1222. Ozzy Osbourne / No Rest for the Wicked. 1988. 4/5

By the time this album came around to being released, it had been well over 2.5 years since Ozzy Osbourne and his band had released a studio album. The fan response to “The Ultimate Sin” album has been less pronounced than it had for the other albums released during the 1980’s, and had been beset by problems from its inception and through to the tour that followed to promote it. Ozzy himself had the usual dependencies that haunted him over the decade, while the battle behind the scenes in regards to publishing rights and writing credits continued to be problematic. Some fans also felt that “The Ultimate Sin” album had gone too far towards a hair or glam metal sound than the music which they had enjoyed from him from Ozzy’s Sabbath days and even the Randy Rhodes albums. The end result of this was that guitarist Jake E. Lee was fired, for which there was never a full explanation given, and bass guitarist Phil Soussan also left the band. It seems probable that a combination of all of these factors – Ozzy's drug and alcohol problems, the refusal of both Lee and Soussan to give up their royalty rights, and the slight ambivalence of his long term fans over the recent release – all contributed to this situation occurring. It meant that the Ozzy Osbourne band required rebuilding.
Audition tapes were received from hundreds of guitarists, but eventually it was one from a young unknown guitarist by the name of Zakk Wylde that caught their attention. After auditioning for the spot Wylde was hired soon after, and became a major part of Osbourne’s resurgence into the next decade. The bass player’s spot was more inconclusive, and eventually it was through mutual benefit that former Ozzy band player Bob Daisley returned to the fold once again. Despite having been burned in the past and having issues over the same songwriting credits issue that had forced two members from the most recent line up of the band, Daisley returned to play bass and also contribute to the writing process for what became the album “No Rest for the Wicked”. Daisley had been bypassed for “The Ultimate Sin” album after having been heavily involved in Osbourne’s first three album after his leaving from Balck Sabbath, and his troubles with Ozzy’s management in that time are well known. However, his desire and enjoyment of being involved with Ozzy and his music again saw his return. Of course, as seems to be a recurring them in this story, it didn’t end well for him on this occasion either.

There is little doubt that the music direction here on “No Rest for the Wicked” moves itself forward from the previous album. You can name any number of reasons why this may be the case. The obvious one is the change of personnel. Both Zakk and Bob play their instruments in a different style from their predecessors, and as a result the music here is different. They both also write differently, which is a big thing to take under consideration. And we are now coming towards the end of 1988 and not at the end of 1985, so the style of heavy metal has also changed. Just take a look at Ozzy’s hairstyle as the main piece of knowledge for that! But in the main, Zakk comes in with a heavier riff style which is the dominant factor of the songs on this album.
The mood is set from the outset, with Zakk’s wonderful opening riff on “Miracle Man” tearing up the playbook and making his mark from the start. The fact that his guitar style is again different from all of the players Ozzy has had – Tony Iommi, Randy Rhodes and Jake E Lee – makes him the focal point again, and in the direction the music is taking. Along for the ride again is Bob’s wonderfully written and performed bass work, the perfect undertone to emphasise each track with Randy’s fantastic drumming, precision perfect and annunciating each musical portion of the song. These three combine superbly throughout this album, which only makes it slightly disappointing it was the only time they played together. Zakk and Bob were the main contributors to the songwriting process and they seem to have paired up well.
Ozzy comes back firing vocally, especially on that opening track “Miracle Man”, pointedly another song by a metal band of this era that gets stuck into the televangelism of the day, and the hypocritical acts of those involved. It’s a great song highlighted by Zakk’s terrific solo slot. This is followed by “Devil’s Daughter” and “Crazy Babies” that also feel dominated by the arrival of Zakk Wylde. While the tempo of the songs is not overly fast, they feel as though they are by Zakk’s unique guitar sound and his wailing guitar squeal. The intro and chorus of “Devil’s Daughter” is especially fun and driven, while Crazy Babies is dominated by Ozzy’s lyrical slinging after that initial opening crunching riff from Zakk – magnificent.
Then you have songs such as “Breakin’ All the Rules” and “Fire in the Sky” that slot right into that mid-tempo style and where Ozzy makes the songs what they are, with great vocal lines and melodies over the rhythm of the song. Ozzy is quite brilliant at being able to make these kinds of songs so entertaining and interesting, where other artists would be unable to make them so enjoyable. They are of a slightly different tone that sometimes halt the momentum of albums of other artists, but Ozzy and his crew make them much more than that.
“Bloodbath in Paradise” uses mentions of Charles Manson and the Manson family within its lyrics, while “Demon Alcohol” is so obviously written for Ozzy to sing about himself by Daisley that it should certainly be referred to as biographical. “Tattooed Dancer” also has its obvious reference points, and again is dominated by Zakk’s amazing guitaring, and his couple of riffs prior to and concluding the chorus especially being game changers. The album concludes with “Hero”, with more biographical lyrics from Zakk and Bob that continue to allow Ozzy to sing loudly about himself and be the hero to his fans that he sometimes doesn’t understand that he is.

Ozzy and his music has been a big part of my life since I first discovered it back in the mid-1980's, and while “The Ultimate Sin” had been the first album I had heard at the time (or around the time at least) it had been released, it was this one that was truly a ‘discovered on release’ moment for me. And yes, it is fair to say that the differences between what had come before, and this one, were obvious from the start. Which, at the time for me, was a big thing to take in. I loved the Randy era, and I loved the Jake E Lee era. But this was newer, bolder, brasher than any of that. And that was quite something to take in initially. But it didn’t take long to take the lacquer off the new ball. Zakk’s unique guitaring was a hit from the beginning. Just listening to it in songs like “Miracle Man”, “Crazy Babies”, “Tattooed Dancer” and “Demon Alcohol” was mesmerising, and everything fell into place after that.
This is still a great album, but often you will get asked where it fits in your own personal music rating for the artist. And if you ignore everything after 1994 – which was when Ozzy was going to retire from everything or just from touring or just from doing albums, or whatever that whole kerfuffle ending up being about – then this for me is the least interesting of Ozzy’s albums. His first two Blizzard of Ozz albums with Randy, Bob and Lee Kerslake are magnificent. His next two with Jake E Lee are the perfect 80’s hair metal albums. And the follow up to this, the amazing “No More Tears” speaks for itself. Sas much as I still enjoy this album, it is middle range when you think of the band’s albums as a whole.
After recording this album, Bob Daisley was ushered out the door again, to be replaced in the touring band by Ozzy former bandmate Geezer Butler, only for Bob to be recalled to play (but not write) on this album’s follow up. But that story is available on the episode dedicated to it in season 1 for those that are interested. This album is still an entertaining album of the age, and kept the Osbourne torch aflame into the next decade and beyond.

1220. Bon Jovi / New Jersey. 1988. 3.5/5

By the end of 1987, everyone knew Bon Jovi, and most people also knew of the album “Slippery When Wet”, the band’s third album that had taken the world by storm over the past 12 months. You can check out the story of that album on the episode dedicated to it in Season 1 of this podcast. The album and the singles it had spawned had had commercial airplay for 14 months as the band toured the world in support of it, and once the tour finally concluded you would expect that the band would have been looking for a long rest.
Far from it, as it turned out. The story goes that after a month of the tour concluding, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora were back together again, and had begun collating new demos of songs for the next album. In all, 17 were put together over that period of time. As you could imagine, having had such an amazing run of success with their previous album, there was a measured amount of pressure on the band, and the main songwriters in particular, to try and match that success with the follow up album. The full stadiums, singing those anthems back at the band night after night, had left the band, and Bon Jovi himself, with the desire to again find that magic in the bottle, and be able to write songs that could match that atmosphere and once again bring that level of crowd involvement and love through. In interviews over the years about this album, Jon Bon Jovi admitted that for him at the time, there was a fear that he wouldn’t be able to write another song that matched “You Give Love a Bad Name”. He also spoke about how when he and Richie wrote a song in those initial demos, they were trying so hard to replicate the feeling of that song that they ended up coming up with the same chord progression, and had to set it aside as a result. Not long after, they began a second session of songwriting, this time including renown hit maker and previous collaborator Desmond Child into the mix, and it was during this period that they came up with songs that they felt were closer to the mark they were aiming for.
By the time it came for the recording process to begin, the band had a plethora of tracks to decide on, and in an increasingly differing number of styles as well. The final question to be answered during this studio time was exactly what direction did the band want to head with its music, and did they have the right material in hand in order to make that happen.

