1183. W.A.S.P. / Live... in the Raw! [Live]. 1987. 4.5/5

It had been a wild ride for the band W.A.S.P. over the course of their five year existence at the point of time that this live album was released. Three landmark albums, chart selling singles, and increasing controversy over their stage antics, as well as having been targeted by the movement dubbed the PMRC, had given the band great publicity and a growing legion of fans.
It was on the tour to promote their third album “Inside the Electric Circus” that the idea came up to record the shows and release a live album from them. An initial recording in London at Hammersmith encouraged the band to do a serious run through once they arrived back in the US. Two nights were recorded in California in March 1987 at the end of the tour, when the band should have been at its best and the songs at their tightest. Which in many ways was the case, but there were also the other touring problems that crept into the recordings.
Tensions within the band were rife as they came to the conclusion of the tour, and throughout the time when this album was recorded. At times drummer Steve Riley and bass guitarist Johnny Rod had to be dragged apart, and fisticuffs ensued on a regular basis. It is interesting that in the linear notes for the remastered version of this album, Blackie Lawless actually suggests that Steve Riley was the one who was under pressure, because he had always had to try and live up to the band’s original drummer, Tony Richards, and that he couldn’t do that. Now, I’ve always thought Riley was a great drummer, which he also proved when he either quit or was sacked by Blackie following this tour, and he went on to join L.A Guns as they released their debut album. To be honest, there always appeared to be tension in W.A.S.P. whether they were on a successful roll or not, but it is interesting that there should have been problems within the band at this time, a time when change did seem to be coming, both in the band and in the style of music they had produced prior to this point in time.

As a representative live tribute to their first three albums, this album covers most of the bases. To be fair it would have been a difficult job in which to whittle down the songs choices available for a touring setlist, let alone then choosing which songs to use on the live album produced from it. In the end the band left out four songs from the shows that were recorded - “Sex Drive”, “Animal - Fuck Like a Beast”, “Widowmaker”, and “Shoot it from the Hip”, although all but “Animal” eventually made their way on to the remastered CD version of the album some years later as bonus tracks.
The coverage of the albums was fairly evenly spread, and contained most of the great hits from the band. “L.O.V.E Machine” and “I Wanna Be Somebody” were the big singles from their eponymous debut and are still live favourites to this day. “Sleeping in the Fire is still an underrated track, and one that also plays out beautifully live. “Wild Child” was the big single from the second album “The Last Command” and is another that still sits in the live set in the present day, and is joined by the other great single from that album “Blind in Texas”. And the best of the “Inside the Electric Circus” album on which the band was touring at the time is featured here too, with the opening title track, “9.5.N.A.S.T.Y” and the wonderful cover version of “I Don’t Need No Doctor”.
What makes this live album unique is that it has two songs specially written for this tour, songs that had not been recorded on a studio release before the tour, and in fact never received the studio treatment. Which means that the only place you can hear the songs “The Manimal” and “Harder Faster” is on this live album. And some people might find that to be unfortunate, but I’ve always enjoyed this fact. Both are your atypical W.A.S.P. songs of the era, and are good fun in the bargain. And, on top of that, make it essential to buy this album if you want to have the entire W.A.S.P. collection of songs, so that probably doesn’t hurt either. Topping it off is the addition of the song “Scream Until You Like It”, the theme songs for the movie “Ghoulies II”. The band didn’t write the song, it was written by those involved in the soundtrack for the movie, but the boys certainly make it their own in the recording process.

In my first year of University in 1988, I used to spend my five hour break between lectures on a Wednesday in town, strolling through the record stores. My favourite was Illawarra Books & Records, where there was plenty of used vinyl on offer at a price that a poor student could almost afford. On one magical day during the first semester, I walked into this shop, and found all three of WA.S.P’s first albums, along with this album, all sitting there, waiting for me to purchase them. And I did. 20 bucks for the lot, worth more back then than it is now, but still so much cheaper than they should have been. And I played them all to death, blunting the needle on my stereo in my bedroom several times. And they all got the same amount of listening, often back to back to back.
I always loved this back in the day, and I still do now in the present. It has a great vibe around it, and it still gives off the energy that I imagine the band did in those live shows of the day. More importantly, there is no backtracking or dubs to be heard, what you hear is what you get, which is not quite true of the band in the modern day. And it is still an interesting piece, because it is surprising how much work goes in to those early W.A.S.P. studio albums, and in some ways how difficult it is to represent them well in the live environment – especially in the vocals. But everything here is good, and it is an enjoyable album to listen to. And as a historical record of the first phase of the W.A.S.P. story it acts as a suitable conclusion. W.A.S.P’s sound began to mature in a different direction following this album, and the band itself blurred in many realities following this. But that’s a story for another day.

1178. Joe Satriani / Surfing With the Alien. 1987. 4.5/5

Sometimes I’m not sure what is Joe Satriani’s greatest claim to fame – the fact that he was a guitar teacher and instructor to some of the great guitarists of the last 30–odd years, or his own work in the music he has produced. There is an apocryphal story that he decided to take up playing the guitar at the age of 14, when he heard the news of Jimi Hendrix’s death. Whether true or not, he eventually went on to study and teach in Berkeley California. When it came to students that graduated from his classes, you’d have to say that they have gone on to reasonably bright careers, players such as Steve Vai, Rick Hunolt, Alex Skolnick and Kirk Hammett, just to name a few.
His first album was released in 1985, titled “Not of This Earth”, which tickled the fancy of those in the industry and made some noise in album sales around the world. For his follow up, he again went with drum machine to program all of the drums, except for one song, “Satch Boogie”, where the drums were played by Jeff Campitelli. Also, according to an interview with Satriani in 2017, the only solo that was worked out before beforehand was on “Crushing Day”. The cover art too has its roots in the Marvel Universe, depicting the Silver Surfer in all his glory. I guess if you are going to be a guitar nerd, you may as well be a comic nerd as well.

I still adore the first half of this album to this day. While people try to categorise this into several different genres, in the long run it is a guitar geeks album, and people who love almost any type of music genre can find something to love. My mother-in-law for instance has always been a fan of the quieter, more introspective track “Always with Me, Always with You”, and often played it on the public radio station she used to do a shift on. The lovers of hard rock and metal will tend to side more with tracks such as “Ice 9” and “Crushing Day”, especially in the parts that could be described as the solo breaks, if that is possible on an instrumental track. The title track and opening track “Surfing with the Alien” sets the album off on the right foot in an up-tempo freelance guitar hyperactivity. And “Satch Boogie” has Joe showing all the tricks he has learned over the years.
There are more tricks up the sleeve in the second half of the album, which remains terrific. “Echo” especially is good because we get to hear the bass doing some funky stuff without the focus being taken away by the guitars. Indeed, all of the tracks in this second half of the album have a much different style from the first half, showcasing the various skills that Satriani has. It isn’t as raucous as those first half a dozen tracks but they are enjoyable all the same, because of the magic that Joe has to offer.

I have no recollection when I first heard this album, nor when I first got a copy of it myself. As my own copy, sitting here in front of me as we speak, is the CD version, I can hazard a guess that I didn’t buy this until about 1990. I can dimly recall having this taped on one side of a C90 cassette, and if memory serves it was with Gary Moore’s “Wild Frontier” on the other side, which could well have dated this as not too long after it was released, but having gone through my extensive collection of cassette tapes prior to this episode I couldn’t find it, so it was either lost in time or destroyed by one of my old car’s cassette decks.
My earliest memories that survive of actually listening to this album is of the early days of the band I played in back in those days, and trying to convince our lead guitarist that playing the solo in “Crushing Day” would be a piece of piss, and that he should learn it so that we could play the song live. Being a drummer that only plays basic beats sometimes has its advantages. The playing it live part never eventuated.
This is still a great album to listen to today. The high velocity and energy in the first half of the album pumps you up, and the serenity of the back half allows you to cool off again. I can put it on at any time and enjoy it. I have been fortunate enough to see Joe live a couple of times, the first being on the tour for his next album after this, “Flying in a Blue Dream”, with the brilliant Jonathan Mover on drums and Stu Hamm on bass, so it was a spectacular concert indeed. And when indeed they played “Crushing Day” live, our protestations to Shane to learn the solo to that song started all over again.

