861. Paul Di'Anno's Battlezone / Fighting Back. 1986. 3.5/5

Following on from several attempts to reboot his career after his parting with Iron Maiden, Paul Di'anno put together another set of musicians and the new band Battlezone was formed, though it became popularly known as Paul Di'anno's Battlezone, no doubt by the record company to cash in on the lead singer's renown. Given the changing route of the music he had produced in the previous projects he had been involved in, there was little to go on as to what direction this new project would take.

It stars off on the right foot with "(Forever) Fighting Back" and "Welcome to the Battlezone", both hard rocking anthems that place immediate focus on Di'anno's best vocal characteristics, and some clean guitaring skills from John Hurley and John Wiggins. Leading on after this is "Warchild", which amplifies the faster tempo track that dominates the album, along with an anthemic lyric that attempts to draw you in and sing along with the band. "Into the Darkness" drops into a settled riff and tempo pushed song that while it sounds simplified and repetitive is rendered unnoticeable by Di'anno's vocals again, and another suitable solo break, both of which again highlight the strengths of the band being able to overwrite any perceived weaknesses. "The Land God Gave to Cain" is the closer of the first side on the album, and suffers from being long-winded in length and also of overusing the same riff for far too long to make this a completely satisfying conclusion to proceedings.
The second side opens with "Running Blind" which starts off with clear guitar and the Di'anno soft vocals, before bursting out after the initial intro to a hard rock beat similar to the opening track and again a solid solo section by the dual guitars. "Too Much to Heart" takes some liberties with the vibe of the album, making a hard rock 'ballad' that isn't really compromising what has gone before. "Voice on the Radio" utilises the backup vocals of the other members of the band more than the majority of the songs on the album, while sticking with that hard rock theme formula with a solo thrown in for good measure. "Welfare Warriors" is a ripper track, again combining the dual guitars with Di'anno's vocals at an up tempo click. "Feel the Rock" is a simplified hard rock track to end the album, if not in a brilliant way then at least in a somewhat fitting way.
Though in truth this is probably a very formula driven album, almost 'rock by numbers', it is catchy enough to make you sit up and enjoy it for what it is. The band is really quite good, solid in all respects, and while the riffs tend to come from that same school of 'how to write a hard rock song', there is enough to distinguish this from the ordinary o make it worthy of listening to. The guitar solos too add the flavour to the songs to help them rise above the average. To top all of this off, Di'anno's vocals still sound great, even if they do tend not to change tone too often, and probably still show the lack of variation that was a contributing factor to his being moved on from his pervious high profile band. Still his voice is distinctive and enjoyable, and still is here.

As a mid-80's hard rock album there is enough here to make it worth the while of the average punter to have a listen, and see what Di'anno could do with a different writing team around him.

Rating:  Goodbye, guys we don't need you.  3.5/5