“New Jersey” goes in directions that “Slippery When Wet” didn’t go, and makes for a much different album, which given popular fan theory at the time suggested that they just used the same template from the previous album on this one is one at odds with what you hear on the vinyl. You could make that case for the main singles released from the album, but probably not the rest. The power ballad makes a more noticeable entrance to the mix of this album, as well as the dabbling into country rock as well which did become a bit of a fashion for them in the not-too-distant future.
The album opens with the money shots, the songs released as singles from the album to gain the maximum exposure the album could on both radio and music video shows such as MTV. “Lay Your Hands on Me” opens the album with the style you have come to know from the band, with solid rhythm and guitar and great chorused vocals to create the stadium atmosphere the band had come to garner. This is followed by their massive first single from the album “Bad Medicine”, which pushed the sales of this album with catchy vocal lines and on on-point music video that was played everywhere on constant rotation. Then comes the next single hard at you, “Born to Be My Baby”, giving the album the triple-threat to opening the album and have you rocking in style from the outset.
“Living in Sin” was the final single released from the album and is the full-blown ballad that was aimed at a certain sphere of the band’s audience. And while it may well be a fan favourite, it does very little for me, and indeed has the same effect that most ballads seem to do on albus, by halting the momentum of previous tracks and stalling the solid start. “Blood on Blood” is another one with Desmond Childs’s fingers all over it, but the keyboard dominated track only really seems to kick in the mid-section when Sambora’s guitar takes over and gives the song a bit of the power it really needed. Bon Jovi’s vocals soar impressively throughout which is the mainstay of the song. “Homebound Train” has more of Richie’s influence both in the solid guitar riff of the song as well as his solo spot, while mixing in interesting trade-offs between the keyboard and Jon on harmonica as well. Sambora is the star of this track though, getting an opportunity to truly show what he can do on the instrument. This is possibly my favourite song on the album, because it is so different from everything else here. It’s a beauty.
“Wild is the Wind” is caught somewhere between rock and power ballad, and for me the first instance of a country flavour to the music. The short and quiet “Ride Cowboy Ride” segues in to “Stick to Your Guns”, then next ballad track with acoustic guitar that again has a certain country flavour about it, one where you imagine being around a campfire playing it. Riding in on the back of this is “I’ll Be Tere for You”, the unashamedly second major ballad of the album, the third single released off the album, and one that still never fails to induce a gagging motion whenever I hear it. Sure, the big fans love it, and it sold millions, but honestly there are songs off the debut album that I like more than this, and that’s saying something.
“99 in the Shade” picks up the declining tempo and energy of the album and pulls it back in the right direction, before the closing track “Love for Sale” comes on. Now, honestly, this final track of the album, one that has acoustic guitar and harmonica and is basically a poor man’s country and western type of song, is the final straw for the second half of the album. After the excellence of the first side of the album, side B here is a disappointing average fare, lacking in the kind of energy that the band had been famous for to this point of their career. In listening to the back half of this album over the last few weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time pondering just what the endgame for this album was, given the apparent desire early on to be able to write a hit like they had several of on their previous album. Because I think all of the eggs went in the one basket, and the other was left empty.

I did not go out and immediately buy this album when it was released back in 1988. The lack of funds while at university was probably the main reason behind this, but I was also listening to different music at that time. I was however well aware of the album and especially the singles as they were released, and it was often on at friends' houses when I visited so I heard it often enough. I did have it taped on cassette from someone at some time, but it wasn’t an album I have dived into very often. In fact, it wasn’t until January this year that I found this on vinyl at Music Farmers in Wollongong, and I bought it. Because everyone should have a copy of this album, right?
There’s no doubt that this is a topflight album. It doesn’t copy the success of their previous album, and in fact there are a lot of people out there that prefer this to “Slippery When Wet”. The big difference for me between the two albums is the greater influence of the ballad and country infused songs on this album, and that’s what colours my opinion of this album over their previous release. I had my vinyl copy of “New Jersey” on my stereo at home several times in the lead up to this episode, and it still sounds great, and the atmosphere of those big songs are still as terrific as they were when the album was released. As a comparison, I then pulled out “Slippery When Wet” and put it on. And it blew it away. And that for me is the difference. “New Jersey” is still a good album and sound great. “Slippery When Wet” is iconic and has an attitude this album does not.
For me, as I intimated earlier, all of the energy of the album goes into the songs on the first half, and then the rest is a tired, lame collection of slower uninteresting tunes or shudder inducing ballads. Listening to this now on vinyl, I could happily just listen to the first side of the album and then place it back in its cover. And that probably has the purists shaking their fists at me.
I saw Bon Jovi live on the tour behind this album in Sydney, a live show that was as spectacular as you could imagine from the band at that time. They played almost every big song they had, and it was great... well, apart from “I’ll Be There For You”, but you knew that, didn’t you...

1216. The Jeff Healey Band / See the Light. 1988. 3/5

Jeff Healey had led a remarkable life prior to the point that the band under his eponymous name came to write and record their debut album. Adopted as an infant by a Candian fire fighter, at the age of one Jeff was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a rare cancer of the eyes, and lost his sight permanently. Indeed, His eyes had to be surgically removed, and he was given ocular prostheses in their place. He began playing the guitar at the age of three, utilising his unique style of playing the guitar laying down on his lap, and playing the strings like a keyboard. He began playing in bands from the age of 15, and also hosted a jazz and blues radio show in Toronto, where he was known for playing from his massive collection of vintage 78 rpm gramophone records.
Shortly thereafter he was introduced to bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen, with whom he formed a trio, the Jeff Healey Band. The band made their first public appearance at an upstairs diner in Toronto, and soon enough were discovered by a couple of pretty fair guitarists themselves in Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert Collins. The band was signed to Arista Records, and set about writing and recording their debut album, which was to be titled “See the Light”.

This album begins terrifically, with “Confidence Man”, a song that appeared in the movie “Road House”, and “My Little Girl” which is written by Healey himself. Both have that great energy and drive that for me at least isn’t always a part of blues songs, but most definitely appear here. It announces the band from the beginning. “River of No Return” comes back to a more circumspect typical blues track to follow the opening assault, and is followed by another Healey written track “Don’t Let Your Chance Go By” where he is definitely drawing inspiration from the muddy depths of deep south blues sound.
“Angel Eyes” was the band’s best performing single from the album, but given it is truly a ballad rather than having any blues involved in the song at all, it feels as though it was aimed at the commercial radio market. The result because of this is that it stands out amongst the remainder of the album, and doesn’t really fit within that framework. No doubt there are fans out there who like this song and enjoy it. For me, it really is like a sore thumb. “Nice Problem to Have” is the only song here that is credited to all three members of the band, a complete blues instrumental that not only returns the album to the genre of its making but that would have the fans clapping away in the bunker blues clubs.
The good vibes return in full swing on “Someday, Someway”, with the tempo ratcheting up again and Jeff’s honey smooth vocals coming to the fore along with a solid guitar solo through the middle of the song. ”I Need to be Loved” is a simple straight blues rock track written by Healey himself and performed solidly. “Blue Jean Blues” is a cover of the song by the blues rock masters ZZ Top from their “Fandango” album, the highlight of which here is Jeff’s great guitar soloing through the middle of the track. “That’s What They Say” is another Healey penned track, and is more country than blues in structure, and sounds in a more commercial bent as a result, without his traditional hard blues guitar in the song. “Hideaway” is another blues music instrumental that incorporates all of those typical elements of the genre. The album concludes in a great way thought with the title track “See the Light”, where the band attack the song with gusto, all of their instruments being strung and hit hard, and the real shining light of the band comes forth, as the rhythm of drums and rumbling bass hold fort while Jeff lets fly on guitar and sings with passion. The bookends of this album are the true highlights, and it is a great finish to this album.

You would be correct in assuming that me listening to, reviewing and enjoying a blues album is a very rare event. I accept the blues rock that infiltrates many of the great hard rock and even heavy metal bands of the world, and the influence it has had on them and their music. I even enjoy some stuff, more particularly Gary Moore’s initial foray into the genre following his hard rock and metal years. But overall, straight blues is not something that I am a huge fan of.
The fact remains that like many people of my vintage I discovered The Jeff Healey Band through the movie ‘Road House’ which starred Patrick Swayze, where The Jeff Healey Band played as the house band at the club that was the centre of the storyline, and Jeff himself acting in a small role in the film. The energy of the band in that movie gave those scenes a real kick, and so I decided I needed to check out this album as a result. And, for the most part, I really enjoyed it. So much so that when they announced they were touring Australia on it, I went and saw them in Sydney at the Enmore Theatre, and they were simply superb.
It has been a long time since I listened to this album. I lost my vinyl copy in a flood over 20 years ago, and it has taken me a while to re-purchase another copy. Almost without fail, I like to listen to it straight after I have re-watched “Road House”, which wasn’t possible for a number of years. Reliving it over recent weeks, I find that I still enjoy much of the album. There are certainly some tracks that I would be happy skipping over if it was in a certain situation, but the album overall still has that great quality that it had on release 35 years ago. Its freshness at the time still leaps out of the speakers at you in songs like “Confidence Man” and “See the Light”. For lovers of blues music there is a lot to like here. For those who are ambivalent about the blues like me, I still think there are songs here you will find enjoyable.

