1349. Halford / Live Insurrection. 2001. 4/5

For a decade, Rob Halford had fought to keep himself relevant in a world that continued to find ways to reinvent itself through the music of the 1990’s decade. Having moved on from Judas Priest when the band was at arguably its highest peak, and all through confusion and misinformation, Halford had meddled with different styles and formats in his own musical direction. As the music of the decade began its formative and chameleonic morphing, so too Rob made his way through projects such as Fight and 2wo, a journey that saw him go through some of his own personal challenges along the way. Eventually he arrived at the dawn of the new century, and with the help of another group of musicians, including the influential Roy Z, he produced an album that brought him back to the fanbase that he had curated from his Judas Priest days with “Resurrection”, an album which you can hear all about on episode 104 of this podcast. It was the album that truly brought him back to international recognition and saw his profile back on the rise once again.
To promote the album, Halford and his band went out on the road on a tour that included Queensryche, both in support to Iron Maiden, who were touring on their reformed line up that included Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith on the back of their comeback’ album “Brave New World”. It was a big stage to be a part of, a tour that saw huge numbers flocking to see the return of Iron Maiden, but also the return of Halford. No doubt to continue riding this wave into the shore, the decision was made to record some shows and release them as a live album. As it turned out, they did far more than that. They ended up producing a double album that showcased the majority of the band’s new album, some of Fight’s best material, some great Judas Priest classics and some new studio material that included some old Priest that had never been released. It was an ambitious release, one that befit the newly reinstalled position that Rob Halford found himself in. Was it also firing a shot across the bow of his previous band, who at the time was struggling to stay relevant? Maybe yes, maybe no. All we did know at the time was that, for those of us who did not get to see the tour live, this was our chance to see if Halford could still pull off his material live like he did in the studio. And that was one of the winning factors that came our way with the release of “Live Insurrection”.

Those of you who are familiar with the Judas Priest live album “Unleashed in the East” will be aware that it has had many question marks about it over the years, involving just how much of the album is from an actual live performance and how much was re-edited and re-recorded in the studio. As an album it doesn’t affect just how amazing and influential it has been, but the fact that it is not all completely lifted from a live performance of the band does tend to annoy certain parts of the fandom. And I get that. There is cause to confront similar accusations for part of this live album as well. In particular it can be referred to the track “The One You Love to Hate”, the song on the album “Resurrection” that had Iron Maiden’s newly instituted lead singer Bruce Dickinson as dual lead vocals. The live version that appears on this album is a hybrid, it combines the live version of the song as played by Halford live on a night in London with the soundchecks of both Rob and Bruce earlier in the evening. Sure, it sounds great, but it isn’t organic it is a meshing of two or three different moments, and it makes you wonder – was it necessary? Couldn’t we just have had the version that Rob sang each night WITHOUT Bruce? That is the reality, that’s what we want from a live album. If Bruce had gotten on stage with him to sing it one night – which he did, there are bootlegs out there of him and Geoff Tate doing it – and they’d recorded it, then okay. But I think as fans we would all have been just as happy having Rob sing it himself.
Then there comes four other tracks, all of which are for all intents and purposes studio tracks that have had live crowd sounds added to them to make them sound as if they are being performed live on stage. “Light Comes Out of Black” was a song that was from the ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ movie soundtrack in 1992, on which the music was played by Pantera and had Halford as guest vocalist. “Life in Black” is a song from Rob’s Fight days from the “War of Words” album, and “Hell’s Last Survivor” and “Sad Wings” are the Japanese bonus tracks from the “Resurrection” album. None of these four songs are listed on any set lists from this tour. Indeed, only “Light Comes Out of Black” is listed as ever having been played live by Halford, on the “Crucible” tour in Anaheim on two nights. But that’s it. So again, we are left with the question, why? Why add these songs to this album in this way? Because there are three songs at the end of the double live album which are simply studio tracks, in the same way Kiss did with “Alive II”. “Screaming in the Dark” is a leftover Halford song, while both “Prisoner of Your Eyes” and “Heart of a Lion” are leftover Judas Priest tracks. Are they all good songs? Sure! Do they sound great? Yes! But why put them on this album in this way. Was it necessary to have a double live album? Could it not just have been a single album? Or a live album and a studio bonus? It is all a bit of a mystery.
But hey, let’s try and get out of the negative here and talk about what is great about this live album. Because, overall, it sounds fabulous. And the remainder of the songs come from the variety that was available at that time. Seven of the songs come from the debut album, and all sound wonderful. The opening of “Resurrection” and “Made in Hell” hits just as hard as it does on that album. “Slow Down” is given a great powerful live blast, with Halford adjusting his vocals as necessary to do it justice without blowing out his voice. I have already mentioned “The One You Love to Hate” (which sounds great despite my problems with its addition), while “Saviour” rallies the battle cry that it deserves, and “Silent Screams” offers its wonderful mix of slow moody into metal anthem perfectly in the live setting. “Cyberworld” opens the second disc in scintillating fashion to conclude the new tracks showcased here.
Rob then rejuvenates the very best of his Fight project with three awesome tracks that light up the album – the brilliant “Into the Pit”, “Nailed to the Gun” and the aforementioned “Life in Black”. Then we have the classic Judas Priest songs that Halford and his band have chosen to scatter amongst their set list, and it's a who’s-who of greatness. Let’s tick them off - “Stained Class”, “Jawbreaker”, “Running Wild”, “The Hellion-Electric Eye”, “Riding on the Wind”, “Genocide”, “Beyond the Realms of Death”, “Metal Gods”, “Breaking the Law” and “Tyrant”. Far out, that’s a concert in itself! And Rob and the band perform them with the glory they deserve, and perhaps just another little nudge to his former band to suggest that maybe there was still life in the old dog just yet.

Following Rob Halford after his split with Judas Priest was a given really, probably even more so because Priest themselves didn’t really get going again for seven years after the “Painkiller” album, whereas Rob was out there with Fight and even toured Australia a couple of times with them. When he too climbed aboard the Roy Z bandwagon and released his album with the Halford band, it was a revelation. And something that was welcome. The hope was that he would tour Australia but that was probably wishful thinking all round, but when this live album was released, it was a reasonable substitute.
I realise I have gone down a bit of a rabbit hole with this review, but to me they were pertinent points to bring up. When it comes to this podcast the more information I can offer in an enjoyable way makes for a more interesting episode, which I think this provides. You have the breaking down and hard line review of the album in the preceding sector. And there are parallels between this album and Priest’s live albums of their past. However, much like those Priest live albums, I adore this album. What I know to be real and what I know to be doctored merges for me in a listening experience that continues to bring me nothing but joy. Yeah yeah, those certain songs have their unreality elements about them, but when I just sit down and put this album on my stereo, everything about it sounds wonderfully awesome. And I come back to something that is becoming a more regular response on episodes about albums like this. That no matter what the circumstances, if an album brings you joy, then it doesn’t matter if it has been altered, even slightly. And in this respect, I am not including the recent trend of AI inspired or produced albums, because they aren’t ‘real’, they are based on nothing but computers playing god. Some of the tracks here may not be live as such, with the crowd added in to give it the same atmosphere as the other songs, but the album to sit down and listen to is brilliant. Musicians played their instruments to create this album, even if editing may have enhanced them.
It was an interesting time in metal. Bruce and Adrian had returned to Iron Maiden, and the band was back on top of the world. Many felt at the time, with the success Rob was having, that it was only a matter of time before Judas Priest pulled a similar trick. The fact that it took so much longer to come after 2001 allowed us to have one further chapter in the album trade off between Priest and Halford, the success (or lack thereof) for both perhaps finally bringing the scales back in order. But that is a story for another episode.

