasn’t until four years after its release that I first heard the album, and not for the first time during that decade, I realise that I had missed a trick. Because from the outset, this album struck a chord with me.
Over the past three weeks I have listened to this album quite a lot again, and am again thankful that I started doing this podcast, as it has once again proven its worth to me, by getting me to listen to an album I haven’t thought of in a while, and in the process rediscovering the joy and brilliance of it. With so many options out there to listen to, new and old, albums of worth will get lost in the busyness of life, and this for me has been one of them. The chance to once again bathe in the joy of “Low” has been more than worth the time I have invested in it over the recent few weeks, to now bring it to you. Perhaps you won’t feel the same way about it that I do. That’s okay, I have enough love for it for the both of us.
The role changing was not yet over for Testament, with Tempesta leaving to join White Zombie once the album was completed, while both Murphy and Christian quit the band at the end of the touring cycle. It left Billy and Peterson as the only remaining members, who decided to end the band... but the story doesn’t quite end there...

735. Rainbow / Long Live Rock 'n' Roll. 1978. 5/5

As brilliant as their previous album Rising was, for Rainbow to then follow it up with an album that is so inspired, so ground breaking and so influential to so many who have come since, is quite an achievement. And yet that is what they have done with Long Live Rock 'n' Roll, an album that has legendary songs performed and written by some of the greats of all time.
Here then is Long Live Rock 'n' Roll, a pinnacle in the still fledgling heavy music genre, at a time when Deep Purple was on hiatus, and Black Sabbath appeared on its last legs. It was the third album for Rainbow, by which time the chief contributors Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio had found their groove, and produced a collection of magnificent tracks that roll effortlessly into a majestic album.

It all starts with the title track, the anthemic "Long Live Rock 'n' Roll", which starts the album off with a bang. The lyrics say it all, the riff stands the test of time. Ronnie stands at the front and centre and leads you in the verses and into the chorus. Ritchie rifles through the chorus before sending his guitar through the solo break. This is followed by the highly underrated "Lady of the Lake". This has another great Ritchie riff, simple yet powerful, while Ronnie's layered vocals come through the bridge strong and forceful, pushing it into your chest, and forcing you to sing along as powerfully as he is delivering it to you. Just a great song.
I've never understood the reasoning behind "L.A. Connection" being released as a single. Was it just to keep the album's most noticeably brilliant songs only for those that forked out for the whole album? I don't know, but certainly this would probably have been the last song I would have thought of releasing to promote the album. It's a good song, but only good. It isn't anywhere near as strong lyrically or musically as the other brilliant songs found around it.
Case in point - "Gates of Babylon". This is high on my list of the best songs ever written. Utterly magnificent, firstly by the energy, drive and passion of Ronnie's vocals, then drawn away by Ritchie's brilliant guitar solo through the middle, along with Cozy Powell's enormous drum work, only for Ronnie to return and finish the job. Then you can also add on to that list "Kill the King", yet another brilliant composition of guitar riffs from Ritchie combined with the emotive and powerful vocals from Ronnie. Everything about this is a speed metal song that isn't speed metal, but you can sure hear how it inspired those bands in Europe and especially Germany to follow that path.
"The Shed (Subtle)" is the other song on the album alongside "L.A. Connection" that is a standout for the reason of its averageness rather than its brilliance. Once again, it is a good song, but surrounded by the gems that this album holds, it just seems to take a back seat to them. The band takes the rock 'n' roll element seriously on "Sensitive to Light", a song with a real rock beat, and a rolling, rollicking feel to the song.
The closing song, given the way the whole album has preceded it, is completely unexpected, and 180 degrees apart from them in regards to the performance. But it is a masterpiece, and an amazing musical experience. Combining Dio's amazing vocal range, and Ritchie's talent on the guitar, "Rainbow Eyes" completes the circle for this band. Incorporating flute and violin, this song illustrates the versatility of these two artists. Dio's vocals are just awesome. He hits the notes, he sings the emotion, he just blows minds with his vocal chords. The pureness of his voice is unbelievable.