1214. Winger / Winger. 1988. 3/5

Hard work and persistence don’t always combine to get the rewards you deserve, and especially in the music industry. How many musicians and bands have fought their way to the brink of a breakthrough, only to have their dreams shattered at the final off ramp? While some people are gifted a chance with little behind them, most artists find it takes years of scrapping to get the chance to make the breakthrough they deserve.
Enter the scene Kip Winger and Reb Beach. Both started playing in bands – separately – in high school, and eventually met up as they were recording material for separate projects under the production of Beau Hill. They even began recording demos together at that time, Kip as bass guitarist and lead vocals and Reb as lead and rhythm guitarist and backing vocals. Then Kip’s big break came, climbing on board with Alice Cooper to record and tour on the albums “Constrictor” and “Raise Your Fist and Yell”, the albums that helped resurrect Alice’s career. It was following these two albums and tours that Kip decided he wanted to form his own band and so moved on from the Alice Cooper juggernaut. He reconnected with Reb, and even snared Paul Taylor, who had been touring with Alice Cooper as keyboardist, to also join the new band. With Rod Morgenstein joining on drums, the quartet was complete.
Initially the band wanted to call themselves Sahara, and even had that named on the front cover of their debut album. However, as the name was already take by another band, they had to choose another name. Eventually, it was Alice Cooper himself who suggested that they should call themselves Winger, which is eventually what they did.

Listening to this album in 2023 is a lot different from picking it up in 1988 and putting it on for the first time. The album had four singles released from it, and all of them are stereotypical of the era of hair metal that this is born from. But the quality of it is what makes it stand apart from some of the pretenders of the era. Reb Beach on guitar is superb. He holds the standard riffs through the bass of the songs, but when given the chance to preach his solos they are fantastic and wholly enjoyable. Kip Winger is terrific on bass and as lead singer throughout gives a performance that doesn’t try to overstate his presence, nor go over the top in reaching for heights he doesn’t have or need to. Morgenstein’s drums hold that steady beat throughout while Taylor’s keyboards also aren’t domineering throughout the songs which gives the album a unique presence. All four are capable vocalists as well which makes for a great chorused sound on all the songs.
The first side of the album is dominated by the main singles releases, and thus the lyrical content of the genre focusing on girls and the wanting to get together with girls and the hope that girls want to get with you. Both “Madalaine” and “Seventeen” are jaunty and rocky and singalong favourites, and were pushed along by the popularity of the videos on MTV and the like at the time. “Hungry” is of a similar ilk, though dealing with the subject of a new girlfriend dying in a car crash marks it as a point in difference in the lyrical content. The power ballad “Without the Night” is a favourite of the genre that for me just kills off the good vibes of the opening of the album. It is one of the best of the genre... by which I mean it is a gag-induced crapfest. I do dislike Power ballads.
Side one then winds up with a cover of “Purple Haze”, which I think is just an excuse for Reb Beach to get his Hendrix on. This is still an ear scratcher for me all these years later.
The second side of the album shows us more of the same qualities as the first half. “State of Emergency” and “Time to Surrender” both sit in a mid-tempo style reminiscent of other bands of the era, whereas both “Poison Angel” and “Hangin’ On” are upbeat and pushed along more frantically, allowed Reb to better utilised in his guitar breaks, and the band to show they can perform those faster joyful tracks just as well as their contemporaries at the time. The downside to this is that we then go back to the power ballad to close out the album. The third single released from the album, “Headed for a Heartbreak”, is such a poor choice to complete the album. All of the credits earned by earlier tracks are thrown out the window again by the train wreck of this particular style of song. There must be those out there who think this is a good idea because it happens too often for that not to be the case, but once again in this instance to me it ruins what has been a pleasant experience leading up to the close.

In all of our lives, there are albums that we buy on the scarcest of knowledge. It might be that we know one band member, it might be that someone recommended it to you, or you might have read about it in a magazine... back when those still existed. For me it was because Kip Winger had played on two albums that I obsessively adored at the end of my school years, the aforementioned Alice Cooper classics “Constrictor” and “Raise Your Fist and Yell”. And I thought that if he’d played on those, then surely his own stuff would be worth checking out. It was also, strangely enough, about three years after its release, so I guess I hadn’t really had that much information on it coming to me at the time. I know this because I am currently looking at my CD copy right now, with the price tag still attached, and I didn’t start buying CDs until 1991.
My memories of what I thought of the album at that time of purchase are vague. I know I used to play it, but I don’t think it was often, and it has probably been a shelf stacker for most of the years I have owned it. Perhaps not surprising given the combination of hair metal plus power ballads that are the mainstay of the album here. My guess is that I bought this, and the follow up, at a time when I had money burning a hole in my pocket and I just wanted new product.
Through the years, it hasn’t been sighted very often. It’s most recent surfacing probably occurred around 6-7 years ago when I went through a phase of going back through all of my hair metal albums of those late 1980’s and giving them a spin again, and I do remember thinking then that it was better than I gave it credit for.
Into the past three weeks, and I have certainly rediscovered the good and the average of the album. The singles are pure sugar, the power ballads are pure bastardry, but there are a few songs here that are probably not heralded by anyone that I enjoyed the most. Reb’s guitaring is certainly the best part of an album that is tied to its era, and perhaps is best left to that time.

1209. Slayer / South of Heaven. 1988. 4/5

Slayer’s 1986 album “Reign in Blood” is considered one of the greatest thrash albums of all time, if not the greatest. Its 30 minutes of pure adrenaline fuelled speed and anger can be sampled by those of you who have not done so yet on the episode in Season 1 that is dedicated to its glory. The tour that followed cemented Slayer as one of the premier heavy thrash bands in the world, and no doubt posed the problem to the band as to how they were possibly going to follow that album up. Indeed, in an interview some years later in discussing that time, guitarist Jeff Hanneman said that “South of Heaven” was the only album the band members had discussed before actually writing the music, that prior to this they wrote what they felt and presented it to be recorded. However, according to Hanneman the band was aware that they couldn't top “Reign in Blood", and that whatever they recorded would be compared to that album. He then went on to say that the band believed they had to slow down the tempo to the songs on the next album in order to draw apart those inevitable comparisons, something that Slayer had not done before. And though there are faster songs here on “South of Heaven”, it is noticeably not as furious as its predecessor, something that had some fans upset when the album was eventually released. The band also looked to tone down the vocals, something that Tom Araya does so well on this album that it also proves a point of difference among other Slayer albums. It actually ended up proving what a fine vocalist he was, and gave him the opportunity to focus on his vocal craft. However, retrospectively guitarist Kerry King felt that Araya had added too much singing to his vocals, which he was critical of, and drummer Dave Lombardo felt that “South of Heaven” signalled the point where the band allowed the fire in the music to die down compared to what had come before. As it turns out, in interviews over the years looking back at the album, some of the band members are more critical of the end result than some of their fan base.

The most fascinating part of this album is the references made to different songs on it over the years from the band members themselves, and their disappointment or even disdain for some of them. The fact that they made a somewhat united decision to record an album of songs at a different tempo from what they had done before, in essence in order to have this album have a point of difference from what they had recorded prior to this release, doesn’t seem to have changed the fact that after the event they all seem to have picking points about the album.
The opening title track is a beauty, a classic, and one still adored by fans all over the world. It’s moody, it’s a creeper, and it has a beautiful build to the middle of the track. The fact that people misinterpret the title as suggesting they are talking about hell, when in fact it is world we live in itself that is being referenced is a nice counterpoint to the usual ignorance Slayer and their songs have received. “Silent Scream” ramps up the energy again, charging onwards throughout. It’s a great track to follow the opener, reminding everyone of what the band is best known for.
It’s interesting that this is considered a slower paced album overall by some people. There is no doubt that a few of the songs have rocked back in tempo, in particular the opening title track, which I think is what leads people into this perception, because the album starts a little slower than the previous albums. The other main song in this mid-tempo category is “Mandatory Suicide”, and it’s interesting that it is these two songs that were still in Slayer’s live set list right up until their disbandment. Go figure. So, it mightn’t be as conclusively fast as “Reign in Blood”, but it doesn’t fall into a complete mid-tempo movement. What does happen here are that the lyrics are at a pace that gives everyone a chance to know what Tom is singing, rather than just the diehard fans. Songs such as “Live Undead” and “Behind the Crooked Cross” mightn’t be as fast as previous albums, but they aren’t a snail’s pace either.
Kerry King seems to have taken great umbrage at the album in the years since its release. He openly rubbished the song “Cleanse the Soul” in interviews, and when asked whether the band may one day play the whole album live, as they did with “Reign in Blood” on Dave Lombardo’s return to the band in the 2000’s, he simply replied “I don’t think so. I just don’t like enough songs on the album to be bothered”. King’s contributions to the album also were less than usual, which may have contributed to his general malaise of the album, and perhaps even the introduction of the decision to cover Judas Priest’s great track “Dissident Aggressor” on this album. Or perhaps there really was a problem with the songwriting for the album, and this allowed the band to fill a gap that otherwise may not have been filled.

