1313. Gary Moore / Run for Cover. 1985. 3.5/5

The years leading up to this particular album being released had seen Gary Moore take more of an interest in producing his own material rather than being a hired hand in other projects. He had spent time in and out of Thin Lizzy and other projects in the 1970’s with his good friends and fellow rock traveller Phil Lynott, but in recent years had settled down into a solo career that seemed to be taking shape. The hard-hitting “Corridos of Power” album had been followed by the delayed release of the album “Dirty Fingers”, one that truly showcased his wonderful guitar skills along with his writing capabilities. Then had come “Victims of the Future” which both lyrically and musically followed that album closely in style and substance. It had utilised almost two different bands worth of musicians however, including new collaborator Neil Carter, bass players Neil Murray and Bob Daisley, and drummers Ian Paice and Bobby Chouinard. More importantly, Moore had taken on the lead vocal role himself for the first time for a full album, which did give it a much better sound, as though it was an actual band despite the use of so many different players. Moore wrote the majority of the album himself with help from Carter, and it appeared as though he had found his feet for perhaps the first time.
And then, coming into that album’s follow up, he delved once again into the “many players” aspect of the writing and playing scenario, something that arguably gave the album a different feel than perhaps a direct follow up to the hard to heavy oriented sound of “Victims of the Future” deserved. Moore’s good friend and frequent collaborator Phil Lynott was back. With the disbandment of Thin Lizzy two years earlier, Lynott had formed another band called Grand Slam in 1984, but which had also broken up due to being unable to break into the current music scene, and being seen as a poor man’s Thin Lizzy. Moore had invited him back to participate on this album, which he does in several capacities. Also on board was Glenn Hughes, formerly of Deep Purple and Trapeze, who had just found himself fired from Black Sabbath for his substance abuse, something he shared with Lynott. Hughes was also a bass playing lead vocalist like Lynott, so the participation of both on this album is a little unusual and rather unique. Three different keyboardists are used, Bob Daisley appears again on bass guitar on one track, and four drummers play pieces along the way. From the outside it seems like a very disjointed way of progressing on an album. If it was to be just a session album then it could be understandable. But by this stage of his career, surely Moore would have been searching for stability in his lineup, both on stage and in the studio. It was something that had the ability to create problems, and eventually the proof could be found in the pudding of the album that it brought together, called “Run for Cover”.

The album consists of ten tracks, with Moore himself credited as sole writer of seven of them. Two have Neil Carter as co-writer, while the other is composed by Phil Lynott and his former band mates from Grand Slam, Laurence Archer and Mark Stanway. That song, “Military Man”, was written by these three for that band, which then fell apart before any album deal came through. Lynott brought it with him when he came into this album, and so it appears here, along with Lynott on lead vocal for the song. For as long as this album has been out, and given I have known this album for almost all of that time, this song has been praised as an important anti-war song, with Lynott’s embracing vocals an important part of riding the emotion through the song. It’s just that, this doesn’t SOUND like a Gary Moore song. He didn’t write it, he doesn’t sing it, he plays guitar on it, and that’s all. The style of the track doesn’t suit what he is best known for in his career as a solo artist. It sounds like a Phil Lynott track, and that just doesn’t line up here at all.
Lynott contributes to one other track on the album, both on bass and as co-lead vocals, and as it turns out it is another anti-war song, but this time written by Moore and with Moore carrying the majority of the lead vocals. And it has become one of his best known and most famous songs, released as an almost stand alone single almost four months before the release of this album. The song is “Out in the Fields”, and features Moore and Lynott on duelling vocals through the song, switching lines and backing each other through the chorus. Unlike “Military Man”, which is a slow build to the energetic and powerful conclusion, this song is immediately punchy with Moore’s guitar riff and Lynott’s rumbling bass line, the tempo is faster and the energy and vibe of the track is upbeat despite the contents of the lyrics. It’s remarkable that these two friends for over 20 years came from either side of the border of Ireland and Northern Ireland, and the things they had grown up with and must have seen during their lives growing up gave them a perspective together that makes this an incredibly powerful song. This is the signature song of the album.
Glenn Hughes contributes bass guitar on most of the remainder of the album, apart from one song by Bob Daisley. Hughes also sings lead vocals on four of those tracks. He doesn’t go by the “Voice of Rock” for nothing, as his vocals on those great Deep Purple albums in particular showcase. However, he doesn’t utilise that kind of range on these songs here, and yet he sounds terrific. Still, gives Moore’s ever improving vocals with each album, did he NEED Hughes on this album? Sure, its great that he wanted him involved, but it is still possible to wonder if his contributions could not have been performed by Moore. Certainly, when you hear the songs sung by Hughes here performed live with Moore on lead vocal, these is barely a discernible difference. Anyway, move on Bill, you are wasting valuable time. Let’s look at those four songs. “Reach for the Sky” has a true blues guitar bent about it, something that is perhaps exacerbated by Hughes’s vocals, as he has the ability to bring a real blues tone to anything he performs. But it is scarily reminiscent of the style of song that Moore eventually became entwined with during the 1990’s. The small portions of keyboard and synth do drag it back to the 1980’s, but as a rock blues tune it does act as a look into the future, along with Moore’s guitar solo which really only tops it off. Ah, if only we’d known then what we know now. “Out of My System” returns to a more typical hard rock tone with that 80’s keyboard again entwining its way into the song. There is an obvious desire to send this in a slightly more commercial direction. It was not released as a single but the way the song is written and performed you can hear it dripping of it in places. “Nothing to Lose” settles into its mid-tempo and chugs along for the entirement of the song, not climbing out of its groove, and only feeling lively when both vocalists combine into the bridge and chorus of the song. And the lyrics are barely inspiring, “Keep on rocking and rolling, keep on singing the blues”. And Hughes’s final lead vocal comes from the Moore and Carter penned “All Messed Up”, which could pretty much have been written about Hughes at this point of his career. Heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol, Glenn Hughes was an artist who appeared to be spiralling, and the lyrics here almost tell his story in real time. This is another song that sound much better in the live environment with a bit more grunt in the music and with Gary singing the vocals.
Moore sings the other four songs on the album, which as a result sound like the four most Gary Moore songs on the album. The title track opening song “Run for Cover” is a beauty, with Gary's squealing guitar emphasising where his vocals demand it does, the tempo and energy is at its best and the whole song is a great way to open the album. “Empty Rooms” is a power ballad, plain and simple. And yes it seems that almost every band in existence has to dabble with them. Neil Carter is particularly infatuated with them, and as a co-writer here he and Gary pull out all the stops to create a hitmaker. It was released as the second single before the album was released, where it failed to light any fires. “Once in a Lifetime” mirrors “Out of My System” in that it is an inoffensive 80’s styled rock song with more keys and synth as a basis of the song than you would prefer in a Gary Moore song when he could be contributing more guitar to the mix. Still, then we come to “Listen to Your Heartbeat” which tends to ruin almost everything that has come before it on the album. This is a soft rock almost pop tune, dominated by the synth and keys of the era with almost no appearance of Gary’s guitaring at all, and when it does appear it emulates the style that the track encapsulates. “Empty Rooms” is a legitimate power ballad song, and whether you like them or not Gary performs it well and it showcases a number of great elements of his and his band’s music. But this does not. It is obscenely dreadful. How it could be considered that this song was the way to finish an album is impossible to understand.

When it comes to “Run for Cover”, things don’t make a lot of sense until you consider the following. Because I often have a problem with this album due to the mix and match of musicians throughout. The mood changes that occur from song to song not only come from the change of musicians but the change of lead vocalist. This is something that obviously works in other bands, where different people in the band sing different songs. But here, it is almost like whole new lineups, and with the unique perspective of two different bass players and lead vocalists, their styles are so different in both bass playing and singing that it does sound like either two different albums or at times two different bands. This also was recorded in five different studios, and utilised five different producers, including Moore himself. I mean, it is difficult to make a coherent album with the number of personnel involved, even if one guy is the main songwriter and the ringleader of the circus.
“Run for Cover” was the last of the Gary Moore albums I got a copy of during that decade. Having discovered him late one Friday or Saturday night while watching Rage on ABCTV – it was the live version of “Wishing Well” that dragged me in – and having others of my friend group who were of a similar mind, I managed to get copies of all of his albums to that point in time. Except this one. Then came “Wild Frontier” and “After the War”, both of which I loved and love. And as far as I remember, I even got “Still Got the Blues” before I eventually got my copy of “Run for Cover”. So I had been exposed to a LOT of Gary Moore that, for me at least, existed at the top end of the spectrum.
So when I did listen to this album, I knew “Out in the Fields” and “Empty Rooms” and the title track. But as you may have already suspected while listening to this episode, this album I found very difficult to get into. It wasn’t like his other albums. It sounded disjointed. The songs didn’t flow together. The change in lead vocals on every single track was distracting. The style of each song differed from the other. And, in the main – I just didn’t really like many of the songs. I TRIED to like them, because pretty much everything else I had of his I loved. But this album just didn’t do it for me. And although I have listed here already several reasons why I “Run for Cover” just didn’t and hasn’t worked for me, I think that in the long run, this album is so different from what makes Gary Moore’s music so entertaining. It misses the key ingredients, and that means this batch of songs tastes like sewerage.
And, let me tell you, it hasn’t been for lack of trying again over the past week or so. 13 times I’ve listened to this album from start to finish, hoping something this time around would inspire me to find something that I had not in the previous 40 years. It failed to materialise. I still had the same impressions that I think I always have from this album. It’s okay, I haven’t minded having it on. But it would be very low on the choice meter if I was looking to listen to some Gary Moore to get me through the day.