1335. Primal Fear / Nuclear Fire. 2001. 4/5

Following their sophomore album “Jaws of Death”, released in 1999, Primal Fear had come to solidify their position in the power metal sphere of the metal genre, when the genre was beginning to explode globally. And yet Primal Fear was still very much of their own version of that genre, their music rooted in the traditions of Judas Priest, along with Accept, Helloween and the German heavy metal lineage. After forming around the trio of lead vocalist Ralf Scheepers, bass guitarist Matt Sinner and guitarist Tom Naumann, the band’s first two albums were solid entries into the European metal scene of the late 1990’s without providing a significant impact, or perhaps more importantly exuding a unique style that all bands are looking to find. Despite the excellence of the band members themselves, they were to this point in time better known as having the former lead singer of Gamma Ray, and that first album having had Kai Hansen guest of three tracks.
After the album had been completed, Naumann had been force to quit the band due to ill health. During the tour through Europe, Brazil and Japan he was replaced by Alex Beyrodt for the live shows. In January 2000, Henny Wolter joined the band as a permanent replacement on guitar.
Moving into their third album, the band needed to find a way to bring about their own individuality, to stamp their own style onto their music while utilising the best style that they possessed. The first two albums had a drum style that was solid yet not distinctive, a great vocalist who had proven himself in other bands prior to Primal Fear being incorporated, and music that differed from the style that most power metal bands from Europe utilised by being a guitar driven band rather than a keys and synth driven band. What Primal Fear needed to work out was what worked best for them, what they wanted to bring in to have them make their own mark in their music. And it is fair to say that with “Nuclear Fire” they managed to unlock the key that was to give them the impetus they needed as they moved into the new millennium. It represents a crystallization of their identity: a fusion of excellent guitar riffing, unlocking the true soaring vocals of Scheepers, mixed with the commitment to the classic heavy metal ethos. While their first two albums established Primal Fear as heirs to the German metal throne, “Nuclear Fire” is where they truly stepped into their own embodiment.

The album opens with a blast of speed and precision. “Angel in Black” is a mission statement: fast, melodic, and driven by a chorus that sticks instantly. The twin‑guitar harmonies of Stefan Leibing and Henny Wolter set the album in motion, but it is perhaps Scheepers’ soaring scream and following vocals that set the tone for the entire record. The fast tempo is exactly where the album needs to be, and it leads of in wonderful style. It is one of the band’s most iconic openers and remains a live staple. This is followed by “Kiss of Death”, a darker, more dramatic track which showcases Primal Fear’s ability to blend atmosphere with power. The chorus is expressive, and the song’s pacing gives Scheepers room to explore his dynamic range. The guitar solos combine a wonderful melodic quality that is pushed along by the rhythm of Sinner’s bass and Klaus Sperling’s drums. “Back from Hell” brings in Scheepers’s best Rob Halford channelled vocal screams, and mirrors the great speed metal tracks of the 1980’s with its incredible speed driven by the double kick and double time riffing guitars. The injection of adrenaline from the opening stanza combines with the mood and greats of the genre. There is barely a chance to draw breath throughout, and it is this kind of track that Primal Fear surely looked to build their reputation on. The opening three tracks on this album have already set the platform for where the band wanted to take their sound, and it is a fist shakingly fantastic stand to take. The guitaring in particular is brutal and brilliant.
After the breath stealing opening to the album, “Now or Never” pulls itself back into a more melodic and mid‑tempo anthem. The chugging guitar riff keeps the heaviness of the track prevalent and balances the change in tempo without making it feel as though the integrity of the album has collapsed. The chorus is perfectly performed by Ralf, and the melodic dual guitars of the middle of the song, combined with their solo pieces, creates another piece of this excellent metal puzzle. “Fight the Fire” crashes back into the powerful and aggressive drum and guitar combination, a fast and fiery track with a ripping guitar riff and powerful chorus that acts as the centrepiece to the song. Primal Fear have made a career out of producing this kind of blueprinted track from this album onwards, and this remains one of their best in that respect, with that rhythm setting up the song and Ralf’s duelled vocals pitching it over the top.
On the back of this comes “Eye of an Eagle”, which again moves back to a mid-tempo driven by Scheepers and his power mid-to-high range vocal being the basis of the song, drawn along by the hard core guitar riff and matching guitar solo break from the two guitarists. The solid normal tempo hard hitting drum beat backed by Sinner’s powerful bassline make this a truly interesting comparison track alongside the faster scintillating efforts that precede it. Scheepers and his multi layered vocals give it a chanting feel along the way.
“Bleed for Me” acts as the drawn back change up track for the album, channelling the power metal ballad in its characteristic slower pace and clear guitared section to match Ralf’s soaring vocal that would portray the style – and yet it avoids true comparison to that style of track because of the band’s refusal to allow it to descend to that depth. Ralf’ amazing vocal holds firm in not trending to ballad status, and the music behind them also does not sell out to that quality. As a song that looks to act as a counterpoint to the rest of the material on the album, without going so far as to be something it is not, “Bleed for Me” is a highly effective. It is followed by the title track “Nuclear Fire”, one that lives up to its title. It returns the album to its heavy, fast, and packed with energy best. The chorus is explosive, and the song encapsulates the album’s musical themes of intensity, raw speed and thunderous guitars. The melodic combination through the middle of the song is pure Helloween and Gamma Ray, and it continues to deliver what the album has professed that it is. Then comes the excellent opening riffing of “Red Rain”, banging into the hard-hitting rhythm and Ralf’s melodically dualled vocals again taking centre stage. “Fire on the Horizon” hits along the template that the band has crested for itself on this album, the fast start driven by the drums and bass, the entry of Ralf’s amazing vocals and then riffing of the guitars, which go into overdrive during their solo exhibitions. It’s another beauty. This then leads into the closing track, the unapologetically cheesy “Living for Metal”, the song that celebrates exactly where the band has come from, and the style and sound that brought them together. The lyrics speak to what the band believe in, and in a way that becomes the power metal anthem that gives the band it final flourish. It was the first, but certainly not the last, of this kind of track that Primal Fear would offer us along their journey.

My introduction to Primal Fear was in fact this album, which came from the discovery that initial Gamma Ray vocalist Ralf Scheepers was a part of the band. I loved Ralf’s vocals on the first two Gamma Ray albums – not so much the third, but that is a story for another day – and I was excited to discover what he was doing in a new band. What I discovered was something that I thought was outrageously good. Not just Ralf, but the band and music as well. It was in fact very close to what I truly wanted from my power metal music – the bright guitars, the fast paced music, the hammering double kick timing that wasn’t overloaded, and great vocals to match it all. That is what Primal Fear offered to me on my first impressions with “Nuclear Fire”. And I was dragged in from the outset.
What they also did was not blunt their fire and energy with a characteristic power metal ballad or two, which is pretty much the order of the day if you are a power metal band. The one song that changes up the focus of the album, “Bleed for Me”, retains its metal focus and does not descend to the depths that a majority of these types of tracks often do. And for me that was the clincher.
Power metal is not for everyone, and even in this instance, many prefer the guitar duelling with the brazen keyboardist and synths to bring that melodic feel to the music. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy that too, especially when those bands allow the dual to occur just like the best music in Deep Purple did with Blackmore and Lord. But here, banking on the two guitars like traditional pure heavy metal does, Primal Fear are able to draw in fans of both styles because of the way they construct their songs with their lineup. And for me at least, that is a winner. The burgeoning writing combination of Ralf Scheepers and Matt Sinner is important, and the dual guitars from Leibing and Wolter is spectacular are pleasingly spectacular, along with the excellent drumming from Sperling.
I have had this album back in my CD player again for the past week, and it has been just as enjoyable as it always is. As it was my entry point to the band, it will always hold a special place in my memory. But it is the enjoyment of the pace of the music, those guitars and Ralf’s massive vocal entry that keeps me coming back.
This was the start of a string of albums from the band that brought them to prominence in the heavy metal community. It stands as the first, as the album that saw the band discover the style that was their own, that became that template of Primal Fear. And 25 years on it still stands the test of time in that regard.

1128. System of a Down / Toxicity. 2001. 4/5

It’s hard to take in sometimes that System of a Down was first formed way back in 1994, generally before all the changes that happened to heavy metal and alternative music had really taken shape. But it didn’t take them long to find their feet and their standing in the music world, and with a style that was very much their own. After releasing their eponymous first album in 1998, the band comprising Serj Tankian on vocals, Daron Malakian on guitars, Shavo Odadjian on bass and John Dolmayan on drums moved back into the studio to produce their follow up, titled Toxicity. Also returning to produce the album was Rick Rubin, which only augured well for the final product.

Without a doubt, Toxicity is one of the most significant albums to come out since the turn of the century, and for many teenagers in particular at the time it was a defining album . And there are plenty of reasons for that. The album comes with riffs and lots of them, they're loud, they've got cool rhythm patterns (very much an underrated aspect of SOAD), the songs contain abstract and 'intellectual' lyrics, shouted vocals and more. It was one of those albums where you would allow people to try and attack you for being a fan of the band because the music was so different and out there, and that they obviously just ranted on about abstract things – and then you could have the sheer joy of actually telling these people what it was that the lyrics were talking about, and well and truly take the moral and intellectual high ground.
Toxicity copped a fair barrage on its release, especially as it occurred just a week before the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US. The heavily politically motivated lyrics on several songs caused a stir, and this then led to several songs being banned from their airwaves, in particular “Chop Suey” whose lyric of “I cry when angels deserve to die” was taken somewhat out of context during the hysteria following those attacks – even though the song and album were recorded and released well before the actual events. This didn’t stop the song being nominated for awards or selling huge numbers of copies as a single release.
After the attack, Tankian published an essay exploring 9/11’s fallout from multiple angles. “If we carry out bombings on Afghanistan or elsewhere to appease public demand, and very likely kill innocent civilians along the way, we’d be creating many more martyrs going to their deaths in retaliation against the retaliation,” he wrote. “As shown from yesterday’s events, you cannot stop a person who’s ready to die.” Given recent events in Afghanistan, he was shown to be bang on.