This album is a masterpiece, one that has stood the test of time and is still just as brilliant today as it was when it was released. Ritchie played most of the bass guitar on this album as well (being 'between bassists' at the time), and he is spectacular. Ronnie's vocals are just amazing. His range in belting out songs like "Long Live Rock n Roll", "Gates of Babylon" and "Kill the King', to the joyous subtleties of "Rainbow Eyes" capture perfectly the brilliance and magnificence of his voice. Of all the recordings he has been a part of, Long Live Rock 'n' Roll is the snapshot in time of his amazing talent. Add to this the marvellous drumming from the incomparable Cozy Powell, and you have an album that is at the very top of the tree in all-time releases.

Rating:  Sleep with the Devil, the Devil will take you away  5/5

734. Cinderella / Long Cold Winter. 1988. 2.5/5

I always thought that Cinderella's biggest problem in following up their debut Night Songs was going to be - could they produce anything different from that album? Or, if they were going to travel down the same road, could they make it good enough that it didn't matter that it was the same?
OK, so it's pretty obvious from the opening that they decided to start heading down that same old road, but the start is worth it. "Bad Seamstress Blues / Fallin' Apart at the Seams" is a reasonable opening track, easing you into the album, while the rocking "Gypsy Road" kicks it along nicely, similarly to "Shake Me" from the first album. It's the song that gets you into the album, and you need that early on. Good solo in the middle. However, having sucked you in to the album, this is followed by the power ballad "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)". Well, it's a bit early in the piece to be introducing this, but I guess this was their 'money song', the one they hoped would get the radio airplay and make them their fortune. Here though it just brings the album to a screeched halt. Again - why stop the momentum of an album by introducing the slow ballad at the wrong time? Madness. "The Last Mile" and "Second Wind" restore some order back to the album, both good tempo songs that move along nicely, which only makes it more strange that they had "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)" placed where it is.
The title track follows, and really stalls everything. This is a molasses-stretching yawn fest, a real boredom-inducing blues song that, if you like that kind of thing you will probably find is riveting. But for goodness sakes, it just reminded me of the worst of Gary Moore's 1990's blues escapism. Now this album is just mixing genres all over the place. By doing this, how did they expect to entice people to buy it? As it turns out, by the two songs I have just bagged. They were the stars of this album, and boosted its sales to the stars. Shows what I know. But that's personal taste for you.

There is enough here to like for fans of the first album. There is also an obvious movement through to a bluesier rock here as well, so if that tickles your fancy, and you like the occasional power ballad, then no doubt you will be a fan. Even fans of the harder rock side will get  kick out of songs like "Fire & Ice" and "Gypsy Road" and even "Take Me Back". For me though, there is just too much variation in the style of songs here for me to enjoy the album as a whole. I still enjoy pieces of it today, but it's like picking through a box of chocolates to find your favourites and avoid the turkish delights. I would run ten miles to avoid songs such as "Don't Know What You've Got (Till It's Gone)" and "Long Cold Winter". These really do not appeal to me on any level, and cast a pall over the album as a whole. So while the road is similar, it certainly has its diversions, and potholes. Big fans of the band will no doubt love this. I still come away dissatisfied and disappointed with the end result.

Rating:  I guess I've always been a travelling man.  2.5/5

733. Metallica / Lords of Summer (First Pass Version) [Single]. 2014. 2/5

In the absence of any new material for the last six years (if you choose to ignore Lulu, which I most definitely choose to do!), this single was released in the middle of 2014, as a portent to the possible sessions that were going on in regards to possibly putting together material for a possible new album. Possibly. So, like very other poor sap out there, I plonked down my hard earned to have a listen to what Metallica circa 2014 sounds like.
I am somewhat at a loss as to why the song that was written and released had to be over 8 minutes in length. I mean, it comes across as though they just had about six different riffs out there, so if we throw them all together in varying parts of this, then extend them as long as we possibly can, then we will have something we can sell the public on. Oh, and it's over 8 minutes long, so you know it must be quality.

