1228. Iron Maiden / Live at Donington 1992. 1993. 5/5

As has been noted on a few recent episodes in regards to Iron Maiden albums, 1992 and 1993 were not easy years for the band. Bruce Dickinson had already made his decision and announced that he was quitting the band by the time the Fear of the Dark tour concluded late in 1992, and yet the band had already announced further dates for 1993, which Bruce somewhat reluctantly agreed to complete, which took up another 6 months of 1993. During this time, the band did not get on as they had done, and by its conclusion it is probably fair to say that everyone was relieved.
With Bruce leaving the band, they had decided to record and release two separate live albums in 1993, being “A Real Live One” - the episode of which you can find in Season 4 of this podcast - and “A Real Dead One” - the episode of which you can find just a few episodes back here in Season 5. While both sold well as you would expect, one of the main criticisms of the releases was that they were both a collection of live songs, taken from different concerts at different times during the tour. Having had the wonderful “Live After Death” album eight years beforehand, what most Maiden fans were after was another complete concert recording, which reflected how Maiden sounded at that time.
Now, whether this was taken on board by the management and record company, or whether they just saw another opportunity to make a great big pile of cash, something facilitated the release of this album, along with the concert footage in full on video as well, which is the complete set of Iron Maiden’s headlining gig at Castle Donington in August 1992, one where perhaps for the final time before the full reformation of the band seven years later showcased just how good this band was when they were at the peak of their powers. The fact that the gluttony of releasing three live albums in the space of eight months was possibly overlooked in the chase for sales didn’t stop the fans from rushing to their record retailers and buying all three albums up in huge numbers.

Initially this was a limited edition 2 CD release, with the plain white cover and not meant to be a full album release. As such, when it first went on sale 30 years ago it was highly sought. Eventually, with all things such as this, it was re-released to a wider audience worldwide and on various formats.
The gig contains the full setlist from the Fear of the Dark tour than the band was in the middle of at the time, this containing a large mix of recent release songs and then the well worn classics (not as well worn then as they are now!). The then current album had plenty of representation, with “Be Quick or Be Dead”, “From Here to Eternity”, “Wasting Love”, “Afraid to Shoot Strangers”, and “Fear of the Dark” all appearing in the first half of the setlist. All of the versions are great here, even the title track, which I admit I have tired of over the years. But the versions done on this tour, when the song was fresh and new, are all terrific, and is again here. Also, as I am sure was made obvious on previous episodes, I am not a fan in any way of the song “Wasting Love”. To me it was a mistake releasing it as a single, and in ever playing it live, as it is a momentum killer. On the other hand, “Afraid to Shoot Strangers” is a gem, mixed with both high velocity power and also emotion. A great song performed beautifully here. These songs on the first CD are all perfectly interspaced with old and new, with “The Number for the Beast” and “Wrathchild” coming at the top of the song list, and ten “Can I Play With Madness?”, “Tailgunner” ad “The Evil That Men Do” providing a great lift as soon as they come out of the speakers. The whole first CD – well, OK, apart from “Wasting Love” - is a real triumph.
The second CD starts with three fantastic songs from the then middle age of Iron Maiden’s great hits, the brilliant “Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter”, the magnificent “The Clairvoyant” and the fantastic “Heaven Can Wait”. What a truly awesome run of three songs to be able to watch live in concert. Action packed, fast paced and Bruce’s vocals at the top of their game.
This then leads us into the prehistoric era of the band, finishing off the night with those great songs that their earliest fans grew up with and still demand in the live setting. You know them all. “Run to the Hills”, “2 Minutes to Midnight”, “Hallowed Be Thy Name”, “The Trooper”, and then “Sanctuary” into “Running Free”. A pretty fair way to finish off your night, and this album. The final song “Running Free” also features an appearance from former guitarist Adrian Smith, coming on stage to be reminded of what he left behind when he left the band in 1989.

It was an interesting time when this live album came out. As already mentioned, this was the third live album that Iron Maiden had released in 1993, which is overkill in anyone’s language. Beyond this, there were mixed emotions, because when this album was actually recorded it would have been one of the highlights of the band’s career, headlining the Donington Festival in front of 80,000 fans, and yet when it was released just over a year later, it was at one of the lowest ebbs that the band had faced. And as a fan I felt that same way. This was a great album, showcasing everything brilliant about one of my favourite all time bands, and yet it was also showcasing what we would now miss with the departure of Bruce Dickinson.
This album is not in question in regards to quality and quantity. As I often remark, live albums should be an automatic 5/5 rating, because they have the band’s best songs played in their best environment. And that is certainly the case here. While the other two live albums released in 1993 may have some flaws, this full concert album does not. A great set list, all performed fantastically.
Is it an essential album for fans of the band? In the main, if you have “Live After Death” you have the band’s best live album. Both the “Maiden Japan” EP and “Maiden England” album from the Seventh Son tour are also terrific, and this actually makes a solid set with those three albums. Iron Maiden does have a lot of live albums now, but this is still great to listen to.
I saw Iron Maiden for the first time two months after this gig was played, in Sydney in October 1992. Due to a terrible mix and soundboard problems it was, unfortunately, a forgettable concert in the main. And this album was both a relief that it is so good when it came out, and a disappointment because the night I saw them sounded nothing like this. Thankfully for me, better Maiden concerts were to come, but not for a very very long time.

1226. Dio / Strange Highways. 1993. 4/5

From what could be assumed to be the absolute peak of Ronnie James Dio’s career, with his band Dio’s third studio album “Sacred Heart” in the mid-1980's, the band and his own fortunes had begun to plateau, and the road became a more rocky one than he had traversed in some time. After the band’s “Dream Evil” album in 1987, Dio had more or less fired the entire band and brought in new personnel for 1990’s “Lock Up the Wolves” album, one that didn’t gain the all encompassing love that the band’s previous four had brought. The change in tempo and mood caught fans unawares, and their popularity had begun to seep away somewhat. Then came the reformation of the Mark II lineup of Black Sabbath, and the album “Dehumanizer”, one that for a short period of time caught the imagination of the fans once again, with a revitalised heavy and modern sounding metal album from one of the great band lineups of all time. Of course, this then collapsed again with the decision by Iommi and Butler to open up for Ozzy Osbourne’s famous ‘last gig ever’, and once again both Dio and drummer Vinny Appice moved on from Black Sabbath in controversial circumstances. If ever there was a way to metaphorically shoot yourself in the foot, that four year period was one where Dio had done a pretty good job of it. And now, in a period of upheaval in the music world with the onset of the grunge movement, one of heavy metal’s greatest singers had to find a way to pick himself up off the carpet for the first time in a very long time.
And so, back to Dio the band it was. Appice, who had been dismissed during the writing session for “Lock Up the Wolves” in favour of former AC/DC drummer Simon Wright, was now back in the band, no doubt due to his locality and recent time together on that Black Sabbath album. Dio also decided to go for a whole new look with the band lineup. Guitarist Tracy Grijalva, better known as Tracy G, was brought in on guitar, Jeff Pilson, who had plied his trade with Dokken for several years, came in on bass guitar and keyboards, while Scott Warren who had been in Warrant would become the band’s keyboardist on tour.
Many wondered what this version of Dio could bring to the music world, given that by 1993 it had moved on from glam and hair metal and was hurtling into a new dimension. Could the band famous for dragons and rainbows find a way to still be relevant in the 1990’s decade? In many ways, the title of the new album, “Strange Highways”, was a metaphor for the journey the band was about to begin.