Describing this album's musical content isn't easy. What you have here with Toxicity is an alternative album that transcends genre labels and many musical conventions, tying in an amazing range of genres with an incredibly diverse array of (generally) short tracks. There's thrash metal, hardcore punk, Greek and Middle Eastern music, folk, jazz, progressive rock, nu metal, art rock, and probably a dozen others in the mix. Listing here the bands that SOAD have at different times cited as their musical influences would take longer than these podcast episodes usually come out to. It all feels like the ingredients to a primordial soup, but this album sounds surprisingly fresh, creative and original even 20 years after its release by an alt-metal band. It is certainly no sophomore slump. The songs are generally pretty short and rock hard at high tempos, which can be a blessing and a curse; the fast tempo helps them fit in uncommon time signatures and gives them flexibility in structure, but this also becomes somewhat predictable and uniform as the album goes on, and many songs sound underdeveloped because of how short they are. One aspect of this album that I'm not sure many people talk about is how progressive it is, and this is probably one of the few albums that could be called both progressive metal and hardcore punk. In these short songs, the band fits in various structures and completely ignores the concept of a normal song structure. Even on the lead hit “Chop Suey!”, the band fits in various, diverse segments and abandons any transitions, but it works really, really well. The melody and catchiness also really helps, but it's an oddball song that somehow still became their biggest hit. And, even though the songs are structurally similar, they don't sound much like each other. There isn't one song here that you would think, "gee this sounds just like the last one".

Even for music in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, given all of the ways heavy metal had evolved and broken off and formed new extensions of themselves, this was DIFFERENT. This was frantic yet serene. It was angry yet intellectual. It was madness wrapped in a cocoon of sanity. It was strictly formed lyrical and musical tomes smashed by a sledgehammer and thrown at you from a distance of ten paces. Noting about it actually seemed to fit together, and yet it made perfect sense. It was never designed to be sat down and listened to in your armchair with a nice hot cup of tea, though 20 years on their would be youth of that generation who now do exactly that.
It’s possible I may never have truly discovered this album if I wasn’t involved with younger people at the time of its release through the cricket club I played in. The album first came to me from one of my best friends on one of his sojourns down from the big city, and I was pressed to listen to it more by the youngsters I then played cricket with on weekends. I didn’t take much convincing. Everything about it was a part of what I had listened to in music for 15 years or more before its release, it’s just that I didn’t always get all of that on one album, or in this case in a 30 second period of each song on the album.

Is it a surprise that five albums came about really quickly... and then the band went on a hiatus that has produced almost zero new music since? No, probably not, and that isn’t always a bad thing. Some things are hard to both reproduce and also to follow up. Toxicity is a product of its time, tied to it by the fact that it reflects so many different styles of music in one 14 song album that all more or less came into being in that same era. Everyone hopes for a new album from the band, much like they did after the same hiatus periods taken by bands like Faith No More and Soundgarden, and yet when they returned with new albums so many years after their previous ones, there was the general feeling of disappointment.

20 years on, Toxicity still brings out the same feelings of joy and amazement that it did on its release, and for an album like that, that is quite an achievement.

1119. W.A.S.P. / Unholy Terror. 2001. 4/5

The band W.A.S.P. had had a lot of ups and downs in the decade leading up to the recording of this album. Band founder Blackie Lawless remained the only original member to survive throughout the 1990’s, with lead guitarist and hero to the masses Chris Holmes having first left the band after the tour to promote “The Headless Children” album, though he did then return to the band in 1995 following advances from Blackie to do so. This led to two controversial albums being recorded with the dynamic duo intact in “K.F.D”. and “Helldorado”. Both were albums with a completely different focus musically and lyrically, with “K.F.D.” having a very serious and hardline core about it, focusing on a more serious nature and a more dour approach to the music and lyrics, while “Helldorado” had been a return to the early W.A.S.P. form with fun-loving sexual innuendo lyrics mixed with high tempo fast paced hard rocking tracks. In many fans eyes and also those of the critics, the band had managed to go from one extreme to the other, and perhaps in both cases finding a middle ground would have been the preferable option.
Then followed a period of two years between 1999 and 2001 where this particular album was being formulated, composed and then recorded. In Blackie’s own words, this turned out to be a painful process, something that he proclaims most writing periods are for him, but this one had been particularly difficult. The fact that he had taken on the role as sole composer of the songs probably didn’t help this, but this mirrored the way he was taking the band as a whole at this time.
In the liner notes of the album, Blackie goes into detail on what he was thinking during the writing and recording of this album, and a lot of it lines up with the direction he was heading both spiritually and in his life and career. Having been brought up in a strict religious environment as a child, he had more or less shrugged that off in his adulthood – but here he appears to be in conflict with his beliefs, and this time and album appears to be where he was tipping back towards becoming the born again Christian he eventually became. It isn’t as if the whole album is composed with that direction in mind, but lyrically Blackie seems to be struggling with the concept. He does write in those liner notes that there was much of his upbringing that he was uncomfortable with, in the main the idea that good always triumphed over evil. This rings true in songs that appear on this album such as “Unholy Terror” and “Charisma”, which deal with the madmen of the past two thousand years, and “Locomotive Man” which is about the gunmen who go into schools and start shooting innocent victims, Blackie’s belief it is all being about their need to be seen and to gain attention to themselves. The senselessness of these things is what is explored in these songs, and Blackie seems to be searching for answers, ones that theoretically he returned to religion to find.
Where there is conjecture on this album is over the contribution of long time W.A.S.P. guitaring legend Chris Holmes himself. Holmes himself still insists to this day that he didn't play one note on the album, despite being listed on the liner notes. And listening to the album, this is quite obvious. Because the songs lack his presence to lift this above the standard that it is at. There are no memorable solos or slick licks like you expect from these kinds of songs when Chris is a part of them.
This then became the next chapter of the W.A.S.P. story, the rollercoaster of emotion and style of music that had come to pass over the previous three albums, and would once again make its chameleonic shedding of the skin apparent here. Although the non-appearance of Chris Holmes was a downer, it didn’t and doesn’t detract from the anticipation that was felt with the arrival of this new offering, titled “Unholy Terror”.