1312. Stormtrooper of Death / Speak English or Die! 1985. 4/5

Is Stormtroopers of Death the most unlikely band project to ever release an album? That is probably too long a bow to draw, but it is true that the coming together and recording and release of this particular album is fantastical in the extreme. And it all comes to pass from the band Anthrax, who in June of 1985 were finishing off the recording of their second studio album “Spreading the Disease”. The story is told that, after finishing his guitar tracks, Scott Ian would draw pictures of a character that he named Sargent D, who took the form of an undead, cigar-chomping G.I. He would then compose slogans for Sargent D such as "I'm not racist; I hate everyone" and "Speak English or Die". Ian began to write lyrics about the character and about his thoughts. Once Anthrax had completed the recording of their new album there was still some studio time left, and so Ian decided to use it to have some fun. He pulled aside his Anthrax bandmate Charlie Benante to play drums. Now they needed some other personnel, and they knew just where to go. Former Anthrax bass guitarist Danny Lilker was out and about trying to get his new band, Nuclear Assault, up off the ground, but when Ian called him to see what he was doing he had a gap in his schedule, and he came down to the studio. Also on the call list was another friend Billy Milano who was lined up to do some vocals.
On July 1, 1985, the four recorded what could loosely be termed a demo tape in the studio. Titled “Crab Society North”, it was recorded by plugging a Walkman into a speaker, and then just cutting loose with their material. The demo tape was 14 minutes and 21 seconds, and contained 63 songs, ranging in length from 1 second to 58 seconds. Very little was eventually used from this one day jam, but one thing that did stick was coming up with the name of the band – Stormtroopers of Death, or simply S.O.D.
For the next four days, from July 2 to 5 1985, the four members of the newly named band put together the 21 tracks that would form what would be known as their debut album, and recorded and mixed it. Upon its release it was instantly controversial due to their deliberately offensive explicit lyrics. Scott Ian said from the outset that the songs were written as a big inside joke, adding: "Some people thought we were racist, and those people are stupid”. Even more remarkable, this album, completed in four days at the end of the sessions for Anthrax’s “Spreading the Disease” album, actually beat that album to its release by two months. And in its own way went about creating its own genre, with the joy and amusing anecdotes that was titled “Speak English or Die!”

When it comes to this album there are a couple of things that have to be addressed. The first is the lyrical content on many of the songs, controversial topics and opinions sprouted in songs such as "Pre-Menstrual Princess Blues", "Pussy Whipped" and "Fuck the Middle East", addressing homosexuality, women and foreign cultures. Dan Lilker stated at the time that "The lyrics were never intended to be serious, just to piss people off. Furthermore, in an interview with Songfacts in 2014, when asked "If Speak English or Die came out today, do you think that because of the political correctness of today, it would go over the same?", Lilker responded, "It probably would have had a harder time just because people seem to be more uptight now. Nevertheless, it was what it was, which is saying it is what it is, but back then. And I don't regret it. Maybe minor aspects went overboard with certain lyrical things, but then again, we didn't really mean them. Perhaps if people realise that, then it's just more funny”. And this is worth considering if you are new to the album. The lyrics may not be politically correct but they are not the serious thoughts of those who wrote them. They were written to gain a reaction and to be considered as a running joke commentary. Not all of course will see or take it that way.
That comes from the first track, following the instrumental opening of “March of the S.O.D” introduces us to the man himself “Sargent D and the S.O.D”, who takes all in his wake, espousing “Their cause is justified, their reason is clear, the word "revenge" is all that they hear. They'll make you wish that you didn't exist cos Sargent "D" is coming and you're on his list”. A great stomping track, that continues into “Kill Yourself” with inspiring lyrics such as “You're a loser, there's nothing left for you, A worthless loser at everything you do. Kill yourself now!”. “Milano Mosh” gives lead vocalist Billy Milano the chance to stomp around a bit himself. “Speak English or Die” lives on that threshold. “You come into this country, you can't get real jobs, boats and boats and boats of you, go home, you fuckin' slobs”. Let’s face it, real opinions such as these are still sprouted in the modern day by Joe Public, let alone those who are somehow voted into our governments. Every extremity has been covered by the band in the opening four songs.
Without trying to cover the entire range of the 21 tracks that cover the almost 29 minutes of this album, there are some really great pieces on this album. “United Forces” is a beauty, another real stomping track with a great riff and easy singalong lyrics. The short, sharp attitude of “Chromatic Death” punctuates and enlightens along the way. “Freddy Krueger” is just a brilliant thrash hardcore track that combines the best of both world and throws it into the mix perfectly. A ripping moshing song. “Milk” is perfect in the same way, expressing the disappointment that one can’t have a normal breakfast because Mum hasn’t bought milk. I imagine my 17 year old son would probably think exactly what this song expresses whenever he has drunk all the milk in our house.
Every other track, from the 2 second and 5 second squats to the lengthy 80 seconds bursts, all make for a fabulous listening experience, one that combines anger and angst with moshing and a good time.

I first came across this album as we began the new decade. As avid listeners to this podcast will know, I very recently spoke about Anthrax’s album “Persistence of Time”, and the fact that the band opened their tour for that album in Australia, which I got to see. As a lead up to that I had tried to gather together as much music from the band as I could, which had included the “I’m the Man” EP as well as being directed to this album. And it is fair to say that it struck a chord from the outset. It merged in with other band and albums that I was beginning to be introduced to at that time and over the next couple of years. Part of the Anthrax mantra had been to have a fun, corny time with their music on stage, and this certainly melded in with that.
Did I care about the fact that it used language and spoke about controversial subjects? No, not in the slightest. It would be easy to say that I wasn’t offended by anything on this album because none of those things affected me. But the truth is that it was all obviously in jest, in creating a storm by expanding these things in a greater context. If people are offended by anything here – either 40 years ago or in the present day, where offence seems more prevalent – then simply don’t listen to it.
I’ve had this album out again over the past couple of days, and it is as enjoyable as I have always found it. For me it will always be a novelty, something that is fun to put on every now and then and enjoy it for what it is, and then send it back to the shelves to wait until the next time. I am more likely to reach for an Anthrax record than I am an S.O.D. album, for no other reason than the substance of the songs.
S.O.D. toured in support of the album in 1985, opening for Motörhead and The Plasmatics, among others. They had apparently planned a follow-up titled USA For S.O.D., which was ultimately scrapped and never recorded. After their tour ended, Lilker carried on with the band Nuclear Assault while Benante and Ian continued with Anthrax. Milano formed the spin-off band Method of Destruction, known as M.O.D. It was not the end of the S.O.D. story but it doesn’t pick up again for a few years down the track.

1302. Mötley Crüe / Theatre of Pain. 1985. 2.5/5

Motley Crue’s sophomore album, the heavy yet accessible “Shout at the Devil”, had catapulted the band to national and international recognition, on the back of songs such as “Too Young to Fall in Love”, “Helter Skelter”, “Looks That Kill” and the title track “Shout at the Devil”. It was this song, and its perceived imagery of Satanism that was exacerbated by the album cover, that had many religious and political groups claiming that they had nefarious thoughts and plans. It was the time of the PMRC in the United States and their growing influence upon the media. In the long run this did not harm the sales of the album and even provided further promotion for it. During the recording of that album bass guitarist Nikki Sixx had crashed a friend’s Porsche which he had stolen while drunk, and the resulting shoulder injury found him develop a Percocet addiction that transitioned quickly to a $3,500 a day heroin addiction. They then found even greater popularity and airplay – and infamy - on tour when they supported Ozzy Osborne, before going on the Monsters of Rock tour in 1984 with Van Halen and AC/DC. On each of these occasions the band were a huge hit, but their backstage antics caused friction wherever they went. The band’s debauchery had shocked even Ozzy himself on that tour, and on the Monsters of Rock tour the band was eventually restricted to only leaving their trailer to play their slot, and having to leave the venue immediately afterwards, following incidents where Vince Neil had bitten Eddie Van Halen, Tommy Lee had bitten Malcolm Young and had also gotten into a fistfight with David Lee Roth. Popular with fans they may have been, but not with touring bands. There was even a discussion at one stage by the band of firing guitarist Mick Mars, which was only saved by then Ozzy bass guitarist, Bob Daisley, reminding them that they should not change something that wasn’t broken.
On December 8, 1984, in a car driven by Vince Neil while severely under the influence of alcohol, Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle was killed when Neil crashed the car that he was a passenger in. With the threat of serious jail time a possibility, Neil found a way to escape this threat by writing a very large cheque and doing 30 days jail time, of which he only completed 20. Never a dull moment in the Motley Crue camp.
With all of this going on, the band finally entered the studio in January 1985 to finally write and record their follow up to their sophomore album. At the time, given the lengthy period between releases, there must have been some concern that they had failed to strike while the iron was hot. The end result offered a mixed response to those thoughts.