There is an interesting transition over the three-album spread between “Lock up the Wolves”, “Dehumanizer” and “Strange Highways”. The first of these albums saw the band’s sound slow the tempo from previous albums and have a slightly more serious tone about the lyrics, still delving into fantasy and other realms but in a different tone. “Dehumanizer” of course was a Black Sabbath album, with the attitude that that band always possesses. However, moving into “Strange Highways”, there’s little doubt that similar tones are being used for this album as well. It may not be Iommi and Butler here, but the music is what could be said to be an extension from that album. Is it too similar? Does it come across as a rip off of the “Dehumanizer” album? Some fans believe so, generally those that are not fans of this album. More accurately, I think this album mirrors what Dio’s writing was portraying at this stage of his career, and the previous two albums he had written progressed to this point and would further down the track with the follow up to this album. What it does is place itself at a destination far away from where the Dio band had started with “Holy Diver” some ten years earlier.
Ronnie’s vocals are more aggressive than any from the previous Dio albums, but less so than he gave us on “Dehumanizer”. Tracy G’s guitar does not copy what Iommi produced on the same album, but it is in a similar vein given the writing of the band. So, we have that same kind of heavy Sabbath-inspired songs here, which Ronnie attaches his heavier vocals to. In many ways this would be as a result of the appearance of the grunge bands and their sound. Whilst many hair metal bands tried to move to the grunge sound and failed, Dio here have moved in a heavier slower direction to combat that music trend, almost as if to say ‘this is heavy metal in the 1990’s, come follow us’.
Songs such as the opener “Jesus, Mary & the Holy Ghost”, the hardcore “Firehead”, "Hollywood Black” (which apparently had been demoed for the “Dehumanizer” album), “Evilution” and “Pain” all move in this newish direction that the new Dio has paved. Vinny’s drumwork has always appeared to be leading to this kind of work, the hard hitting, slow 2/4 tempo style that resonate through the speakers at you, and Tracy G seems happy to play the game. There’s no doubt that it takes some getting used to if you came into the band through the 1980’s.
The title track “Strange Highways” could have come straight off “Dehumanizer” - indeed, listen to “After All (the Dead)” from that album and then listen to this song, and you’ll know where the inspiration for the music and tone of the lyrics comes from. I couldn’t understand why I enjoyed this song so much when I first got the album, and then it clicked. And it’s the same reason people who don’t enjoy the Sabbath album also don’t enjoy this song. It was the real point at which one can tie the writing of this album to that previous album but the other band.
One thing that has disappeared almost completely is the lyrical mysticism that Dio had spent almost two decades weaving into his songs, in this band or his others. There are no rainbows, no dragons, no knights, no heaven and hell. Here the songs come at you with modern themes, social issues and darker elements throughout. This is apparent in songs in the back half of the album, such as “One Foot in the Grave”, “Give Her the Gun” and “Blood from a Stone”, with Ronnie passionately almost spitting the lyrics out with Tracy and Pilson pushing the hard core line musically. The album then ends almost cynically lyrically with “Here’s to You” and “Bring Down the Rain” bringing a slightly different tone to the conclusion.
As an album from this band, it is quite unique, and definitely not like anything they had done before. But it is done awfully well.

When I first got this album, which was pretty close to the release date, I really wasn’t sure what I was in for. “Lock Up the Wolves” had been a bit of a barrier to many of my friends in regards to Dio albums, with the musical changes involved there having them look in another direction. I had found enough to like and love about that album, but sonically it was very different. Then “Dehumanizer” had reinvigorated Dio’s mettle once again, and his stocks rose. The Sabbath separation again left the Dio band at a new crossroads, and I really didn’t know what to expect. And, as it turned out, I had some trouble reconciling what I heard when I initially listened to this album. Why? Well, looking back now, I think what made it difficult for me was that I was expecting to hear the band Dio that I knew, the band that produced those first three amazing scintillating albums, and hearing that energy and buzz and awesomeness. And what I got instead was this album – just not what I was expecting. So I was less than excited, but I kept listening to it, because something about it did click with me. And it wasn’t for some time (probably longer than it should have been) that I realised that this album was far more similar to the album Dio and Vinny had done with Sabbath the previous year than to anything they had done in the 1980’s. And that (eventual) realisation was what unlocked the love of this album for me. And once I had ignored what I had wanted the tempo to be, and just listened to it for what it is, I really did come to enjoy this album immensely.
Is it affected by the time it was released? I think so, but I also think it was written as a statement of the times, and that for many Dio fans, that isn’t what they were after. They wanted more dragons and night people and being hungry for heaven, when the reality was that Dio wanted something else, something that mightn't move with the times but set the agenda. It’s just that the times didn’t agree, and were actually looking for something different.
I listen to this album now, and I still find most of it thoroughly enjoyable. It needs to be in the right environment, and it needs to be LOUD to get the full impact of what the band plays here. And even 30 years on, it has an impact. It mightn’t be from Dio’s classic era, and it might be from a time when Dio’s form of classic heavy metal was on the ropes, but he still delivers vocally as he always did, and his commentary on social issues on this album, which was not something he made a lot of time doing, it still as biting as it was on its release.
The fact is that “Strange Highways” will never rate as one of the great albums, or the essential albums of all time. Asked to choose the best five albums from the band Dio, this probably won’t make your list. Those who were slightly younger than me when this was released tens to rate it much more highly than those of my generation. Perhaps that is its best light – it spoke to a generation that came next from the one he originally touched back in 1983. As a musician, to be able to do that in any age, is a pretty worthwhile achievement.

1215. Type O Negative / Bloody Kisses. 1993. 4/5

Type O Negative’s first two albums had been well received following their formation in 1989. Bass guitarist and vocalist Peter Steele's previous band had broken up, and he decided to form a new band with childhood friends, drummer Sal Abruscato, keyboardist Josh Silver, and guitarist Kenny Hickey. Their first album “Slow, Deep and Hard” had been followed by the faux-live album “Origin of the Feces”, before moving into this third album.
"Bloody Kisses” has had several releases, but for me none so bizarre as the original release that was then followed a few months later by a digipack release, that omitted the few short instrumental tracks, as well as the two controversial tracks. Obviously they were looking to play down any controversy or banning of the album from certain stores in the US, but for me the second release waters down the great stuff that the original release still highlights. The track listing was also adjusted, and for me this also makes the album weaker and less impactful. The fact that it was Peter Steele himself that requested this always felt even more strange, especially when the rest of the band more or less came out and said that the digipack version “sucked”. As it is, it is the original version that I have and listen to.
It is often said that “Bloody Kisses” is Type O Negative’s break through release, the album where they began to establish themselves in their own right, and find the groove that gave them their ultimately classic sound. Opinions will always differ in this regard. What can be said about “Bloody Kisses” is that the varied output of songs throughout gave a full rounded view of the band and their abilities. That variety is something that some fans feel lets the album down, but for me I’ve always enjoyed it. It doesn’t sit in the same tempo or mood all the way through, it has its rises and falls – at times in the one song let alone through the song list – and we are offered the fun of the change between these moods.

What initially drove the success of this album was the first two singles released, which are the first two songs on the album following the introductory “Machine Screw”. They are “Christian Woman” and "Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)". These had music videos made for them, which were plastered all over MTV and VH1, but they were scaled back versions of the album’s originals, which went for 8 and 11 minutes respectively. Unusually, the singles-released version of the songs are actually quite good, but they don’t compare with the originals here, where you get the full experience of the three acts in each song.
The musical transition from their two big singles to their two controversial tracks makes that difference stark, with the brooding gloom of the doom metal sound then harking back to a post punk hard core riff showing a combination of both the past, present and future of the band’s developing sound.
Those two politically motivated tracks on the album can either be viewed as controversial thoughts or tongue-in-cheek banality. "Kill All the White People" and "We Hate Everyone" were written as a response to the controversy over the bands' alleged racist sentiments that were born after a tour in Europe and due to Peter Steele's previous band Carnivore's explicit lyrics. Now with Steele’s leanings in this respect notwithstanding, taking the songs on face value would be an easy parody of the situation.
“Kill All the White People” leads into “Summer Breeze”, initially intended to be a parody of Seals & Crofts soft rock hit, which morphed into a straight cover of the song after the band objected to the change in lyrics that Steele had composed. And yet, for some reason, it still works. This then jumps into “Set Me on Fire” which then acts as a parody of the cover song they had just performed. The back half of “Set Me on Fire”, with the organ synth in combination with the lead guitar is amazing stuff, combining eras of the 60’s and 70’s in a great mesh of sound. I don’t know why it is so effective, but it really is. This four song swing is then brought to a subtle conclusion with the other bookend track, “We Hate Everyone”, the second hard core punk styled angry tongue in cheek track to complement “Kill All the White People”, that breezes up the album again in an effective and fun tempo. Bravo.
The second half of the album, for me, doesn’t quite live up to the first half. The songs are good, but in the case of the title track, I feel it does stretch out too long – or perhaps it is just the plethora of long tracks here that makes this less tolerable for me. The album tops out at 73 minutes, and that often is too long no matter who the artist is. I know that when I listen to this album even now, I do press the stop button once the title track arrives. But when I do go beyond, there is still that enjoyment from “Too Late: Frozen” and “Blood & Fire” as there is from the songs that come before it.
Should this have worked in 1993? I guess in a way it was the perfect rebuff as well as extension to what was coming out of Seattle and what the world was looking for. The band for me is why this works so well. Kenny Hickey’s guitars capture every nuance of the each song, whatever the mood, genre or speed. So too the drumming of Sal Abruscato, who left the band after this album as he wanted to do more touring than Peter Steele was comfortable with. And the keyboards, synths and programming from Josh Silver sets those moods up wonderfully well throughout.
The shining point in "Bloody Kisses" is of course the crowning baritone sounds of Peter Steele's voice. In previous works, Steele did sing, but there was a degree of shouting as well. On "Bloody Kisses" however, Steele's vocals are clean, deep, and unique for its time and add a wonderful touch of darkness to the album.