Having come into Slayer on the album that followed this one, for me going backwards to discover their first few albums meant that I probably didn’t have to have competing ideas about each of the albums and what they presented at the time of their release, because I more or less devoured all of them at the same time, swapping over the vinyl and CDs one at a time, and becoming encapsulated in their overall greatness. Their following album was an immediate hit with me, and – surprise, surprise - “Reign in Blood” also created a storm.
But unlike what it appeared many of the so-called critics at the time experienced, I never had a negative thought about “South of Heaven” as an album. To me the album comes together well, the tempos, while different from earlier pieces, are fit nicely in sync, and the album flows nicely. The difference in opinion of the band members on the album retrospectively to me was somewhat of a surprise, though Kerry being narky about the songs where he had little to do with them perhaps wasn’t so much of a stretch.
Some have suggested that “South of Heaven” is a maturing of the band and its sound, but I don’t like that analogy. To me, the following album “Seasons in the Abyss” is a next step in an evolution of all three previous albums, “Hell Awaits”, “Reign in Blood” and “South of Heaven”. What this album brings to that process is the focusing of Tom Araya’s vocals such that they are not the out and out shouting and screaming from early in the career, and the focusing of the guitars from out and out speed to bridging a melodic touch to the tempo. In doing so, this album may well have differences, but not ones that detract from the band and their music. And while in time the force of aggression would return to Slayer’s music – for better or worse, depending on your point of view of some of their future albums - “South of Heaven” still stands as one of their most important albums.

1207. Deep Purple / Nobody's Perfect [Live]. 1988. 5/5

In many ways, the release of this new live album by Deep Purple came at the right time. Having brought back their classic line up, toured the world endlessly and brought out two brand new albums, ones that showcased each member of the band perfectly and also showed that they could still write songs and albums that were contemporary of the time yet retained the essence of what made them Deep Purple, all that really remained was to show that they were still doing that on stage as well.
On top of this, the ability to not only play their newer material live was counter argued that they had to show they could still pay the older material with the fire and passion that they always had in the past, and that they still deserved in the next decade.
Recording of the live tracks took place in several locations, including Irvine Meadows California, Phoenix, Oslo and Milan. As it is a collection of live tracks from several shows rather than just one concert, there is a fade in and out between most of the songs on the album, which is something with live albums that can sometimes annoy me greatly. However, it is done so seamlessly here that it doesn’t affect the enjoyment of the album at all. Roger Glover as producer finds a way of putting these fades in without destroying the live appearance which is excellent. The mix between the old, well known songs and the newer material is also well done, so that it doesn’t feel as though there is a proliferation of one over the other when listening to the album for the first time.

The first half of the album concentrates on material from the two albums released in the 80’s, “Perfect Strangers” and “The House of Blue Light”. “Perfect Strangers” and “Knocking at Your Back Door” both come from the aforementioned album, while “Dead or Alive”, “Hard Lovin’ Woman” and “Bad Attitude” are from the album they were touring on at the time. Other songs were played on the tour from that album, including “Call of the Wild” and “The Unwritten Law” but didn’t make the cut here, which seems unusual as “Call of the Wild” was the single released from that album. All the new tracks sound great here, which makes it unfortunate that most rarely saw the light of day live again.
Of the rest, all the great songs from the bands golden era are here - “Highway Star”, “Strange Kind of Woman”, “Child in Time”, “Lazy”, “Space Truckin’”, “Black Night”, “Woman from Tokyo” and “Smoke on the Water” - songs that would be hard to leave out of any Deep Purple set list.
What is also great about this album is that it shows the play off that goes on stage during their gigs, banter between Ian Gillan and bandmates and the crowd as well, Ritchie Blackmore chiming in with doodles and riffs from other songs which Gillan then plays along with. For two guys who had a long running disagreement while in the band together, they still did this kind of stuff really well.
The last song on the album is a reimagining of one of Deep Purple’s earliest hits, “Hush”, this one with Ian Gillan on vocals and a modern sound to it. Personally, I love this version, more than the original. It’s how the song always sounds to my ears now even when I hear the other versions that have been recorded.
The band, as you would expect, sound brilliant as always. Apart from Gillan and Blackmore, Jon Lord’s organ playing is magnificent, and his little solo leading up to “Knocking at Your Back Door” is wonderful. And the rhythm of Roger Glover and Ian Paice as always drives the band from the back seat, rarely afforded a leading position in front of the other three, but just as important in bringing the power to the songs, and in particular to the intro to one of Purple’s best ever songs.

There were several releases of this album with different variations of the songs available on them due to time constraints of the audio device produced, and I have owned all of them over the years. I initially bought the cassette version because it was the only copy available at my local record store when I found it, and so it went into the car and was played a lot at that time. Eventually I bought a CD copy of the album some years later to complement it.
I loved both of the albums the band released in the 1980’s, and therefore loved this album that combined the old and the new together in a terrific format. And given that I never believed I would get a chance to see the band live, this was as good as it got for me. Fortunately, down the road, I got that opportunity.
As live albums go, this gets an A from me. You know my opinion of lie albums, they should ALL be good because they contain the best songs, but as this one does combine the two eras of the Mark II lineup, it is especially good. Sure, you won't get any of the Coverdale/Hughes/Bolin songs here, as is also the case since the 1970’s sadly, but you will get some great songs performed excellently. And that in itself is worth the price of admission.

1206. Nuclear Assault / Survive. 1988. 4/5

Perhaps the greatest component about thrash metal - and certainly this is probably more relevant to the early origins of the genre and not necessarily the latter day proponents - is that it is just FUN! What's not to like about drums that are flying along at an indelible speed, careering almost out of control, as the guitars riff and crush along at the same tempo, whilst the front man sings and screams his/her lyrics over the top. And who cares what the lyrics are about? Death? Satan? War? It's not a contest to become the most poignantly relevant band in the world you know! (well, not for everyone). It's about enjoyment of the music and how that music makes you feel when it comes on.
Nuclear Assault grew out of the dismissal of bass guitarist Danny Lilker from Anthrax, and his decision to not only put together another band, but one that wanted to go in a more aggressive fashion than his previous band was heading. Bringing together John Connolly, Anthony Bramante and Glenn Evans, the band released the EP “Brain Death” before releasing their debut album “Game Over” two months later.
After a touring schedule that saw them support many of the best bands of their genre across the country, the same foursome came together to write and record the follow up album. Prior to this they released a second EP titled “The Plague” which contained a song critical of the decision to allow Vince Neil to escape jail time over the car crash he created that killed Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle. It was the sign of things to come lyrically for the band, with more potent songs taking on issues that they had problems with, and combining it with their increasingly faster and thrashier style of music, heading into extreme territory in their quest to create the sound that would make them stand out from the crowd. The result was something that, for many people, exceeded that successfully.

After the excellence of the first album, the band needed to ramp things up here on their second effort if they wanted to continue to be successful and bring in more fans. And while they had done so in that first album and both of the EP’s, on “Survive” they brought a more topical lyrical content to the songs, along with ramping up the speed and intensity of the tracks.
A number of the songs still deal with the band’s title, and the threat of nuclear war and the aftermath it may bring, but they also tackle current topics, such as in “Fight to be Free” where they take aim at the government over decision making that the ‘young’ (whom I presume they are including themselves in) find to be incoherent. “Great Depression” seems to be a vicious cycle of abuse, but works well for the youthful fans who would have had no trouble at all chanting away the lyrics to offset their dark moments. Still, “Rise from the Ashes” and “Survive” and “Technology” all still harp on the nuclear winter, dark and angry lyrics that lend themselves to the music around them.
Having said all of this, the album finishes off quite strangely with a cover of the Led Zeppelin song “Good Times Bad Times”, which more than anything else highlights the complete difference between what Nuclear Assault write, and then what comes from one of the great classic bands from another era. It is noticeably different, and indeed weakens the end of the album because it is so different. Was it added just to get the album length to 30 minutes? Or did they really think this was a good idea. The first thought seems the more likely.
The music itself is excellent, for those that are fans of thrash metal at its core. It isn’t the mature almost smooth sounding thrash that that age of Metallica was. It was thrash metal at its essence. The influence of Anthrax is still noticeable in some songs and some of the riffs that arise, but this is definitely not a clone album of that description. Anthony Bramante and John Connelly are excellent here, with some of the lead breaks excellent, while the hard core rhythm of Dan Lilker and Glenn Evans is excellent, providing the engine room that drives the album to its peak.
The album tops out at the 30 minute mark, so there is nothing much left in the tank once you get to the end. It’s fast, it’s furious, and it’s here for a good time not a long time, notwithstanding the cover song to finish it all off.

