555. Def Leppard / On Through the Night. 1980. 4/5

The beginnings of what would become the band Def Leppard can be traced back to three students who were attending Tapton School in Sheffield, England. Bass guitarist Rick Savage, along with drummer Tony Kenning and guitarist Pete Doubleday, all attended school together and decided to form a band, initially named Atomic Mass in 1976. The following year, a second guitarist was added in the form of Pete Willis. As is always the case when a band has formed, especially in high school, there were a lot of comings and goings to the line-up. Several changes occurred through the months of 1977 including three different lead vocalists. Towards the end of 1977, Willis had a chance meeting with an 18-year-old named Joe Elliott when he had missed a bus. Fortuitous it turned out to be, as Elliott then tried out for the band...as a guitarist. However, it was during his audition that it was decided by the rest of the band that he would be better suited as lead singer of the band, and as such his place was set.
Elliott’s next major piece in the band’s puzzle was to propose a new name, that being “Deaf Leopard”, spelt as such. Apparently, this was a name that he thought of while he was designing band posters in art class at school. This seemed to go across well, although Tony Kenning did suggest that the spelling was slightly modified to make it seem less like the name of a punk band, the genre with whom the band was currently in competition with at that time in the UK. Which is why we have the now well-known spelling of as such. In January 1978 the band was back to one guitarist, Pete Willis, and decided to audition for a second guitarist replacement. It was at this time that Steve Clark arrived on the scene. According to an interview with Elliott, Clark secured his spot in the band by playing Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" in its entirety during his audition. The band then played extensively through the UK for much of the year, before deciding to record an EP. However, in November 1978, just prior to recording sessions for the three-song release that would become known as “The Def Leppard E.P”, Kenning abruptly left the band. With a fast option required to complete the recording, he was replaced for those sessions by well-known drummer Frank Noon. Sales of the EP soared after the track "Getcha Rocks Off" was championed by BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, an influential person at the time in the cause of emerging punk and hard rock bands considered at the time. By the end of the month, Rick Allen, then only 15 years old, had joined the band as its full-time drummer.
On the back of the success of the EP and their constant gigging, Def Leppard found a devoted following through the UK. The burgeoning NWoBHM movement had taken them on board, though the band themselves never felt as though they belonged in the group of bands that were being coined with that term. While their sound did fit in nicely to what those British bands were producing at the time, their music direction was closer formed to the bands they admired from the 1970’s rock and glam era, and their focus was firmly on making a break into North America. Their growing popularity led to a record deal, and on the back of changing their management team the band spent December of 1979 in Startling Studio in Berkshire recording what would become their debut studio album, titled “On Through the Night”.

The album opens with the hard blazing styles of “Rock Brigade”, a song that praises their fan base and gives them an anthem to sing along to from the very beginning. It’s a great start to the album, and gives their fans of their harder material a song to grab a hold of and ride down the wave with. “Hello America” on the other hand is a very direct message to everyone across the pond from where Def Leppard were currently plying their trade. And that message was – here is a very commercial hard rock song that we think will appeal to your audiences, and the lyrics themselves are pointedly asking you to love us and adore us, and will you please take us on? It is a real change from the opening track on the album and of course is a pointed as to where they wanted their music to go in the future. So, although it did appear to alienate some of the local media and some of their local fans, it was an indication from very early on that they wanted to make it big in America, and if the rest of the world followed that would be great.
“Sorrow is a Woman” is a song of two parts, again with the first half trying to incorporate itself into a soft rock ballad with the kind of AOR sound that was proliferating the US FM radio market at the time, and was of the kind of genre their favourite bands were making music in. “It Could Be You” picks things back up again nicely, moving along at a good clip and with a great bassline throughout and a nice solo slot for the two guitars to fill in. Joe’s vocals don’t seem to be able to find their calling in this song though, they are a bit hard up and almost break as he reaches for the higher tones. “Satellite” again moves along like a softer rock song, never really getting out of second gear and with Joe singing effectively but not with a real feeling in his voice. The solo section again comes across as the best of the song with Clark and Willis delivering again. “When the Walls Came Tumbling Down” is perhaps the one song on this album that showcases the band’s love of prog rock and then deciding to incorporate it into their own music. The verses seem muted and yet musically crashing into each other, before the chorus kicks in and becomes more streamlined with the lyrics and then the guitars and drums breaking into their own artform.
Side Two kicks off with the awesome “Wasted”, where we get as close as Def Leppard can on this album being the heavy metal band many wanted them to be. The music is terrific, Clark and Willis’s riffing throughout here is superb, and driving along with the great drumming from Rick Allen and bass line from Ric Savage. Joe’s vocals don’t really go to full throttle though, preferring to sit back without extending themselves into ta stratosphere that would really have made this an all-time classic metal track. Steve Clark’s soloing in this song is superb. This is followed by the perfect riposte in “Rocks Off”, which sticks to that perfect hard and heavy tempo with a great riff again. The bass riff from Savage underneath again is ripping and holds the song together throughout, joined in the middle of the song by Allen terrific drum beat that pushes the song to a harder tone again, followed by Clark’s solo again. The faux live sound is unnecessary but adds its piece at the song’s conclusion. “Don’t Matter” is reminiscent of this era of the band Kiss in tempo and on off staccato guitars with Joe singing over the top in the gaps. A change of singer would almost have you believing it was from another band. Deliberate or coincidence? You be the judge. “Answer to the Master” has the kitchen sink thrown at it musically. Everyone gets a chance to shine within the song, Allen’s solo drum piece, Savage’s excellent bassline up and down the fretboard is particularly impressive here even though it is low in the mix, and both Wills and Clark have the chance to individualise their solo.
The album concludes with “Overture” which initially appeared on the debut EP. This is a return to their prog rock loves, the longest track on the album at almost eight minutes, and reminiscent in places of Rush and bands of their ilk. It is so unlike the music that they went on to make over the rest of their career that it is still almost a shock when you listen to this album and get to this final track. It is completely out of place on the album, and yet it is a terrific song. It’s one that it is very unlikely that the fan base that came on to the band anytime after this album was released would even know was a Def Leppard song. And that is a great shame.