The first time I ever heard Type O Negative was on the Black Sabbath tribute album “Nativity in Black: A Tribute to Black Sabbath”, released in 1994. The final track on the album was “Black Sabbath”, performed by this band – and it was completely amazing. The mood, those vocals, it all worked. To which I decided that I had to find out more about this band and perhaps check out their material. As it turned out, a customer who came into my then workplace about 12 months later who knew I listened to heavy metal asked me if I’d ever heard Type O Negative. The next day he produced for me a copy of “Bloody Kisses”, and I was in business. And while it didn’t really suit what I was looking for on my drives to and from work in the car, it certainly used to fill the terrace house I lived in at the time before my wife came home in the afternoons.
I used to pair this often with any number of Danzig albums, as the similarity at times to both Danzig’s work and Glenn’s vocals used to make this a great combination.
I still think this album has stood the test of time. When I first got the album, I found it got better the more I listened to it. And while my cassette copy has been lost in the mists of time since, the occasional streaming still reminds me very much of those days. Having had the album on for the last couple of weeks in order to do this podcast episode, I have smiled often as I listened. This album was one of several that got me through some very ordinary times back in 1995, and though the memories of that time are as bleak as some of the songs on this album, I am still filled with the joy of how it was able to eradicate some of that misery. And that is the power that music can have even in the darkest hours.

1213. Smashing Pumpkins / Siamese Dream. 1993. 3.5/5

It is probably fair to say that no one, not even the band itself, expected that the Smashing Pumpkins debut album “Gish” would perform as well as it did. Its initial success meant that the band had ‘jumped the queue’ when it came to bands of their style and growing genre, not only being at the forefront of the grunge movement but then riding the wave created by Nirvana, Pearl Jam and others. It did mean however that when it came time to begin on their sophomore album, there was a certain amount of pressure on the band to produce something special.
Most of this probably could have been handled, but at the time all four members of the band were dealing with their own individual problems that exacerbated what was happening in the Smashing Pumpkins world. Drummer Jimmy Chamberlain was completely addicted to heroin, and as such was cresting the ups and down associated with that. The band deliberately chose to record the album in Georgia away from their homes in order to be far away from local distractions, but mainly in an effort to break away from Chamberlain’s known drug suppliers, which worked for a short space of time before he was able to find new people in which to ingratiate his habit. Along with this, guitarist James Iha and bass guitarist D’arcy Wretzky had ended their romantic relationship, breaking up just prior to the band's performance at the Reading Festival in 1992. The messy end brought about a great deal of tension and feuding between the two during this period, though they were able to eventually work things out and work together on a friendly level beyond the release of the album. On top of this, though it was not revealed until a decade later, band leader Billy Corgan had been contemplating and planning his own suicide during the writing and recording of this album. He had disposed of most of his worldly possessions, and even fantasised about his own death, and wondering what music would be played at his funeral. Thus it must have been an extremely stressed atmosphere in and around the studio while all of this was going on. And it was under these conditions that Smashing Pumpkins tried to put together the album that would get them noticed on a world stage.

Given the turmoil going on within the individuals in the band, it is somewhat amazing that the finished product is as terrific as it is. Famed producer Butch Vig was onboard once again to help push the buttons, almost literally, and his experience and patience and drive can be seen to be instrumental in the finished product.
Billy Corgan wrote all of the songs, apart from two - “Soma” and “Mayonnaise” which were co-written with James Iha. Butch Vig was quoted as saying that Corgan wanted to produce an album that people would put on and say ‘what on earth is that?!’ And to do that it wasn’t just in the writing of the lyrics and the music, but the way that it was going to be recorded that made that difference. Because when you listen to songs such as “Quiet” and “Hummer” and "Rocket” there is an easy out to say that they are similar in quality and output, that they share a path where they start and end. And then there are songs such as “Silverfuck” and “Sweet Sweet” where the track almost becomes irrelevant as a song and becomes more an artistic overplay, where the formation of the track with several dozen overlays becomes the focus rather than the output of the song. Corgan stated that in the song “Soma”, there were over 40 guitar overdubs on the track. Butch went one better and claims that as many as 100 guitar parts were compressed into one song. I mean, there is art for arts sake, but why the complete overkill in this respect? The simple answer may well have been Corgan’s state of mind at the time, the complex answer is probably his desire to make a song and album that would truly amaze people at the time.
Recording was not a joy either. Though Chamberlain played all of the drums on the album, he would go missing for days at a time on benders, unable to be found. And tensions rose between Corgan and Iha and Wretzky when they discovered that Corgan was overdubbing or even wiping their guitar and bass contributions and re-recording them on his own. Wretsky was quoted much later as saying that he did so because he could record them better and in far fewer takes than she could, and that Corgan had done the same to her bass tracks on the first album as well. Meanwhile, the album went over schedule and over budget, as Corgan and Vig sometimes worked on small sections of each song for two days at a time to get it to their own view of perfection.
Despite the categorising of the album as a grunge album, the styles were markedly different. Pieces of songs such as “Soma” and “Geek U.S.A” have touches of heavy metal, while a progressive rock feel comes across in “Spaceboy” and “Luna”, and alternative rock in “Mayonaise”. Corgan has fingers in many genres of music as a musician and a fan, and he does utilise many of them in composing this album.
It was the two big singles that pushed this band to the heights it climbed to. “Cherub Rock” and “Disarm” both did massive business in singles sales, when those things still existed, and also proliferated the radio on both spectrums. They are still the gems of the album, but they lift the album rather than acting as the only shining lights. The album may ebb and flow, but their appearance only creates a greater understanding and love of the whole rather than just being a highlight.

Like most of you I suspect, I discovered Smashing Pumpkins on the radio, and it was the two aforementioned big singles that grabbed my ears and made me a fan. Getting the album took a little longer, but once I did it was in the phase of the musical world going completely bananas and me trying to get my head around that. It was not just Nirvana (who I enjoyed) and Pearl Jam (who I did not) taking on the world, but other bands that fans identified as grunge who were probably not so much. And that is definitely the case here on “Siamese Dreams”. There are certainly elements of grunge-induced music, but it is the wide variety including other forms of heavy rock and progressive elements that make it such an interesting album and listen. And it was something that Billy Corgan and his merry bandmates would continue into their next amazing album.
So when I did get this album, I knew those singles, and initially I had to get past them to appreciate what else lay within the walls of the music. And as I have mentioned before, that can sometimes be a difficult task. But once I had played this album a few times over, that all subsided and what I discovered was an amazing release, one that never ceases to amaze if you can just turn it up a touch louder in a quieter place, and hear everything that the band (well... Billy) plays in each song. Because each song does become a little like his own painting, with the layers and the colours that he has perfected. Even better, don a pair of headphones and really get the best out of it, because there is a lot their to dissect.
Many would argue this is The Smashing Pumpkins finest album. Others will go for the following album, and with good reason. Some like me tend to go for the slightly heavier concoction that came beyond that. But overall, this is one of those albums that people put in their ‘best ever from the 1990’s’. On that score, I think you’d have to agree that it is well and truly worthy of being on such a list.

1208. Ozzy Osbourne / Live & Loud [Live]. 1993. 5/5

By the time Ozzy Osbourne had released his “No More Tears“ album, an episode of which you can listen to on Season 1 of this podcast, he had decided that he had become jaded and sick of touring, and that he would go out on one final world tour, calling it the “No More Tours” tour, and that a resulting live album recorded on that tour would be his final album. Looking back now, thirty years ago, it seems like a facetious remark, given that even into his 70’s now and suffering from a number of ailments including Parkinson’s disease, he’s still out there making live appearances. And given that there have been a number of things said over the years that appear to be more of a promoting of Ozzy and his music, and things including reality shows and series made which, in the long run, come across as brazen promotion of the artist and his music, is it so wild to believe that the whole “No More Tours” thing was just a way of selling out more shows and selling more albums? Or was it simply a case that once he had gone on a break following this tour, that he realised how bored he was, and that it was making music that was keep him going? In the long run, it probably doesn’t matter, that even if it was a promotional tool it turned out to be a good one, but other things that went into it did create some ructions.
As it was going to be his last time out, Ozzy invited the other three original members of Black Sabbath to come out on his final night and have a reunion for the encore, and asked the band to play as support for that night. At the time, Sabbath was touring on their “Dehumanizer” album with Ronnie James Dio back as lead singer. When Iommi and Butler agreed to this, Dio dead set refused, saying that to be considered as a support act for Ozzy was degrading for the band and not what their status demanded. It caused this second formation of this lineup of Sabbath to dissolve immediately (although the band played the support slot with Rob Halford filling in on vocals), and also eventually led to a reunion of the original foursome for a tour in 1997, though a new album did not eventuate from this.
All in all, lots of consequences came from the tour that this live album was recorded on. Most of all, it produced a cracking live album of some of the best music Ozzy and his bandmates ever produced.