Beyond the deepening thoughts that Blackie delved into to create the material for this album, the songs themselves stand up well, and any fan of W.A.S.P.’s work will find plenty here to enjoy. Apart from a couple of exceptions, the tracks are the high-octane hard rock that W.A.S.P. built its reputation on, uncompromising and fast and furious through to the conclusion. Blackie again handles vocals and guitar duties throughout, Mike Duda returns on bass guitar and supporting vocals, while Frankie Banali and Stet Howland again share drumming duties on different songs throughout the album. As always, Stet’s double kick is prominent and a redeeming feature in the songs he was asked to perform on.
The opening of “Let it Roar” is indeed prophetic in its title, the rollicking guitar riff and hard hitting entry of the drums, followed by Blackie’s vocals entering the arena, that familiar cry that was always so prominent on the early W.A.S.P. albums. Lyrically it is another perfect singalong song led by Blackie’s anthemically present vocals. It is notieceable though that the whole middle of the song, where ideally you would be hit in the face by a Chris Holmes wailingly brilliant solo, is left to fend for itself in a solid rhythm pattern instead, which works fine, but showcases an opportunity not taken. It’s a great opening track. This is followed by the rip and tear aggression of “Hate to Love Me”, another great example of this album taking in the past but creating a modern take on the W.A.S.P formula. Blackie just charges along here on lead vocal, driven by Frankie Banali’s wonderful drumming and the great bass line from Mike Duda. Blackie unleashes a suitable solo through the middle of the track before crashing back into the heart of the song. Another great chorus that you can't help but walk around and sing while wandering through the office of the workplace, waiting for the inevitable reaction. Another great song to start off the album, which fades out to be replaced immediately by the opening riff of “Locomotive Man”, building through the first minute and increasing in power to the opening verse. Blackie takes over from here, also building in intensity in his lyrics in the power of his voice. This is a powerful song musically and lyrically, as Blackie explores the evil of the mass murderer. Great, amazing lyrics such as “I feel the rage that brings, the fame of that I need, I’m now a face forever more, Living with the fears, that hear those fantasies in me, Come and see sadness you never saw. No love for killer babies, my pain is written on your walls, oh it’s time I leave you now, Mama look what you made me, Your locomotive killer calls, Oh I know you hear me now”. Stepping inside the mind of the lunatics who have created school mass murders, Blackie is looking for the light but only seeing the dark. It’s a brilliant song, one of the best the band has produced in the second half of its career. Here again though, given how wonderful these three opening songs are, the lack of Chris Holmes’s guitar comes through. The songs remain terrific, but they miss that signature that he was able to offer as a postscript.
The expression of the depths of Blackie’s internal conflict within his faith is explored further in the dual tracks of the title track “Unholy Terror” into “Charisma”. “Unholy Terror” is the first of the slow acoustically driven tracks that allows the emotional response of Blackie’s own questioning to rise to the surface, before the drive into the rhythmic blast of guitars and bass break into “Charisma”. This even toned base tempo track settles into its groove, that again allows Blackie here to pontificate his deepest thoughts. And the conflict is again hard core. When he comes at you with lyrics such as “I'm a liar blinding your vision, Vatican Man, reaching fear and using religion with the bible and koran, I wrap myself in the American Flag and tell people I'm for which it stands, I'm coming back till you know I'm God, Till you believe, till you know my Charisma”. The stoney tone and mood of the track helps to amplify the lyrics into the focus of the song.
Perhaps by now you need a pick-me-up, and “Who Slayed Baby Jane?” is just the song to do it! This is lyrically right back into the satirical blood-splatter horror tone of the band and Blackie’s lyrics. Don’t try and read too much into them here, its like watching B-Grade Horror, just sit there and go along for the ride. The guitar solos here on this track may also sound like they are in a better form than those earlier in the album, so it should be no real surprise that it is Roy Z, better known from Tribe of Gypsies and contributions to Bruce Dickinson and Rob Halford’s solo albums, that shreds away on this song. It adds a nice element to the song. The album then drops back into the 3.5 minute instrumental “Euphoria”, one that has a Sabbathy vibe about its composition (yes, take a listen, there is a little bit of “Planet Caravan” about it musically!). Once it has completed its tour of alternate musical places we crash back into “Raven Heart”, one where Blackie explores the dark side of perceived immortality, surrendering to the supernatural to explore escaping death. Lyrically this is more of Blackie’s spiritual exploration and attempt to find what it is he seeks. Musically it lifts the album back up again and fires up the momentum that the instrumental had paused. This though again is brought back to heel with “Evermore”, Blackie’s attempt to revisit past glories in his power ballad phase. Like the previous track there is a mystical aspect to the lyrics here, and by mixing it with the changing musical focus as he attempts to rekindle memories of songs such as “Sleeping in the Fire” and “Forever Free” it all comes together with a purpose.
Thankfully for all, this is rectified by the fantatsic closing track on the album, arguably the most upbeat musically of the opus. The barreling opening riff sets the song off, and Blackie’s lyrics focus back to olden times, of the band’s beginnings on the strip in LA, the excesses of drugs and alcohol and of those who were indulging them. “Wasted White Boys” is not a title used lightly in this respect. There is a feeling of this being a leftover or revisiting of the band’s previous album “Helldorado” which specialised in songs of this description and character and lyrical content. And on an album that has taken a far deeper and more serious look into what Lawless was feeling during the composing of this album, it feels like it is out of place. But perhaps that was all a part of Blackie’s makeup during this time. Maybe, during his retrospection on his own life and the conflict he had within him at that time, that a part of him just wanted to return to those carefree days of 1984, where this was what surrounded him and his band, and they just had a good old time. Perhaps that is the significance of this song placed here at the conclusion of this album. I don’t know for sure, it is just speculation. What ISN’T speculation is the brilliant Roy Z again coming on board, and shredding for what feels like the final 20 minutes of this song, just charging away and not giving a toss as to when the song is supposed to finish. In many ways, that’s the perfect way to end what has been a hard core album.

This album was the true maturing of W.A.S.P. the band, and Blackie’s changing persona was probably a huge part of that. But the band had been together for some time now, and the sound that they produced had been drummed into them like everything else about it. It was regimented, it has been formulated, and it works. Yes, there is a similarity of the music here to songs and albums of previous days, and in many ways with W.A.S.P. every album since “The Crimson Idol” seemed to retain a piece of that style of riff rhythm about it. But the music continues to be great. Aside from the Chris Holmes factor being missing, the rhythm guitars always do the job, while the bass and drums stick together like glue. Here in the studio, Blackie gets his vocals sounding perfect, the harmonies and melodies sound brilliant.
This album for me is highly underrated, because it is so difficult to compare it to the three previous releases. I felt that on this album, the balance was restored. “Still Not Black Enough” had overtones of “The Crimson Idol” about it, “K.F.D” went into overdrive in aggressiveness and in trying to create something of a completely different sound than the band had ever produced before, and “Helldorado” overcorrected that by bringing back the original sound and feel of the band, but also with the overcooked sexual innuendo of the lyrics. “Unholy Terror” balances all those elements nicely. The music is brilliant, the subject matter of the songs worthy and enjoyable. You could sing these songs without cringing at the over seriousness of the subject matter or shaking your head at the silliness of it. The opening three songs are killer W.A.S.P. songs - “Let it Roar” hot off the plate, “Hate to Love Me’ hard hitting and catchy, and “Loco-Motive Man” straight out of that late 80’s W.A.S.P brilliance, even without Chris Holmes. “Unholy Terror” is the first of the slow acoustic driven tracks, and the sister track “Charisma” works fine as the segue. “Who Slayed Baby Jane” is classic W.A.S.P, and “Ravenheart” is of a similar ilk, but is wedged between the quiet instrumental “Euphoria” and then “Evermore”, where it is obvious that Blackie is trying to recreate the next “Forever Free”, and the rampant closing track “Wasted White Boys” is a beauty, with Roy Z laying waste to the song with a ripping closing guitar solo.
I bought this album on its release date, still tremendously excited about the prospect of a new W.A.S.P album. I had been obsessed with the band in my university days, and each new album had been gold to me, despite the changing lineups and style of music Blackie was choosing to create for each album. This one struck a tone with me, comparable to the serious tone of “The Headless Children” compared to its earlier albums. When this album first came out, I just loved it. Apart from the songs “Unholy Terror”, “Euphoria” and probably “Evermore”, I loved the energy of what had been produced. I loved the way that the different parts of the band’s past had been tinkered and ironed and then brought out on this collection. Yes, the disappointment that Chris Holmes was gone from the band forever was overriding, but this album still sat in my CD player for that 3-4 months period that the good new albums did. As it turns out, even though I have enjoyed most of the albums the band has released after this, it was probably the last time I felt REALLY good about a new W.A.S.P. album.
Listening to it again now for the past two has been instructive. I may not listen to this album every year, but it is every two years at worst. And this week, as with most of the times I put it on, I was struck once again by how very very good it really is. It is an album that rarely gets its dues or is mentioned as a great W.A.S.P. album – the great podcast host Matt from Kansas City is one of the few who truly mentions this on a regular basis... hi Matt! - and yet it really does stick out as one of their best.
This may well have acted as a catalyst for the continued album releases that followed it. Indeed, the next album came within 12 months of this release, though its subject matter that referenced a disaster that hit home extremely hard for Blackie drove his black heart into overdrive. And we will of course cover that event in the not too distance future.

1044. Megadeth / The World Needs a Hero. 2001. 2.5/5

After the disaster that was Risk I wasn’t certain I was brave enough to expect much from the follow up. Even the news that Al Pitrelli had been brought on board to replace Marty Friedman filled me with great confidence despite his prowess. It’s a long way to come back from the depths the band fell to on the previous album, and to be able to recover that all in one hit would be some accomplishment.