1176. Alice Cooper / Raise Your Fist and Yell. 1987. 4/5

In recent times, as you have to do with bands and artists that have been around for centuries and release albums every two years like clockwork, I have done a lot of podcast episodes on Alice Cooper albums. There has been “Schools Out”, there has been “Zipper Catches Skin”, and others around the times. It does mean that sometimes it feels as though I am repeating myself, so if that also feels like the case to you, then please accept my apologies. On that very recent episode reviewing “Zipper Catches Skin”, I mentioned the difficult times that Alice had been going through in regards to his creative vision, along with his drug and alcohol addiction that was at that time dominating his life. That episode was right in the middle of that crisis, and the downward spiral his music was taking as a result. An episode from Season 1 of this podcast, for his “Constrictor” album, then explained his comeback. Having fought and beaten his addictions, he teamed up with guitarist composer Kane Roberts, and rediscovered the magic that got him back in the game. Following that album and the successful tour that promoted it, it was time come up with a follow up album, one that could build on the goodwill that that album had been able to inspire, and to once again find that quintessential “Alice Cooper” trademark. The same main trio that had recorded “Constrictor” returned for this new album – Alice himself, Kane Roberts on guitar and co-composer of the album, and young bass guitarist Kip Winger.
This album came out within 12 months of “Constructor”, another reminder of how often bands would release albums back in the 1980’s. Building on the themes that had been prevalent on that album, “Raise Your Fist and Yell” has songs that are based and themed around the slasher film genre that was prevalent in the b-grade movie cinemas at the time. They are upbeat, and again mixed with anthemic cries in the lyrics along with the horror themes of those B-grade movies we all watched during that decade, all drawn together by great guitar riffs and hard hitting drums that probably allowed this album to not be as goofy as its twin preceding album, but continue along that line of Alice moving from his 70’s shlock to the early 80’s new wave to the late 80’s hard rock and hair metal genre with remarkable adaptability.

Alice’s albums often have an anthem to kick them off, to get the listener into the right mood immediately. Think “School’s Out” or “Teenage Frankenstein”. Nothing changes here with the brilliant “Freedom”, which invokes the album title within its lyrics. Its challenge to the rock censorship movement at the time is obvious throughout. There is a great quote from Alice at the time, which I’ll read here in full. “I think somebody had to say something back to these people. They start out with the premise that kids in America are too stupid to know what they’re listening to, and that’s really wrong. They say bands are trying to manipulate teenage minds — but kids know they’ve been manipulated all their lives by lots of things, including teachers, the media, their own parents and especially television. So we just have fun with it. Alice Cooper does not preach violence or devil worship, but he DOES make fun of just about everything.” True words. There is more of this on “Give the Radio Back”, another battle cry from the kids to their authoritative overlords. Alice goes straight to the heart of the matter as he sees it for the kids, just like he did in 1972 and 1982. Add to this queue “Step on You” and you have the songs, both lyrically and musically, that have been staples of Alice Cooper’s reign for that almost 20 year period when this was released. Alice and Kane still get it from their main audience’s view, and they are anthemic. They complete side one with “Not that Kind of Love”, a theme that was pursued more on the next Alice Cooper album.
Around these songs are the tracks that are like those B grade horror films I mentioned earlier. Robert Englund (perhaps better known as Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street) makes a guest appearance on “Lock Me Up” to help sell its title. “Prince of Darkness” leaves little doubt as to the subject matter, though it apparently appeared very briefly in the John Carpenter movie of the same name on someone’s Walkman. Seems that this was a movie that passed me by without seeing it. The album then concludes with the continuing schlock horror theme with “Time to Kill”, “Chop, Chop, Chop”, “Gail” and “Roses on White Lace”, all which deliver perfectly with the lyrical visuality and great riffing from both Roberts and Winger, delivering the joy of the material in perfect unison throughout. Alice best explains it again when he was quoted as saying “This is the highest energy music I’ve ever done. I think it’s because I’m experiencing that kind of energy physically. I’m in a hundred times better shape than I ever was — that has to do with wanting to tour and be competitive. Mentally, of course, I’m sicker than I’ve ever been…”

This album initially came my way courtesy of my heavy music dealer from high school, who seemed to be able to give me just what I needed without even knowing. And, given how much I had loved “Constrictor” (you can relive that episode from Season 1 to discover that) I never doubted that I would also love this album. In fact, if my memory still retains most of its ability, I had this recorded on one side of a C90 cassette, and Motley Crue’s “Theatre of Pain” on the other side. However, such was my love of this album, and my general ambivalence with “Theatre of Pain”, that I destroyed this tape eventually in the cassette player of my white Toyota Corolla from playing it all the way through, and then hurriedly rewinding it to listen to it again. This hastened my purchasing of it on CD, which I did from Redback Records in Wollongong on a day out.
So yes, I have always loved this album since I first heard it. The teen anthems all worked on me given I was still in my late teens when it was released and for a couple of years afterwards. It was a feeling of slight disappointment when I first saw Alice Cooper live on the Trash tour that they didn’t play anything off this album. Indeed, apart from “Roses on White Lace” on the most recent Alice tour – another one I was fortunate enough to see, along with taking my whole family – no songs have been on the live setlist from this album since that time. Which is a shame, because there are a lot of cracking songs here, all of which would work beautifully in the live environment. All of the songs are short and sharp, and the album doesn’t overstay its welcome. It’s also a shame that this was the final album that had Kane Roberts and Kip Winger playing on, but beyond this time Alice began in a similar direction but with a huge leap in personnel involved. He co-wrote and played on “Bed of Nails” on the “Trash” album but that was where his involvement with Alice concluded – until just a few short weeks ago when he re-joined the live band to replace Nita Strauss. Roberts has stated publicly he would love to do another album with Alice. Having bathed in the glory of this album over the past few weeks, we can only hope that comes to fruition. His contribution to leading Alice Cooper’s resurgence through the mid-1980's should never be overlooked.
Most fans of Alice Cooper, when asked for their favourite albums, rarely list this or its predecessor in their best five Alice Cooper albums. The early classics, or the chart toppers that followed this album are generally where the popular vote goes. For me this is easily one of the best five Alice Cooper albums ever released. I would have difficulty in ranking them in order in that top five – if pushed it would come down to either “Hey Stoopid” or “Constrictor” - but this is one of the best. And if you don’t agree, then you haven’t listened to this album enough. So pull it off the racks now, and get it spinning!

1175. Armored Saint / Raising Fear. 1987. 3.5/5

From their beginnings back in Los Angeles in 1982, Armored Saint had been in and around those bands that became such household names through the course of the 1980’s. Played with them, drank with them, and generally went along the journey with them. It’s interesting that, at different times and under different circumstances in those years leading up to this album, both leader singer John Bush and bass guitarist Joey Vera had been asked to consider becoming a part of Metallica, but both refused as they wanted to remain with their own band. That says something not only for the closeness of the band but in their belief in themselves.
The band's first two albums, “March of the Saint” and “Delirious Nomad”, were well regarded in the industry and did enough sales wise to raise the profile of the band, but it is fair to say that they were really in the second tier when it came to the coverage the band received compared to their contemporaries in the heavy and thrash metal genre during the mid-1980's.
Along with Bush and Vera, Armored Saint’s first formation included Dave Pritchard on lead guitar and brothers Phil and Gonzo Sandoval on rhythm guitar and drums respectively. However, by the time it came to write and record this album, Phil had left the group, and the album was recorded as a four piece, with Pritchard playing all the guitars.
The most noticeable thing about this album is the production and recording. It is noticeable that not only do the songs feel more structured, they are recorded better and have a bit more oomph in the production than the first two albums received. I mean, everyone who knows “March of the Saint” would agree that it would be amazing if it had been recorded a few years later with better production techniques. And while it improves even more come the next album, it still sets this album up as a better prospect in a time when so many of the great albums of the 80s metal scene were released.

Straight up, John Bush takes centre stage and dominates the opening of the album. And as much as I love Phil’s guitaring on the first two albums, I have to admit that Dave really lets rip in great style on this album. It’s interesting that this is the case, with Dave setting up those licks that he also plays off. It is especially noticeable in the opening, self-titled track. It’s a great song, and lights up the album from the outset.
“Saturday Night Special” is a cover of the Lynard Skynard song, a much more upbeat version than the original. Why does it appear on this album? I don’t really know. Maybe the band just loved the song and decided they wanted to do their own version. It’s interesting listening to it because, although it is a good version, it is noticeable that through the verses of the song the guitars don’t really take control and have great pieces like the other songs on the album do – you know, the ones the band actually wrote! No matter, it still sounds great.
“Isolation” is the standing-out-like-thumb track on the album. It mixes up the general style of song that Armored Saint had done to this point of their career, a slower more introspective track, though with the vocals continuing with their loud and powerful cry rather than silently backing off into a power ballad. It also has a great solo from Pritchard in the second half which ignites it beyond what it could have been. It’s an interesting song, one that does defying being catalogued. It is bookended by two great faster tracks. Both “Out on a Limb” and the excellent “Chemical Euphoria” drive the album back to the rafters.
The second side opens up with the excellent “Frozen Will / Legacy” with Dave’s guitaring again a highlight. “Human Vulture” has some great spots from Bush and Vera, with “Book of Blood” and “Terror” continuing on the frenzy. Closing track “Underdogs” is a beauty, screaming along with fire and brimstone from Bush on vocals and Pritchard on guitar, bringing the album to its conclusion in a pleasing fashion.