The “No More Tours” tour stretched through the back half of 1992, and the songs from this live album were taken from several shows on that run, including from Orlando, Atlanta and Cincinatti.
The first thing to consider here are the performances. And they don’t miss a beat. Ozzy is in fine form, no doubt standing in front of his autocue to make sure he doesn’t forget the words, but he sings everything terrifically. Zakk Wylde on guitar is as awesome as ever, every nuance of every song is found with the correct ting of the string, from the ferocity of “War Pigs” and “Bark at the Moon” to the mood swings of “Mama I’m Coming Home” and “Goodbye to Romance”. He was truly on a prominent rise at this stage, before his journey into Black Label Society, when this was the dream gig that he had been waiting for. Mike Inez finds all of those wonderful Bob Daisley written bass runs perfectly through each song, and Randy Castillo is as powerful as ever on the drums. The performance of the band here is second to none.
The song set list is also a who’s who of the best that Ozzy has to offer. The Sabbath tracks “Paranoid” and “War Pigs” are as bombastic as always. The mix of tracks for the rest comes from all six of the studio albums to that point in time, with the focus remaining on the album they were touring on at the time, “No More Tears” with five songs from that album. Only one song appears from each of the mid-era albums, represented by “Bark at the Moon”, “Shot in the Dark” and “Miracle Man”, while the Randy era albums get the six classic tracks played, as one would expect.
At the end of the album we have the aforementioned reunion of the original four members of Black Sabbath performing that title track, which, while it was a somewhat momentous moment at the time, has paled into insignificance in the years since. And for all the grief it caused at the time, with Dio leaving Sabbath again and Tony Martin returning to Sabbath again, and Ozzy deciding he WASN’T going to retire after all and in fact go on for another 30 years of albums and tours, including one more with Black Sabbath again... it feels more and more like an Ozzy promotional exercise than any other possibility. But in the long run, the people behind Ozzy’s career were always looking for those angles.

The most annoying part of this album’s recording and release was that, once again, Australia got looked over for a tour by the band, and as it had been ‘the final tour’ we believed we were never going to get to see him perform these songs live, which was very frustrating.
I got the album on its release and played it on rotation over a long period of time. The live versions of all the songs were just fantastic. Sure, perhaps the Randy era versions on the “Tribute” album were better, but not by much. And it was great to hear songs like “Bark at the Moon” and “Miracle Man” get the live treatment.
And as I’ve said before here when reviewing live albums for this podcast, live albums really all should be brilliant, because you are getting the best songs in their best environment, and that is absolutely true of “Live & Loud”. Great songs, performed by a great band. And there is probably no better way to “finish” your career than for it to be with this song.

1205. Anthrax / Sound of White Noise. 1993. 5/5

Anyone who had followed Anthrax’s journey through the 1980’s would have known a band that combined the essence of thrash metal with some great lyrical writing drawn from sources such as literature and legend and mythology, along with issues that were close to their hearts, all mix with the fun and vibrancy of a young band making it in the world. By the time the band had reached 1990 and the release of their pivotal masterpiece “Persistence of Time”, they were at the peak of their powers. They had a back catalogue of albums that would have been the envy of most other bands out there, and the success of their single “Bring the Noise” had allowed them to incorporate music that they had all grown up with into their own sound, and draw in more fans as a result. And the fun release “Attack of the Killer B’s” had shown they had not lost their fun side after the more serious aspects from the “Persistence of Time” album. So it should have been all champagne and roses, shouldn’t it?
For fans, or at least myself, the parting of ways with lead singer Joey Belladonna seemed sudden and unfortunate. Later interviews suggested that this parting had been discussed between Scott Ian and Charlie Benante as far back as the writing stages of “Persistence of Time”. ‘Musical differences’ was the excuse bandied about at the time, and there had also been thoughts thrown around that the age difference between the older Joey and the rest of the band meant they didn’t mesh well all the time as a result. Whatever the reasons behind his exit were, losing such as high profile member of your band such as the visible and high pitched singing lead singer is not an easy thing to replace and then successfully sell to your fans.
In his place, the band brought in Armored Saint front man John Bush, having auditioned several people. Again, Bush’s name had been floated as a possible replacement in those first times that talk had begun over maybe getting a replacement, so no doubt they had been in contact prior to this occurring. And thus began the waiting game for the fans, to discover just what Anthrax could produce with their new lead singer whose former band had been a contemporary of Anthrax in the thrash metal scene. Alongside this, just how would Anthrax approach the changing music world around them in their new music, with grunge and alternative taking a hold and influencing just how many styles of music approached the 90’s decade. Many changed their style to adapt, and failed as a result. Would Anthrax hold a steady course or make further changes of their own?

Over the years, many reviewers have made the point that they feel that “Sound of White Noise” is either a darker album that the band had written before, growing in serious matters to be conversed about and with less humour or injected fun within the tracks, or that the album is more grunge and alternative related than any of their albums have been before – or in fact that this album is both and all of those things combined.
I’m not sure I have ever agreed with those sentiments. There have been plenty of serious matters made the subject of Anthrax songs in the past albums - “Madhouse”, “Indians”, “Make Me Laugh” and “Belly of the Beast” are just one example from each of the previous four albums that have a serious side to their lyrics. What was changing was perhaps the stage attire for the band, the colourful outfits with shorts and t-shirts that other bands eschewed for denim and or leather. To me, “Sound of White Noise” is a natural progression from the subject matter and heavier sound that came from “Persistence of Time”. And along with the different style of vocals between Joey and John, the songs had to be written and played differently as well, given a different tone to fall in with the way that John held himself and his singing. And that change is significant in another way as well. The songs here have a more melodic singing style about them, with different techniques in the way the vocals are recorded. As well as this, many Anthrax songs in the past had utilised the chanting and backing vocals of Scott Ian and Frankie Bello as a part of the mantra of the songs – think “Caught in a Mosh” and “I Am the Law” as examples – but here John takes on much of the role and those kind of interludes don’t appear. Certainly live they still do, but here on the album John Bush is the main vocalist throughout.
So my opinion is not that this is influenced by grunge or a desire to move towards alternative metal, it is just the natural progression of the band and its sound along with the input and requirements of the new lead singer of the band.
And what an impact it makes. From the outset, the album is pumping through the speakers. Everything is turned up in intensity and impact, from the opening “This is a journey... into sound...” of “Potter’s Field”, to the majesty of the number one single “Only”, into the hard core “Room for One More” and then the aggression and power of “Packaged Rebellion”, the album’s opening four tracks are the equal of any Anthrax album. Charlie Benante’s drumming is beyond superb, once again putting most of his peers in the genre in his shadow, and I love the symmetry between him and bassist Frankie Bello here as well, they set the bottom section in order and create the basis of each track, allowing Scott Ian and Dan Spitz to perform their guitar riffing over the top in perfect order. Even so, it is John Bush’s vocals that reign supreme here, laying to bed any doubts that he could do the job for the band. “Hy Pro Glo”, the intensity of “Invisible” and “1000 Points of Hate”, to the moodiness of the complete tack change of “Black Lodge”... all of it is immense and tremendous. “Sodium Pentothal” (not how it is spelled but it is always the name I’ve called this track) into “Burst”, and then the over-the-top conclusion of “This is Not an Exit”, makes for an amazing album, a brilliant debut for Bush, and the exact kind of heavy metal we wanted to hear at a time when so many other bands were diverging from their usual template.

It is pretty difficult to put into words just how much I adored this album when it was released. This came out around three months after I was married, and was followed a week later by Helloween’s “Chameleon” album, an episode of this podcast that follows this episode very quickly. So I listened to both of these albums together for some time. Now, without giving away the plot line for the Helloween album... I listened to this a hell of a lot more and for a hell of a lot longer. And we were living in a two room flat, struggling with very little income in our small business, so buying anything extravagant like a couple of albums at the time was not easy to do. But I still recall with fondness sitting in the sun-drenched combined lounge/dining/kitchen of the front half of that flat, looking out at the view and listening to this album at as high a volume as I dared in an effort to not have all of our neighbours call the cops at the same time. And it was just brilliant. It was a mood changer, an album that still to this day is able to take my crankiest, angriest moods and suck that all out of me, and replace it with a feeling of contentment. Because there is plenty of anger here within the confines of the album, and having this amazingly heavy album create its transition is still something to behold.
The album lasted for ever on my playing list. I’ve had it on for over a month again now in preparation for this podcast, and it’ll stay on my playlist for a while again yet. Simply because it is an amazing album. The lyrics of “Packaged Rebellion” became a kinda motto for my life - ‘I don’t wanna know how you’re so driven, I don’t wanna know your influence, I don’t need to prove myself, I just need to be myself, it doesn’t show how I’m trying to be, it just shows who I am’. At 23 years of age when this album was released, it became my mantra. And – just as importantly, this was an album of that era by a band that I loved that didn’t change, in fact almost became heavier here than they had been, whereas other bands that I loved from the 1980’s were in a mid-life crisis and suffering because of it.
I still love this album unconditionally. It is an absolute balltearer. It was, somewhat sadly, probably the last great Anthrax album. From this point on they all have their great songs and great moments, but not with the same overall and undying purpose and intent. 30 years on, and this still has it all – the heavy riffs, the headbanging drums and rhythms, the great singalong lyrics, and from all reports the song that James Hetfield called ‘a perfect song’. High praise indeed.