Really? I mean... really?!

I don't hate this. Let's get that out there. It has merit. Or at least, pieces of it have merit. I can hear some good things in here, but I can't hear anything that really makes me want to sing, or headbang, or even vaguely tap finger-drumsticks on the table. And why the time changes? I thought they had gotten all of this out of their system long ago. In the past they fit, now we go from frenetic shredding to slow strumming then back to mid-tempo, all within about 60 seconds. That annoys me. So do Hetfield's vocals when he goes into his "St. Anger" high pitched wailing. Enough James, St. Anger sucked, let's go back to singing in mid range.

Is it the drumming that annoys me the most about this? I think so, even more so than James' vocals. Seriously, if Lars makes his drumkit any smaller he'll be playing the bones instead of the drums. And you really notice it here. It is simplified stuff, because he simply doesn't have any variety in his kit anymore to do anything else! Check out the thousands of drummers in metal bands around the world right now - the ones Lars inspired back in the 80's when he was the out and out king of drumming. They have toms galore to play rolls on. They play their double kicks at lightning speed, because Lars did it. Every drummer in the world is now more powerful and more proficient in music because of Lars... except Lars himself. He is now denigrating his own music, because he wants to play on a box and a piece of tin. I don't get it. This song is not as full sounding as it should be because Lars does not have a drumkit to play onto make it sound that way.
And the solo mid-section just goes on way too long.
Anyway...

If this song makes the next album, then beware the rest, because they need to work a bit harder if they are going to make something that captures the public's attention for the right reasons. This isn't it.

Rating:  Lords of summer have returned... to mediocrity perhaps... 2/5

732. Iron Maiden / Lord of the Flies [Single]. 1996. 3.5/5

This was the second single released by Iron Maiden from The X Factor album, with Blaze Bayley having come into the fold to replace Bruce Dickinson on vocals. Written by Janick Gers and Steve Harris, the lyrics are based on the famous novel of the same name. I like the song, but it barely seems to get out of second gear all the way through. In a way, the whole of the album tends the same way.

Additional songs here are cover versions, The Who's "My Generation" and UFO's "Doctor Doctor". Both songs sound rather flat compared to the original versions by the original artists. This has been a sore point for me for a long time. The originals are energetic, full of life. And this is Iron Maiden, one of the finest bands... ever! Unfortunately, I really think they should have played these in a live atmosphere and really gone to town on them. Instead, we have a studio feeling, as though it is over produced. You can't over produced these two songs, they really needed to be let loose. While "My Generation" has an innate energy on this recording, it isn't anything spectacularly different, while I must admit I was hoping for a breakout version of "Doctor Doctor" that just doesn't arrive.
Overall, this single is satisfactory without sending shivers down the spine.

Rating:  Saints and sinners, something willing us...  3.5/5

731. Poison / Look What the Cat Dragged In. 1986. 3.5/5

At a time when it was almost mandatory to wear makeup and have teased hair if you were going to make the scene (ala bands such as Motley Crue, Ratt, Bon Jovi and W.A.S.P.), Poison came forth with their debut album Look What the Cat Dragged In, hoping to break into an already saturated market where MTV and sugar coated power ballads seemed to be the only way to make an impact. Winding back to those days, and if you ignored the physical features as they were presented to you (I was from the denim-jacketed Maiden/Metallica side of metal rather than the spandex/glam side) you could generally find something on the vinyl that caught your interest from such bands. If you could do that, you could hopefully see past the syrup-dripping ballads that came as part-and-parcel of albums like this, and enjoy it for what they were, and concentrate on those songs that had some balls about them.
When this was released it was almost impossible to ignore given the airplay on music video shows that the singles received. What was tougher was finding anything gritty enough to make it worthy of purchase. In the days where you hoped one of your mates bought the album so you could tape it to cassette for your own use, no one was jumping at this on the basis of the singles that were released. Eventually, the purveyor of all to those kids with no income, the second hand record store, provided my first vinyl copy of this album, and I was able to finally experience what was beyond the money-spinning singles.