Taking in everything that I’ve mentioned in the opening monologue to this episode, one can only wonder what the mood and headspace of the band was as they wrote and recorded this album, and in many ways that seems obvious when you listen to the finished product. The lyrics are not groundbreaking or particularly outstanding, and as they came from a mostly overly influenced lyrics writer that isn’t much of a stretch, though Nikki did seem to stick to a central theme. “City Boy Blues” is basically just a revved-up blues riff throughout as Vince moans about being unable to break the shackles of the city boy blues. It’s mostly a repetitive uninspired opening track that hardly sets the world on fire like the opening tracks on just about every other Motley Crue album does. “Louder Than Hell” mirrors the sound and style of track from “Shout at the Devil” with the guitar riff and Neil’s vocal stylings and squeals, but without the attitude that album possesses. It was actually a leftover track from that album, which explains why it sounds similar to that album, and also why it didn’t make the cut for that album. “Keep Your Eye on the Money” has some good lyrics early on, switching between the gambling and drug metaphors, but eventually becomes a song where the title of the song is repeated over and over in the back half to completely sink whatever credence it may have begun with. It isn’t a new technique for the band, and one that gets the same treatment on the second side of the album, beginning with “Tonight (We Need a Lover)”, “Use It or Lose It”, “Raise Your Hands to Rock” and even “Fight for Your Rights”. And yes, it is a very rock and roll formula to have repeated choruses or verses to encourage pop lyrical memory from the fans, and maybe it is just me, but this album does have it in overkill mode.
So lyrically the album does fall a little short on the band’s opening two albums. Musically... well there is a similar problem really. Tommy Lee’s drumming is solid on this album, but he isn’t really pushing himself to new heights, trying to be innovative or at the very least energetic in a way that has your head bobbing along in time with him. Mick Mars guitar work is as clean as always; he lets loose with a couple of bursts of soloing and with a riff that makes its mark but none of it is as spectacular as the previous two albums. Vince Neil’s vocals are serviceable but don’t inspire much enthusiasm. And Nikki Sixx’s bass work – well I guess that’s another story as well. In recent times it has been claimed from several sources that Nikki has not recorded the bass guitar in several instances during the band’s history. Now this isn’t unusual in the history of music, where other musicians have recorded instruments on an album uncredited, so it isn’t really a shock or surprise, but it has been made to be so. In the instance of this album, former Motley Crue guitarist Greg Leon recently said in an interview that Sixx did not play any bass on “Theatre of Pain”.
The two songs that stand out on this album, and the ones that have proven to be the most popular through the years are the two single releases, “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” and “Home Sweet Home”. “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” is a cover of the Brownsville Station song, and is immediately a standout on this album because it suddenly revives the fun and energetic part of the band that for the most part of this album lies dormant. And it sounds like they are having fun playing it. Vince sounds up and at his best, Mick’s guitaring is suddenly inspired, and Tommy’s drumming is far more upbeat. It stands out like sore thumb on this album. “Home Sweet Home” of course is the power ballad, the piano driven song that concludes side one of the album, and became the band’s signature song. It is a step further along from what they had tried before, and its style grabbed the attention of the target audience. As a leading light and forerunner to the singles oriented glam metal future of bands such as Poison, Cinderella and others, “Theatre of Pain” can lay claim to the one they all used as a template. Not only with the cover song they turned into a teenage anthem, but the power ballad that seduced the hopeless romantics of the world, or those just hoping that it would end up in sex. “Home Sweet Home” became that template that drove many bands that followed Motley Crue into the charts on the back of the sickly-sweet ballad, and with that cemented the bands reputation, and arguably also their conversion from the heavier side of metal to the glam styled version that exploded in the mid-1980's.

My introduction to Motley Crue came reasonably early on in my conversion to the heavier side of music. I had asked my heavy metal music dealer to record me an album that had become the next in my line of requirements. He asked me what I wanted him to put on the other side of the cassette, to which I said to him to choose something he thought I might like. The cassette came back with “Shout at the Devil” as the chosen second side album, and I never looked back.
As it turned out, “Theatre of Pain” is not an album I actually got until the start of the 1990’s decade, well after I had acquired the other albums of the band’s discography. I knew of course the two singles – very well as it turns out, as one was the overplayed ballad on TV and at parties, and the other was covered a band that my heavy metal music dealer played in around the local pubs. So, having been very familiar with Motley Crue’s four other albums, I eventually came around to buying my own copy of this album. And it is fair to say that I was underwhelmed by it. But I’m guessing you all had already guessed that by now. I don’t think it would have mattered what order I got these albums though, this for me would always have been the least likely to succeed. It doesn’t have the raw aggression of “Too Fast for Love” or the heavy tones of “Shout at the Devil”, the energetic exaltations of “Girls, Girls, Girls” or the anthemic “Dr Feelgood”. I’ve always found this to be the ugly duckling of the band’s iconic era. Much of the album is uninspiring in the ways you look for Motley Crue albums and songs. If I was to choose a best of track list between those five albums I wouldn’t choose one song from this album. And initially that may well have been because I heard it last of all those five albums, all of which I found at least half of their tracks appealing. Here though, it doesn't grab me.
The CD came back off the shelves this week for its habitual listen in the Metal Cavern. I’ve had it on at work also. And at no stage did I ever really grasp anything new from it. In fact, the only time my head popped up at work because of an energetic burst of a song was when “Theatre of Pain” had concluded, and the next album started in rotation. I think for me that sums up exactly how I feel about this album.
In the Crue catalogue, “Theatre of Pain” for me ranks at #9 of their 9 studio album releases. I’m sure there are fans out there who have thrown their listening devices out the window upon this revelation. Sorry to disappoint you. Just think about the fact though that this album has always disappointed me more than you are disappointed with me. Or, something like that.

1300. Scorpions / World Wide Live. 1985. 5/5

By the time the Scorpions had reached the middle of the 1980’s decade, their popularity had reached a peak that they could only have ever imagined that they would ever achieve. While they had had big selling albums through the 1970’s, their surge on the back of their 1980’s album such as “Animal Magnetism”, “Blackout” and “Love at First Sting” had been on another level entirely, and their tour around the world on the back of “Love at First Sting” had seen record crowds and sales especially from the singles “Rock You Like a Hurricane” and “Still Loving You”.
In 1978, with the news that guitarist Uli Jon Roth had decided to leave the band, Scorpions released their first double live album titled “Tokyo Tapes”, one that highlighted the very best songs the band had recorded over the first five albums of their career. It acted as a nice way to conclude that era of the band. The arrival of Matthias Jabs as his replacement brought about a change in style for the band, one that saw a slightly heavier direction taken, one that not only reflected the changing tide of music early in the 1980’s decade but also to suit the arrival of the new guitarist and his style.
With the band riding the crest of that wave, the decision was made to record several shows on their tour to release their second live album. At some point, the decision was made that the album would include only songs from the albums since “Tokyo Tapes” had been released, that being the three albums released in the 1980’s, along with Jabs’ first album with the band, 1979’s “Lovedrive”. In hindsight this was a savvy move. It meant that, when listening to both of the live albums back to back, it not only gives a wonderful anthology of the band’s great songs from their first release right through to their ninth studio album, there are no repeat tracks. It gives more of the 1980’s hits a chance to get their live rendition recorded for posterity, and though at the time there was some blowback from older fans saying that the band had abandoned their earlier material, the way it was been constructed has indeed turned out to be the best format the band could have achieved.
This the band released their second live album “World Wide Live”, an album that not only showcased the greatness of the band in the live setting, but proved to be my introduction to their amazing music.