1189. Van Halen / Live: Right Here, Right Now. 1993. 4/5

Few people were aware of it at the time, but this album became one of the final releases on Van Halen, though the band was still active beyond this for 25 years. With several albums having now been released with Sammy Hagar at the helm, there were already nervous kicking at the ground and whispered thoughts behind closed doors as to how much further the band could go in its current form.
One thing that the band had not done by the time it had finished its “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” album was released an official live album, showcasing the greatness of the band and the four individuals who were a part of it. And whatever the decision making behind this album eventually being recorded, it still seems as though it didn’t go as smoothly as it probably should have, given it had been almost 20 years that Van Halen had toured the US in particular.
The album was recorded over two nights in Fresno, California, with a combining of performances over the double album release. However, what seemed to damn this release was the fact that the original show had been broadcast at the time of it being played, and when fans heard what was on offer with this album, it was apparent that some post-production work had been done. The originally broadcast concert had a rawer sound that was much closer to what people thought of as the Van Halen live sound, whereas this album had differences in both the instruments and the vocals. It was later revealed by Hagar in his 2011 autobiography that the Van Halen’s had tinkered with the speed of the recording and other factors in order to fix up perceived problems in the live set. Hagar said this then made his vocals sound out of key and sync. As a result, he was asked to come into the studio, and sing along with the video of the gig, and completely re-record his vocals. Now, other live albums over the years have used a similar technique and have survived the scrutiny that was on offer at the time, and to be honest this album has as well. Unfortunately, because it is the only true live album the band released, it perhaps doesn’t give the clearest indication of the powerhouse that van Halen was when on stage because of this.

The band certainly made up for not having had a live album prior to this one. The two CD release covers almost two and a half hours of live songs and performances. And while ignoring a little the news I have already related over the post-production issues, it sounds terrific, but especially on those songs where the energy is at its highest, and the band gets to really showcase what they do.
But... and there almost always is a BUT when it comes to live albums... there are a couple of things that I find grate on my conscience a little. The first is the insertion of both a bass solo and a drum solo. Now I know the band was renown for these, and that it was a part of their live act through their whole career. But do we need to have them placed on a live album? How many of you out there, on ANY live album that contains bass, drum or guitar solos, actually listen them all when you are listening to the album? Truly! Because I know that when its on CD I press skip immediately, and when it is on vinyl I groan my way through until we reach the next song. They are unnecessary. Great when you see a band live, but please don’t hold up the momentum of the album by putting them on here.
Secondly, where are all the songs from pre-1985? I know the band pretty much only played their big singles from the 1978-1984 era once Dave had been let go, and I’m sure that grated on fans who saw the band during this era, but how can you release a double live album, with 24 songs on it, and only have four Roth era songs on it? And one of those was “You Really Got Me” which of course is a Kinks cover! So three Roth era tracks, but we also have TWO Sammy Hagar solo tracks on here, and a cover of The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again”! Now, come on. Were we just trying to wipe away half of the back catalogue because another guy was singing on it? Imagine Black Sabbath not playing any Ozzy era tracks when Dio was singing? How about Iron Maiden ignoring their first two albums once Bruce Dickinson arrived? It just doesn’t make sense.
And finally, while I am all in favour of bands promoting their latest album in order to show how good their new material is, surely playing 10 out of the 11 songs from their then current album “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” is just way over the top. I mean, how bad could “The Dream is Over” have been to miss out on being included on this album? (though they did actually play it). They could probably have just played that whole album in one hit, and then bunched the hits together in the second half of the concert. I mean, that’s been done plenty of times since. They could have been the originals when it came to this trend if they had.

I bought this album on a whim sometime in the late 1990’s at a shopping centre in Erskineville in Sydney, probably sometime not long before I eventually got to see Van Halen live for the first and only time – though by this time it was Gary Cherone who was fronting the band. I hadn’t heard anything by Van Halen since the “OU812” album, so I do remember getting through this for the first time and wondering what the hell had I just listened to. Probably was always going to be the case given I hadn’t heard the “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” album at all, and that I had been expecting to hear great Roth era songs such as “Unchained”, “Hot for Teacher”, “Mean Streets” and “Dance the Night Away”, just to name a few. Instead, I got this album, which at the time was a slight disappointment. Then I went off, saw Van Halen with Cherone which was absolutely sensational, and then promptly put this back in the CD shelves to be mostly forgotten for the next 20-odd years.
Pretty much until two weeks ago, when I pulled it out again to prepare for this podcast episode. And, not surprisingly, I have enjoyed this immensely. Time can sometimes be a comfort, and hearing Hagar singing at his peak has been totally worth the time spent. And, to be honest, it’s the vocals here that really win the day. And perhaps with Eddie’s growing love of synths and keyboards in this phase of the band’s career, that isn’t completely surprising. Because while there are still some good guitar pieces in the current material of the album, most of it is based around the soft rock ballad than the hard rock guitar. For someone of my vintage now, I am much more able to accept that as part of the Van Halen package than I would have been back when I first got this album, though as I have related, I’d have loved to have heard more of that older material as well, when Eddie’s guitar was the star rather than the band as a whole as it did eventually become, for better or worse. So for me, this album has improved over time, and become something that is still worth listening to – even given the gripes that I have brought up through this episode. Sometimes, you just have to accept what you have, and get on with it.

944. Various Artists / Last Action Hero: Music From the Original Motion Picture. 1993. 3.5/5

The lead up to this movie being released was one of contained exuberance. I mean, Arnie had just come off Terminator 2: Judgement Day, so surely this movie that combined action and comedy had to be a hit, right? No. Sadly the answer to that question was a big fat no. It was very very average.
Anyway, I only bring this up because when I first heard about the soundtrack that was being put together for the album, I was actually more excited about this than the film. I mean, when you look at the bands that contributed songs to the soundtrack album, it had to be a hit... right?...

Well...

The list of the bands on here is impressive, and commensurate with what was happening in the music world at the time. Old faithful and rock solid AC/DC lead of the set with what can only be described as a typical AC/DC song. "Big Gun" is as catchy as any of their material had been in that past decade, and while it may not be outstanding it is everything you can expect from the band. The grunge extremities of Alice in Chains are favoured with two songs on this compilation, with "What the Hell Have I" being recorded on the sessions for their album DIRT, and followed up by "A Little Bitter" which comes towards the end of the album. Unlike their best material, this doesn't have the same edge and grind that those songs contain. The sitar-like sound of the first song, along with what sounds like an off-colour harmony on the vocals between Layne and Jerry, just doesn't work for me.
The star attraction is Megadeth's "Angry Again", which doesn't beat around the bush, jumping straight into that dual riff and great vocals from Dave Mustaine. Once again the band has produced a song on a soundtrack, that while it doesn't appear on any of their own albums, is still a memorable inclusion to their back catalogue of great songs. "Real World" by Queensryche, with some additional help from producer Michael Kamen, is endemic of where the band was at this stage of their career. The addition of orchestral pieces within the song, and the walk down the path of progressive rock without the kind of power that they had infused into their music in previous albums means this song doesn't really hold the attention as one would have hoped that it would. This is followed by "Two Steps Behind" by Def Leppard, again another atypical song of the band from this period, which again, as with all but AC/DC and Megadeth's contributions above, are mostly disappointing. This is somewhat rectified by a seven minute long piece of Anthrax magic, "Poison My Eyes", energised by the recent addition of John Bush on vocals.
Aerosmith's "Dream On" is actually a good song when done well, but this version is a live version, done at the ceremony celebrating the 10th anniversary of MTV, and it is a pretty limp, lame version which doesn't cause any great joy in the listening stakes. I have no love of bands such as Cypress Hill, whose well known "Cock the Hammer" is here, and Fishbone, whose "Swim" to me is just a time filler. Tesla contribute the title track to the movie "Last Action Hero" which is a reasonable enough song, before the track "Jack and the Ripper" closes out the album.

In almost every way, the soundtrack here mirrors the movie, in that the excitement beforehand is almost completely shattered by the actual product when it arrives. On the face of it, with the bands contributing to this album, it should be an absolute ripper. In the long run, it takes up room on your shelf as a dust collector.

Rating:   "Angry again, angry again, angry again..."   3.5/5.