Fast forward back to the present day, and listening to the album now still reminds me of those days in the late 1980's. It also shows the double edged sword that most hair metal / glam metal bands were working under. You could write and play the harder, faster songs, the ones that made teenagers jump around their bedrooms playing air guitar (something that it always looked like CC DeVille was doing on stage anyway). But to get on the radio, you had to have a ballad, or a pop song, thus singles such as "I Won't Forget You". Ugh. You also had to have a video to support that power ballad, in order to get heavy rotation on the music video shows.
As an album, I still get a lot of enjoyment from this. The songs are mostly up-tempo teenage anthems, preaching good times and anti-parent themes with the usual sexual innuendo thrown in. Get past some of the lyrical content, and you have some fairly impressive happy guitaring from C.C. DeVille, while the rest of the band are tight and precise. Rikki Rockett's drumming is excellent, as is Bobby Dall's bass work. There can be no complaints about the quality of the musicianship. Bret Michaels vocals convey each song's message to a nicety.
Still, some songs for me are of a better quality than others. The high energy songs such as "Look What the Cat Dragged In", "Talk Dirty to Me", "Want Some, Need Some" and "Let Me Go to the Show" are my favourites, and given they all feature on the second half of the album it probably helps my enjoyment of the album as a whole. I'm not as enamoured with songs such as "Cry Tough", "I Want Action" and "I Won't Forget You". They don't really do anything for me lyrically or musically.
There's no doubt I probably enjoy this album more now than I did back in the late 1980's, and most of that is because of nostalgia for the end of those teenage years, and what they represent. If it was only to be represented by that, this could even rate higher.

Rating: The night rolls up and I do it again. 3.5/5

730. Paul Di'anno / The Living Dead. 2006. 2.5/5

As it turns out, I have never been able to locate a copy of Di'anno's album Nomad, which would appear to be unfortunate until I found this album, and it turns out it is exactly the same tracks, though apparently remastered and shuffled in order, with a few extra tracks tagged on. It could well be that I never get to hear the original album, but it would be nice to once, just to hear if there is any difference whatsoever. I'm guessing there is not. Given Paul's dalliance with the re-recording or playing material from his days in Iron Maiden, perhaps it is ironic that now he is re-recording/re-hashing his own material, from a brief six years in the past. Putting that aside, the songs here stack up reasonably well. Much of this would compare favourably with some of the best of his other post-Maiden career, from albums such as Fighting Back and Murder One.

The playing might be great, but Paul's vocals are literally all over the place. It just feels like he couldn't decide how he was going to sing on this album, so he decided to cover every base available. I mean, he sang some parts of songs in a similar register that he used in his younger, Iron Maiden days, and he sang some parts of songs in an almost falsetto high pitched voice that defies description, except to say that it doesn't sound anything like Paul Di'anno at all. Then he sang some parts of songs with a modern day growl, that again just doesn't suit him historically at all. Now, it may well just be me, but for someone like Paul, for whom the majority of his fan base is derived from his initial recordings with Iron Maiden and whose instrument is his voice, the surely it is his selling point, and he needs to make sure it is at the peak of its form. There doesn't seem much sense in putting out an album, no matter what the music is like, if his voice isn't in there driving the songs. I have no problem with him doing something different if that is what he is trying to achieve, but it is all so uneven here that the good work done instrumentally is actually being dragged down by the vocals, and that should never be the case when you are the big name behind the recording in the first place.
The songs themselves actually have quite a lot to offer. There's plenty of hard rocking, mostly heavy material, with belting drums and riffing and solo-work on the guitars. The opener "The Living Dead" is a great way to start the album, lulling you in but its understated melody. "Mad Man in the Attic" and "War Machine" follow this up with a real metal feel. "Nomad" and "S.A.T.A.N." are the best of the rest of the album, with the guitars being the stars of the show, overshadowing the title artist's vocals.
The cover version of Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction" seems to have fans equally divided. Many feel it is better than the original and an excellent version. Personally I think it is the epitome of the problems this album has with the vocals. They are everywhere. There is no uniformity, and no effort to be so. They are obviously meant to go for high to low and woe. I find it far too distracting to enjoy. Also tacked onto the end are another two live cover versions of Iron Maiden songs form Paul's era, this time being "Wrathchild" and "Phantom of the Opera". Neither is any better or worse than the thousands of other versions Di'anno has put out over the last 30-odd years.