I had heard very little of Armored Saint until well into the 1990’s, again through a combination of their albums not being easily sought at the time in Australia, and the fact that none of my friend group listened to them or had any of their albums either. So it wasn’t until John Bush joined Anthrax, and came out with the amazing “Sound of White Noise” album that I thought “I wonder where the hell this bloke came from?”, and I eventually went out to track some material down. And as it turned out, this was the first album that I managed to get a hold of, so I know it pretty well. And of course it was a matter of then slowly building up to the other albums. When it came to putting this album on my playlist to listen to again to record this podcast episode, it jumped out of the speakers at me. It grabbed me again from the outset, and my initial reaction was ‘wow, why haven’t I listened to this in a while!’ And like I’ve said before, this is one of the reasons I do this podcast, in order to rediscover great albums that I may not have played in years. So after a good solid three weeks of going around and around, this has been a great catch up. There is so much to like here, and I think that I rate it higher now than I have in the past. It’s not an out and out classic that demands your attention as one of the best ever released, but it does provide all the things necessary to make a really good album.
It also acts as a tribute to Dave Pritchard, as it was his final album. Following the tour Dave was diagnosed with leukemia, and he passed away the following year while the follow up album “Symbol of Salvation” was being written. His guitaring on this album is some of my favourite from the band, and it is fitting that it is memorable because of how good it is and not just because of his passing.

1158. Death Angel / The Ultra-Violence. 1987. 4.5/5

What were you doing when you were 19 years of age? Better yet, what were you doing when you were 14 years of age? Or even 10 years of age? Why do I ask? Well, those ages are significant when it comes to the historical timeline of Death Angel. Because when they first formed and began to play together back in 1982 and 1983, the band members were all around the ages of 14 and 15. Except for their drummer of course, because at the time Andy Galeon was 10 years of age.
Is that ridiculous? Well of course it is. But then they put out their first demo tape, titled “Heavy Metal Insanity”, and that brought them more attention. The band, led by lead guitarist Rob Cavestany, rhythm guitar Gus Pepa and bass guitar Dennis Pepa, and Galeon on drums, were soon joined by band roadie Mark Osegueda on vocals, and gigged around for the next two years, writing new songs and supporting such bands as Megadeth, Exodus and Voivod. In 1985 they band recorded and released their demo
Kill As One”, produced by Metallica’s guitarist Kirk Hammett. As a result of the tape trading scene that existed in those days, Death Angel found themselves turning up to gigs, and having the crowds sing their songs along with them, despite the fact they had yet to secure a recording contract. The success of this demo led the band to gaining that contract with Enigma Records, and allowed the band to record and release their debut album, “The Ultra-Violence". And the remarkable thing about that was that, after four years of working for this moment, all of the band members were still under the age of 20 on the day of its release, with Andy Galeon still only 14 years of age. So imagine yourself at that age, not only playing so many high level gigs over so many years, but also writing songs like this.

If you are coming into this album without any reservations, or if you are coming into it having heard some of their more recent releases, then what you discover is going to blow your mind. Because this is a true version of a thrash metal album, from the days when thrash was at its peak in its development, and this is a band that meshed and melded with the greats of the genre at their own inception. Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Exodus. And yet these guys were just kids, who by the time this came out had had a wealth of experience that most older musicians could only dream of. So when you listen to the songs, you can pick up those influences of the bands that Death Angel had performed with over that time, and while they are there, they do not dominate. They thrash hard and fast, but have developed their sound, their version of the music that had been dominating the Bay Area over that time, and then they had forcibly pressed it onto vinyl for the world to hear. But there is a progression to this thrash metal, with all of the tracks barring the final one pushing beyond four and five minutes, filled with fast aggressive guitaring and hard hitting drumming.
Dennis Pepa actually leads the vocal assault on the opening track “Thrashers”, while the guitar sound is very Megadeth from their first album in style. “Evil Priest” follows and is another excellent song, fast and furious, and ties in nicely to “Voracious Souls”. Lyrically the band is walking the tightrope, singing about a priest inhabited by an evil spirit and then a cannibalistic tribe. The devil and evil have a central piece in the lyrics on the album, but if you are a thrashing teenager it isn’t likely to bother you too much.
“Kill As One” is just a superb song, combining everything that is brilliant about thrash metal into its five minutes. Great vocals, superb guitaring, and drumming that makes you tired just listening to the energy being expelled in driving the track to its conclusion. “Mistress of Pain”, which the band actually dedicated to one of their old teachers when they played at their high school prior to this album being released, actually has vocals from Mark that remind me heavily of Joey Belladonna on the early Anthrax albums. This is followed by “Final Death” on which I think Mark’s vocals sound the best, a sign of things to come over the course of the next couple of albums. And the album concludes with the short and sharp instrumental “I.P.F.S”.
It is possible that the crowning glory of this album is the title track, “The Ultra-Violence", a ten-and-a-half-minute instrumental that showcases the absolute talent of this band and its members. There have been plenty of great instrumental track from all sorts of bands down the years, but this is the equal of those. Everything about it is spectacular. The guitaring and riffing is magnificent, the bass guitar line throughout is wonderful, and the showcasing of Galeon’s drumming is brilliant, proving what a talent he was at that age. I love this song, it is a beauty, and more than worth the ten and a half minutes of your time.

Like a majority of the albums that I have reviewed over the last few episodes, Death Angel was a band I came into on a later album, and didn’t discover this until after that. That album was “Act III”, still an amazing album and one that then forced me to check out the two previous releases. Whereas the sophomore release initially disappointed me, this album did not. When I first put it on, it was like going back to when I first discovered Metallica and Megadeth, and the excitement and sheer joy I got when I first heard those bands albums. And for me that is what is so terrific about “The Ultra-Violence". The fact that the band grew up and played in that era of such influential bands from that area, the songs and sounds on this album are naturally also tied to it. And though I may not have picked it up in 1987 – far out, another lost opportunity for those heady days of the final year of school – it still reminds me of that time just from the style of the music on the album.
And, in many ways, this album stands alone in the Death Angel catalogue. By “Act III” there was a certain maturity that came in the music, not being the rough and frenzied output from the debut. The of course it was 14 years before the next album, and as brilliant as it is, it is a different age of metal by then. So “The Ultra-Violence" stands as a testament to the age, both the era of thrash metal and that individual age of those in the band at the time. And because of this, it remains a wonderfully special album that is impossible to ignore whenever it hits the stereo.

1154. Ozzy Osbourne / Tribute. 1987. 5/5

There is plenty of evidence out there in the music world that Ozzy Osbourne’s career after the conclusion of his years in Black Sabbath was saved by his collaboration with Bob Daisley and Randy Rhoads. If not for their involvement in what became the first two albums of his ‘solo’ career, then there must be questions asked as to whether or not he would ever have become the icon that he now is. Certainly those two albums rely heavily on the magnificence of Randy Rhoads’s guitar playing, and his sudden and tragic death is still mourned to this day. It wasn’t until five years after his death that a live album recorded during those days was released, as a tribute to his special skills. The double album, titled “Tribute” shone a light on just how amazing an artist Randy was.

It’s remarkable that this album came to light in the way it did. The recordings were done without any clear idea as to what they wanted to do with them, just how they were to be released, if at all. At the time Ozzy was still in a period of one-upmanship with his former band, trying to find a way to out manoeuvre them. In the weeks leading up to Randy’s death, Ozzy had wanted to do some shows that included only songs from his Black Sabbath days, to record and release in order to show that he was still more Black Sabbath than his former band. It was only when both Randy and drummer Tommy Aldridge refused to do so that it fell through. And then the accident occurred, Randy was gone, and this was what was left. So, it is truly very fortunate that these recordings were made. Imagine our music world since if we had not had this amazing album, showcasing just how brilliant Randy Rhoads the guitarist was in the live environment, playing on these brilliant songs that he helped to create?
And of course, it would be remiss not to mention the other parties involved. On the majority of the songs played on this album, the band consists of drummer Tommy Aldridge and bass guitarist Rudy Sarzo, and both deliver wonderful performances here. The day and age of live drum solo, in order to give the other band members a rest during proceedings, allows Tommy to show off his amazing skills on this album, and throughout his drum sound is top notch. Rudy’s performance is excellent here too, acting as the lineal standard whenever Randy’s guitar moves off into his own projections of the song. On the two songs at the end of the album, “Goodbye to Romance” and “No Bone Movies”, which are from a different gig a year earlier, original Blizzard of Ozz members, drummer Lee Kerslake and bassist Bob Daisley are playing. And then there is Ozzy himself. It’s interesting to hear him for the majority of this album. By the time this was recorded, he had recovered from the loss he felt of leaving Black Sabbath, his reputation had been restored by the albums “Blizzard of Ozz” and “Diary of a Madman” and the writing and performing efforts of Randy, Bob and Lee, and you can hear that confidence again flowing through him, that he is back on top of the world and his fans are there for him. For him, the world was once again his oyster. All of this never ceases to bring a tinge of sadness when listening to the album, knowing that it was the last we would hear of this band in its current lineup.