No one in my friend group from high school came forth with material from Nuclear Assault at the time this album, or all their albums, were released. More is the pity, because it took me a little over 20 years to finally track down their albums and listen to them. Such was the problem living in Australia, some bands albums were difficult to source, but also you need someone to ‘discover’ them for you as well, and then pass it on, in those days of shared cassettes. So though I knew the band existed, I didn’t hear this album until well into the new century. And from the moment I heard this album and their debut album, I knew I’d missed a trick. Because it is pure 80’s thrash metal, there is no mistaking its place in time. And it is prior to growling vocals and all the other tricks that came later on in the 90’s and 2000’s.
So once I found these two albums, I played them a LOT, and bathed in the glory of the guitars and speed and relatively short songs, with the album almost over before you knew it, so you just had to put it on again because you feared you had missed a couple of tracks.
I really enjoy this album. Danny Lilker’s experience with both Anthrax and then Stormtroopers of Death does shine through in the songs here, but in their own style rather than being a copycat. Beyond this album things appeared to change, but that seemed to be from internal issues and the changing landscape, something most 80’s bands suffered from. But “Survive” stands as a testament to this era of thrash, and even to today retains its freshness in attitude and fun. And if an album can continue to draw out great feelings like that after 35 years, then you know it was done the right way at the time.

1204. Van Halen / OU812. 1988. 3/5

Overall, Van Halen had come away from the split with former lead vocalist David Lee Roth in a strong position. After the commercial success of the album “1984” with Roth on vocals, there was doubt over whether they could reproduce that success with Sammy Hagar coming in. That was laid to rest by the release of “5150”, which was full of chart busting singles and the same kind of hard rock guitar infused with the increasing keyboard and synth that “1984” had introduced, while Hagar’s vocals were a great match for what the band was producing.
Following the tour to support that album, the writing for the next album began soon after, with both Eddie and Sammy already inundated with ideas to progress with. Prior to the album being released, there was a lot of speculation as to how the band would progress musically on their second album with this line-up. DLR’s second solo album “Skyscraper” was released at the start of 1988, the episode of which you can find in this season of Music from a Lifetime, and it had shown a slight change in style from his first. And many wondered just where Van Halen would go with their new album, and whether Sammy Hagar would be an influence in its direction musically, or whether the musical direction that Eddie had taken over the previous two albums would continue to evolve in the same way. Long time fans of the band were looking for a return to a more guitar oriented theme much like their early work, where Eddie’s guitar dominated, rather than where the synths of the 1980’s did so. Prior to its release, this album was surrounded by theories and speculation, much of which perhaps ended up being problematic for the fans when the album finally saw the light of day.

“Mine All Mine” opens the album perfectly, a rocking Van Halen song at the right tempo, slotted with keyboards that dominate in a way they had for the band’s past two albums, and vocals that, at times, I often mistake for David Lee Roth at the beginning of the song, before it becomes obvious that it is still Sammy Hagar at the helm. Eddie’s solo here also revives the better attributes of the band as well.
In many ways, personally at least, I think “When It’s Love” is a poor choice as the follow up song. It’s the epitome of the Van Hagar rock ballad, and of course it did great business on the charts when released, but for me it stops the album in its tracks at the first hurdle. And, in many ways, it never really recovers. Of course, all of those millions of fans out there who love the song would disagree.
The middle trilogy of “AFU (Naturally Wired)”, “Cabo Wabo” and “Source of Infection” have a much sound about them, Eddie’s guitar and Sammy’s wailing with that great hard rock rhythm of Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony. “Cabo Wabo” has a slower groove than the other two but fits in nicely. “Source of Infection” again could have been DLR singing such is the way the track is sung and creates the backing vocals the way the band used to.
Three songs released as singles follow this into the back half of the album, and as a result the real energy of the album gets misplaced. “Feels So Good” has almost church-organ keyboards throughout, only building with Eddie’s solo by the end of the song. “Finish What Ya Started” is a semi-acoustic tome that for many fans is a bonafide great song, but for me pretty much just stalls the album again, while “Black and Blue” is the more energetic of the three tracks.
“Sucker in a 3 Piece” is the concluding track on the album, unless you have the CD (which I guess would be the majority of album owners out there) which has a cover of the blues track “A Apolitical Blues” which, really, does nothing for me. It’s a strange one to have included to be honest, but along with some of the decision making on this album, perhaps it actually fits alongside that.

I never jumped out and bought this album. There was a lot of other albums at the time that were dominating my listening (and the severe lack of cash meant I couldn’t just buy every album I wanted in those uni days), and so for some time I only had the singles released from the album as my guide, which can sometimes be good and other times be average. It would be fair to say that in this case the singles coloured my feelings of the album. Once I started to listen to the album it was those songs that I heard the most, and for me it probably harmed the way I felt about the album.
Over the years, I wouldn’t say that my opinion of the album has changed much. And like I mentioned in the intro, for me this was a real line in the sand album. There is stuff I like enough here, and on the albums that followed, but none of them for me ever compared to those that came pre-1987. And that was never a nostalgia thing either, it was just that the band turned the dial away from the style of music they had always done to this point, and found the next station on the dial. None of it felt like a reaction to what was happening in music at the time, it honestly just felt that it was the direction this group of four was looking to diverge into. For me, I wasn’t completely invested in that direction.


I’ve spent the past two to three weeks listening to the album again in preparation for this episode, and my feelings on the album remain the same as they have for 35 years. I’ve put it on, and it almost immediately went into the background for me as I did whatever else I was doing at the time. At no time did it dominate, or demand that I sing along or stop what I was doing because it was awesome. An average album, without the hooks necessary to truly become a big hitter in my music collection.

1202. Testament / The New Order. 1988. 4/5

With the release of their debut album “The Legacy” in 1987, an episode of which you can find in Season 2 of this podcast, Testament had stormed the US on coast-to-coast tours, blitzing through concerts and gigs and riding on the wave that was the thrash metal movement with their contemporaries Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Exodus. The success of the album and the subsequent touring meant that Testament was fast growing out of the support slot of touring and quickly becoming headliner material.
One thing the band hadn’t been aware of though was the terms of their contract with their recording company. They were still on tour promoting that debut album when they were informed that, in the terms of their agreement, they had to have a second album out, and pretty much within a year of that first album being released. As it was now January, that left them precious little time to write and record new material. The band had been doing some writing on tour, but now they found themselves under the pump and having to get what they had written up to speed, and then recorded as well.
Through January the band put down everything they had, and sent it off to their record company. However, the band still hadn’t completely read the terms under which they had been contracted, and an agreement stood that they had to have a minimum of 40 minutes of material on the album, and what they had submitted had come in under that, and somewhat significantly. With the album returned to the band in order to complete their dues, they decided to ‘fudge’ it a little. They added two instrumentals, they extended a few pieces in some of the songs to extend their length, and they recorded a cover version of the Aerosmith song “Nobody’s Fault”, all of which got the album to a length that was accepted by their bosses. It certainly wasn’t the best way of going about creating your sophomore album, but as always, the proof would be in the final product.