911. Billy Joel / River of Dreams. 1993. 3/5

Perhaps the kindest thing I can say about this album is that it is the final studio album Billy Joel released before announcing his 'retirement'. Some will consider this a harsh judgement, but by the time this was released in 1993 the world of music had really moved on from what Billy Joel had to offer, and while there is no doubt about the quality of the musicianship, its the songs themselves that feel out of place.

That's not to say there aren't some okay songs. The opening track "No Man's Land" shows some style and substance, along with Billy's vocals coming through to lead the song from the outset. If the rest of the album could have followed up on this energy and vibe then it would no doubt have been a much more enjoyable experience. Billy then finds his inner Beatles again with "Great Wall of China", which almost could have been lifted from the Sgt Peppers album. This has its moments too I guess, and isn't all bad in the whole scheme of things, but at almost six minutes in length it is too long.
Then comes the middle section, with "Blonde Over Blue", A Minor Variation" and "Shades of Grey", which are repetitive in the music riff if not the drudgery of the songs themselves. They are all too long, and so they are unable to retain your attention beyond the first couple of minutes. They just don't seem to move anywhere.
"All About Soul" immediately hits you here because suddenly Billy's vocals are front and centre again, and his voice is what pricks up your ears and pull you in. I've never had the affinity for this track that many others have, but it is noticeable here because its quality towers over what the middle of the album has produced. "Lullaby (Goodnight, My Angel)" is another standard Billy Joel piano ballad, sung sweetly enough and played with dignity. "The River of Dreams" has never been a favourite of mine, perhaps through having to have heard it a billion times on the radio when it was released. Again, it's okay without being one of his best songs. In my opinion.
The album concludes with "Two Thousand Years" and "Famous Last Words". The former again concentrates on Billy's piano leading the charge, and his vocals being the centre of the song, while the latter does little harm, and also perhaps predicts that and ending is coming, in more ways than one.

No, this is only an average album, and in an age when grunge was still dictating terms it must have been a difficult album to promote. Whether he had begun to run out of ideas, or he just saw that there was little use in pushing out more of the same, it takes a special conviction to simply announce that there will be no more. The best part is that this doesn't harm his legacy, and still offers enough for you to be able to sit down and enjoy the parts that matter.

Rating:   "All the king's men, and all the kings horses, can't put you back together the way you used to be".  3/5.

563. Gamma Ray / Insanity and Genius. 1993. 3.5/5

In the first three years of the band’s existence, Gamma Ray had not only recorded two excellent albums in “Heading for Tomorrow” and “Sigh No More”, they had also toured around Europe and other countries to rapturous applause, and their profile had been growing at an exponential rate. All of this was occurring despite the fact that the band lineup itself was in a constant flux. Having begun with Uwe Wessel on bass and Mathias Burchardt on drums, and with Kai Hansen playing all guitars, on “Sigh No More” Uli Kusch had come in on drums, and Dirk Schlacter was on rhythm guitar. Following the tour to promote this album, both Wessel and Kusch left, citing disagreements with what was happening within the band. Kusch eventually went on and replaced Ingo Schwichtenberg in Helloween. This meant that Gamma Ray had to recruit two new players again, and so in their places came Jan Rubach on bass guitar and Thomas Nack on drums, both from the band Anaesthesia.
With the new lineup now in place, it came time to write and record for the follow up album. However, the difficult part about this was that while the majority of the band lived in Hamburg, lead singer Ralf Scheepers lived almost 700km away, and didn’t want to relocate to Hamburg because he still had a job he was working in back where he was living. This meant that he would only show up for weekends to check out how the writing process was going, or to rehearse with the band. As Kai himself was quoted as saying in an interview some years later, “there was one problem with that because when we wrote the songs I was always trying to think of his voice but on the other hand it would have been a lot better if he writes his own vocal lines, melodies and lyrics. When he came to Hamburg most of the times I was singing in the rehearsal room when he was not there and I was singing on my demos so it was like everything was more or less fixed and he could not really change it.”
All of this lead to what turns out to be the most haphazard Gamma Ray release ever, and given that this was the way it was written and recorded, it isn't too much of a surprise why.

From the outset there seems a definite move away from the more serious tone taken on the “Sigh No More” album and return to the more carefree upbeat feeling of the debut album. Whether or not this came about more from Ralf’ absence in the writing stage is unclear, as he had been a main contributoir to the lyrics for that album, but had very little on this new album.
"Insanity and Genius” kicks off as brilliantly as you would expect, with an opening triumvirate of songs that showcase the best that the band has to offer. "Tribute to the Past" is a fast paced and fun filled journey, with bright and breezy lyrics and great guitars that set off a great start. This is followed by “No Return” where Ralf’ vocals dominate throughout and set the tone for what is to come. The third of these three opening Hansen penned tracks is “Last Before the Storm”, where the Nack’s double kick rumbles the song along at the great pace that Gamma Ray like to set with their opening tracks, and keep the momentum going.
After this great beginning, I must admit that I feel the album from this point on is just a bit uneven. Indeed, the tracks through the middle of the album are just a bit average. Everyone has their chance to contribute to the writing here, and perhaps that is part of what muddles up the overall picture, but in the end there are songs here that are fine to listen to but they become just a tad boring. “The Cave Principle” and “Future Madhouse” are just middle-of-the-road tracks, along with both “Insanity and Genius” and “18 Years”. Even the cover of Birth Control's “Gamma Ray” lacks a certain presence that a later update down the track with Kai on vocals really does fix nicely.
The final three songs do return some of the band’s best elements to the album. Two songs are left to other band members to sing, which can only have eventuated from the fact that Ralk was not around to do the vocals in the studio and so they were turned over to the other band members. “Your Torn is Over” is written by Dirk, and so he also sings it here, and it is a great track, with plenty of enthusiasm from the fill-in vocalist to make it a good song to listen to. This is followed by the live favourite "Heal Me" which is sung by Kai, his first lead vocal on a song since Helloween’s debut album “Walls of Jericho”. It is interesting that Kai did this, given what happened on future releases by Gamma Ray. I'm not as big a fan of "Heal Me" as most other Gamma Ray fans seem to be. I think it's OK but not brilliant.
The final song is “Brothers”, a song about being ‘brothers in rock’, co-written by Hansen, Scheepers and Schlacter, and an interesting statement by the three solid core members of the band... up to this point.

I was ecstatic when this album was released. Those who have listened to the episode of this podcast from Season 1 about their “Sigh No More” album will know how obsessed I became over it when I got it, and I can tell you that my excitement levels for this album were humongously over the top. And in the main, we all know just what happens when you build an album up too much before its release. And that is exactly what happened to me with “Insanity and Genius”. I expected and wanted more of what I had got with “Sigh No More”, and that is not what this album offered. Once again, as with most albums such as this, it isn’t a bad album. It’s just that I expected something different, something... BETTER! And that’s not what this is. And, what hurts this album even more, is that later on when the band released their best-of album, and to do so they re-recorded all of their past songs with their current line-up so that it wouldn’t just be a generic best of album, and they re-recorded four songs from this album with Kai singing and the songs given even better guitar treatment, they left these versions in the dust.
So yes this album is fine, but for me it is my least favourite of all Gamma Ray albums – by a long way.
This was Ralf's final album with Gamma Ray, as he and the band parted amicably as he went off to try and become Rob Halford’s replacement in Judas Priest. When he missed out on that gig he went and formed his own band, and though he has made an excellent fist of his move to Primal Fear, in some way this album seems to suffer from his appearance (or lack of it). It is a pity that his final fling with the band proves to be a little disappointing. The golden age of Gamma Ray began with their following album, “Land of the Free”. It's funny how I almost missed that, as after this album my adoration of the band went a little cold, and I didn't rush out to find the next release straight away. Imagine if I hadn't! But that was how this album left me in the long run - a little uneasy, and not really sure if they could recover. That they did in amazing style is something we can all be very very glad of.

548. Nirvana / In Utero. 1993. 3.5/5

Every person listening to this episode know who Nirvana were, and probably own or have owned a copy of their second album “Nevermind” and know the songs and perhaps even the story behind it. If not, you should check out the episode of this podcast dedicated to it in Season 1.
By the time the tour behind that album had finished, several question marks had begun to be raised. Cobain sought to have the royalty's distribution, which to that point in time had been divided equally, changed to reflect that he composed almost all of the band’s material. Though both Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl did not argue this, it came to a head when Cobain tried to make it retroactive to include the royalties for “Nevermind”. Depending on whose opinion you listen to, there was either little chance of this affecting the band morale, or in fact the band was close to ending at that point. Though an agreement was made where Cobain did receive 75% of those earlier recording's royalties, it did seem that this angst was present for the remaining time the band was together.
Cobain’s health at this time also led to rumours of the band’s demise, before they put together two of their most memorable performances, firstly at the 1992 Reading Festival, and then a few days later at the MTV Video Music Awards.
While the band’s record company had been hoping for a new album to release towards the end of 1992, they had instead released a compilation album contain rare live performances, B-sides and bootleg songs to appease the fans who were all looking for more material. From this point the band looked forward to the next album. Armed with a new producer in Steve Albini, some songs already written and others in an unfinished form, the band went into the studio in February 1993, and recorded their new album, “In Utero”, in just two weeks. Despite this, it took almost another seven months for the album to be released. Despite initially liking how the album sounded, the band and their record company soon had reservations about it, and then spent a number of months arguing about whether it needed to be remixed or re-recorded, while Albini adamantly refused to budge on what he felt was an iron-clad agreement not to change anything about the album’s recording. There was also concerns about whether the large American markets would put the album on their shelves, over the song “Rape Me” and what they felt it was portraying to the public. It seems almost ludicrous in this modern world that an album took two weeks to produce, but seven months for it to be released. Especially given that it profited all parties involved to get it out into the public's hands as soon as possible.