When you listen to all of these songs, I still wonder at how bands go about doing their set lists, and then decide what they are going to play and what they are not. Obviously for this release, more than five years after they were recorded, it came out to showcase the marvellous talents of the guitarist. And they all do. “I Don’t Know” is a great opening track, coming in as it does after the band’s intro music, ballsy and ballistic straight from the get-go. Followed by its sister track from the same album, and this version of “Crazy Train” is still probably the ultimate of all of the versions live and studio released over the years. Randy just smokes on guitar throughout, and it is the perfect tribute song for him. But then you have two just majestic songs that also not only showcase his guitar, but the awesome bass lines and improving melody lines of Ozzy’s vocals. “Believer” has such an amazing tone and atmosphere, but this live version just brings it to life more than the studio version does, and it has always been one of my favourites. And then this is followed by “Mr Crowley” which even after all these years perhaps highlights just how good Randy was, his guitar playing on this track is that segue from metal to classical that it feels like he was looking for. Both of these songs gell those pieces together, and are brilliantly done here.
I love that they also did “Revelation Mother Earth” and “Steal Away the Night” back to back like they did on the album, because they fit together so perfectly in that way, and both sound sensational here. “Steal Away the Night” is one of the most underrated songs in the Ozzy Osbourne discography, a song to me that would be a sensational opening to a gig. “Suicide Solution” is also terrific, and is where Randy’s guitar solo is inserted into, which works well in the fact that this is, of course, his tribute. We then have the three Sabbath songs to close out with, which sound terrific. This version of “Children of the Grave” is one of my favourites, and Randy does an outstanding job of playing his own version without trying to pinpoint copy Tony Iommi’s guitar but yet remaining faithful to the original. It is superb.
Getting back to my opening point about set lists, I guess my one regret here is the songs that the band didn’t play. “Over the Mountain”, “S.A.T.O”, “You Can’t Kill Rock n Roll”, “Diary of a Madman”… but that album didn’t come out for another six months after these live recordings were made and so the songs were not played. More is the pity… I just would have loved to have heard Randy play these live.

Randy Rhoads had come and gone before I knew about him, and before I had begun listening to metal music at all. That came a few short years later when, as you do, your group of mates at school all gravitate towards the same kind of music, and begin to share their loves into the conglomerate. About twelve months before this album was released, perhaps had been even thought about being released, one of my best friends – again, my metal music dealer that I have mentioned in past episodes – came back from an expedition to the second hand record stores in Sydney rather excited. He had come across an album that was enclosed in just a white cover, with the simple “Iron Maiden – LIVE!” printed across it. Without any clue as to what was actually on the album he made the purchase, brought it home, put it on… and thought ‘wow, that doesn’t sound like Iron Maiden….’
What he had actually found… was the recordings that ended becoming the basis of this album. Sure, the official release was cleaned up and mastered, but he had essentially found this album, and as a result those of us in our listening circle at Kiama High were listening to this album for pretty much 18 months before we actually got to buy this album. Which was cool before we knew this album was going to be released, but was soooo much cooler once it had been announced, and we heard it for the first time and thought ‘far out we’ve had this for ages!’ I wish I still had that cassette, but it died after being listened to a thousand times.
But I still had this album, and I still play it frequently, because how can you not? Not only because the songs are awesome and the versions are better, but once again because it reminds me of those simpler times back in my last couple of years of high school, when the world seemed a much simpler place.


It is 40 years to the day that Randy was killed while sleeping in a bus that a light plane then flew into, and it is 35 years to the day that this album was released as his Tribute. I don’t think there is a better way to remember his guitar playing by, than to take an hour and a half of your day, put this album on, and let Randy Rhoads amaze you all over again.

1153. Gary Moore / Wild Frontier. 1987. 4/5

In many ways it is somewhat surprising that an excellent Irish guitarist/vocalist that was not known for sticking around in the same situation for very long could forge a successful and lauded career, especially in the 1980’s where pop music reigned supreme for much of the decade and rarely allowed other artists to get much of a look in. But Gary Moore, guitar virtuoso and mostly leader of his own solo project for much of that decade, was one who found a way to slip through those gaps. And without doubt, regarding commercial success and the height of his performing profile, it was his sixth studio album that brought him to his peak, at least when it came to his hard rock music before the onset of his refurbished career in the blues.

Gary Moore’s career as an artist had been well over a decade old by the time we reached the mid-1980’s. Having played in the Irish blues band Skid Row where he first met Phil Lynott, he then had a couple of stints in Lynott’s next band Thin Lizzy. In and around all of this he forged a solo career, with several albums through the early 1980’s that all kept building upon each other, improving as they went. Each album saw a refinement in the songs, and perhaps just as much in Gary’s vocals.
Prior to the writing and recording of “Wild Frontier”, Gary had travelled back to his native Belfast in Northern Ireland, the first time in many years he had returned to his place of birth. There seems little doubt that this trip inspired the writing for this album. The lyrical content of many of the songs are about his home country, and the music itself has its roots in his celtic background.
For the album, Gary once again handles all of the lead vocals, and of course all of the guitars, lead, rhythm and acoustic. He is again joined by his right hand man Neil Carter, who contributes the keyboards along with backing vocals. Neil was very much an important part of Gary’s liv performances during this time, and especially on the tour that followed this album. Coming in on bass guitar for the album was the legendary Bob Daisley, who at this time was on one of several hiatuses from Ozzy Osbourne’s band. Daisley’s bass lines always seem to dominate the songs he plays, though he did not contribute to any of the writing of the album.
Perhaps the one part of this album that nags me is the fact that the drums are all programmed, one of those quirks of the 1980’s that has never sat well with me. Obviously once on tour a ‘real drummer’ was hired to play, who ended up being the excellent Eric Singer, but why would you use a drum machine for the album? Yes, it probably saved time and it probably saved money, but a couple of the songs, mostly notably for me the opening track, are the lesser for not having someone at the back giving the real skins a thorough thumping.

When it comes to opening tracks on albums, the necessity and desire is that you have a track that immediately grabs the attention of the listener and drags them in. And I love the opening of “Over the Hills and Far Away” for just that reason. A great drumrolling beginning before Gary recites the opening stanza, and then into the guitar riff. Not only a great start, but a terrific song, one of my absolute favourite Gary Moore songs. Daisley’s bass line throughout is great, and the moment towards the end when the music stops and the vocalists harmonise without it, is just perfect. A brilliant start.
This is followed up by the excellent title track “Wild Frontier” and typical Moore rock track “Take a Little Time”. “Wild Frontier” was the second single from the album, sitting in the middle ground tempo wise, and focusing lyrically on his homeland, the inspiration received from his trip back home. Another great track. “Take a Little Time” rushes a long at a much faster tempo, filled with a great mix of guitar riff and keyboard infusion, with Moore’s vocals in his higher register spitting out their venom. This is an overlooked song in Moore’s catalogue, one that I thing is a lot better than it is often given credit for.
“The Loner” is a song that was originally recorded by Cozy Powell on is solo album “Over the Top”, ironically an album where Gary played on a song – but not this one. Moore heavy improvised and changed the structure of this instrumental for this album, something that becomes very clear if you listen to the two versions. Here Gary plays like only Gary can, and he has absolutely made this his song.
The cover of the Easybeats’ “Friday on My Mind” was a real surprise when I first got the album, just so unexpected. And I thought it was great, and of course it became the anthem for our final year of high school. But I’ve always thought it just overused Carter’s synth and keyboard in this version. The song lends itself to a really heavy guitar and drum combo, but here Moore and his band have gone for a synth heavy version, perhaps in the main to get that elusive radio airplay in an era when synth heavy tracks were gaining that. “Strangers in the Darkness” dials back everything from what has come before it, moving closer towards the soft rock ballad that is particularly comfortable. This is then solved by the rollicking “Thunder Rising”, another song that lyrically is based on a take from his homeland, and better utilises Moore’s best guitar attributes. Closing out the album is “Johnny Boy”, which I’ve always felt is just Gary’s version of the old classic “Danny Boy”… but you know… I could be wrong…