Without the pressures as described in the previous section in regards to the record companies demands, it is difficult to assess if this album would have been much different to what was eventually released. Obviously with more time the band may well have come up with better songs, or more songs of better material. I mean, I have no real problem with the version of “Nobody’s Fault” that they done here, and the instrumental features of “Hypnosis”, and “Musical Death (a Dirge)” which concludes the album is fine in their own way. But given some of the other absolute brilliant tracks that this album contains, I’ve often wondered what could have been achieved with more time and freedom than they had. Of course, perhaps this would also have inhibited the free rage and destruction that much of this album contains.
The way that the opening track “Eerie Inhabitants” kicks off has often made me wonder if it was influenced by the way songs like “Fight Fire with Fire” and “Battery” began those Metallica albums – with the quiet, unobtrusive, introspective start, that then kicks off into a blaze of guitar and crashing into the songs real beginning. Terrific. From here though we leap into the true awesomeness of this album. “The New Order” rips your head off, “Trial By Fire” again has an extended quieter guitar piece to start before launching into the song proper, and “Into the Pit” is exactly as you would imagine a song of this type to be like. These three songs show the amazing progress the band has made since their debut album, the heat and energy that comes with playing night after night on the road, and drawing in the joy and aggression of the crowds, and what THEY want from the band, which in this case is more heavier and faster guitars and powerful vocals and lyrics, along with guttural bass and driving drums. And all of that is showcased here, perfectly defining what Testament is all about at the start of their long journey.
With “Hypnosis” then acting as a break, the back half of the album creates more of the same, with “Disciples of the Watch” one of the best examples of Testament’s fury unleashed, before jumping into “The Preacher” and “A Day of Reckoning”. Like I said, the instrumental flurries that the band had to place on the album in order to get to their time constraints are fine, and they don’t' harm the album in any way, but there is little doubt that with a little more time, and the ability to add a couple more songs in instead of these breaks, it could have made this one of the all time classic thrash albums. Which, indeed, it actually is anyway.

As engrossed as I was with my burgeoning love of heavy metal at the time that this album was released, I didn’t actually get around to checking out Testament the band until the release of their album that followed this one, “Practice What You Preach”, before then grabbing “Souls of Black”, and off I went. To be honest, the exact timeline as to when I first heard and bought this album is a bit hazy, which my closest friends would have trouble believing. And yet it is true, the time I really heard this album is lost in the mists of time, which suggests it was probably either in the early 1990’s, or perhaps sometime in the late 1990’s. I don’t know. I’m sorry for everyone I’ve disappointed out there.
And much like with their debut album “The Legacy”, if only I’d had this at the time of its release, because I would have been screaming up the highway to uni, playing this at top volume and singing along, and it would have been awesome, because it is the perfect soundtrack for that part of life.
So beyond that, there isn’t much else to say. This period in thrash metal, with the kings of Metallica and Megadeth and Anthrax and Slayer, and the other bands like Exodus and Death Angel, was amazing times. And Testament stood head and shoulders with them, and this album is no different. Play it loud and play it proud, and just enjoy what screams out of the speakers at you.

1201. Queensrÿche / Operation: Mindcrime. 1988. 5/5

Queensryche had made a steady progress from their earliest beginnings and then into their recording career over the five years that preceded this album being released. The initial success of their self-titled EP and the song “Queen of the Reich”, through to the progressive release “The Warning”, and the more complicated and thematic styles of “Rage for Order”, an album that was reviewed as the first ever episode of this podcast almost two years ago, some 257 episodes ago. Check it out, it’s still relevant!
There are some great interviews out there of the band in regards to the inspiration and collaboration that went into creating this album, and incorporating the story that it eventually portrays.
In essence, lead vocalist Geoff Tate formed the idea of the story, basing it on the ideas being formed by a group that he had been hanging around when he first moved to Canada, a militant movement that had been involved in bombings. From here he had begun forming the story of Nikki, a man who had been corrupted and drawn into a similar group to be used as a ‘one man death machine’. When he pitched the idea to the band, there was less than consensual agreement. However, guitarist Chris De Garmo liked the idea and began to collaborate with Tate on the storyline and begin composing songs as a result. Tate has said in interviews that he had to work on the other three members of the band – guitarist Michael Wilton, bassist Eddie Jackson and drummer Scott Rockenfield – in one-on-one conversations to bring them around to the idea. Eventually, the band warmed to the proposal, most likely after hearing the initial compositions that Tate and De Garmo had come up with.
The album was another step away from the band’s initial hair metal glam image, and into the more progressive metal that they had matured into on their previous album. Even though the album was not written or recorded in the same order as appears on the final album, it was important each piece showcased the mood of the story as it came, and that they were then able to sew all of the pieces together, not only in the order of the story from start to finish, but to do so without feeling clunky and without losing the flow of the album as a result. And the story had to be compelling, without letting the controversy of the topics covered throughout – an assassin, part of an organisation deliberately planning chaos, the political motivation behind it all, and the consequences (or not) suffered as a result - from taking over the focus of the album. Because the story had to be captivating, and the music was a massive part of that. Bringing all of that together in order to create a masterpiece or a dud was where the band was with this album. The end result could be the making of the band or the breaking of them.

“Operation: Mindcrime” can be considered a concept album, but also in its own way a rock opera. The story plays out in the songs, easily discerned even for the listener who isn’t interested in reading about it, but just as importantly, the album can be enjoyed even without wanting to know the story it is telling, because the song writing and musicianship throughout is next level. And that is very important to understand, because the flow of the album, with songs segueing from one to the next is particularly brilliant, with almost no interruption. And yet, each song is unique, it is not a copy of what comes before or after it. It is easy to discern the amazing amount of work that must have gone in to creating this album through the music, and making the story truly come to life.
The story of Nikki being coerced into becoming a hired killer comes through the opening tracks. The opening of “I Remember Now”, with Nikki at the end of his story, held in a hospital at the end of his rampage, then breaks into the power of the instrumental opening of “Anarchy X” which segues straight into “Revolution Calling”, setting the scene of the tale. From here the title track explains what is expected of Nikki from the nefarious Doctor X, and then into his job with “Speak”. The introduction of Mary through “Spreading the Disease”, “The Mission” and “Suite Sister Mary” explains her relationship with Nikki and how it ties into Dr X’s plans. The back half of the album then relates how Nikki wants to escape his life, but Dr X is having none of it, and how the story ends in tragedy and loss.
Beyond that of course the songs stand on their own. That opening salvo of “Anarchy X”, “Revolution Calling”, “Operation: Mindcrime”, “Speak” and “Spreading the Disease” is absolutely brilliant, led by the amazing drum work of Scott Rockenfield, who is precision perfect throughout the album. His drive on this album is magnificent to listen to. The twin guitar attack of Wilton and De Garmo fills each song with riffs aplenty, all held together with Eddie Jackson’s sublime bass work, and of course perfectly topped off by the amazing vocals of Geoff Tate.
Now, if I was to just be listening to songs for songs sake, I am happy to take or leave both “The Mission” and “Suite Sister Mary”. Both are an essential part of the story and the album, but because of their length and orchestration within, given the wonderful heaviness of the tracks that precede them, I can move on without them.
Beyond that the album heats up again, with the brilliant “The Needle Lies” which riffs up the pace and energy again. The three short joining tracks apart, the album concludes with the same energy if not speed of “Breaking the Silence”, “I Don’t Believe in Love” and “Eyes of a Stranger”, a brilliant way to bring the album to a close.

This album is probably the luckiest and most significant album purchase of my life. I happened to be in Kiama and walked into my local record store Kiama Sight and Sound, and started digging through the shelves, not really expecting to find anything outstanding to buy that I didn’t already own. Then I came across this album. At the time, my entire knowledge of Queensryche was their song “Queen of the Reich” and the film clip that accompanied it. I loved that song, and on the strength simply of that, I bought this album that day, took it home, immediately went to my parents' stereo and put it on. And was completely – blown – away. I listened to it three times, back to back. I pieced together the fact it was a concept album, and the story that was being told. It had me from the very beginning. But it isn’t just the story, because the music itself is what is the starring role here. Each song has its emotion and mood perfectly examined and performed by the music for each track. Both “The Mission” and “Suite Sister Mary”, being the epic track through the middle of the album, perform that task magnificently, while the anger in Nicky in tracks like “Revolution Calling”, “Speak”, “Spreading the Disease” and “The Needle Lies” is where Rockenfield, Wilton and De Garmo shine to their peak.
So I didn’t get this on its release, it was a number of months later before I came across it that fateful morning. But it didn’t take long to go to number one on my hit parade. I taped it to a blank cassette and put it in the car, and it was there... for years really. Wherever I was going, this album often got a hammering. At home, once I had purchased my own stereo system for my bedroom, this continued to get played over and over.
I have never gotten sick of this album. Never. Having it on again over the last month to consider for this review, it has been joyous to listen to it at least once every day. It never gets tired, the magnificence of its scope, and the grandeur of its sound. And perhaps, through this, it has become the rod of Queensryche’s back. Because as much as their following album “Empire” is, in its own way, just as amazing, and eventually sold more copies than “Operation: Mindcrime”, it is THIS album that every following Queensryche album has been judged on, and none can hold a candle to it.
“Operation: Mindcrime” remains as one of my favourite ten albums of all time. If you make a list, of ten albums, that are the only ones you can listen to for the remainder of your life, this for me would be one of them. As a concept album, nothing matches it. As a metal album, few can get close. As an experience, it is one everyone should take.