My usual spiel about live albums remains the same as I talk you through this album – that a live album should be an automatic 5/5 album, because you get the band’s best material in its best environment, the stage that it has been written to be performed on. And I can say that without question that this is the case for “World Wide Live”. It has the band’s best tracks from their previous four albums all represented, and they all sound brilliant here, in some cases maybe even better than their studio versions.
“Coming Home” is the perfect opening track for the album, with lyrics that relate the band’s feelings about its fan base, while also doubling as an allternative story as well. But simply saying that “I know for me it is like... coming home”, that brings the crowd into the show from the outset, and sets up what is to come. It’s a great song, jumping and jivy, one that brings the crowd to its feet. This crashes straight into the brilliant “Blackout”, one of the band’s best, a song that should never be out of its setlist. Klaus Meine’s vocals here set the scene along with Rudolph Schenker’s excellent rhythm guitar riff. This then enters the crawling guitar riff that opens “Bad Boys Running Wild”, another great anthemic track with a super guitar riff and singalong lyrics that offers the best of the band. These opening three tracks on the album find a great chord from the outset.
The version here of “Loving You Sunday Morning” is one of the best proof in points of live tracks that can make studio versions pop. This song, that opens the “Lovedrive” album is a terrific track in its own right, but perhaps is a slight plodder on the album itself. Here, it sparkles, with all of the great spots on the song brought to life and made all sparkly. The riff is a bit heavier, the pace is a bit faster, and it all seems to fit better in the live setting. A great track. The same can be said for the next two tracks as well. Both songs are good on their particular studio albums, but they sound better in this environment. “Make it Real” from “Animal Magnetism” and “Big City Nights” from “Love at First Sting” have more potency and a better feel all round on this album, and make the middle of the first album worthy of its content. It is topped off by the always brilliant instrumental track “Coast to Coast”, with Rudolph’s riffing throughout backed by the excellent rhythm section of Herman Rarebell’s titanic drum beat and Francis Buchholz’s metronomic bass line setting the base that makes this song so special.
The band then puts together their two enormous power ballads back to back, something that would always seem to be a dangerous thing in the live setting, chancing bringing the nights momentum to a standstill. But these are no ordinary power ballads, and Scorpions are no ordinary band. They pull this off perfectly, playing just the first half of “Holiday”, which then segues perfectly into “Still Loving You”. The way the band emotes during these tracks, musically and vocally, not only makes these a highlight, but showcases the side of the band that actually attracted a lot of fans to the band in the first place.
Not me though, because what attracted me to the band was their hard rock classics, and that is where the album heads now. “Rock You Like a Hurricane” crashes in to restore heavy loud order to the album, as anthemic as ever and a great live version. Following up is the brilliant “Can’t Live Without You”, perfectly introduced through the beginning of the song, and that bursts with energy throughout. Even when just listening to this section of the album, you can see the fun the band is having on stage while playing these songs, it is infectious. From here the drive through the back half of the album continues with Lovedrive’s “Another Piece of Meat” and on to the closing track of the gig, “Dynamite”, another song with such power and energy it takes you along for the ride. Everything the band had kept in reserve while performing their power ballad duo has been expended by the conclusion of these four tracks.
The encore starts with the quite magnificent “The Zoo”, one of the band’s best, and another where Rudolph’s rhythm riff dominates the track with its groove and perfect setting. They then bust into “No One Like You”, another song that has its highlights from the dual guitars, the delightful squeals from Matthias’s guitar complemented by Schenker pure riffing underneath holding the song together. The album and gig then conclude with “Can’t Get Enough”, including a solo spot from Matthias Jabs to remind everyone that he is still the gunslinger in the band alongside the band leader Schenker. All in all, 16 songs that remain almost unmatched in the band’s career, collected here to sit in posterity forever.

Back in the first half of 1986, I was beginning my heavy metal journey, one that mostly involved my heavy metal music dealer being asked to record me albums that he had brought up in conversation that he thought were excellent. I would find a blank cassette at home that had something on it that I didn’t want (or on rare occasions when I had some cash, I would buy new ones), and would bring them to school, and he would take them home overnight and bring them back the next day with new offerings for me to dine out on. On occasions when I had requested an album and he asked ‘what do you want on the other side of the cassette?’ I would suggest that he could put on something that he thought I might like. This occurred for me sometime during the first half of 1986, when on the back side of an album he recorded for me was the album “World Wide Live” by Scorpions – or at least, however much would fit on the space available. It was my first real meeting with the band, and I was immediately smitten. The great songs keep rolling into each other, they are upbeat and pacey with great riffs and those amazing unique vocals. Everything came together, and I caught the bug.
It would be a couple of years before I started to get the studio albums of the band, not until I began university and sought out a particular second hand record shop in Wollongong, but this album was enough in the meantime. The riffs from Rudolph Schenker, that became the mainstay of each song, were just superb. Matthias Jabs soloing and squeals and intricate pieces he kept throwing in – case in point the opening scrawling guitar to “Bad Boys Running Wild” - are wonderful, and his trademark to the band on those four albums to that point in time he had played on. And Klaus Meine’s vocals are out of this world.
For the past week my CD copy of this album has been back in my stereo, and I have relived it over and over, and it has brought back so many great memories of those school days when I was first introduced to it. It will always do that, because it is very much tied to that time of my life. And now having done that, I just want to go back and listen to the four albums that these songs were taken from and relive them as well. It is a difficult thing to rank live albums in the scheme of things. My heart tells me this is one of the best lives albums I own of any band. I am more certain that it is the best live album that the Scorpions have released. But as a vehicle to discovering the band, for me it was the perfect introduction.

1291. Gogmagog / I Will Be There. 1985. 1/5

One of the most unusual and seemingly unlikely supergroups ever put together by anyone on the history of music is surely the tale of Gogmagog, the so-called brainchild of producer Jonathan King. King had had his own charting single back in 1965, and had been involved in producing bands such as Genesis, 10cc and the Bay City Rollers through the 1960’s and 1970’s. His list of credits in music is extensive, which eventually brought about this venture. But as will be shown, just what the actual end game was for this project is still a mystery.
According to several sources, originally King attempted to put together a supergroup revolving around then Whitesnake lead vocalist David Coverdale, bassist John Entwistle of The Who, and drummer Cozy Powell, all of whom were apparently keen on the project. It was initially imagined for a three track EP to be recorded and released. The lead song was set to be “I Will Be There”, a song composed by Russ Ballard and originally released by him on his solo album titled “Into the Fire” in 1981. Ballard had had a number of hit songs that he had written that were performed by other bands, including “Since You Been Gone” and “I Surrender” by Rainbow, “I Know There’s Something Going On” by ABBA member Frida, “So You Win Again” by Hot Chocolate, “You Can Do Magic” by America, and “New York Groove” and “God Gave Rock and Roll to You” which were covered by Ace Frehley and Kiss respectively. Cozy Powell said he thought that the Ballard song was "the best he's ever written". The other two tracks were composed by King himself, with the imaginative titles of "Living in a Fucking Time Warp" and "It's Illegal, It's Immoral, It's Unhealthy, But It's Fun", the second of which seems highly dubious considering that King was convicted of juvenile sexual abuse 15 years after this project for offences that occurred around this time.
Entwistle in particular was excited as the concept was apparently originally his idea. However, this early line-up wasn't working out, certainly according to later interviews with former Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di'Anno, and all three soon bowed out. That meant that a new line up for the proposed supergroup had to occur, and that was where Di’Anno came in.
Whatever this supergroup was meant to be, after the departure of the original three participants it looked as though the idea was to find members who were in a similar genre of music to those that had left the building. And as it turned out, their time of recruiting members could not have come at a better time. Paul Di’Anno as vocalist had of course been moved on from Iron Maiden, and then the previous year had recorded his debut eponymous solo album, one where he had changed style completely and also refused to play Iron Maiden songs in his set list on tour. That lineup had now dissolved, and when this opportunity had come about it feels as though it would have been one he couldn’t refuse. In interviews since he has had very little to say about it, and what little that he did say was not complimentary. He was completely dismissive of both the group and producer, referring to the failed project as "...nothing. That was some fucking idiot who got us doing that shit." He was also critical of the fact that none of the band members were able to contribute to writing any of the songs, something that if this HAD gotten off the ground would have been interesting to see if that would have changed.

The rest of the band came together from a similar fate and set of circumstances. Drummer Clive Burr had also just recently felt the wrath of the Maiden machine, and while he had had brief stints with both Trust and Alcatrazz, he was at a loose end before this came along. Unlike his former Maiden partner, Burr was more bullish about the project, saying in a later interview that "the others may not admit it, but this is some of the best stuff any of us has done". Pete Willis had also felt the sting of rejection from Def Leppard, and came on board with all sorts of credits behind him to match his two Iron Maiden contemporaries. Joining him on guitar was Jannick Gers who had been a part of Ian Gillan’s band, and of course had a bright future ahead of him a little way down the road, and on bass guitar was Neil Murray, most recently from Whitesnake but with many credits under his belt. As a who’s who of the recently spurned from very prominent hard rock and heavy metal bands, it would be hard to beat.
As to the songs themselves, even for the time that this was released, it is very formulaic. The producer obviously has a reasonable CV behind him, and Ballad’s propensity for writing songs that made charts and hit the right places musically is unquestioned. But there is certainly nothing here that drags you in has you excited to hear what has been laid down. “I Will Be There” is not standing up against ANY of the songs being released in any hard rock or metal environment at the time and certainly isn’t fitting in with the pop scene at the time either. None of the players in this band does anything here that makes you think “Aaahhh yes, that’s what I remember from so-and-so!”. No guitar solo’s, no dynamic bass lines, no dramatic drum fills. Everything is as basic as it can get. Di’Anno sticks out the front of the mix, but while he is serviceable there’s nothing that is in anyway inspirational. Other bands have made more of Russ Ballard’s songs than this group does here. Perhaps that’s just because the wrong song was picked, or the band was held rigidly to what the producer wanted them to do. As to the other two songs composed by the producer... well, he obviously thought they were top notch tracks that would act as a complement to the main track. But we are stuck in the same situation. There is nothing here for the performers to really get their teeth into and offer their undoubted skills to give the tracks the heart starter they need. Lyrically, musically, they are just dead in the water. The constant over repeating of the song title in the second song is just painfully predictable. And about the only thing that is in any way interesting about the final track is the lyrics that say “Don't put that weed in your mouth, boy, Take that sweet young thing off your lap, If you survive this antisocial behaviour, You're going to have to face a long-term prison rap”. It seems that the producer and writer was self-predicting his own fate in the future with this track!
I only ever tracked down this EP for the interest in the performers. The fact that I hadn’t heard about it at the time it was released more or less led me to believe that it was not something that I needed to hear, but when you have the names of Di’Anno, Gers, Willis, Murray and Burr involved in a band together, it is pretty hard to ignore. So I tracked it down, and was about as underwhelmed as I expected I was going to be. There just wasn’t any chance this was going to be an undiscovered gem, even with Russ Ballard also being involved. Is it worth the time and effort to listen to it? It is like everything in music. Listening once won’t harm anyone. And no matter who you are it seems unlikely you will search it out too often after that. I haven’t. I did burn it to CD when I found it, and have it sitting on my shelves as a result, but if not for this podcast episode it is extremely unlikely it would ever have been utilised. Again. Which, as it turns out, it now the truth of the matter going forward.
Being little more than a contrivance concocted by producer Jonathan King, the band quickly fell apart once he lost interest in his own creation. The five members of the group parted to move on to other projects, some with far greater success than others. And this sunk back into the mists of time, only ever to be revived by some tinpot podcaster in 2025 for the sake of filling some airtime. Some completionists are just kidding themselves, aren’t they?