In retrospect, this album has a lot of things going for it in regards to me loving it. It is another of those magical albums released in year of 1987, my final year of high school, where I have so many great memories of that time that are always brought to the forefront by the albums of that era.
This was the first new album the Moore released after I had discovered him and his music the previous year, so it struck a chord at the time because of that as well. And for me at the time it wasn’t only his marvellous guitaring that sucked me in, it was his vocals as well that I felt were so wonderful.
When this was released, the album stuck quite firmly and for a long time on my cassette player because of the strategic release of the singles. The video for “Over the Hills and Far Away” was on all the late night music video programs at the start of the year – Rage on ABC, MTV on 9 and NightShift on 10 – followed by “Wild Frontier” In April and May, and then “Friday on My Mind” midway through the year, which meant I was always going back to listen to the album because I heard these songs. I still vividly remember being at parties at friend’s houses late on Saturday nights, or at other friend’s houses watching movies until those music video shows came on, and watching these songs videos come on and singing them loud and proud.
So for me, even on reflection now, I think this is a top shelf album. The songs are still strong, both lyrically and musically. Not every song here is a favourite, but the strength of the album overall more than holds its own. I love those three singles I mentioned, and “Take a Little Time” and “Thunder Rising” are also very good songs.

It’s a different album from Moore’s other releases. They all have the style of the time they were written and recorded, and “Wild Frontier” definitely allows Neil Carter to push his synths a little louder into the mix as was the way of rock music at the time. And as a result, in some ways it may sound a little dated, especially to those who did not grow up in the era it was released. I certainly don’t try to hide from the accusation of bias in this regard, because it is an album of that time that is firmly embedded in my psyche. Despite that, and trying to put that aside, there is still plenty here for the casual fan of Gary Moore, some of his best work, and a couple of songs that survive beyond his own legend.

1088. Judas Priest / Priest... Live! 1987. 5/5

Back in 1979 Judas Priest released their initial live album entitled Unleashed in the East: Live in Japan, which was praised and loved in most circles but also somewhat derided in a small circle because of the re-recording of the vocals after they were trashed on the original tapes. As such some believed it could never be considered as a true live album, which didn’t stop it being extremely popular. Thus with the announcement and release of the band’s second live album, the double vinyl opus Priest... Live!, those thoughts could be put to rest, and the fans could enjoy a live album with no foibles and great songs. So you’d think.

I’m not going to lie to you. When I got this album, even though it was a couple of years after its release, I was excited. I love and loved Unleashed in the East: Live in Japan and I was looking forward to hearing another live album. As it turned out, at the time I hadn’t heard any of the Turbo album apart from the title track, so given it was recorded on the Fuel For Life tour to promote that album there were obviously songs that I hadn’t heard before. My enjoyment of them allowed me to go back in search of that album after the fact and probably helped me to enjoy it more than many did at that time.
The album has no songs on it from any album prior to the previous live album. The band played songs on that tour from their 1970’s era but chose not to put them on this live release, which in the long run I think was a great idea as we instead heard only songs which to that point had not been released as live versions. I also meant that a lot of songs that didn’t get played live too often after this tour were caught for future posterity here.
So what we get here is not necessarily the definitive selection of Priest tracks from the 1980’s, but it is an impressive and enjoyable selection. The triumvirate of “Electric Eye” into “Turbo Lover” and then into “Freewheel Burning” is a high energy speed-fest that highlights the best part of the album with three of the era’s best songs. I still enjoy the opening of “Out in the Cold” moodiness that leads into the anthemic “Heading Out to the Highway” and the ground shaking “Metal Gods”. And not forgetting the awesomeness that is “The Sentinel”, with Halford at his glass shattering best in his vocals. Some will see the missing space that comes with not having songs like “Screaming For Vengeance” and “Rock Hard, Ride Free” on the album, though this was rectified with the remastered version of the CD some years later.
In the live setting, the band sounds spectacular. Dave Holland on drums is as metronomic accurate as ever and does a great job, with his rhythm partner Ian Hill on bass keeping the bottom end perfectly sound. The dual electrifying guitars of K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton are just fantastic, searing and scene stealing between them, while Rob Halford shows that he can carry his pipes live just as well as he does in the studio.

Priest... Live! is a terrific live experience and a great recording of Judas Priest the band in their element. It may not be as energetically satisfying as Unleashed in the East: Live in Japan was, but it perfectly captures the 80’s decade of this great band in their defining moment.

Rating: “It’s Friday night and the Priest is back!”  5/5

1068. Motörhead / Rock 'n' Roll. 1987. 2.5/5

Ten years on form their eponymous debut album and Motörhead had seen the highs and they had seen the lows. Whereas the first five years after that debut release had been filled with big crowds and high adrenaline songs that forced their way into the public perception, the following five years had been dominated by band changes, genre changes and perhaps the feeling that the younger bands in the market were starting to go past them both musically and in popularity. Whether or not they needed to stay relevant was perhaps only a part of the question. Certainly the best way to regain any lost ground was to put out an album that recaptured the imagination of their fans and kept their music out there in amongst the growing torrents that included thrash metal and hair metal. To be honest, Rock 'n' Roll got swallowed in the stampede.

At a time when bands with as varied music selection such as Iron Maiden, Metallica, Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe and Bon Jovi were storming the charts and airwaves, Motörhead’s new album was lost in the tidal wave. In fact, the only way I had any idea that it was out in the market was from the single “Eat the Rich”, which had its video playing on the music video shows at the time of these other band’s videos. It actually became something of amusement for myself and my mates through the lyric:

“Come on baby, eat the rich,
Put the bite on the son of a bitch
Don't mess around, don't give me no switch,
C'mon baby eat the rich
C'mon baby eat the rich”

The problem being was that this created mirth and laughter rather than fist pumping and head banging. And once I heard the album, this is what it lacked all the way through. The album is titled Rock 'n' Roll but did it contain anything that was really exciting for the punters out there wanting to listen? When I first got it, I was comparing it to Master of Puppets, Somewhere in Time, Hysteria, Slippery When Wet, Girls, Girls, Girls and Dream Evil. All very different albums of different genres of metal and hard rock, but each of them lapped this album, and left it fumbling in their wake.

30 years later, and though I can now listen to it without having to compare it to the other albums I was listening to at the same time, it still hasn’t grown on me any more since. The up-tempo vibe is a positive, but there is very little in the way of a hook or a grab to drag you into the album and give you a counterpoint to use to find real enjoyment. “Eat the Rich” is the only song I can really say stands out for me on the album, and that is only because of that video and that lyric from all those years ago. Thankfully it wasn’t the end for the band, because there are still very worthwhile albums that followed this down the track, but this one has never been one of them for me.

Rating: “Crossed the ocean in a silver bird, flying into another world”. 2.5/5

955. Helloween / Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1. 1987. 5/5

As related in my review of Walls of Jericho, back in 1987 our school hosted an exchange student from Norway called Hans. He had brought with him his own musical interests, one of which was a band called Marillion, which never really caught on with me but found acceptance amongst others. What did pique my interest was two albums he had on one cassette, that I quickly got a copy of once I had heard them. Both were by a band called Helloween which until that time I had never heard of. On Side A was the album Walls of Jericho. On Side B was an album that had the endearing title of Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I. These two albums changed the way I felt about music in a profound and amazing way.