1200. Poison / Open Up and Say... Ahh! 1988. 3.5/5

The hair and glam metal scene on the West Coast of the US had been a consistent benefactor of the genre through most of the 1980’s, with bands such as Motley Crue, W.A.S.P, Ratt, Bon Jovi and others having success in the live scene as well as being able to penetrate the charts at the same time. Poison had climbed aboard that gravy train with the release of their debut album “Look What the Cat Dragged In” in 1986, with the make up and teased hair and spandex all being the bright and colourful standout of the band promoting the light and fun music and songs they produced. Utilising the success of the bands that came before them, Poison managed to find their own style that complemented what had opened the doors, and made a breezy entrance as a result.
Followed a tour that brought about good review for their live show, it came time to come up with the follow up to that album. And, though I’m not sure what the band would have discussed when it came to this new album, it seems likely that not only did they want to build on the platform the songs of their first album had provided, but also find a way to continue to be their own band, and not just go with a formula that other glam metal bands had used over the years. That didn’t mean that they would abandon what had been successful, but it feels as though they have made an effort to keep the energy up throughout the whole album, making it something that is impossible to turn away from when it is playing.
Everything that Poison throw at you on this album has a perfect vibe for what the band is trying to achieve. So yes, the songs are the high partying, love as a metaphor type songs that you generally expect from the hair and glam metal bands of the era. And they are the songs that, for the most part but not exclusively, are centred on attracting the female sex to their music. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t attractive to teenage and 20-something guys too. Because the mix of what the lyrics are saying and the way the music is played are two entirely different things, and therefore are expelling two different types of attractants to the listener.

Most of the album moves along at the rock kind of pace, one that allows for head bobbing and foot tapping, even air guitaring and drumming in places. Songs that you can put on in the car and blasts out at volume as you drive down the strip, or the Australian equivalent of that, the avenue. The opening six tracks on the album all have a certain set of credentials in that they are based on the terrific rhythm of Rikki Rockett’s classy drumming and the sensational bass lines of Bobby Dall, both of which drive the album wonderfully well. They are the undersold gems of Poison and especially on this album. Because usually when you speak of the band, it is the vocals of Bret Michaels and the lead guitar of CC De Ville that gets the plaudits. And, once again, both are great here. Poison does live off of Michaels’ awesome vocal chords and the way he is able to sell the songs, and CC’s lead breaks and squeals are also what draws in many listeners. But that solid spectacular drumming and terrific bass underneath, combined with both of their excellent supporting vocals, are as much as the success story of this album as the two who get the front and centre gig.
And they are great hard rock tracks, like I said. “Love on the Rocks”, “Nothin’ But a Good Time”, “Back to the Rocking Horse” are all uptempo and upvibing songs, perfect party songs once the beer has kicked in. Then you have “Good Love”, “Tearin Down the Walls” and “Look But You Can’t Touch” that continue that energy through the middle of the album.
The one song here of course that doesn’t fit that mould is “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”, which many people viewed as a cynical attempt to get radio airplay when this album was released. I was one of them. But to be honest the true nature of the track is that Bret Michaels wrote it for a reason, and then found the perfect place on the album to put it so that it didn’t mess up the flow of the album, and create any road blocks. Placed between the high voltage of “Fallen Angel” and the terrific rocked-up version of the Loggins & Messina cover version of “Your Mama Don’t Dance”, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” has its acoustic based power anthem well surrounded, such that it blends in as well as this kind of song can when it is so different from what comes before and after. And of course, the radio DID eat it up. And the album sales soared because of it.

So perhaps you have already gathered from the way this review has gone, that when this album was released, I pretty much turned my nose up at it. And like other albums and artists before and since, it was more from a case that acquaintances of mine who didn’t like the music I was into suddenly saying “Yeah! Poison! How awesome are they?!” and me turning away from them on that basis. And yes that was petty, because I loved the other bands I mentioned at the top of the program that were from the same area and of the same genre, so I really should have been right behind them! But no, I let them and this album pass, with only the singles to go off. And it wasn’t until a full 14 months later, when I actually saw Poison live touring on this album (and yes, we had only gone to see them because it was a few weeks after we saw Metallica on the “Damaged Justice” world tour, and we were so amped and desperate to see more live bands that we decided to go to this tour) that I had any thoughts about catching up on the album. Which, for the most part, I still didn’t do.
FINALLY, about 20 years ago, I saw an MTV live set that the band did, with songs off the first two albums, and I thought “Wow, they sound great! I should go back and check out those albums!” Which I did. And have now spent the last 20 years kicking myself as to why it took me so long to actually indulge myself in this album in particular. Because it’s great! It has touches of Motley Crue and Ratt about it, but mostly it is just energetic, passionate hair metal that doesn’t muck around, doesn’t have ebbs and flows like other albums, it just comes at you and keeps going. The musicianship is brilliant, and the songs are fun and rocking. Is it just me reminiscing about this era of my life that has me enjoying this so much now? I don’t doubt that that is a part of it, but mostly, I just think this is a great album of the genre. And having had it on rotation for the last three weeks once again, I think my enjoyment of this album has only grown as a result.

1196. Scorpions / Savage Amusement. 1988. 3.5/5

The years leading up to the production of this album were arguably the most successful of the Scorpions career. On the back of albums such as “Lovedrive”, “Animal Magnetism”, “Blackout” and “Love at First Sting”, the band had found the perfect mix of hard-rock-to-heavy-metal tracks that could get the fans fist pumping and air guitaring, with power rock ballads that could find their way onto commercial radio and attract those fans that enjoyed this side of their personality. On the back of Klaus Meine’s amazing vocals and the twin guitars of Rudolph Schenker and Matthias Jabs, Scorpions had managed to crack the US market with songs like “Blackout”, “Rock You Like a Hurricane” and “Still Loving You”. The band went on a world tour that stretched beyond two years, in the process recording the hit live album “World Wide Live”, and the music world through that period of the mid-1980's was at their feet. Backed by MTV and other music video shows having their hits on regular rotation, their success was at critical mass.
On the back of this, the band returned to write and record their follow up to “Love at First Sting” through 1987. In a move that suggested “when it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, Schenker and Meine did the bulk of the writing, with Schenker writing the music and Meine the lyrics. They also retained the services of Dieter Dierks as producer, and the trio who had been behind the band’s success came together to create an album that could stand alongside the success of their recent releases.

From the outset, this is a different album than what had come before it. While the basics on the surface appear the same, there is a definite mellowing or cleansing in effect. It’s interesting in retrospect that this album has been compared to the way Def Leppard’s “Hysteria” seemed to have been smoothed out and commercialised, that the production made it a much more streamlined and sauna-ed album. That might be an over simplification for the way this album turned out, but it has its truths involved.
The true heavy songs on this album are few and far between, the ones where the band really extends themselves, and allows Klaus to get right into the vocals on the song and Matthias is allowed to let rip on the lead guitar. “We Let it Rock, You Let it Roll” and “Love on the Run” could in fact be the only songs on this album that go in that direction. The majority of the songs are mid-range, mid-tempo tracks that are enjoyable enough because they are Scorpions songs, but they lack that energy and push that had been present before this. And with the success of albums such as “Hysteria” and Whitesnake’s “1987” album, perhaps this was what the band felt was their logical step in regards to their music.
The opening of “Don’t Stop at the Top”, “Rhythm of Love” and “Passion Rules the Game” - the last two of which were released as singles from the album – are all very formula-written, almost songs-by-numbers with vocals and guitars that are inoffensive and meant to appease all fans. They feel like they were the purpose-written songs here to promote the album to the MTV generation, and not turn them off. The songs through the middle of the album, such as “Media Overkill”, “Walking on the Edge” and “Every Minute Every Day” are good solid Scorpions tracks that the band has always been good at.
“Believe in Love”, the other single released from the album, and the song that closes out the album, with a music video that shows lots of shots of the band playing live on stage and the crowd holding lighters in the air, and snatches of people gathered in large city squares, always felt like it was trying to make a statement without getting into too much controversy. A couple of years later it all made sense, as this was an obvious precursor to “Wind of Change” that came on the next album. Play them back to back, you’ll see and hear what I mean. Just change the lyrics from being about love to being about peace, and you have the same basis in both.