1107. W.A.S.P. / The Last Command. 1985. 5/5

Their debut album is right up there with one of my favourites of all time, and when I was really becoming obsessed with the band at the end of high school and into university, it was that album and this one that I had on high rotation. The release of The Headless Children pushed this into the stratosphere but until that time these first two albums were what took up a lot of my listening hours. And while on the surface it is easy to say that W.A.S.P. has better albums out there than The Last Command that would be to ignore the time when it was released and how it fit into the metal scene as it was at the time.

I absolutely loved this album when I first got it, and for a while rated it as better than the debut album such was the constant rotation I gave it. Eventually I came to realise that the genuine anthemic qualities of the previous album on songs such as “I Wanna Be Somebody”, “Hellion”, “On Your Knees” and “L.O.V.E Machine” outrank those on this album, but if you judge the songs on consistency over both albums then The Last Command could possibly still win by a nose.

You aren’t coming into these early W.A.S.P. albums for the lyrics, though Blackie eventually became more intense when it came to this part of the artform. The lyrics all through are fun and still fun to sing even for those of us now well entrenched in middle age. The chanting choruses that encourage you to sing along are the winners here, especially when tooling around town in the car. None of it is highbrow stuff but as a teenager it was all fun and games.
“Wild Child” is the out-and-out hit of the album, and opens it up in style. More melodic than headbusting it still carries itself well after all these years. It could have signalled a much different direction for the album as a whole if the lads had carried on in the same vein, but the follow up of “Ballcrusher”, “Fistful of Diamonds” and “Jack Action” all restore the general vibe of loud and violent themes and music to the fore.
“Widowmaker” is one of the best on the album, mostly because it is still a heavy song but has a different atmosphere from the other tracks. It is not melodic musically like “Wild Child” but has a chorus of melody vocal lines throughout that introduce a variation in theme on the album, much like “Sleeping in the Fire” did on the first album. As the change up song on the album it is particularly effective. “Cried in the Night” tries to do a similar thing but although it is still a great song it isn’t as effective as “Widowmaker” is in this instance.
“Blind in Texas” was one of the singles from the album, and is very much the quintessential W.A.S.P. track form this era. Belligerent, loud and lyrically simple and to the point, this drunken anthem leaves nothing to the imagination. It’s hard and heavy with a great guitar riff and is everything that W.A.S.P stood for in the mid-1980's.
The title track “The Last Command” stood for me as my own anthem for a number of years during this time, the at-times angry and confused teenager trying to find his place in the world, and happy to use this song as my flagbearer. Even today I can put it on and remember how I felt when I would play this over and over again, and how it lifted me up, in the same way as “Department of Youth” and “Youth Gone Wild” used to. “Running Wild in the Streets” used to speak to my youth at the time as well and is still a favourite, while the album closer “Sex Drive” is again so typical of the W.A.S.P standard that even though it might sound laughable almost 35 years later it is still one I can – and do – sing all the words to.

Looking at this album in 2019 – a year that I could not even conceive of when I first bought this album – it has certain flaws that are easy to hear and point out. One even wonders how many of these songs Blackie would now deem to play live in concert given his born again Christian status (answer – very very few). It is an album of its time, filled with sexual and violent innuendo that was frowned upon at the time, and would probably just be tut-tutted now by parents for its childishness than its themes. But beyond all of that, when I put it on my stereo and turn the volume up to eleven, this is still for me a brilliant album. I probably don’t love it as much as I did back in my youth, but it still helps me remember how I felt about the album back then. W.A.S.P. was a juggernaut, and this line up of Blackie Lawless, Chris Holmes, Steve Riley and Randy Piper is arguably their greatest. Maybe kids coming into it today would not find as much in it to enjoy, but with so much emotional baggage tied up in it for me it is one I will always love.

Best songs: “Wild Child”, “Widowmaker”, “Blind in Texas”, “The Last Command”, “Jack Action”.

Rating:  “Hear the call we are the Last Command”.  5/5

1057. Stryper / Soldiers Under Command. 1985. 3.5/5

Following the path of being a Christian band with a heavy metal twinge is not one that you would have considered to be one that would lead to a following on the scale of the larger bands in the world, certainly in the mid 1980’s where there was a convergence in regards to the genre of heavy metal itself. Stryper had made a good fist of it leading up to the release of their debut EP “The Yellow and Black Attack”, and on the back of that they were the opening act on tours by two of the biggest bands at that time, Bon Jovi and Ratt, and the exposure gained through those tours increased their popularity. It also had parts of their hardcore fan base, and Christian groups who were not necessarily fans of the band’s music, questioning whether they were a true Christian band given the music played by those that they were on tour with. It was a tight line that the band had to walk. Despite the success they had in picking up new fans, either for the message they were spruiking or for the music they were playing, there were just as many people who chastised them for much the same things – that they couldn’t be a Christian band if they played this genre of music, or that they were true Christians if they were touring with these other bands whose morals surely couldn’t line up with what they were espousing.
On the back of the further exposure the band received on those tours, they headed back into the studio in early 1985 to begin work on their first full length album, one that would be considered as their debut studio album. The band brought in legendary producer Michael Wagener, who had started with Accept and Dokken, and would from this point branch out into almost all of the most popular metal bands and albums of the 1980’s. His experience and suggestions helped the band put together what they hoped would be their springboard to their career. What it achieved, released as “Soldiers Under Command” in August of 1985, no doubt exceeded all of their expectations

If you come looking for Stryper albums, then you know what is involved and you know what you are getting yourself in for. You can be Christian and come for the message within the lyrics. You can be... not... Christian... and come to Stryper to hear great songs with wonderful guitars and drums and amazing vocals. Perhaps you’ll come for both of those things. Whatever way it is, coming into a Stryper album, you know exactly what you are going to get – apart from the one album that I reviewed here just a few episodes ago, “Against the Law”. That was the one album that didn’t follow the Stryper script. But here on “Soldiers Under Command”, the template is well and truly set.
So. Let’s get this out there from the outset. There are a couple of… terrible… awful... songs on this album. There’s just no other way I can describe them. They are those terrible awful ballad tracks that for some reason bands insist they must produce in order to sell their records. Or gain airplay. Or whatever reason they come up with. And yes, I know there are those people out there who like them and enjoy the way that they believe that they enhance an album. But if you’ve listened here long enough you know that for me, in MOST instances, that is not the case. In most instances ballads or power ballads or acoustic ballads pretty destroy what otherwise are perfectly decent albums. And is that the case with “Soldiers Under Command?” My WORD it is! So here, Stryper has produced a couple of beauties. The first of those to appear is “First Love”, which is so sickly sweet it encourages a gagging reflex every time I have to listen to it without skipping. And here is a snatch of the lyrics, those that are repeated often through the song: “Tears in the night, filled with pain, you're running from the love that you had before, you cried out for your first love. There is no love like the love of your first love, it's so true, yes true love will never leave you”. Of course, Michael here is singing about God, which is fine. And it is a love song. That’s great. But everything prior to this song is basically upbeat, fun, happy, energetic. And then this song arrives, and kills off the mood of the album entirely. Album killer? Almost. If not for the following track which closes out side one of the album, this song could have been charged with manslaughter at the very least. Zero redeeming features here. Then on the second side of the album we have “Together As One” which is pretty much on the same level. It’s almost a carbon copy of “First Love” with lyrics such as: “Together as one we'll stand for the world to see, together as one we'll shine throughout eternity”. And yes, Michael talking about God again. But it is the music that is the main killer. Once again all of the momentum that the album has created to this point gets washed away in a huge vat-full of sad, soppy wasted material. Now I’m sure that the band and their producer and record company thinks that they are a valuable addition to the album. Well no, they’re not. They destroy the momentum and feel of the album in its tracks. In the days of vinyl and cassettes I used to cut both of these songs out when I recorded it for the car, and it made the album a hell of a lot better. No pun intended.
Okay. Now that we have got this out of the way, we can talk about the far more enjoyable parts of the album. The solid base of the album comes from songs such as “Makes Me Wanna Sing” and “Reach Out” which are the best type that Stryper put forward, hard rock songs that put forth their message but also give it to you with guitars and great vocals. The combination of guitars between Michael Sweet and Oz Fox bring these songs up above average level, as does Michael’s amazing vocals range. These two songs are on the second tier level tracks for Stryper. Along with them, we have tracks such as “Together Forever”, “(Waiting For) A Love That’s Real” and “Surrender”, which are the building blocks of the best Stryper albums. They are solid songs that may not be exceptional, but are good solid songs that fill the gaps between the best on the album, but keep the album moving forward, holding the good feelings that have been produced and not do anything to drag the album down – yes, like those songs I mentioned at the top. are also better than average tracks. “Battle Hymn of the Republic” don’t quite finish off the album as well as it could. It is a grandiose version of this patriotic American song, but it seems over-indulgent and a little bit over the top as a way to conclude the album.
On the other hand, there are two songs here that stack up with the best of anything that was produced by hair and glam metal bands throughout the decade of the 1980’s, the two songs that bookend the first side of the album. The title track “Soldiers Under Command”, which opens the album in style, and the first side closer “The Rock That Makes Me Roll” showcase the best that Stryper can offer, with the twin guitars of Michael Sweet and Oz Fox paired off with their amazing vocal work, and driven by the rhythm of Robert Sweet’s ‘visual timekeeping’ and Tim Gaines bass guitar. These are both anthemic and wonderfully and almost playfully heavy, and perhaps more than the band realised at that time, the songs that best amplify the message they were trying to promote. The choruses of both lead themselves to be sung at loud volumes – almost raising your voice to God, if you will – and as a way of drawing in fans and outsiders to their message, it is a far better method than sending fans into despair and illness by having to listen to ballads. Both are terrific songs that call for pumping fists and banging heads and are the absolute highlights of the album.