There are some quite startling changes between the way the music sounds between these two albums, and it almost quite literally comes down to the vocals of the two lead singers. Kai Hansen sang on both the initial EP and on Walls of Jericho. The songs were fast and heavy, true speed metal, and Kai's vocals exacerbated this, with those screams that would become so much a part of his early repertoire. There was no time for rest, this was an album that pushed the boundaries and used all of the skills of the band. But it was Kai's voice in the live setting, along with playing guitar, that led to the band looking for a lead singer to come into the mix. Enter Michael Kiske, the man with The Voice, and with it and his own writing ideas there was an almost immediate maturing of the music, without losing the intensity and the intrinsic heaviness of the material. With it however was a barrier, at least in my mind. Kai's version of the earlier songs always sound better, Michael doesn't quite have the grind that is necessary for those songs. The songs here though had a less speed metal approach, instead moving forth into newer waters, into a genre of metal that perhaps this album and the follow up created, that of power metal.
The album opens with the instrumental stage-setting "Initiation", which segues straight into "I'm Alive", which bursts forth with enthusiasm and an immediate impact of Kiske's amazing vocal talent. Straight away it all sounded so easy to sing, and he had those higher notes flowing freely. The music is terrific. It has those harmony guitars, which from here begin to produce that Helloween patented "happy guitars" sound which became their trademark. Yes, the tempo has slowed from the frantic output of the previous album, and this is noticeable for the majority of this album. Into the second song "A Little Time", and we also have ticking clocks, alarms and other such elements being thrown into the songs. We also have the first real support vocals coming through, backing up the lead vocalist in support of the song. Even the brilliant "Twilight of the Gods" has its tempo reeled in. If this had been performed 18 months earlier, it would have been at twice the pace that this is played at. That's not to say that the tempo is slow here, but it is certainly modified from those songs that came before this album. But the harmony vocals here, along with the harmony guitars, just make this a pleasure to listen to and sing along to. The rhythm of Ingo's drums and Marcus' bass line are winners here again, especially underneath the solo sections of the song. Brilliant.
The one downside of this album is that the song "A Tale That Wasn't Right" could possibly be held accountable for creating the 'power metal ballad', that awful indictment upon the genre. True, the song is a love story, and has those connotations, and the style of the song is what was followed, the template of you will. The problem with this in the long run is that this song is just awesome in the way it is written and performed. Kiske's amazing vocals over the acoustically played guitar, the pitiful wailing electric guitar into the chorus and solo, and the mournful harmony vocals backing up the lead. Yes, that IS the problem, because the fact it is so good is why it was then copied - and everything that followed from it from every other power metal band just comes across as crap, because they can't match how wonderful this sounds. So damn you Michael Weikath and co, you created the bloody power metal ballad.
The second side of the album is opened up by the single and perennial set list classic "Future World", which now finds itself played by two bands everywhere in the world. Again, it is not as frantic as it may have been even those few short months earlier, but it has become folklore amongst the Helloween community, and a crowd favourite sing-along song at all Helloween concerts. This is followed by what is now popularly known as the first part of the Keepers Trilogy, the epic "Halloween", the 13 minutes plus monster that perhaps best spans the two early generations of Helloween, incorporating their longer and faster tracks that have blistering guitar solos and harmonies with the maturing aspect of willing to use the quieter set and lesser paced aspects while giving Kiske his chance to showcase that amazing vocal range and emoting ability. This song has it all, sewn together in perfect order and dropped onto the vinyl in a pristine condition to exhilarate fans everywhere. Each member of the band has their chance to shine here, and each does it with perfection.
The closing segue of "Follow the Sign" seems slightly out of place by the time you reach the end of the album. A quiet instrumental piece with a few spoken words that only runs for a little under two minutes, it seems a strange way to finish off an album. That is, until you are aware of the fact that this was originally supposed to be the first album of a double album, with Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II that second album. This, "Follow the Sign" should have paved the way to moved straight into "Invitation" and then "Eagle Fly Free" from that album. Of course, once both albums were released, you could actually do that anyway.

Perhaps if you were not growing up in this era, this album may not be as important or influential to you as it was to me. This was one of those defining moment in music for me. The music bounds from the speakers, and Michael's vocals pound your senses with immediate effect. It isn't as heavy as their previous work, but it is the forerunner to all that came after it in this genre. To me it still brings back amazing memories from that time of my life, and I still smile every time I put it on. You can't ask for anything more on an album than that.

Rating:  "Make your choice, it's hell or paradise".   5/5

862. Paul Di'anno's Battlezone / Children of Madness. 1987. 2.5/5

If you happened to grab a copy of Battlezone's first album Fighting Back, you most probably are/were a fan of Iron Maiden, and wanted to hear what their former lead singer Paul Di'anno was up to on his departure from that band. If you were like me, you would have been sufficiently impressed to search and discover this album, the band's follow up to that release, entitled Children of Madness.

Though this was released only a year after the first album, there have been subtle changes to the songs and arrangement here, turning it more towards a commercial sounding album than the first one.
It starts off well with "Rip It Up", the song speeds along at a decent clip and even has Di'anno screaming over the top of his own vocals in support. "I Don't Wanna Know" is a typical Di'anno styled hard rock song with a simplified riff and drum signature and Paul sticking to his mid range vocals along the way, and a catchy lyric and chorus line. "Nuclear Breakdown" follows a similar pattern, a mid-tempo song with mid range vocals, over a standard riff and standard 2/4 drum beat. It's harmless in an AC/DC way, but there is a lack of inspiration in the music. "Torch of Hate" tries to up the tempo a little and inject some energy into the album, but it is lacking in the sound, where the instruments feel like they have been withdrawn to the rear of the mix, This sounds like a song written and recorded at the very start of the 80's decade, not one nearer to the end of it. "Whispered Rage" seems to combine elements of that early 80's hard rock again, with backing vocals from the band that reminds me of a cross between Gary Moore and Angel Witch.
The stand out song of the album is the title track, "Children of Madness". Perhaps this could be seen to be a contradiction given everything I have said above, because "Children of Madness" is a plodder of a song, it rarely changes out of the same riff pattern and its tempo is not anything above mid range. But for some reason it works. Di'anno's vocal works, and the solo fits perfectly in the middle. So though in many ways it is derived from the earlier songs on the album, it really is the one that reaches out and grabs you. Go figure.
"Metal Tears" wants to be the rock opera, an epic that drags you in to its story and doesn't let you go until it is concluded. This is what it wants to be. Whether it succeeds would be up to the individual. It isn't a bad song, but I wonder if it suits the band. It certainly sticks out from the crowd of everyday heavy or hard songs on the album. "It's Love" goes full circle, and becomes the hard rock poking-your-tongue at generic lyric about boy-meets-girl in a very Van Halen-ish kind of way, without the playfulness that David Lee Roth would portray in this situation. Following "Overloaded", similar themes are explored in "The Promise", this time with overtones of Skid Row (though again without that lead singer's playful vocals).

Whereas as on Fighting Back the songs had a real energy to them, some speed, and certainly some cracking solo breaks that really added to the flavour, this album has been sterilised of most of that. The songs have dropped back a step in pace, the guitars are less prevalent in a dual and duel capacity, while the rhythm section gets locked in at the start and barely moves away from it for the whole album. though the first album was still limited in a way as to how it was written, it was still performed with gusto which brought it to life. Unfortunately, Children of Madness doesn't have the same enthusiasm about it, and because of this is unable to bring the same energy and joy to the listener. Which is a shame, because there was potential there that has not been realised here.

Rating:  Oh can't you see, you're killing me, this time can go on.  2.5/5

855. Deep Purple / Locked in a Paper Cage [Bootleg]. 1987. 5/5

Way back in 1988, while wandering through record stores in the local area, I was perusing the massed basket of cheap cassettes at the front of one of these stores, and came across the live Deep Purple album Nobody's Perfect which had been recorded on The House of Blue Light tour the previous year. Brilliant! I didn't often buy cassettes, but I hadn't seen this anywhere on vinyl so I bought it. And it was brilliant, covering lots of great stuff from that album and Perfect Strangers that I hadn't heard live, as well as all the greats from the past.

After thousands of revolutions this copy died as all cassettes were wont to do, and I went searching for the album on CD. Unfortunately, the only version available at that time was one that had several songs removed in order to fit it on the one CD. While I still bought it, I had been disappointed and unfulfilled every time I listened to it, mourning the editing and lost tracks. Thankfully, in the early 00's, I came across this bootleg album. In all respects this is NOT a bootleg album. It is just a restoration of the original recordings as I remembered them, as well as adding other songs that were not a part of that original cassette I had bought, adding further great songs from that reformation era of the Mark II line up. So, in essence, it was an even better discovery than that original one back in the day!
Recorded live at Irvine Meadows in California on May 23, 1987, this album showcases everything that is great about Deep Purple in their live environment. You get the banter between songs between Ian Gillan and the audience, and Ian Gillan and his bandmates. You have Ritchie Blackmore play-acting throughout, throwing in his own flicks and flails whenever he feels in the mood. You have the places where he is allowed to express himself away from the basis of the song. You have Jon Lord doing a similar thing during his solo break. You have a great variety of songs from the two albums of the new era of Deep Purple, which all sound brilliant here. Songs such as "Perfect Strangers", "Nobody's Home", "Under the Gun" and "Knocking At Your Back Door" from the Perfect Strangers album are marvellous, and the selection from the touring album The House of Blue Light are just as terrific, with great versions of "The Unwritten Law", "Dead or Alive", "Hard Lovin' Woman" and "Bad Attitude". These are all mixed in with the living legends such as "Highway Star", "Strange Kind of Woman", "Child in Time", "Lazy", "Black Night", "Woman From Tokyo" and "Smoke on the Water". There's also the bonus that came on the original Nobody's Perfect album of the re-recorded version of "Hush" with Gillan on vocals, which I have always loved since its release.