It would not be unfair to suggest that, having loaded up on “Lovedrive” and “Blackout” and “Love at First Sting” over the previous three years in my opening years of heavy metal obsession, I expected a lot of this album when it was released. I absolutely believed it was going to be one of the albums of 1988, that it would continue down the route those albums had taken, and would blow me away with its awesomeness. It would be more accurate to say that this confused me somewhat with its averageness. And, again to be fair, it was released in the same two week period as Yngwie Malmsteen’s “Odyssey” and the majesty that was Iron Maiden’s “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”, so it had a lot of competition just with those two albums to compete against for my listening time and my love. But if it had retained that excellence of those earlier Scorpions albums I mentioned, it would have competed just fine.
And that’s the bare bones of the facts. This album isn’t as good as those albums. It certainly sounds like a Scorpions album, it has all of the required usual aspects of a Scorpions album. It’s just that the songs here are just not up to the level of those previous albums. They aren’t bad, in fact many are quite good, but for SCORPIONS songs, they are for the most part just average on their scale. They lack the intensity and fire power that would lift them and the album itself to a higher level.
I’ve still enjoyed catching up with this album over the last couple of weeks. It definitely wasn’t an unpleasant experience. But it did confirm to me that what I thought of it at the time, and at other periods over the past 35 years when I’ve put it on, hasn’t changed that much. There’s nothing wrong with “Savage Amusement”, it’s just that if you were choosing a Scorpions album to listen to for some great music for an hour, there are others in their discography that you would choose before this one.

1194. Iron Maiden / Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. 1988. 5/5

Iron Maiden had conquered the world several times over by the time it came to the end of 1987. On the back of albums such as “The Number of the Beast”, “Piece of Mind”, “Powerslave”, “Live After Death” and “Somewhere in Time”, they had increased their fan base a number of times over, traversed the world, and had more than they could ever have dreamed possible. They had become the standard bearers of melodic heavy metal the world over. Steve Harris was undisputed as the most amazing bass player on earth. Nicko McBrain’s drumming had raised the bar and pushed the band to new heights. The twin guitars of Dave Murray and Adrain Smith had created an unparalleled sound, and the vocals of Bruce Dickinson carried the songs the band created to a new platform. Evern when the band had dabbled with guitar synths on their previous release “Somewhere in Time”, a practice that had fans nervous as to the direction the music was about to be taken, it proved to be a triumph, with that album added further plaudits on an already overcrowded mantlepiece. Indeed, as the tour supporting that album wound down to its conclusion, the world began asking, “what the hell are they going to do to follow all of this up?” There was even a school of thought that perhaps the band would rest on their laurels and perhaps take a break. What actually followed could well be said to have been the culmination of the building of the Iron Maiden sound over the past decade.
The seeds for the direction of the new album came from band leader Steve Harris, who had recently read a novel titled “Seventh Son”, a fictional tale of the purported special powers that a seventh son born to a seventh son would acquire. With his creative mind once again activated, he called Bruce Dickinson to share his thoughts with him, and discussed basing their next album, which was to be the band’s seventh album, around this idea. In interviews at the time and since, Bruce has acknowledged that he was considering his place in the band, as on “Somewhere in Time” all of his song ideas had been rejected, and he had no writing credits at all, and as a result he wondered just what his place in it all was. When Steve mentioned his idea, Bruce not only felt a part of the writers group again, he immediately began coming up with his own ideas, and it was the collaboration between Bruce and Steve, along with Adrian Smith, that drove the creation of what was to become “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”, an album that in some respects came close to perfection for a band that was amazingly still on the rise.

“Seventh Son of a Seventh Son” is often considered to be a concept album, but I’m not sure this is entirely true, and as it turns out in a good way. A true concept album, such as Queensryche’s “Operation: Mindcrime” which was released a month later, and will have its own episode dedicated to it very soon on this podcast, has a crafted storyline, one that also involves specific characters telling their own story, and including some dialogue that is not in song. Whereas, with this album, there is a definite story that is crafted by the songs, and that the lyrics tell the tale of, but it is not held together by that storyline. Apart from the opening and closing monologue sung by Bruce, each of the songs stands on its own and can do without requiring explanation. They can be interpreted as a part of the tale of the life of the seventh son, or they can also be taking as a separate entity and have their lyrical content judged on a different level. For me this is a part of the success of the album as a whole, giving it multiple layers rather than just a linear motive.
Having used guitar synths on the previous album, it was keyboards that made their pieces noticed on this album, though not to the extent of hiring a keyboard player for the band. The history of the band showed that before they got their first record contract there was one gig where Iron Maiden had a keyboard player and one guitarist, but it lasted just that one gig. Now, however, the band was beginning to flux, and to continue their transformation that addition of keyboards – not a dominating factor but a background addition to help fill out the songs in a better way – was necessary. It added to the progressive nature of the music the band was writing, something that was probably never fully followed up on until the “Brave New World” album some 12 years later. Here though, especially on songs such as “Moonchild” and “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”, it created the atmospheric mood that the band wanted and needed for this album to work.
So yes, there is a pattern to the journey that this album takes, from the opening stirring of the protagonists struggles with what is going on in their mind, to the awakening of the powers that he discovers, to the abilities and the pitfalls that come with all people with power, to the ultimate end of the tale. And each song plays its part in that story as well as being a story in itself.
Each of the eight songs on this album is a beauty, and that is not always the case. The opening of “Moonchild” is just fantastic, a different sound from opening tracks on previous Maiden albums and brilliant as a result. “Infinite Dreams” surpasses it in its complexity, starting off in a melodic smooth way before pumping into the second verse with greater power and feeling, through to the chorus. It remains a wonderful song. This is followed by the first single from the album “Can I Play with Madness”, the video of which featured Graham Chapman in his final screen appearance. Side One of the album then concludes with the amazing “The Evil That Men Do” with that galloping Harris bassline and typical Dickinson vocals soaring over the top in anthemic style. Great lyrics, wonderful guitars.
Side Two opens with the Steve Harris classic title track, which bends and winds its way through the majestic theatrical first half of the song, before the second half busts out into what makes Iron Maiden so great, with Adrian and Dave and Nicko stealing the show. It perfectly continues the run of great long-form tracks by the band, following “To Tame a Land”, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Alexander the Great” as the showpiece tracks of those albums they appeared on. “The Prophecy” follows and continues the tale through to “The Clairvoyant”, with Steve’s brilliant bass intro, and then into the finale of “Only the Good Die Young”, which ties all the strings together, and completing what is yet another triumph from this magnificent band.

Back in 1988 I was in my first year of university, living the poor life with very little income and many things that I wanted to be able to experience – mostly beer, but also new albums. And I had saved dollars and cents for weeks leading up to this album being released. There was also an hour long promo that the band filmed on the making of the album which appeared on the music program “Rage” the weekend before this was released, which I recorded at the time but eventually lost in the way VHS taped tended to disintegrate when watched a thousand times over. And I bought this album on the day of its released, immediately recorded it to cassette, and that tape didn’t leave my car for months, playing over and over again. At home the vinyl barely left my parents stereo system in our lounge room. This was the album we had been waiting for. And often, when you are so built up with anticipation for an album, it becomes a disappointment when you eventually get your hands on it. But not this one. From the very moment I listened to it, I loved it. The opening of “Moonchild”, the slow burn of “Infinite Dreams”, the power of “The Evil That Men Do”, the majesty of “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”, and the magnificence of “The Clairvoyant”. Every piece of this album was a triumph, and worth every single moment I had spent waiting for it to arrive.
Playing it now, as I have for probably over a month leading up to this anniversary, I don’t think it has lost anything. In many ways it was a true precursor to how the band began to progress in the next century, once Bruce and Adrian had returned to the band and recorded albums such as “Brave New World” and “Dance of Death”. It always felt as though it was this album that they were channelling at that time. And that would make sense, as Adrian left the band after this album because he felt that THIS was the direction the band should have been heading in, rather than the stripped-down basics they went for on “No Prayer for the Dying”. On his and Bruce’s return, they did.
But I loved this album then and I do still now. I remember vividly driving two of my fellow uni friends to and from lectures with this album blaring out the windows of the car, and probably driving too fast as a result of that built up adrenaline. It was pure magic, and it has retained all of that 35 years later. Sitting in the metal cavern, drinking a beer and letting this wash over you... it is still an amazing experience.
This was, in my opinion, the last of the truly great Iron Maiden albums. The first two albums with Di’anno, Burr and Stratton involved are terrific albums, but the six that followed them – "The Number of the Beast", "Piece of Mind", "Powerslave", "Live After Death", "Somewhere in Time" and then this album, are legendary. They are ‘moment in a bottle’ stuff. What has come since has been mixed, and some of it has touched brilliance, but could never hold a candle to these albums, and especially this, where the planets aligned for that final time.