My introduction to the band Stryper didn’t come until 1987 when the band first toured Australia on their “To Hell with the Devil” album – a story in itself that will shortly appear on my Patreon page should anyone be interested in signing up and having a listen. It was then that I first got the three albums that the band had released to that point, the EP “The Yellow and Black Attack”, the album they were touring on and “Soldiers Under Command”. And without going into the whole story behind it, being confronted with Christian lyrics on these albums was slightly confronting for a then 17-year-old who had left any pretence at a belief of a higher being behind long ago. But once I heard the music... I was sold enough to continue. And actually seeing the band live so soon into my discovery of their music was absolutely so important. It is still one of the loudest gigs I have ever seen, and hearing them play all of those great songs live brought them to life. That helped enormously.
As you will have guessed, I was not – nor am I now – sold on the two ballads on this album. Terrible tracks, they destroy the album, or at least at much as I allow them to. But the rest of the album is mostly excellent, and because I come to the albums of this band for the music, it has to be good to retain my interest. And it is. All four members are wonderful on their instruments, but it is those melodic and riffing guitars of Michael and Oz that take centre stage, and of course Michael ridiculous vocals, that extend themselves even further on the following album.
I’ve listened to this album a dozen times over the past few days once again. And nothing has really ever changed for me about it over the last 38 years that I have owned it. And the Stryper structure has barely changed over the years, to me at least. There are usually one or two tracks that I just outright hate, there are half a dozen that I think are good, usually better than average songs, and then the 2-4 tracks that are outstanding and continue to be so. That holds up here on “Soldiers Under Command”. Compared to their albums of the past decade this has perhaps dated a bit, but given I was on board at a very early stage with this band, it will always be an attachment that I’m unwilling to let go of.

1043. Dio / Sacred Heart. 1985. 5/5

The upward climb of the popularity and greatness of Ronnie James Dio had moved from the 1970’s into the 1980’s, and through three bands Rainbow, Black Sabbath and then his own eponymous band Dio. That step, to leave one of the biggest acts in heavy metal after he had been so heavily involved in its revival in the early 1980’s, to form his own band was enormous. The band’s debut album “Holy Diver” had taken all before it, stormed the charts and ensured that this venture would not be as short lived as his other projects had been. The follow up album “The Last in Line” proved that it wasn’t a one-off hit, that this quartet of musicians had something that was powerful and strong. While Dio himself as the frontman commanded the stage as the focal point with his amazing voice, the band that had been built around that was just as important to the success the band had created. Drummer Vinnie Appice’s hard hitting, and uniquely timed drumming was a key aspect of the forcefulness that the songs portrayed to the listener, along with Jimmy Bain’s rumbling bass guitar. These two had been around the block before joining Dio, Vinny in Black Sabbath and Jimmy in Rainbow, and the combination worked well. And guitarist Vivian Campbell had broken out of his Irish boundaries to unleash his craft upon the world to ever increasing acclaim.
Band situations are rarely harmonious to a fault, and Dio was no exception. The first signs of trouble in paradise came with the sessions to create the band’s third studio album. The central core of the problem was, as often becomes the case, money – or at least the perceived fairness of cash distribution. When the band began, an agreement as such was apparently struck with the players in the band, that if they would accept a smaller than deserved reward for the first two albums the band produced, in essence to ensure that the bills for touring and recording and promotion would be commensurate with what they wanted to be in order to push the band, then come the third album their share would increase as a result. For Campbell, the youngest in the band and perhaps with the least knowledge of how the ‘business’ worked, that meant that this new album should mean he was going to receive closer to what he felt he deserved to be paid, and he began to ask questions about how and when this would occur. When he wasn’t getting the answers that he felt he deserved, he apparently became more insistent. All of this must have created a difficult situation for everyone involved. Along with this, Ronnie and his wife Wendy, who was also the band’s manager, were going through a split in their relationship at the time, which led to Ronnie’s mood being less enjoyable during the writing and recording of the album. Whereas for the first two albums the whole band would be in the studio, playing and socialising, for the third album there was less of this, with members coming in, recording their parts and heading home. Combined with this, Ronnie had begun composing songs with more keyboards in them, which not only shifted the sound that the band had created over the first two albums where it was a far more guitar focused band to one that perhaps began to mirror other genres, it was a decision that the other band members were not totally on board with.
With all of these changes happening within the mix of the band – most of it unknown to the fan base itself at that time – Dio came forth with their third studio album, one that still divides opinion to this very day, with the bag of mixed lollies titled “Sacred Heart”.