Did it happen? The simple answer is no, it didn’t. But that’s not to say that an effort wasn’t made and that some of the ideas floated here aren’t good. It’s just that the album as a whole package has its flaws, and perhaps they are more noticeable because of the previous album. In many ways this album is just as difficult to listen to as its predecessor, simply because about half of the material recorded here is inferior to the Megadeth back catalogue. However, there is enough here to derive some hope from.
So I would say that half of the songs here are passable, and the other half quite average. What tends to drag down most of the songs – good and bad – is their length. If some of the songs recorded here had been tightened up, shortened and made just a bit punchier I think the album overall would have worked much better.
The leading candidate here is the closing track “When”. At over nine minutes in length it takes up a voluminous proportion of the album, and because of its slow and moody disposition it tends to bore you to death before you are a third of the way through the song. Having followed the much more direct and clout-filled “Return to Hangar” it feels completely out of place and doesn’t end the album with any justice. The opening track “Disconnect” is a reasonable track too but just seems to outstay its welcome, especially with the very Alice in Chains-like middle section which you think is closing out the song, but it then extends for another two minutes. Same deal with “1000 Times Goodbye”. “Promises” drags out for eternity, with the repeated lyrics not doing anything to endear itself to the listener, and the strings in the track are just not a great addition. “Losing My Senses” is just not very good.
Dave has moved back to himself and others talking in the middle of tracks, which continues to be distracting in songs. Both “The World Needs a Hero” and “1000 Times Goodbye” have this, almost narrating a story throughout the song. Just make it the song Dave, we don’t need these other pieces fleshing it out! Why a phone call in the middle of the song? Most of “Recipe for Hate… Warhorse” goes in this direction too, no doubt trying to remind us all of better Megadeth days, which it does at least achieve in the back half of the song with the traded solos.
Of the good songs, well they are sometimes given more credit than they deserve just for what surrounds them on the album. “Moto Psycho” has enough energy to keep its head above water. The aforementioned “Return to Hangar” is probably saved because it’s the most up-tempo track on the album and is pretty much a rehash of its sister track “Hangar 18”. “Burning Bridges” is on the better side of average. I was initially skeptical of “Dread and the Fugitive Mind”, but once it grew on me I have always felt it is the best track on the album.

In a ratings contest, this wins over the previous album hands down, but that’s about as close as it gets to other Megadeth albums. It’s a shame more didn’t come from it, as both Pitrelli and DeGrasso are great musicians who from all reports Mustaine just couldn’t take to. Both sound great here but that doesn’t keep you in a job. Though I saw the band on this tour – which was an absolute cracker – this album only partially brought me back to thinking they may actually eventually win me back. It was at least a step back in the right direction.

Rating: “If you shake my hand, better count your fingers”. 2.5/5

835. Iced Earth / The Melancholy E.P. 2001. 3.5/5

This EP was initially only meant to be handed out to radio stations as a promotion. Then at one stage there was a limited number pressed for fans to purchase. Two years later in 2001, it was eventually reissued with two further tracks for the general masses to get their hands on, and it is this version which I possess

Listen to "Melancholy (Holy Martyr)", "Watching Over Me" and "I Died For You" and can you hear the similarities in the tracks? I swear if you switched the lyric sheets on these two songs that you could pretty much make them fit within the framework of each song. That's not having a dig at the songs in question, it just never fails to surprise me as to how similar these songs are, and that I never really noticed it before I got this EP and started listening to it. I have always been a little disappointed in these tracks, as when they reach the parts of the songs where the riffs really cut in they sound great, but there is too much soft and slower parts of them to make them really great songs. A small footnote that I still enjoy the songs, but that slower starts feel unnecessary.
There are three cover songs here on this extended EP. The cover of Bad Company's "Shooting Star" is difficult for me to judge, because I really don't have any feelings for Bad Company's music at all. Thusly, this song may or may not be a great cover of the original, but it sounds boring and uninteresting compared to Iced Earth's normal output, which probably doesn't say much for the material they had to work with. The cover of Black Sabbath's "Electric Funeral" is an interesting take, certainly given the different direction Matt Barlow takes with the vocals from the original which was sung by Ozzy Osbourne. not a bad cover given they gave it a real Iced earth sound rather than the Black Sabbath sound. This the band has done again with their cover of Judas Priest's "The Ripper", which originally appeared on the tribute album A Tribute to Judas Priest: Legends of Metal Vol. II. Barlow again gives it his own interpretation and doesn't try to mimic Rob Halford's vocals, a very sensible option.
The EP concludes with a live version of "Colours" that was recorded during the session for Alive in Athens but didn't make the final cut for the album. It's a cracking version of this song, and is worthy of its position here rather than being lost in the mists.

EP's are generally hit and miss, depending on what content they have. They can be superfluous or they can be essential. The Melancholy E.P. is an essential item for Iced Earth fans, given the rarity of many parts of this album, and the enjoyment you will get from it when you put it on your CD player.

Rating:  I feel it once again, it's overwhelming me.  3.5/5

824. Edguy / Mandrake. 2001. 4/5

Mandrake was the first Edguy album that I heard and subsequently the first Edguy album that I bought. Thus it could be argued that I have a soft spot for it in the scheme of musical things, which I do. It has also become the point of comparison with every other Edguy album as to how much I will enjoy them, so it does have a major role to play in that respect. If nothing else, if this album was awful, then it would probably have stopped me from pursuing the band any further, so it was probably a good starting point for me.  The fact that it is probably one of the band's best helps in this respect.

The album starts off with "Tears of a Mandrake", and it is this song that made me believe that Edguy could be a part of my musical future. It is a superb beginning to the album, an opening act in itself, orchestral in nature both musically and vocally, combining those layered vocals throughout in operatic fashion. "Golden Dawn" sets off with that European power metal paced guitar and drums, but pleasingly it is those instruments that remains the centre of focus, with the keys remaining in the background. This is where Edguy appealed to me from the beginning. Unlike contemporaries such as Stratovarius and Sonata Arctica, where the keyboards are prominent to the point of being the main focus of the music, here they only complement the much more guitar focused music. Tobi Sammet's soaring vocals don't harm it at all either! "Jerusalem" continues the good song output, though with less impact than the opening two tracks. This is then followed by "All the Clowns" which explodes straight into melodic guitars and rocks along accordingly. "Nailed to the Wheel" is reminiscent of a Judas Priest song, or certainly perhaps the Fight song "Nailed to the Gun". After its mellow beginning it morphs into a fast heavy monster, propelling itself at speed, while being supported by Tobi's best Halford impression, especially during the chorus. Ripping tune. So to is "The Pharaoh", a more mid-temp song but heavy on the harder edged beat and guitars.
It can't all be bells and whistles I guess, and the power ballad "Wash Away the Poison" brings the album to a screaming halt in regards to its momentum. Perhaps it's not a bad song, but it does nothing for me, and indeed finds itself being a victim of the skip button on a regular occurrence. "Painting on the Wall" is very similar in this regard, which is disappointing given everything that occurs on the first half of the album. "Save Us Now" returns a bit of speed to the album, and indeed also reminds me of another song with a similar title, Helloween's "Save Us". Coincidence just like the comparison of "Nailed to the Wheel"? perhaps. Or perhaps not. "The Devil and the Savant" finishes off the album.

This is power metal the layman can get into, because the band's roots came from their early inspiration of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and KISS, so while the keyboards are in the mix of the songs the dominant force is the guitars, drums and vocals. This is what set them apart from their contemporaries, at least to this point of their existence. It's funny to think that as the Avantasia movement grew, the quality of Edguy's output seems to have diminished. However, with this album they put themselves firmly on the front foot and brought themselves to the front of the queue in regards to the European power metal scene.

Rating:  The moment the evil appeared, the chance to decide.  4/5

821. L.A. Guns / Man in the Moon. 2001. 2.5/5

Following the one off effort entitled Shrinking Violet with Jizzy Pearl on vocals, and several best-of releases that involved re-recording their earliest (and best) material for release, something which surely could only have been a money raising exercise, L.A. Guns welcomed lead singer Phil Lewis and guitarist Mick Cripps back to the fold, and came out with Man in the Moon.