Rating:  I have no future but always to roam alone. 2.5/5

729. Hughes Turner Project / Live in Tokyo. 2002. 4/5

The most exciting part about the release of the initial Hughes Turner Project album was to hear how the combination of the two partners vocals would turn out, as well hopefully producing some great material. While the vocals melded well, the great material didn't quite eventuate.
However, this live album is something quite different. Not only do we get the best of their material from their debut album in a live setting, we get a range of top shelf, classic songs from their past history, which combines some of the best songs released by the bands Deep Purple and Rainbow from their tenure in those bands.
While songs from their HTP project do come to life better in this live environment, most notably "You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll" and "Ride the Storm", as well as the always impressive "Devil's Road", it is the songs from their past that are the stars of this release. Listening to Glenn Hughes singing to the stars in "Mistreated" and "Stormbringer" is a treat in itself. The man that the Japanese dubbed "The Voice of Rock" again proves himself here with these Deep purple numbers. So much so that it makes his track that he recorded with Tony Iommi on Seventh Star, "No Stranger to Love", seem so much more ordinary because of it. His vocals on that album don't match what he can really do, and even this version of the song pales in comparison to those great Purple numbers. Joe Lynn Turner does his Rainbow number s with justice, especially "Spotlight Kid" and "I Surrender".
Though the two albums that this duo released, Hughes Turner Project and 2 were both somewhat disappointing for me, it was never through the quality of their musicianship, but just that they were a bit generic in their writing. This live album increases their value, as well as showcasing the amazing vocal capabilities of both gentlemen, along with the guitaring of Akira Kajiyama, who is quite scintillating in places. Fans of these gentlemen's contributions to Deep Purple and Rainbow will appreciate this album the best.

Rating:  No point running, cos it's coming your way.  4/5.

728. Helloween / Live in the U.K. 1989. 5/5

There are few bands who could claim to have had such amazing success over the course of their first three full length albums as the band Helloween had in the mid to late part of the 1980’s. Having first released their debut self-titled EP, they followed that up with three truly amazing albums in “Walls of Jericho”, “Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1” and “Keepers of the Seven Keys Part 2”. The band was on a rising tide, a king tide at that, and there appeared that little could be done to stop them.
Riding high on that success, it was decided that Helloween's tour of the UK in 1988 would be recorded in order to produce a live album, something that could preserve for all time the band’s ultimate line up and their live presence at this stage of their career. They had already supported Iron Maiden that year on their Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour, but this was their first headline tour of the UK, and as such was a big move for them. It was also a time of tension within the band and with their record label, Noise. There was discontent with how much the band was being paid, compared to the amount they were bringing in with album sales and merchandise sales, along with the constant touring the band was doing, something that founding member Kai Hansen had tried to address on a number of occasions in the recent two years. The problems with Noise would eventually lead to a lawsuit between the two entities, while the tension within the band itself was also close to reaching boiling point, and the consequences of which were also close to coming to fruition.
Despite all of this, the tour was a great success, with the band playing a full setlist that covered all of their amazing work to this point of their career, and a snapshot of that was to eventually see the light in the form of the live album entitled “Live in the UK”.