Is there are reason that this album doesn’t quite match up to the next two in their catalogue? For me, there is a distinct lack of true energy and excitement in the delivery of the majority of these songs. As they are written they certainly seem to have all the ingredients you need to push this hard and make it a really great hard to heavy album. And perhaps that is the first indication that Def Leppard didn’t want to BE that, because most of the tracks here have the bones to do so, and the soloing of both Steve Clark and Pete Willis is generally where the songs sound at their best as they both push to increase that energy, but as to the rest of the song – in almost every song – it feels like the band is turning up to work but only putting in the bare minimum. Perhaps that is a harsh judgement, but this album has always annoyed me because of the perceived perception that here is a perfectly good debut album that could be a real headbanger, and yet it doesn’t often live up to that. Songs like “Rock Brigade” and “It Could Be You” and “Satellite” and “Answer to the Master” should have been hard rock anthems, but they lack that vital kick over the top both musically and vocally that would have done that, and that could only have been a deliberate decision to keep them how they are.
These are the musings from someone who adores the band’s second and third albums. The first Def Leppard album I heard was “Pyromania” which came via my heavy metal music dealer, and I just loved that album to pieces, which is in fact what eventually happened to the cassette he recorded it onto for me, through overuse. I then got “High and Dry”, which I loved just as much if not more, and then came the release of “Hysteria” which blew up all over the world. So, when I finally picked up a copy of this album after all that excitement and brilliance, I was obviously expecting more of the same from their debut album. It is quite possible I was overhyped and expected too much. Well, no, that wasn’t it. What I wanted was a hard rock come heavy metal album like the first two albums of the band that I’d heard. And what I found is almost as I have described earlier. I heard an album that was… heavy metal adjacent. It was an album with songs that sounded like they wanted to be heavy metal songs of the era of its release, but the band who composed them wanted something… not quite that.
I’ve had the album on again this week, and it has been great. It really is an excellent debut album. I have offered some slight criticisms here of the album, but only from the point of view of what I was hoping for rather than what it is. It sounds like albums released in that era in the UK, and you can hear why they were spoken of as one of the leaders of that new wave. But the band themselves weren’t interested in that, they already had their eyes on another direction.
Of Def Leppard’s 12 studio albums to this point, this is ranked #4 on my list. It has the most varied song material of any Def Leppard album and as a result is still a great listen. It is a shame that, for the most part, the band seems to ignore this part of their history, which is a real shame.

554. Helloween / Unarmed - Best of 25th Anniversary. 2009. 3/5

It is almost impossible to know where to start with this album. We’ve had a greatest hits package where the songs have been re-recorded rather than remastered (see Gamma Ray’s Blast From The Past), we’ve had songs re-recorded acoustically (see a thousand examples), we’ve had band’s record with orchestra’s (Deep Purple, Metallica, Scorpions) – but this goes beyond that by combining all three in a greatest hits celebration of Helloween’s 25 year anniversary.
By doing this, you can only admire the band for moving so far away from the style that their fan base loves, and trying something different to spice up a boring old greatest hits album. There should also be no prizes for guessing that there will be a lot of alienated fans of Helloween after listening to this. And in the long run, those two sentences explain my feelings about this album – a brave and innovative move that is not to my taste at all and makes me wonder what is to come in the future.