Looking and listening to this album from a critical point of view, “Sacred Heart” still has the same mix of songs that talk about the fantasy elements that Ronnie James Dio has centred around since his Rainbow days along with the songs that seem more pointed to things that were occurring around him at the time of writing. Whether the mix is in favour of the strengths of the band is another question.
The opening track is the faux live setting of “King of Rock and Roll”. This is fast Dio straight out of the blocks, opened by Vinny’s drum roll introduction and then the firing in of guitar and bass riff with Ronnie giving off his best impression of a lead singer on the stage. The question that s always posed is “does this song come across better because it sounds as though it is live, or could it have worked just as efficiently without it?” I’ve often pondered that question. Did the opening track of this album need to feel like a live song to get across a certain mood of the track to the listener? If I was listening to this with a critical ear, I would say that the injection of the crowd noise acts more as a distraction to the great work done on the song by Campbell, Appice and Bain. When it comes to actually listening to the album and the opening song, I rarely think about fakeness of the background audio. I’m more interested in Vivian’s guitaring. Still, surely somewhere tere exists a tape without the faux crowd. I’d like to hear it.
The epic title track comes next; a sprawling magical dragons and wizards track that Dio has spent most of his career singing about. Here is a song that has more of the keys and synths added to it than had been the case in the past, used in conjunction with the guitars rather than as a background. It is a style that does fit with what was beginning to occur in the extended genre of heavy metal at the time, and one that perhaps mutes the efficiency of the solid core of the band being a four-piece guitar driven entity. Vivian still gets his chance to shine in this song, but it does have it entwined with Claude Schnell’s keyboards throughout. Solo wise he is able to unleash both in the middle and towards the end without being vanquished.
“Another Lie” is a pointedly written track lyrically by Ronnie, and with the added aggression in the lyrics and vocals the guitars and drums reestablish their dominance. Ronnie and Wendy were going through their separation at the time, and it is hard not to equate that the basis of this song is to do with that, especially with a line like “She jumped at the moment, a chance to tell you, another lie”. Ronnie is passionate and aggressive with his vocal delivery through the song, especially the rise up an octave into the back half of the track, Vinny’s pounding drumbeat emphasises what he is singing, and the guitar and bass line dominate as they always did in the best Dio songs. While “Another Lie” is rarely mentioned when it comes to great Dio songs, for me it has always been one of the standout tracks on the album, perhaps because it is one that has the most similarity to the songs of the first two albums.
The two singles from the album close out the first side of the album and open the second side, and are often cited as points of difference between those that do not rate the album and those that adore it. “Rock and Roll Children” was the first single from the album, replete with video of two teenagers being lost in a magic shop and facing their worst fears, while Ronnie swirls his hands over a crystal ball throughout. It is telling, perhaps, that only Ronnie appears in the video for the song. There is a connection to the lyrics of many of the songs on this album, as usual the good and the evil, but also the theme of lying. Though taken out of context, it is possible to read into Ronnie and Wendy’s troubles again on this song, with the line “They were paper and fire, angel and liar, the devil of one another”. Is Ronnie referring to their relationship here? Perhaps subconsciously. The keys again maintain a greater influence through the song which ties it to this era, though their presence do create the atmosphere on the track that Dio was hoping for, again pushing the mystical and magical theme. It fades out to complete the first side of the album in wonderment.
Then the second single opens side two of the album. “Hungry for Heaven”, one where Ronnie’s lyrical bent plays catch up with each other, offering two sides to the story throughout; “You're a runner, but you're chasing yourself, feel a hot breath on your shoulder. Your emotion, running cold, running warm, but young just getting older”. “You’re hungry for heaven, but you need a little Hell”. Through his career Ronnie had moments where he wrote lyrics that didn’t always tell a story or make a lot of sense, just a jumbled series of lines that interact together. And on those occasions, it is best to just go with the flow. “Hungry for Heaven” is probably one of these occasions.
While both of the singles have a heavy keyboard element in them, no doubt looking to hook onto the rising tide of commerciality, that certainly isn’t the case with the heavy guitar focused tracks that followed them. “Like the Beat of a Heart” is a beauty, the Dio mid-tempo set by the rhythm section, Vinny’s drums stuck into their hard hitting groove, and Jimmy’s bass line setting the stomp of the track that reflects the title of the song. Vivian’s guitaring here again is just superb, not muted by any keys on this occasion. Ronnie lyrics that reference the coming of the werewolf are beautifully descriptive and delivered with passion, just typical Dio wonderfulness with “we can hide in the dark til the moon steals the light from the dying sun” and the brilliant “cos the tear that never dries can only make you blind”. Just perfect. It’s a great song, a heavy track that only sounded heavier when played live. This is followed by yet another severely underrated track from the Dio catalogue, “Just Another Day”. Bring forth Vivian Campbell to take all before him please! Another of the fast paced rippers that this band could produce, Viv takes centre stage, Ronnie comes along for the ride. Lines like “you don’t believe in someday, and the truth is what you prove” and “You laugh but you never smile” are just terrific, along with the sentiment “but it’s all right, well it’s all right, it’s just another day”, words to live your life by. The passion in Ronnies vocals through this song are just terrific, but it is Vivian Campbell on guitar that stars on this song. Again.
OH! And just for good measure, they are again on “Fallen Angels”. The opening riff into the track, the squeal of guitar that leads into Ronnie’s vocals, are fabulous. Ronnie is back here in an aggressive fashion, the power of his vocals dominating this track with their demanded presence. That opening burst: “Screaming out alone in the night, just a time and place but it's real alright. We are diamonds that shine without fire, we're climbing the stairs, going down and never higher” - that is just magnificent. And the burst of Viv brilliance through the song just tops it all off. Those three songs back to back really hype up the second side of the album.
The album concludes with “Shoot Shoot”, another song that I think has lyrics from Ronnie that reference how he was feeling about life at the time. Not that he wanted to kill himself, or anyone else, but that he felt under enormous pressure from the partnership in his life, and that he was trying to come to terms with it all. To me, the lines “Well, now it's a matter of mind, you know you can be free forever. So the next time someone points a gun at you, say ‘shoot, shoot’, I don't care” are more about him trying to say, ‘okay, I don’t have to go through this, I can free my mind and say to you ‘I don’t agree with you anymore, and I don’t have to put up with this anymore, I can walk away and start again’. And I think maybe this is what he was referring to, and his marriage. Of course, I could be completely mistaken.

Once again, before I begin my personal appraisal of this album, I would like to point out that if you are not listening to the podcast titled ‘And Volume for All’, hosted by the handsome and talented Quinn, then that should be your immediate port of call following this episode. Among many things he has done on that podcast is a wonderfully beautiful and informative look at the career of Ronnie James Dio, including this era of his music. It is a series that everyone should listen to, whether you are a fan of Dio or not. His insights and the work put into the podcast is outstanding. Go listen to him. I should also point out that we disagree on the validity of this album, which probably only proves, once again, that I am wrong.
When it comes to the year that most influenced my love of music, of the type of music that became what I loved more than any other, and in the discovery of artists and bands who became the most important in my music-loving life, 1986 is the year that wins hands down. In particular two such events could be appraised as perhaps the most important. The first was the discovery of the artist named Ronnie James Dio, his then-current band named Dio, and their third studio album which was titled “Sacred Heart”. Dio came to us in Year 11 of high school through an American exchange student called Steve, who brought the band’s first two albums with him. My heavy metal music dealer then purchased this particular album, and through the swapping of blank C90 cassettes I was able to gain all three albums released by the band to this time. And from this an obsession grew. And that’s what it was. I couldn’t stop listening to those albums, and through them not only did Ronnie James Dio become my singing hero, but Vivian Campbell also became a guitar god for me.
Though in retrospect it is obvious that there was tension between Dio and Campbell, all of which has been well documented in the years since, it didn’t stop the band putting together an album that had the best of everything that the era had to offer. Some listening to the album now some 30+ years after its release may feel it is dated, or at the very least tied to the era in which it was released due to some of its elements. There is probably some truth to this, but that doesn’t detract from just how good an album it is. Vinny Appice continues to pound the beat that allows the rest of the band to put their pieces together, and his big drum sound again works perfectly here. On bass Jimmy Bain again found a rhythm that laid the groundwork for each song, and his writing contribution again cannot be overlooked. Claude Schnell’s keyboards have more of an influence in places on this album, which given it is the mid-1980’s does fit in with the period. Vivian Campbell is again an out-and-out star here. His guitar riffs, licks and solos are as much the sound of Dio the band as the man whose name adorns the band. That he parted ways with the band after this album is a regret for all fans of the band. Dio had some good guitarists play in the band over the following twenty years, but none rivalled Vivian and what he produced on these first three albums. Ronnie as always is magnificent. His vocals soar, his lyrics tell stories and his passion reigns supreme.
I started by saying there were two events in 1986 that rounded my love of music. The second? Well, Dio toured Australia on this album in September 1986, and it was the first band I ever saw live. Regrettably there was no Vivian by that time, replaced by Craig Goldy, but it was a spectacle I have never forgotten. If you are interested in that story, you can find it in full detail on my Patreon page.
There are many who don’t enjoy this third instalment in the Dio lineage, and I really believe that most of those came onto this album after its heyday and judge it on how the music sounded then rather than how it sounded when it was released. That’s understandable and fair, but for those of us that grew up with this album, and had it burned into our psyche playing it over and over a thousand times, it will always be a great album. It may not be as dramatically awesome as “Holy Diver” or “The Last in Line”, and the saturation of Claude Schnell’s keyboards may date it well and truly to its time, but it still hits all the right places for me.
I have been listening to this album for the last two weeks now, at least once a day and often more than once. And it never gets old. What does interest me is how my feelings about the album and its songs has definitely changed. When I first got the album, it was the songs “King of Rock and Roll”, “Sacred Heart”, “Hungry for Heaven” and “Rock and Roll Children” that dominates my perspective. They were the great songs, the ones I sang with gusto and looked forward to every time I put the album on. These days, it is the tracks “Another Lie”, “Like the Beat of a Heart”, “Just Another Day” and “Fallen Angels” that I look forward to most. A change of the times? Me getting older? You be the judge.
With Vivian being sacked from the band halfway through the touring schedule for this album, Dio the band would never be the same. They still put out some very good, even excellent, albums, but this period of the band, when everything clicked with the four main players, was over. Perhaps that was a good thing. Perhaps they had achieved everything as a foursome that they could have hoped for. No matter what, those three first Dio albums still stand the test of time, and “Sacred Heart” stand alongside them as one of the pillars of the heavy metal genre of the 1980’s.

1029. Anthrax / Spreading the Disease. 1985. 5/5

Sometimes it is hard to believe that this album was “only” released in 1985, because it feels like it has been around for a lot longer than that. After the initial recording and release of their debut album Fistful of Metal, some tweaking to the band members brought in Joey Belladonna and Frankie Bello to replace Neil Turbin and Danny Lilker respectively. Both of these changes acted to smooth out the rough edges of the thrash metal roots of the band and brought a whole dimension both musically and vocally to the group without reneging on any of the aggression and power of the music. The result of this was brought forth on Spreading the Disease, an album that began the steady climb of Anthrax as metal powerhouse.