This album was taken from recordings over two consecutive nights at the Edinburgh Playhouse in Scotland in November 1988. The seven songs featured here cover the three full studio albums that Helloween had released to this point. And each of them are perfectly brilliant versions of the songs, with the band and its members all firing on all cylinders. Each brought the right attitude and sense of occasion to each song. The sense of fun in the lyrics of "Dr Stein" and "Rise and Fall" come through perfectly in this live setting, with lead vocalist Michael Kiske playing the perfect role. "A Little Time" and "Future World" sound just as good as their studio versions, powerful and forthright in the rhythm section of drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg and bass guitarist Marcus Grosskopf, setting the platform for the star guitarists in Michael Weikath and Kai Hansen to lay down their riffs and solo pieces. The soaring melodic tones of both guitars and Kiske’s vocals during "We Got the Right" send chills down the spine, which is repeated in the closing "How Many Tears", with Kiske wringing every last piece of angst and passion out of the song. It is an amazing version of this already brilliant song, and a version that perhaps has never been bettered. Just brilliant. And of course there is “I Want Out”, the forever fan favourite that again is a perfect rendition here on this live album.
Perhaps the only criticism I can find of this release is that it is far too short. In times where the majority of bands releasing live albums were doing so on double LPs (or by 1989 beginning to be double CDs), in order to capture the entire gig, this seems to be over with just as it is warming up. The actual concerts that this album was recorded at had double this number of songs. I mean, this is terrific, but imagine these seven songs being paired with equally brilliant live versions of the other songs on the setlist - "Eagle Fly Free", “March of Time”, “A Tale That Wasn’t Right”, "Halloween", “Follow the Sign” into "Keeper of the Seven Keys" and "I'm Alive" alongside “Livin’ Ain’t No Crime”. It would truly be a masterpiece. I don't know the reason behind this - perhaps their record company felt a single album was the best way to go (for them) in terms of sales. There are bootlegs of these gigs, of which I have a couple, and they do sound terrific. You can actually hear an excellent one on YouTube if you want. It is totally worth it. The other reason it is a shame we didn't get a full recording is because this is the only official live release with this line up, the "Keepers" line up. Despite this slight falling down, what is presented here is a great live album full of terrific tracks, showcasing the best that this band had to offer. Top shelf.

I have told my tale of my discovery of Helloween on other podcast episodes scattered throughout this internet, but suffice to say that if we hadn’t had our Norwegian exchange student Hans Hoie show up in Year 12 back in 1987, then it could have taken me a lot longer to discover this band than it did. And for that I am forever grateful that he graced our Australian shores that year. And from his influence and cassette tapes recorded for me, I found an amazing band.
I loved this album on its release. Not only is the track list just terrific (despite my already revealed reservations on its relative short length), it showcases just how good this band was live at a time that would have to be considered their peak, at least for this line up. Michael Kiske's vocals soar, in a way that few could say they could equal in a live environment. Mention him in the same breath as Dickinson, Dio and Halford and you won't be denigrating this group. The iconic happy guitars of Kai Hansen and Michael Weikath complement each other beautifully throughout the album. Markus Grosskopf on bass rumbles through each song, his crazily underrated running basslines such a part of what makes their music so wonderful, while Ingo Schwichtenberg's drumming in reality is the complex timekeeping that ties the whole album together while the other subjects go about their business.
I found this at an out-of-the-way record store at Warrawong shopping centre, the name of which I don’t think I ever knew. But they had amazing material there that I couldn’t find at your everyday record store in those days, so it was always worth a visit. And I played this for months at the time, just loving every song, and always wishing it had more songs on it. A double album with the setlist from this concert? It would have rivalled Live After Death! And this is the perfect example of my oft-quoted… quote… that a live album should always be a 5/5 album, because it has the best material recorded in a band’s best environment. On that, “Live in the UK” stands up wondrously well.
Kai Hansen moved on after this tour, in fact quitting the band just a few weeks after this album was recorded, and it was really the end of the first great era of Helloween. The band had lots of struggles over the coming few years as the fallout to this and their record deal, and while they have come out the other side and with the current reunion line up are storming the world once again, this was the end of its greatest era. And while this album is a sterling reminder of their brilliance, it could have been a ripper with a full set.