This feels and sounds like an album and band who aren't in transition as such, but are a little lost in the direction they want to go. In recording albums such as Greatest Hits and Black Beauties and Cocked & Re-Loaded, the band re-recorded material from the days when they were at their biggest, and when their music was fresh and exciting. One would have thought that, having been through that process, it would have best served the band in trying to recapture that time, and help them to focus on writing in that kind of style again, to stay true to their roots and produce an album that brought all of that into the present time. Well, I can't say they did that with any great degree of success.
"Man in the Moon" is a reasonable start to the album, with Traci Guns and Mick Cripps guitars playing off each other nicely, and Steve Riley's drumwork pounding away furiously. As an intro to a new album, it does its job without inspiring any real emotional effect. Why then, after this solid beginning, do we fall into a song like "Beautiful", which just doesn't gel at all with the initial vibe of the album. Back we fall to mostly clear guitar, the drums quietly set in the background, and a song that sounds like it is going for the harmless 1970's almost hippy love fest. There is no correlation between the first two songs here, they are so different and unrelatable you can't believe they are from the same band let alone the same album. "Good Thing" then for some reason tries to build a bridge over that, and restore some sort of order that was established by the opening song, but there is still something that doesn't feel right. perhaps it is just the lingering aftertaste of the previous song, but there is still something missing here, something that was an integral part of L.A Guns music, but somehow just isn't here now.
And when the truth arrives, it is stark and disappointing. The naked energy and enthusiasm of those early albums is non existent here. It sounds as though the band is just going through the motions. It doesn't at any point sound as if any of the protagonists are really pumped to be there, and the lack of inspiration is a detriment to what we are listening to.
And it doesn't improve from here either. I don't know what Phil was trying to do with his vocals in "Spider's Web". They don't seem to be anywhere close to the melody of the riff being played. If his vocals were a guitar I would have said it needed to be re-tuned. That's how it sounds to me, that he's singing the melody, but his vocal chords are out of tune with the song. It is very strange and off putting. "Don't Call Me Crazy" starts of as if it is going to have that real pacey hard rock sound that L.A. Guns was famous for, but the drum roll bursts into... slow, melodramatic backbeat and guitar, and a mournfully lethargic ballad-like droning that stretches out for seven minutes but feels like an hour and seven minutes. What on earth is this? What have you done with the band we all remember and love?
"Hypnotised" tries to redeem what has come before, finally picking up the momentum, and also allowing Steve Riley to showcase his wares at least. I'm still not convinced about the vocals, but the song itself sounds much better and more like the band we know. Even "Fast Talkin' Dream Dealer" makes you think that all may not be lost. This is one of only two songs on the album that SOUNDS like L.A Guns real material, with that L.A hard rock sound racing through, while "Out of Sight" is a reasonable assimilation of the same degree of song.
Now. What the hell is going on with "Turn It Around"?! This is five and a half minutes of pure rubbish. This comes across as the band's attempt to do a really poor cross between a mournful David Bowie / Alice Cooper epic tragedy ballad piece. There is literally nothing here of any value. The vocals again are sung at that almost out of key wailing which just seems completely out of place. It is therefore somewhat surprising that the one song on this album that comes within a bulls roar of what one would consider a real L.A. Guns song is the final track, "Scream". It moves at the right tempo, the guitar riff is amiable, the dual guitar solos do the job, and vocally it sounds like the real Phil Lewis has returned. It's not magnificent, but it at least sounds like it has the same parentage as their classic tracks from the late 1980's. It's just such a shame that it is the last track, when to be honest it could have been the opening track, and then had many brothers and sisters after it.

While this album is not a complete loss, it really has too many poor variations to be considered better than average. Three or four songs could be salvaged here and played at any time for enjoyment sake, but there are also three or four shockers that just don't cut it in any way, shape or form. Listen with the remote control and 'skip' button on standby.

Rating:  Sometimes I just want to scream.  2.5/5

801. Queensrÿche / Live Evolution. 2001. 4.5/5

After forcing their way through a series of highs and lows over the previous few years, which included having well-performing albums despite those albums being critically panned and spurned by the fans, and having to dip into their own pockets to conclude a tour after their record company went broke, Queensrÿche return here with a double live album that brings out all of the positives and negatives of their music history in one package.

To this point in the band's career, their music seems to have slipped into their own eras, based on the success or similarities of releases. This live retrospective was recorded over two nights, and then manoeuvred into 'suites' that correspond with the evolution of the band, thus the title of the album. As a result, there is a great coverage of the band's work, all set in a live setting which gives them all a different perspective from their original recordings. It also shows on one release how the story of Queensrÿche has surged and dipped through the style of songs as we move through the album.
The first half of the first disc is for songs from Queensrÿche, The Warning and Rage for Order. And not only is it great to hear these songs done live, but performed live brilliantly! "NM 156" into the brilliant "Walk in the Shadows" sounds sensational, and is brought to life live. So too are the versions of "Roads to Madness", "The Lady Wore Black" and "Screaming in Digital". Each of them are enhanced here, the strengths of each song shining through. And while "Queen of the Reich" may not live up to everything it could be, there has never been any doubt that to reproduce anything like the studio version in a live setting would be a monumental task. Don't get me wrong, it still sounds great, but with necessary compromises.
The second half of the first disc comprises a selection of songs from Operation: Mindcrime, and as will always occur when it comes to this album, it is the songs that are left out that are debated rather than the songs that are chosen to be performed. It simply doesn't matter which ones you choose to play, there will always be songs that everyone will be disappointed will be left out. For me, it would be "Speak" and "The Needle Lies". They should always be played! Anyway, by now the band is smooth and professional on all of these songs, so often must they have performed them. Pamela Moore again appears as Mary. Everything sounds extraordinary.
Disc Two covers the 1990's, the highlight of which is the selection of songs from the extraordinary Empire album. The four songs performed here - "Empire", "Silent Lucidity", "Another Rainy Night (Without You)" and "Jet City Woman" are not only terrific songs, but they sound absolutely amazing here. The music is so strong, and Tate's vocals here don't miss a beat. I know that YOU know that I don't like ballads, but there are exceptions, and "Silent Lucidity" has always been one of them. I love the version on Empire, but here it just soars. The musicianship is of the highest calibre, and proves that a song can be powerful with having to be excessive.
The remainder of the second disc contains songs from Promised Land, Hear in the Now Frontier and Q2K, albums that I have a difficult time listening to. To be fair, most of these tracks all sound better being played live than they did on the studio albums, but there is still not a lot of joy from them. This is where you can correspond the differences and changes that have occurred in Queensrÿche over the years. Sure, people will argue that a song such as "The Lady Wore Black" can be compared to a song such as "Liquid Sky". But it is here you hear the differences. Listen to Tate's vocals in "The Lady Wore Black", emoting as that song allows, and the power behind the guitars and drums in pushing that emotion through the song. Awesome. Then listen to the dullery that comes through on "Liquid Sky". It is unmistakable. And you can't use time as a factor. They may have been written 15 years apart and thus recorded as such on their respective albums, but these songs were recorded for this album on the same day. The change in the song writing is as plain and stark as what you hear on this album.

The first disc, with everything from the 1980's, I would probably rate as 4.5 or 5. All of the songs are great and they also sound magnificent in this live setting. The second disc I would probably go somewhere with a 3.5 or a 4. So in trying to rate the release as a whole I have had to compromise and take a factor somewhere in the middle of those two ratings. As a live release it is an excellent anthology of the band's progress to this point of their career, even if some of it is better off forgetting.

Rating:  Blind, you search for the truth.  4.5/5

727. Sonata Arctica / Last Drop Falls [Single]. 2001. 3/5

I can't (but can) understand why this was released as a single. I mean, it's a slow, mourning ballad. The kind of song Sonata Arctica do so well, and the kind of song I really don't enjoy. So from a personal point of view, I wish they had released another song from the album as a single. However, when you are looking for single sales and hopeful radio play, then this is the kind of song that may attract that kind of attention. For a start, the lyrical content may not be a persuasive argument to a radio executive that it should be played!

In buying singles, you generally buy them for the other songs attached to them. This is the case here, with an excellent cover version of Iron Maiden's "Die With Your Boots On". This again showcases the amazing talent in this band. Following this is an acoustic version of "Mary-Lou" to round it off.
Worth getting your hands on for the maiden cover alone.

Rating: I have found the whore in you. 3/5

697. Sonata Arctica / Silence. 2001. 2.5/5

Sonata Arctica's follow up to their acclaimed debut Ecliptica will no doubt keep hardcore fans of the band animated and happy. For me, I was hoping for more than that album was able to provide me, and unfortunately I didn't really find that.

The fast paced, high intensity, at your jugular songs on Silence are some of the best this band has produced. "Weballergy" opens the album at a cracking pace, and from the outset it feels as though this could be the direct extension the band needed to take. "False News Travel Fast" continues in this direction, punchy and driven by the double kick drums and flying keyboard. "Black Sheep" is a good song that doesn't really showcase anything particularly metal, but moves along at a good tempo with a flailing guitar solo. "San Sebastian (Revisited)" again has that speed driven by the drums to give it some real momentum and wonderful vocals. Along with "Wolf & Raven" later in the piece, these are the stand out songs for me on the album, and if there had been more of them this could have been a real classic.