The whole vibe of “In Utero” is a different breed form both of the two preceding albums. There is a real divide between the way the songs are recorded and played here on this album that the others, something that both producer and writer was looking for. There is a true raw vocal sound from Cobain on many songs on the album, including the opening tracks “Serve the Servants” and "Scentless Apprentice". Unlike most Nirvana songs, the guitar riff on “Scentless Apprentice” was written by Dave Grohl, and though Cobain professed not to like it he wrote the song to accommodate it, while Krist Novoselic helped compose the song's second section. It is the only song on In Utero on which all three band members received songwriting credits. For some reason, this gets high praise in fan circles, and supposedly Cobain wanted to release this as the second single from the album. I admit I don’t get it. The track seems off, the screams are over wrought, and to me it just isn’t a very accessible track. Perhaps that’s why he was so keen to get it out there.
In polar opposite from those tracks, the next two have Cobain at his crooning best. “Heart Shaped Box” came from a riff that Courtney Love claims was the only riff she ever asked if Kurt wanted, because she wanted to use it for her band. After the previous song, this is much more back in the NIrvana groove, with the brooding vocals and loaded drum work from Dave. “Rape Me” was actually written before the release of “Nevermind” and was literally written lyrically as an anti-rape song, but the addition of lyrics in the middle of the song months later also gave it a twist of being against the litany of fame and the increased desire of the media and public to want every part of the artist and his family. “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle” continued down the path of those drawbacks to fame and the mental fatigue it caused especially Cobain at this time.
The remainder of the album continues in this vein of coarse vocalled tracks and the most recognisable Cobain croon, while the music morphs as is necessary. The hasher verdicts of songs such as “Milk It” are measured out by the less frantic and less audible tones of songs like “Dumb” and “Pennyroyal Tea” and “All Apologies”
Nevermind’s success was built off the opening single, a song that captured the imagination of the listening public around the globe and blew up all over the world. There’s no doubt that many fans came into “In Utero” and were looking for another “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to light the fire again, and that the album would follow down the same path as “Nevermind” did. The fact that it didn’t, and that the opening single to this album “Heart Shaped Box” was perhaps more of a brooder and a creeper than the raw energy of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” always felt from my perspective that it threw a massive curveball at the fans of the time.

My view of “In Utero” has always been in a comparison, much the same way as Faith No More’s album “Angel Dust“ was on a completely different level from their multi-million selling commercial breakthrough “The Real Thing“. Just like “Angel Dust” this is the ugly duckling of the discography. “In Utero” is a different beast, which is the way that Kurt Cobain wanted it. He didn’t want an album that was as slickly produced as the previous album was, which was why he changed producer from the acclaimed Butch Vig to using Steve Albini. He wanted a more raw and abrasive sound for the album, one that harked back to their debut album “Bleach”, while still being able to have those other more subtle sounding songs where he could use the quiet emotion of the band to express that side of their sound as well.
The end result was “In Utero”, an album that Cobain was quoted as saying was “impersonal” in interviews on its release, but surely nothing could be further from the truth. Most of the songs here lyrically are dealing with depression, and dealing with the trappings of fame, and dealing with life itself. There are people – overly obsessed people to be sure – who have spent years dissecting the words of the songs here, and trying to interpret just what Kurt was trying to say – what he was REALLY trying to say, and looking for doble meanings and hidden truths amongst what he wrote and sang. Which, really, is madness. Everything Kurt Cobain was feeling is right there in his lyrics, at the surface. He’s not trying to be clever or make songs difficult to derive meaning from.
When I first bought this album, I was no different from the other hordes of people who climbed aboard. I was not necessarily looking for, but probably expected, another “Nevermind”. And that definitely is NOT what this album is. And it definitely took some getting used to, because it isn’t as easily accessible as that album was. But once you wade in past the change in mood, the change in vocal sound and the change in expectation, what I found was a really interesting album. It is , probably surprisingly, not as aggressive an album musically as its predecessor, something that I had been anticipated and even looking forward to. Instead, it is an album that draws a lot of introspection instead. It was an album I expected was going to be great to play at parties loud and sing along to loud. And instead it is an album that seems better utilised by sitting in a lounge chair and considering the lyrics and admiring the musical work. And that’s where my enjoyment of this album comes from. It’s a different piece of art, that’s for sure, but one worth admiring nonetheless.
Kurt Cobain has been called a genius in the years since his demise for the way he wrote songs and lyrics and the way he sang to exhort the maximum amount of emotion from each track. To me, that really is overdoing it and making his work more than it actually is. Kurt Cobain was obviously a person who had trouble dealing with a lot of things in his life, but most especially the fame that came with his band’s amazing popularity, and the things he had to deal with as a result of this explosion in fame. He suffered from depression, and as a result drug dependency. And he wrote about these things in his music. And his music and words, on this album and the only other two albums the band produced, is amazing and ground breaking and iconic. Whether that makes him a genius or someone to be pitied is a completely different conversation.

462. Iron Maiden / Hallowed Be Thy Name [Live] [Single]. 1993. 5/5

Released off the back of A Real Dead One, this features four live tracks from that tour. When buying singles these days, I will usually only purchase them if they have additional tracks (formerly B-side tracks) that have not been released. The three here are fare that we have all heard a billion times before – “The Trooper”, “Wasted Years” and “Wrathchild” – but damn if they still don’t just sound brilliant in the live environment. A good mix with the crowd getting involved as well.

Rating: Still sound great after all these years. 5/5

420. Gamma Ray / Future Madhouse [EP]. 1993 3.5/5

Three song EP, containing the single “Future Madhouse”, the self-titled and extended version of “Gamma Ray”, and an interesting demo version of “Dream Healer”, the original of which appeared on Sigh No More.

Rating: Not terribly exciting. 3.5/5

290. Scorpions / Face The Heat. 1993. 3/5.

Climbing out of the growing commercial success the band had enjoyed through the mid-1980's, Scorpions had gone one better with their first album of the new decade, 1990’s “Crazy World” which in particular had spawned the single “Wind of Change” that had topped the charts globally and brought them to the attention of a new fan base who would barely have known that they existed before that time. The Scorpions ballad, of which there were generally one or two produced on most albums during that decade, had finally worked, with the political motivations of the track combining with the sweet melodies to create a monster hit. The world tour to support the album was huge (though once again failed to appear on Australian shores), and at its conclusion the band must have felt that it was riding a tidal wave that was never going to stop.
Following the tour, long time bass guitarist Francis Buchholz left the band, meaning for the first time in 12 years a new member would come on board. For the album, the band hired Ralph Rieckermann to join the band for the recording.
In many ways you would expect the album following this success should have been one that had a lot of credits, and despite the pressure of following a successful release would be one where the band was confident in what they would produce. But 1993 was a different world musically than 1990, and such were the musical changes that were still in progress, a band of Scorpions style and genre were the ones who were under the most pressure to conform or change completely in order to move with the times.
To help produce their follow up, the band brought in the renown Bruce Fairbairn, whose fingers had been all over the successful late 1980’s charge of Bon Jovi’s “Slippery When Wet” and “New Jersey”, along with Aerosmith’s return to form with “Pump” and AC/DC’s “The Razor’s Edge”, just to name a few. His modus operandi was to make sure that the hard rock songs were hard rock, and the ballads were radio friendly, two things that 1993 was not particularly in favour of. It immediately gave the album a sense of going against the current, and perhaps looking to produce something that was not what their contemporaries were looking to create at that time. But then, Scorpions as a band had always marched to the beat of their own drum, and this was just another example of that occurring.