As groundbreaking and timeless as Made in Japan is as a live album, I love this album just as much. It covers an era that is somewhat forgotten and bypassed in regards to Deep Purple. It was the reformation, and the band is on fire during this performance, covering both the first half and the second half of the great Mark II era. This records a significant moment in the history of the band. It was for all intents and purposes the end of this era, despite one final fling with The Battle Rages On... after Joe Lynn Turner's cameo for Slaves and Masters, and it is great to have this as a keepsake and memento of the greatness of this line up.

Rating:  Are you dead... or alive...  5/5

832. Mortal Sin / Mayhemic Destruction. 1987. 4.5/5

When Metallica first toured Australia in May 1989, they announced that local metal act Mortal Sin would be their support. Before that gig I bought their new album Face of Despair, played it to death and loved every second of it. I even bought their tour shirt ("Voyage of the Disturbed!") which finally died from overuse. After the gig, I went searching for their debut album, Mayhemic Destruction, from which the band had played a couple of tracks, most noticeably the brilliant "Lebanon". There was just one problem. Back in the day, this album was as rare as hens teeth, and just as difficult to track down. Believe me, I tried for a very long time before I found it, and that was even through Utopia Records, who can get just about anything! Today of course it would be practically impossible to find a physical copy of this album, but at least with iTunes you can still find and buy this album, which is a great thing (yes, it is up there now if you are interested). What I eventually had to be happy with was a second hand cassette I found in a Newtown second hand record store a few years later - I would love to have had the vinyl, I really would. However, beggars can't be choosers, and at least I had a copy of the album.

This is a brilliant slice of metal history, certainly from an Australian perspective. At a time when thrash metal was being heralded by bands such as Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Exodus and Testament, this album loses nothing in comparison to those early albums by these bands. The opening track is an instrumental, "The Curse", which serves as an introduction to the band and its wares. This is followed by "Women in Leather", where Mat Maurer's recognisable vocals make their first appearance. The mighty "Lebanon" has been a legendary classic amongst the Australian metal community for 30 years, and is still a shining light all these years later. "Liar" and "Blood Death Hatred" blitz along with a cacophony of double kick and blazing guitar. "Mortal Slaughter" and "Into the Fire" continue the metal fest, before "Mayhemic Destruction" finishes off the album in style, speeding along while Maurer tries a different vocal technique here to create a full collection of thrash metal stereotype songs.
The band itself is on fire throughout the whole album, and for something that was really only meant to be a demo tape, this is quite amazing. The quality of the musicianship is just brilliant. The guitaring of Keith Krstin and Paul Carwana sounds great - raw in places certainly, but impressive all the same. Andy Eftichoiu's bass work is terrific, really giving the songs the bottom end that they need and deserve, and making its presence felt throughout. So too is Wayne Campbell's drumming, hard and tough and loud and the driving force through the album, able to dictate the tempo of every song to perfection. Mat Maurer's vocals top off the set, and while they are not as cultured here as they would be on the following album, he mixes things up, singing with great poise on "Women in Leather" and descending to a growl and scream on "Mayhemic Destruction".

It might seem like tame stuff now, almost thirty years on from its initial release, but at the time it was huge - monstrous even. I only saw the band a few times live, in their different guises depending on who had been recruited at the time, but at their peak they were a worthy contender for best Australian metal band. How they didn't go on to bigger and better things is still a mystery - band disharmony has often stopped bands in their tracks. Despite all of that, this album still holds its own in the annals of metaldom, and is an album I can put on at any time and still love.

Rating:  Send out the kamikazes on a suicide attack.  4.5/5

797. Savatage / Hall of the Mountain King. 1987. 4/5

1987 was one hell of a year for music. Take a look at the list of best rated albums for that year on Rate Your Music and shake your head at the awesome content of that list. Not just heavy metal either. There are great albums from all genres of music. Most of them I either bought or heard at the time. Some gems did slip through however, and it wasn't until a few years later that I came upon the band Savatage, and in particular this album, Hall of the Mountain King.

What I liked most about this album from the start was that it was immediately impressive on all levels. Jon Oliva's vocals are uniquely his own, moving between a conversational lyrical tone to a higher register with ease, and despite the gruffness about his vocals it is a higher and tuneful voice than a growl, before then throwing in a real scream and what is a trademark cry every now and then. It helps to typify the Savatage sound. This is cross purposed with his brother Criss and his wonderful guitaring. His riffs and solos on this album are just sensational, and though parts of them may remind you of some other past songs of other bands, (there's a bit of Yes' "Owner of a Lonely Heart" in the riff of "Strange Wings" and a bit of Black Sabbath's "Hole in the Sky" in the riff of "Devastation") they are on a whole brilliant. In some places they are breathtaking, and he has an amazing flair in his playing. Check out especially "Beyond the Doors of the Dark", "Legions" and "Devastation" for his solos. Something special. Backing all of this up are Johnny Lee Middleton on bass guitar and Steve Wacholz on drums, who do their job so well that you probably don't even notice their excellent contributions while you listen to the Oliva brothers - but the album couldn't be this good without that solid rhythm section pounding away in the background.
The album itself flows almost perfectly from song to song, not losing any momentum from a change in style or radical changes in song structure. "24 Hours Ago" and "Beyond the Doors of the Dark" are both dominated by a heavy guitar riff and Jon's vocals, punctuated by those amazing guitar solos from Criss. "Beyond the Doors of the Dark" is just brilliant. "Legions" follows and is dominated by Criss' amazing guitaring, which is the highlight here. "Strange Wings", perhaps because of the aforementioned riff similarity, comes across as almost a mainstream sounding song especially after the opening tracks.
"Prelude to Madness" is an instrumental that incorporates Edvard Grieg's theme from his "In the Hall of the Mountain King". In combining a well known music piece to this instrumental intro to Side 2 of the album, it not only deepens the anticipation as to what will follow, it increases the interest of those that do not know the album as well, and opens the second half in style. This segues beautifully into the title track "Hall of the Mountain King", with a great riff that immediately generates that feeling that a great song is about to follow. This is the track that can sell you the album.  "The Price You Pay" has touches of Accept in both vocals and music which is amusing when Jon hits his high screams. Following the second instrumental of the album, the reflective "Last Dawn" leads into the final track "Devastation", which ends the album on a high note.

I'm not a fanatic about either this band or this album. That comes from not having found them earlier or having grown up with them. When it comes time to throw on a album at home or in the car or at work, Savatage is not one of those bands that immediately jumps into my mind to find. But that doesn't detract from the fact that I like the band, and I think this is a really good album. And when I do run my fingers along and they come to rest on this album and I pout it on, I am never disappointed. In fact I am constantly reminded about how good an album this actually is, and wonder why it doesn't get recalled by me in that way often enough. It has all of the hallmarks of the albums that I rate as my all time favourites, it just doesn't have that unconditional love that those albums have from me. Despite this, Hall of the Mountain King is a terrific album and worthy of your attention.

Rating:  Hell is eternity, Hell is your destiny.  4/5

688. The Rods / Heavier Than Thou. 1987. 3/5

Following on from their previous release, Let Them Eat Metal, The Rods have backed up here with an album of differing quality and direction. Half of it appears to be an effort to blow the speakers off your stereo in both speed and sound, while the other half could in some ways be considered a plagiarism of another famous band's best assets.

Opening up with the instrumental chorusing of "Heavier Than Thou", the album starts off with a bang with the hard rocking anthem of "Make Me A Believer". This is followed up by the equally good "Angels Never Run". Both songs have the best aspects of The Rods' better work, a feisty pace driven along by a great drum beat and guitars, some excellent guitar riffs and solos, and high intensity vocals that provide some catchy lyrics. Great stuff.
"Crossfire" is almost a crossroads of the album, a point where you will decide whether or not this has any promise. Moving the style back into a power ballad area, this has the hallmarks of a Whitesnake ballad of the 1980's, with the song and vocals all carrying a very Coverdale emotive feeling about them. This is how the song progresses, until the final minute, when it breaks into a much faster pace as the guitar solo kicks in to finish the song on a high note. Whether this works for you or not will probably dictate whether you enjoy the remainder of the album. It really is a two-part song, which seems a little strange no matter how many times you listen to it.
Now we really move into the generic hard rock material, both musically and lyrically, that sometimes almost gag-worthy kind of stuff that, if you grew up listening to it you can probably take it, but if you did not then you could easily write-off as trash. "I'm Gonna Rock" still shows its Whitesnake tendencies. "She's Trouble" moves along at a cracking pace, a real hard rocking number extolling the virtues of the wily female that all bands seemed to meet sometime during their performing days. Then we move onto "Born to Rock", because we all know that EVERYONE is born to rock! These three songs in particular are very much tied to this metal scene of the mid-1980's. Generically they are all of  similar performance as anything you could name from bands such at Ratt and Dokken and Britney Fox from the same era, and quite honestly are equally as well done in my opinion. When it comes to whether or not you like these songs, well, isn't it just like any style of music from the 80's? It might be 'bad' but you still 'love' it. And feel free to add in "Chains of Love" here too. The lyrics might be a tad too much to take sometimes, but the music is doing all of the right things.
Just for fun, there is even a cover Led Zeppelin's classic "Communication Breakdown", that the band has a lot of fun playing with. There is a major return to the Whitesnake sound for "Fool for Your Love", again in both the tempo and in Feinstein's vocals. "Cold Sweat and Blood" avoids this similarity, and concentrates once again on a solid rhythm section, a breakout guitar solo and strong vocals throughout.