For many fans this is still an obscure album, one that they know but without certainty. They know the tunes but not necessarily the song titles. It has its share of songs that have become classic Anthrax tracks through the years, but mostly contains songs that have not been played live since the heady days of the 1980’s and are known best by those that had the album on its release.
There are two songs on the album that were written by the original song writing team of the first album, that being Turbin, Lilker and Scott Ian. They are “Armed and Dangerous” and “Gung-Ho”, which closes out the album. Both are of the same intensity of the songs on Fistful of Metal, with the furiousness of the guitars and drums extending through any time pattern that may be being kept. The difference in the quality of the songs probably comes down to better production, the instrumentation being more studied and the vocals of Joey, whose operatic-like range gives them a completely different sound to what they would have had with Turbin on vocals. “Armed and dangerous” has the slower clear guitar beginning that works its way up in tempo and heavy feel, and while the instrumentation speeds up Joey’s vocals soar along to carry the song perfectly. In “Gung-Ho” we have a song that is not denying its roots, starting off on fire with guitar and drums, and simply not slowing down for anyone. In some ways it’s amazing that Joey can even keep up, because the pace that is set by Charlie, Frankie, Scott and Dan is exhilarating. It is a perfect counterpoint to the material of the previous album. This song has all of the same aspects, but is matured, better defined and supported by a great voice.
The base of the album is still rooted in the thrash metal elements that the band grew up with. From the start in “A.I.R.” the hard hitting drums drive the song along with Joey’s soaring vocals proving the defining improvement of the band from debut album to sophomore release. “Lone Justice” continues on the same path, clicking along at a faster pace that continues to set the tone. “S.S.C. / Stand or Fall” starts off with a very Megadeth-ish guitar riff before bursting into a similarly speed metal pace with sing-along chorus set in place. “The Enemy” is at a more sedate pace for the most part of the song, before the finale comes signalled by Joey’s scream. As a more traditional heavy metal song it still works a treat. The second side of the album bursts to life with the track “Aftershock” that pummels away with the chanting back-ups and fierce guitar riffing throughout.
The two best known songs of the album are the single “Madhouse” and the classic “Medusa”. “Madhouse” had a video filmed for the song but was largely ignored by most music video programs at the time, but it remains one of the nest known of Anthrax’s early catalogue. “Medusa” settles into the perfect rhythm from the start, and is brought to life by Joey’s amazing vocals throughout. Funnily enough, the highest note of the song, the word “Medusa!” in the chorus is taken on by Frankie Bello on backing vocals. “Medusa” too remains as one of Anthrax’s best songs, producing the heavy emotional response that their best songs do.
The most noticeable difference between this album and the following albums is that from this point there was a lot of forceful backing vocal chanting coming from Scott Ian and Frank Bello in future albums that isn’t prevalent here at all. This is an album with songs that hold a typical pattern vocal wise. That was to change after this album, and it is still noticeable today that difference in the song patterns.

This is still an oft-forgotten gem amongst the Anthrax artillery. While the style of music that Anthrax produced continued to evolve over the coming albums, this is the one that perhaps best epitomises their thrash and speed metal roots while showcasing the great talent of all of the band members. Perhaps it isn’t considered in the same light as albums such as Among the Living, State of Euphoria and Persistence of Time but for me it is still a terrific album.

Rating:  “Evil witch cast her spell, seducing you, she’ll take you to the very depths of hell”.  5/5

1011. Dokken / Under Lock and Key. 1985. 3.5/5

Having found their stride with their second album Tooth and Nail, Dokken was looking to further announce themselves with this third album, Under Lock and Key. In an era where hair metal was beginning to gain a greater hold of the airwaves especially with the soft rock ballads that were seeping through along with the advent of music videos, it’s interesting to find that while those kind of sounds do find a way onto this album it is not dominated by them as much as could possibly have been the case.

The opening song “Unchain the Night” has that hard hitting mid-range tempo that Dokken liked to settle into in their prime, with the solid rhythm of Mick Brown and Jeff Pilson allowing Don Dokken to showcase his great voice, backed by the harmony of Jeff and Mick, and then opens up for the smooth flowing George Lynch guitar solo that highlighted the best tracks. There’s nothing outstanding about the opening track, but it is a solid opening to the album. “The Hunter” is similarly structured and is again another wholly enjoyable song without it ever stepping out and announcing itself as an outstanding track. “In My Dreams” moves down a different track, not being the ballad type of song that is yet to come, but with a somewhat gentler and higher vocal range being used it engenders a different feel from the opening two tracks despite retaining that hard rhythm throughout. The harmony vocals are especially prevalent here rather than Don being distinctly on his own.
“Slippin’ Away” is far too much in the soft rock ballad area for my tastes. As always, I understand the need for hair metal bands to indulge themselves in these types of songs in order to draw in that part of their supporter base, but to me it just acts as a distraction to the other great material on the album. “Lightnin’ Strikes Again” picks the tempo up again nicely, with the energy in the music driven by Don’s great vocals supported by the chorus of Jeff and Mick. This leads into George’s solo punctuation which is the centrepiece, before we come to the conclusion of the song where Mick’s drumming adds to Don’s piercing high octane vocal into the finish. It’s a terrific song to finish the first side of the album.
Side Two opens with “It’s Not Love”, the tougher side of Dokken’s drawing power. The lyrics may well be about the kind of subject that rock ballads could be crafted around, but the music and attitude here ensures that this is nothing like that. A great rhythm seconded by the George Lynch guitar riff and solo, along with Don talking tough throughout makes for a song that is at the heart of Dokken’s success. Somewhat disappointingly (for me anyway) “Jaded Heart” finds its way somewhere between this kind of song and the power ballad, so although we get the tough sounding vocal in the middle of the chorus of the song, we have the cry for passion like vocal as well, while the music is designed much slower and looking more for the ballad effect than the previous song did. From here we dive back in to “Don’t Lie to Me” which is much more like the Dokken I love, with the hard riffing guitar and harmony vocals through the bridge and chorus. This is their standard go-to song, not the power ballad but not the heavier material either. And while we run a similar course with “Will the Sun Rise”, the album concludes with the upbeat and jaunty “Til the Livin’ End” which has that faster pace and Don reaching for the limit of his range.

This is an album that for me showcases the hard-working and durable side of Dokken. No song on this album will come out at you and suggest it is an ‘all-time classic’, but the album as a whole tends to work well. As the middle release of what I would consider Dokken’s highlighted triumvirate of album, bookended by Tooth and Nail and Back for the Attack, this album mightn’t be spectacular but it is still very enjoyable.

Rating:  “When the lightning strikes again”   3.5/5

1001. Tears for Fears / Songs From the Big Chair. 1985. 3/5

Back in 1985 this was one of those albums that just about everyone either had their own copy of, or had had someone record a copy for them on cassette. On the strength of the singles that were released from the album, it became one of those that was sought after. It was about the time that I had started to forge ahead and find albums of bands whose songs I liked rather than settle for just the radio songs available. Often you would get the album and discover songs that you liked more than those singles, that you would never have heard if not for getting the album. Others you would realise that the best of the crop had been the singles and the rest was a barren wasteland. Songs From the Big Chair is a little of both for me.

The album leads off with “Shout”, which was one of the popular singles that crowded the airwaves through 1984, and of which everyone from my generation knows. I’m sure it was on the local radio stations morning program every day for six months. It still seems to be as popular today as it was in the day. “The Working Hour” for me has always come across as a bit drab, not really carrying on from the energy of the opening track. It’s not a bad song but it lacks something. Perhaps it is just the fact that it is sandwiched between two such huge songs that it tends to pale a little.
“Everybody Wants to Rule the World” is the gold nugget of not only Tears For Fears career, but almost for the entire decade of the 1980’s. It is still a great song today. My kids in their school choir sing it. It opens the movie “Peter’s Friends” in the perfect way, playing over a montage of the ‘big picture’ moments between 1984 to 1994. It’s upbeat, and the lyrics perfectly portray how we as teenagers of the time felt about life in general. It still touches all of the right places when I listen to it today.
“Mothers Talk” is a lot closer to the kind of sampling technique that was finding its fashion in this period of the 1980’s and that was becoming more commercial as the decade moved on. For me it was never a song I cottoned on to, though on this album, coming as it did as the closing track to side one, I enjoyed it enough. As a song on its own however it wasn’t one I rated.
“I Believe” is a true soft ballad track. I never really understood it as the opening to the second side of the album, as there is no energy driving it in a rock or pop sense, it really is just a gentle reflective song. I’ve always though albums needed a punch as the opening tracks, especially in the vinyl and cassette days when it was important to build on two sides. I think it probably works better in a CD or digital space where you don’t have to get up to change the record or cassette over. This is followed by “Broken” where the energy flow returns, driven by the keys and synth. “Broken” segues into “Head Over Heels” which shares a similar piano chord progression in places with the previous song. The similarities seem even more related when this then segues into a live reprise of Broken that was recorded previous to the album being completed. The album is signed off by “Listen”. And let’s just say that “Listen” is far too much like a poor man’s rendition of a progressive rock style free form instrumental journey with some lyrics thrown in to the mix for me. It’s a bit too psychedelically unformed for me to enjoy I’m afraid.

As a pop album of its time this was one of the best. It may not have been my chosen genre of music at the time – that was geared more towards bands such as Queen and The Police and Midnight Oil at the time, and was about to go full blown into the heavy metal phase – but it was still an album that gained my attention and that I played a lot. On reflection today I still think it holds up well for its style and age.

Rating:  “Welcome to your life, there’s no turning back”.   3/5