This album has divided fans and critics since its release, and I’ve never really understood if it is just because of the difference in the music on this album and the music the world had flooded to over the previous two years, or if the subtle change in Scorpions style here is what they are reacting to. In either case you can make a case for either depending on whether or not you enjoy the album yourself.
The opening tracks are at a slower tempo than you expect most Scorpions great songs come at, but they are no less effective, and they are certainly on the heavy side of the register. The opening track “Alien Nation” is a beauty, a slow crunching monster that creeps up on you the more you listen to it. On first reflections it seems like a strange way to start the album, but it ends up being quite effective by giving the album a powerful base with that heavy sound that the band doesn’t always utilise enough. The second track “No Pain No Gain” follows along the same path, with another great mutual riff from Rudolph Schenker and Matthias Jabs and a punchy chorus and bridge to sing along to. Then we have the first perfect Scorpions sounding track, “Someone to Touch”, with a more melodic guitar sound punctuated with Klaus Meine’s perfect vocal lines. This could have come from any album of the band’s golden era and is still a terrific track today. The opening three songs to this album signify a defining moment for the band, in that they are not only sticking to their guns in regards to their songwriting, but actually moving it up a notch to set themselves apart from their contemporaries.
The first of three definable ballads comes next. “Under the Same Sun” is typical of the Scorpions motions of this genre, and while they are habitually more enjoyable than the ballads of other rock bands, that doesn’t make it any less cumbersome when it comes to halting the momentum the album had built up to this point of the track list. “Unholy Alliance” moves in the same circles of the opening two tracks with a heavier feel and slower tempo, but still with the anthemic vocals especially through the chorus. “Woman” on the other hand is difficult to love. A slower paced, blues-based ballad that probably does all the right things for such a track to be enjoyable but is an acquired taste. It doesn’t grab me. “Hate to Be Nice”, “Taxman Woman” and “Ship of Fools” all travel down that line of great solid Scorpions tracks with lots of energy from Klaus’s vocals, Mathias’s awesome soloing and Rudolph’s terrific riffing. They are all easy to sing along to and come at a pace with solid core drumming from Herman Rarebell that have you tapping away in time as well. Then we have “Nightmare Avenue”, a terrific song that goes up a level again, arguably the heaviest song on the album, and extremely enjoyable.
Then we come to the closing track of the album, the third and final ballad on “Face the Heat”. Now we know Scorpions have a habit of closing out their albums with the ballad, allowing Klaus’s vocals to soar over the quiet harmonies and take everyone’s breath away. But once again, for me, it just depreciates everything that has come before it. It doesn’t surprise me that they have done it, because they do it so often, but they could have left this song off, and the album would have finished perfectly well. Indeed, if it was me, I would have none of those three ballads on this album and I think it would have been better because of it. It is performed amazingly well, like all their ballads are. But it’s no “Still Loving You” or “Holiday” or “Send Me an Angel”. If it was, I wouldn’t be so disappointed. It’s OK but for me makes the end of the album much less good than the rest of the album.

It was a number of years after “Face the Heat” was released that I first heard the album. Several reasons contributed to this, but certainly lack of disposable income had started to mean that I had to pick and choose what albums I could buy at the time, and what I had to forego. So it wasn’t until over a decade later that I actually listened to the album for the first time, and at that time I was suddenly inundated with so many albums that I had never heard that it got lost in the deluge. I listened to it a few times, and then it got lost in the avalanche of other albums. So much so that it really wasn’t until a couple of months ago that I actually sat down and gave this album the time it was due.
What did I discover? Well let’s check the list. I certainly missed something at the time that the album was released, that seems a certainty. Firstly, given the other music I was listening to around this time, I think this album would have slotted in very nicely. Secondly, the heavier songs here, such as “Alien Nation”, “No Pain No Gain” and “Nightmare Avenue” are particularly excellent, and are a step up in that grade when it comes to Scorpions tracks. Thirdly, the three ballads, which were probably the highest held songs by most fans on this album’s release, for me just hold the album back from what it could have been.
We all know what was dominating music at the time this came out in 1993, and it isn’t what was on this album. The band’s major writing duo of Meine and Schenker, had a different vision for what they wanted this album to be that what much of the rest of the world was doing, and I admire that immensely. In the US and other territories, it was grunge and alternative that was sweeping the music scene, while in Europe the growing influence of power metal and rock was amping up. Here, Scorpions went in their own directions under their own power, and the album stands alone as a result. Does that make it a brilliant album? Not necessarily. Does it make it an average album? Same answer. It makes it a Scorpions album, with the Scorpions sound basically unaltered, and tweaked ever so slightly here and there to add to the ambiance of the album. Overall despite a couple of reservations, I think this is a terrific album, and one I am sorry I didn’t have 30 years ago. At least, the great thing about music is, I can enjoy it now for the same reasons.

169. Helloween / Chameleon. 1993. 1/5.

Given the lukewarm response that was garnered from the previous album, one could only hope that the follow up would have learned from those criticisms, and returned Helloween to the path that they had once trodden. Remarkably... that wasn't the case. In fact, it was as far away from doing this as you could imagine. It is indeed a fact that Chameleon has become the benchmark for having done a complete 180 degrees in music genre in just three albums (well, tied with Metallica I guess). Almost everything that made this band a super power in the European metal family has been eradicated from this album, and the response to this was a tremendous thumbs down from most quarters and most fans at the time.

For years, Michael Kiske has been the fall guy for this release, and while it is fair that a certain amount of the blame should be levelled in his direction, it cannot be a total whitewash of the remainder of the band. Miki did not write all of the songs, and all five members had to perform them. It was an easy target to throw the mud in Miki's direction during the late 1990's, after his dismissal from the band, and his following remarks that he was tired of the heavy metal genre and felt no desire to ever return to it. Anyone who has then checked out his first solo album after this, Instant Clarity, will see that he indeed did mean this and followed through with it. *shudder*
The album actually opens with a positive feeling, with Michael Weikath's "First Time" at least of an upbeat tempo and a sing-along chorus that puts out the right vibe to the listener along with a reasonable solo break within. "When the Sinner" follows this, and is the first to have horns utilised within the song. I mean seriously - horns, in what could best be described as a pop rock song at best. Miki sings through several effects as well, and the piano tickles along as well. This was the first real wake up call to the album, that something just wasn't quite right about how this was progressing. The fact that this is written by Miki makes it even more troubling.
Roland Grapow's "I Don't Wanna Cry No More" is dedicated to his brother, and that's all fine and good. But it is a very melancholic and sombre toned song that doesn't really draw any real emotional response either musically or lyrically. A terribly drab and uninspired ballad that doesn't fit with the history of this band at all. This is then followed by his "Crazy Cat", which while it moves along at a faster clip again just has that cabaret feel again, with the horns playing a major role again. Why? It signals a major shift in focus for the band as a whole, which is scary given the fans that had been garnered through previous releases.
A Weikath triple makes up the middle of the album, and certainly is the best proof that the direction of this album was not solely helmed by one person in the band. "Giants" probably tries to mirror previous triumphs, though in a much watered down fashion. As a much more guitar based riff song, with the rhythm of bass and drums prominently positioned, it brings some enthusiasm back to the fold. This is not to last long, as this is followed by the appalling "Windmill", which is a far cry from "A Tale That Wasn't Right" from the first Keeper album. It is a dreadfully awful, almost vomit inducing ballad of the worst order. Yes, much worse than the previous ballad on the album. Drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg famously called it "Shitmill" during the tour for this album, which apart from evoking from me great laughter whenever I think of it can only make you wonder just how this album came together in the studio. "Revolution Now" is another song of incredibly strange format, mixing as it does lyrics from 60's based pop rock songs and the same kind of chords as well. No doubt it is a homage, but really this is B-side material, not A-grade stuff.
"In the Night" is another Kiske acoustic based power ballad which has little to redeem itself with. Though, it must be said that perhaps at least it isn't Roland's "Music", which seems to want to be one long freeform 1970's instrumental live piece, apart from the horns (again!) and Miki's vocals coming in through intermittent times. Honestly, this is seven minutes of slow paced wank. "Step Out of Hell" is an improvement, but perhaps only because to go backwards would have been dire.
That piece de resistance is taken by the final two songs on the album, both of Kiske's writing basket. "I Believe" is a long winded, long whining power ballad that can draw comparisons with those other dreadful adaptations that have come earlier in the album. This is probably topped off by "Longing", a true ballad in the worst possible way, that completely destroys the completion of what is already a really drab, terrible album.

Chameleon was an album that created a massive backlash. Michael Kiske and Ingo Schwichtenberg were fired from the band following the tour of this album, for completely different reasons. Whilst Kiske has found a way back to metal fame in recent years through his guest appearances with Gamma Ray and Masterplan and Avantasia, and then through his Unisonic project, Ingo's sad suicide was not the demise his wonderful craft deserved. I wrote off Helloween following this album, and as a result missed the release of their next two albums, which I didn't discover until 1997. On hearing them for the first time, I could only surmise that the band had final learned the lessons from both this album and their previous release, and realised where there fan base was at, and what they wanted to hear. If this is the case, then the tragic disappointment of this album was not in vain.

Rating:   "I can see you standing there, you know you're worth the try".   1/5