I first went into this album not expecting anything out of the ordinary, and to be honest that's what I found. But what did impress me was that their 'ordinary' songs here are actually good hard rock songs, with plenty of enthusiasm throughout and punchy, catchy tunes. It may not be to everyone's taste, and it may not be a remarkable album, but it can't be accused of not providing the listener with an enjoyable 43 minutes.

628. Testament / The Legacy. 1987. 4.5/5

Plenty will argue about what are the best debut albums of bands ever released. There will be widely differing opinions, and many will point to their favourite band as having supplied the answer to the question. If asked, high on my list would be The Legacy, as it ticks just about every box possible in delivering a wonderful album.

"Over the Hill" is just an awesome opening song, a real smash-you-in-the-face welcoming. "We are Testament, now take this!" This is what thrash metal was all about, heavy blazing guitars, great drum work and a driving forceful vocalist. "The Haunting" continues in this trend. Guitarists Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson, who wrote almost all of the music for this album, are in great form, keeping these songs at maximum tempo. I love "Burnt Offerings", which is the song that follows, but its one flaw is that it does feel sometimes that it is just oe riff being played for five minutes straight. Not necessarily a bad thing, but compared to the rest of the album it is a little unusual. "Raging Waters" has the speed of the other songs, but is... how should I put this... a little 'lighter in substance' than the others. If you had only listened this far into the album, you may well think that Testament were a bit 'samey'. This is relieved by "C.O.T.L.O.D." (Curse of the Legions of Death), which restores the real Testament legacy (no pun intended) to the forefront.

"First Strike is Deadly' is still a brilliant song, one of Testament's best ever. It careers along at headbanging pace, with Chuck Billy's vocals menacing over some brilliant guitar work, especially in the solo break where true Iron Maiden-esque great harmony guitars prove that these guys are not just a one trick pony. "Do or Die" ups the pace even more, complemented by another brilliant solo break. "Alone in the Dark" follows up and does exactly the same, thrashing along with all elements pefectly in alignment. But then comes "Apocalyptic City", the riff-lined, bass-thumping, drum-induced closer to the album, that ramps it all up to eleven. There's no time to rest. You start moshing from the start, and there is no respite. It is a crime to finish the album on this song, as it leaves you so amped up that you just need to start it again from the start. Brilliant stuff.

All the great elements of the thrash genre are here - super duelling and co-operative guitarists going at it hell for leather, with a great bass and drum rhythm section perfectly in sync with their partners, while Billy's vocals at times monster through the speakers at you. Peterson and Skolnick can rightly be compared to Hannerman and King, and Hetfield and Hammett on this album. They are just superb. If you are a confessed headbanger, you already own this album. If you are wondering what the deal is with thrash metal, then beginning with this album wouldn't be such a bad idea.

613. McAuley Schenker Group / Perfect Timing. 1987. 3.5/5

Michael Schenker had had a fairly turbulent decade throughout the 1980’s, one that had come following his decision to quit UFO after a successful five album stint, and form his own Michael Schenker Group. Four albums had followed, along with two live albums, all with different and revamped line-ups as players discovered the difficulty in dealing long term with Schenker’s volatile personality. The content of each of those four albums by the Michael Schenker Group seemed to change along the way as well. The band and material had morphed from guitar-based hard rock songs on the first album to something akin to more radio-friendly based songs on the “Built to Destroy” album. In fact, the US mixed version of that album certainly slanted the songs that way compared to the UK mixed version (which to me is a much better version).
With the members of that version of the band moving on, along with twice spurned lead vocalist Gary Barden, Schenker went out searching for another partner in crime. In the process he met Robin McAuley, an Irish vocalist who had been in bands such as Grand Prix and Far Corporation. Such was the strong bonding between the two in the initial stages of their writing partnership, they even decided to form a new group that was now called the McAuley Schenker Group, that retained the same initials and therefore band motif of MSG. With the partnership now bonded in name as well, other band members needed to be recruited. It was an eclectic bunch, all hard working musicians in lesser known bands through the early 1980’s, drawn together at the prospect of being involved in a new band that had commercial success as its aim. And being led by the wonderful vocals of Robin McAuley, and driven by the legendary guitar of Michael Schenker, what could possibly go wrong?

From the outset this is a different album from what has come before it in the Schenker discography. Do you want more keyboards infused into the songs? You got it. Do you want a downplaying of the guitar in the songs? You’ve got that too. What? Hang on. Michael Schenker is a guitar god. Why on earth would you downplay the guitar here? Well, it’s the 1980’s mate. And if you want commercial success in the 1980’s, you have to make sure that the songs have verses and choruses, that they have singalong lyrics, that those lyrics are mainly based around the subject of boy meets girl or love itself, that the keyboards are more dominant because that’s the sound they want on radio, and that if you have to have guitar in the songs make sure it blends with all of that around it.
Now, are things THAT desperate on this album? No, but the style here is definitely a change, and that needs to be stated from the outset. Offsetting this is the excellence of Rocky Newton’s bass guitar riffs and lines on this album, because that bottom end is excellent, and along with Bodo Schopf’s drums provide an integral part of making this album as good as it is. And it becomes more important given the songs here are generally at a fast walk rather than a sprint or a stroll. The bass and drums keep that pace nicely, and the bass rambling up and down in the songs is a dominating facet.
And yes, for the most part, Schenker’s guitar is left holding time with the keyboards and rhythm guitars of Mitch Perry. There’s no Guitar Hero stuff going on for the most part of this album, Schenker’s standout parts are kept strictly in check. They aren’t struck out completely. He has great moments in songs such as “No Time for Losers” and “Get Out” and “Rock Til You’re Crazy”, and he is prevalent within the framework of all the songs. But it’s not dominant like it was in the past.
Does any of this detract from the album? No. Come in and listen to this album like it was a Ratt album or a LA Guns album or other hair metal bands of that era, and it will still well on top of that pile. Because that’s the style they have gone for here, the hair/glam metal that was popular at the time and charting, which is what the band wanted. And Robin’s vocals across the album are sensational, and worthy of recognition. He sings a hard rock anthem as well as he sings a rock power ballad, such as “Follow the Night” and “Time” are the two best examples on this album. And while the album itself only managed to reach 95 on the charts on the US, it provided Schenker and McAuley their first charting single in the US, with “Gimme Your Love” riding high on MTV airplay by making #40 on the US charts. So in their eyes, the album achieved what they were looking for.

This album was released four days after my 18th birthday, but I didn’t hear it until a couple of months later, when my well known heavy metal dealer procured me a copy on cassette. I actually heard it first at his house, not long before Xmas that year, and loved it from the outset. And through those months that stretched between the end of my final year exams and the beginning of university in the early months of the following year, this album became one of my main listening experiences. Early on, I didn’t really notice the difference in musical output from the band. It just slipped right in and was enjoyable from the start. And as I believe I have mentioned earlier, the style of the album is much more hair or glam metal than what Schenker had done before, which I enjoy anyway so it didn’t deter my love of it. I always notice the lack of real ripping guitar solos compared to what I had been used to from Schenker in the past, and yeah the songs when you look back on them now are a bit cheesy. But for me it is still a great listen, and I still love it. If you wanted me to sit down and critique it as a review then I would have to raise some points as per the above. But I don’t have to do this, all I have to do is present it to you, the listener of this podcast, offer you the cuts I have chosen, give you a bit of the history of the album and a bit of my own history with the album. It is tied to the time by its genre and certainly by the hairstyles on the front cover. But for me, none of that matters in this instance. This is a great start for the McAuley Schenker Group, one that didn’t last for long but gave us some great songs during its short existence.