The major downfall of the power metal album is the constant power ballad. Dear oh dear, these kinds of songs just rip the heart out of an album and consign them to mediocre status. It is such a contradiction in terms, power and ballad. Because for all intents and purposes, there is very little if any power in these ballads.
"The End of This Chapter" is the first to arrive on this album, piano and keyboard dominated, while the vocals reach for their emotive state to tug at the heartstrings. "Last Drop Falls" and "Sing in Silence" also fall into this category to a certain degree, if only for a majority if not all of the song. "Tallulah" is the worst, it being in the Bryan Adams or Michael Bolton class of dreadful sappy unresponsive rubbish.
If bands want to make songs like this, then fine. Do it. But how about you put ALL of them on ONE album, put a big sticker on it to inform everyone exactly what the album contains, and allow those of us who just don't want to know to completely ignore it, and buy your albums that have the best songs on them. I mean, for goodness sakes, "Tallulah" is followed by the brilliant "Wolf & Raven" that careers along at breakneck speed throughout, barely stopping to take a breath. Everything about it screams speed metal, and yet the previous song was a sop-driven bore-fest. I just can't understand it. "Tallulah" is an automatic skip song. In the old days of transferring vinyl to cassettes to play in the car it would never have made my taped copy, and in this day of electronic media and so forth, you can even erase it from existence.
But somehow it isn't over. The lengthy and overblown finale of "The Power of One" just seems needlessly long. It starts, it stops, it goes fast, it goes slow, it wants to be a metal song, it wants to be a ballad. Does it want to be "Bohemian Rhapsody"? I don't know, but given that it doesn't know what it wants to be it's a little hard to take. Parts of the song are terrific, but others just are mystifying. Time and mood changes at odd parts of the song make it hard to stay in synch with. It feels like they wanted to pull every trick in the 'power metal song writing' handbook in one song.

I want to love this band so much more than I am able to. Their musicianship is flawless, the vocals are pitch perfect. The trappings of the genre mean however that I am unable to enjoy a lot of their music because it just isn't in me to like it, and that is a real shame. Those that love this style of metal will probably embrace this album with vigour. I can only admire what it is, enjoy the parts of it that I do, and move on from the rest.

691. Avantasia / The Metal Opera. 2001. 4/5

When I first heard of the concept of recording an album entitled The Metal Opera, I thought it was a great idea. Of course, some "knowledgeable" people came out and suggested "it's not an opera!" Well of course it isn't, but what a terrific idea. Write a concept album, with not only a storyline but characters that can be portrayed by some of the finest singers in the power metal genre. Put together an all-star band to lay down the music, and voila! You have the beginnings of an "opera" staged and written for the heavy metal world.
What was better was that you couldn't argue with the line-up of talent that was drawn to make this happen. The brainchild of Edguy front man Tobias Sammet who also contributed keyboards, we have Gamma Ray's guitarist Henjo Richter, Helloween's bassist Markus Grosskopf and Rhapsody of Fire's drummer Alex Holzwarth. Along with the band, just some of the vocalists lending their support to the project to support Tobi's main character of Gabriel Laymann are Michael Kiske of Helloween fame as well as other projects, Rob Rock of Impellitteri and other bands, Andre Matos of Angra, Timo Tolkki of Stratovarius and Kai Hansen of Gamma Ray. Sharon den Adel from Within Temptation is excellent in "Farewell". A terrific line-up.

In the long run, you can take or leave the story that is being told here if you like (if you are interested, the Wikipedia page can be found here), but none of it would work unless the songs and the vocals made it so. And there is no danger of that not occurring here. "Reach Out For the Light" is a brilliant song, mixing the wonderful vocals of Sammet and Kiske along with some magnificent guitaring from Henjo. The whole song is a triumph, and sets the album off at a cracking pace. While the mood of the album meanders throughout as the story changes, it is anchored in that power metal style, with everyone's nuances combining excellently. Henjo Richter's distinctive solo's are wonderful, Markus Grosskopf's bassline's are just as powerful as they are in Helloween, Alex Holzwarth's drumming is just scintillating in places, and helps to set the stage for each song. Not only is it powerful, and the tempo just right in all respects, it has been set up perfectly by the producer and sound engineer - it doesn't become overpowering, but it is also prevalent in each song. Just wonderful.
The middle of the album rocks along, with "Serpents in Paradise", "Breaking Away" and "The Glory of Rome", with David DeFeis and Rob Rock making great contributions. "Avantasia" is the big anthemic piece of the album, the one crowds would no doubt find to be the feel good song of an operatic production.
Given Kiske's stated preference for less heavy material, it is somewhat amusing that the slower balladesque "Inside" has vocals by Kai Hansen, something he also does well, though to be honest I would loved to have heard him on something faster. Instead, Kiske powerfully brings home the closer "The Tower" to finish off the album in an uplifting speed metal way.

Tobi Sammet is prominent most of the way through the album, and his vocals are terrific throughout. Having made several albums with his band Edguy before The Metal Opera, this became a halcyon period for him, with this album and its sequel, as well as what I consider his best Edguy albums, Mandrake and Hellfire Club, all in this four year period. He is wonderfully supported by Michael Kiske who, having suffered somewhat from his post-Helloween days and statements that he was uninterested in the metal genre, shows here exactly how talented he is. His vocals on this album are the equal of anything else he has ever done. I don't think it is any coincidence that probably the five best songs on the album - "Reach Out For the Light", "Breaking Away", "Farewell", "Avantasia" and "The Tower" - are the five songs where Kiske and Sammet perform together. They are brilliant together. The music throughout is amazing and brilliantly performed by the four piece already mentioned.
In the long run this all-star production more than holds its own as an album of substance, creating and showing off the best that this genre of metal has to offer. It may not be seen as a real opera, but in heavy metal it is an album that it can be proud of in showcasing the great talent of the industry.

570. Stratovarius / Intermission. 2001. 3/5

Intermission this most certainly is, with a bundle of tracks that only a hardy few could proclaim to have experienced a majority of before this release came along.

The first four songs are all "previously unreleased tracks", and surprisingly for these type of tracks they are pretty good. I say surprisingly, because if they haven't been released before, then there must have been a reason why in the first place. In this instance, the first two songs "Will My Soul Ever Rest in Peace?" and "Falling Into Fantasy" are both fine examples of Stratovarius titles. Perhaps the other two are not in the finest catagory.

Following this are three cover songs. Judas Priest's "Bloodstone", is okay, but really lacks the original's power. Rainbow's "Kill the King", again just doesn't have the same quality of the original. I originally heard this on the tribute album Holy Dio: A Tribute to the Voice of Metal: Ronnie James Dio, which strangely has two versions of this song on it - the one by Stratovarius and the one by Primal Fear. Sadly for the Strats, Primal Fear's version craps all over this one. Thirdly is another Rainbow song, a live version of "I Surrender", which is a much better effort than the previous two songs here.

Following this is a bunch of extra songs from singles and box sets and the like, the majority from Japanese editions which always seem to carry these types of songs to entice their citizens to buy their own editions rather than those from overseas. The quality of tracks is a mixture.

Overall, this is worth a listen. Whether you will come back to it often is open to question, but as a rarity of sorts it is something a fan of the band will want to possess a copy of.

506. Iced Earth / Horror Show. 2001. 3/5

This was the first Iced Earth album I ever bought and listened to, and while there have probably been better albums in their discography, it was a gentle introduction to the band for me.

I enjoy the concept of the album, taking on the monsters of history, both real and fictional, and doing songs on them. In the main, it works quite well.
The album begins strongly, with both “Wolf” and “Damien” showcasing Matt Barlow’s distinctive vocals and the double click drumming of Richard Christy. Like many bands of this generation, their best songs are when the drums are driving the pace, through double-kick and flying on the high-hats. Here the guitars aren’t being forced to go ‘fast’, but the feel is that anyway.

From here on though, the album is a bit mixed, neither one thing nor the other. In the main the songs are fine, but they are not outstanding, and in a funny way they are not memorable, in that they begin to blend into each other and it becomes difficult to differentiate. I can see why trying to set different moods in different songs is necessary to the theme of the album, but I don’t think it works overly well. “Ghost of Freedom” to me just halts the whole momentum of the album, whether you like the song or not.
The cover of Iron Maiden’s “Transylvania” is probably the highlight of the album – a bit of a giveaway really…

Rating: Just rises above average. 3/5.

444. Slayer / God Hates Us All. 2001. 2.5/5

Once again some people were waiting for the next Reign In Blood and once again these same people were still waiting. What the public got instead was another angry album from a band that does it so well.

However, for me there is so much here that doesn’t quite work. The best Slayer albums – and we all know which ones they are – always seem to flow so well from song to song. Not necessarily seamlessly, but always such that they are easy to listen to. Here on God Hates Us All, many of the songs seem clunky, almost thrown together like a kid doing a bad jigsaw puzzle. The time changes don’t seem to work like they do on other albums, and Tom’s screaming being layered over itself creates a wall of noise that isn’t as palatable as is usually the case.
The great guitar riffs and licks are there, but they appear randomly, and for only a moment or so. Some of the songs just seem to bring on a headache more than an enjoyment, which is what I’m looking for. Friends of mine completely disagree with me, and say I must be mad, how can I not love this album? Well – apart from the reasons I’ve listed, I don’t know. All I know is that for me, this isn’t the best that Slayer can, or have, released.

Maybe, like so many others, I am just waiting for the next Reign In Blood as well…

Rating: I guess I just wanted more from it that it could offer. 2.5/5.

382. Testament / First Strike Still Deadly. 2001. 3.5/5

Now this is an idea that should be used universally, especially in this wonderful age of digital enhancing and so forth. Testament come out here, and take the best of the songs from their first two albums, The Legacy and The New Order and instead of just re-mastering them as is the general rule of thumb, they just re-record them in the modern day environment.

What I like is that this collection doesn’t detract from the original recordings. They still stand alone as their moment in time, and their quality is not diminished. What this collection does is bring these songs to a new generation and with a modernized feel. Tuning down to give them an extra grunt doesn’t hurt either! Production values have obviously improved with the technology of the past few years, and this is a pleasure to listen to.

Rating: A bit of new mixed in with the old makes for a great sound. 3.5/5

378. Jordan Rudess / Feeding The Wheel. 2001. 1/5

In one of those curious phases you sometimes go through with bands you have just discovered, I sought out the solo works of the members of Dream Theater to see what they did when they weren’t on the job. Notably, it wasn’t as if I was expecting to seriously fall in love with this work from their keyboardist. Actually I was expecting elevator music.
In the long run, it didn’t turn out to be that way at all. There is no mistaking the quality of his musicianship, or of those who help him out on other instruments for this project. The tracks themselves are very eclectic and obviously synth-driven. In places it sounds like some of the stuff that my four year old daughter plays on her little electric keyboard when she’s trying to perform one of her ‘symphonies’.

This, therefore, is a fan’s album. To be perfectly honest, you would have to be a frustrated keyboardist or a techno-head to be able to sit down and listen to this over and over again, and get anything of any real value out of it. I like my music to be song-orientated and driven, not just have long-winded keyboard solo-breaks, which is what most of it sounds like.

Rating: One for the musicians I believe. While it is musically very clever, it’s not my thing. 1/5.

253. Michael Schenker Group / Dreams And Expressions. 2001. 4/5.

Another completely instrumental album from one of the best guitarists going around.
Though on the album, each song has been designated a letter of the album title rather than a name, you wouldn't know when you are listening to the album. Each 'song' ranges from 30 seconds to 3 minutes, and as they all flow into the other, it just sounds like a 43 minute instrumental piece.

It is all very rocky and guitary, and extremely listenable. My description will not be able to express to you how enjoyable this album is. Think of Joe Satriani's Surfing With The Alien, but with Michael Schenker.

Rating : A surprisingly terrific instrumental album from one of the masters. 4/5.

251. Alice Cooper / Dragontown. 2001. 3/5.

Following on from Brutal Planet, Alice continues his journey along the new musical style he has built for himself in the new decade. This is also a continuation of the story that Brutal Planet forged.

Once again, this took some getting used to, but not as much as I found with Brutal Planet. Alice's voice continues to be the driving force behind his albums, taking centre stage and changing the mood of each song with his subtle vocal changes.

It's Much Too Late is supposed to be for John Lennon. "I'm sending you all to hell / I'm tired and I'm wired here”. The Sentinel is some creature of the devil out there harvesting souls - possibly the souls of dead rock & rollers. The ode to Elvis Presley is a bit closer to the mark - Disgraceland is metal rockabilly with blazing guitars - "Went to the pearly gates / Said I'm uh here to sing / And Peter said, 'Well son, you see we already got ourselves a king'”.

The more you listen to the album, and get the most out of Alice's lyrics, the more you enjoy the album. Alice always did try to make you think when it came to his music, and he does so again here.

Rating : More Alice Cooper stuff to digest. 3/5.

248. Ozzy Osbourne / Down To Earth. 2001. 3/5.

Six years after Ozzmosis was released, and ten years after what was supposed to be Ozzy’s ‘farewell tour’ took place after the release of No More Tears, from out of nowhere and with almost no promotion and fanfare came a new album titled Down to Earth. And given Ozzy’s statement upon its release, something along the lines of he was happy to keep promoting his own brand by his music festival Ozzfest, but the record company wanted a new album, it just seems strange that I and most people I know had zero idea it was in the works. Record companies must be strange beasts.

Anyway, the album arrived, I put it on, and after those first few listens I become aware of a few little things that have changed in the Osbourne music empire. The first was that Zakk Wylde was not involved in the writing of the album due to being away on tour with his other band Black Label Society. That immediately felt like a loss. Secondly, there was a vast array of co-writers of all the tracks, something that always makes me feel that the album itself will not meld together because of the difference of styles and thoughts on songs to write. That isn’t always the way (Alice Cooper’s Hey Stoopid) is a perfect example of this working to perfection) and Ozzy had done this before with success... but I didn’t really know these writers, so I went in with trepidation. And thirdly, well... did Ozzy still have what he needed to produce a great album?
The start of the album comes at you with “Gets Me Through” which while it has a similar energy in the song as other opening tracks on Ozzy albums, it does not have the same speed or momentum as those. It is a sign of things to come, but probably wasn’t unexpected given the way that has begun to be wound back in plenty of American metal music of this vintage. Settling in alongside Mike Bordin’s drumbeat rather than flying over the top of it, it creates the kind of heavy slog paced song that has become the norm for metal bands. It isn’t unpleasant and indeed works well in songs like “Gets Me Through” and “Facing Hell” and “That I Never Had” and “Junkie”, but while giving us a heavy sound it has traded off the faster tempo of earlier albums. Which again, is great when the song works, such as the three I’ve just mentioned, but it makes it harder to enjoy if that combination doesn’t come good. Picky much? Yes, I can admit it certainly is.

Now there are areas where some of the songs don’t work – for me. “Dreamer” is the album’s attempt to find Ozzy’s perfect ballad, and Ozzy can definitely perform them as he has on most of his albums through his career. As per my other reviews, they rarely win me over just because they are not my preferred kind of song. Ozzy sounds great on this song but it isn’t my cup of tea. “No Easy Way Out” is on a similar plane, and is another of the songs that has gone for a keyboard/synth base rather than the guitar strength. Whether this is by the design of the song collaborators or the fact that Zakk wasn’t involved in the writing process, I don’t know. Add in “You Know... (Part 1)” which is really just a filler between two other songs for me. “Running Out of Time” dips into ballad territory again, and finishes with the keys and backing sighs dominating again, in a very 1970’s progressive style. “Black Illusion” doesn’t do anything for me at all, and with the chorused vocals and sludgy tempo and guitar it actually feels as though it would have been a better Black Label Society song if Zakk had taken over the writing of it. “Alive” is very similar, just too darn nu-metal in pace if not musically. And as a closer, “Can You Hear Them?” doesn’t inspire much except some relief that the album has in fact come to an end.

When this came out I was sitting with a couple of friends listening to the whole album a couple of times, drinking beer under the clear skies. All of us came to the same conclusion, which was “What the hell is Ozzy coming to?” It wasn’t as if we hated the album, but it was so very different from what we had loved from him and his various bands in the past that this album was difficult to collate. That feeling hasn’t changed over the years, and I doubt it ever will. There are some very listenable songs on this album but some other pieces that are from another planet, another Ozzy. I have no doubt that the writing of the album was influenced by the kind of bands Ozzy had been playing with at Ozzfest, and that he was trying to incorporate that into his own music. There’s no problem with trying to do that, and maybe the younger fans enjoyed the change. But for those of us who have been around a while, I guess what we wanted was to hear what he usually gave us, and we didn’t get that. Ozzy released his Live at Budokan album from this tour, and to be fair the three songs off this album that he performed live on that all sounded better live.

But overall, I feel as though this was turning point for Ozzy. The past was in the rearview mirror and it felt much different from what the present held, and maybe what the future had in store. Ozzy sounds great here, as do Zakk, Mike and Rob Trujillo. But the songs... well... there is a conflict there.

Best Songs: “Gets Me Through”, “Facing Hell”, “That I Never Had”, “Junkie”.

Rating: “Is it god that sits there waiting or will the darkness suck me in.” 3/5