The jazzed up version of “Dr Stein”, with sax and horns all over the place is up-tempo enough, and is bearable. The songs that follow though have a definite acoustic down-turning. In the long run, it is the toning down of the speed of the songs that creates more problems for me with the material than anything else. Playing them as semi-acoustic, and adding orchestral parts to them, isn’t completely degrading the original material, but softening the tone and playing at a slower tempo does make it more difficult to enjoy. Let’s face it – this is the kind of stuff that former singer Michael Kiske has been trying to pursue since his sacking from Helloween for pushing this exact kind of stuff!! Take a listen to his album Past in Different Ways from last year, and you’ll almost see the birth of this album in the process. If ever the opportunity had arisen to invite him back for a cameo, this was it!
“Future World” to me is just blah as a result of this. “If I Could Fly” isn’t so bad, as it was always the kind of song that could lend itself to such a reimagining. I think “Where the Rain Grows” suffers terribly from having the pace of the song ripped from its heart, it just loses all of its emotional value.

“The Keeper’s Trilogy”, a seventeen minute operatic meshing of “Halloween”, “Keeper of the Seven Keys” and “King for 1000 Years” is worth a listen, and is very well put together. Personally, I think all three songs could have been recorded on their own, backed by an orchestra in the same way as Metallica did on S&M, because all three songs sound great here. But they should have been played as they were recorded and then have the backing of the orchestra, rather than change the personality of the songs to suit an orchestra, as they have done here. Apart from that, this is the shining star of the album without a doubt.

“Eagle Fly Free” is practically destroyed as a slow paced acoustic ballad. It was very hard to take. “Perfect Gentlemen” doesn’t quite work for me either, but I can almost feel where they were taking it, and it possibly almost works. “Forever & One”, “Falling to Pieces” and “A Tale That Wasn’t Right” are also songs that could tend to lean in the direction they have been recorded here, but again I just can’t help but think that they were fine in their original format, and that by slowing and dragging out the songs they have done them a disservice. Possibly strangest of all, “I Want Out” in acoustic, with the help of a kid’s choir in the background, is one of the closest songs to working in this environment. Don’t ask me why – it just does.

So – very difficult to rate. As brave and bold as it is, it’s not something you could ever keep coming back to. Musicianship-wise it is terrific, but I just want the original versions in the long run. The score is based on the innovativeness of the idea, crossed with my genuine lack of feel for the appeal overall.

553. Fear Factory / Mechanize. 2010. 2/5

Look. Here's the thing. Fear Factory started something new back in the 1990's when they first came on the scene. It was different and it was a little scary, just the right elements to draw fans in from any number of genres of music. There has been a lot of good stuff, and some average stuff. With the previous three albums (two of which did not have original guitarist Dino Cavares involved) it has been the same, a lot of good stuff mixed with a bit f the average. One of the problems that appeared to be raising its head as these albums progressed was that... well... they all seem to be sounding a little on the similar side. I mean, if you didn't know the band, and you threw on Archetype and then threw on Transgression would you really know that the albums had been changed? For heavens sake, I like a lot of Fear Factory, and I have trouble discerning between the two myself! So when it came to first getting and listening to Mechanize I wondered if the title was giving something away about the music itself. So yes, trepidation confronts me as I approached this new Fear Factory album. Whilst for the majority I enjoyed Archetype, the bad taste of Transgression still sits like a mouthful of out of date chunky sour milk.

Despite the circumstances around the abandonment of original members Raymond Herrera and Christian Olde Wolbers for this album, I could only applaud the recruitment of Gene Hoglan to play drums for this album. He is incredible under most circumstances, but his work here is quite astounding. I'm really not sure how many arms and legs he has in real life, because the speed and precision with which he plays his instrument on this album is quite extraordinary. Dino's guitaring (playing all guitars and bass on the album) is as precision perfect as always, while Burton's vocals move between the menacing growl to the clear anguish cries with abandon. And it's quite a change between the two when it occurs too. I sometimes wonder if it is too much, in the same way on early Trivium albums Matt Heafy does the same huge change between growl and clear vocals. Probably it's just me being too precious.
OK, so we've considered what could be seen as the similarity between songs and albums musically, and we've considered the vocal techniques used. As to the album itself taking those things into the mix, I still like most of this album. the opening track "Mechanize", it hits the ground running with aggression and power, with Burton's vocal chords getting a huge work out at every level throughout. The album flows nicely into "Industrial Discipline", "Fear Campaign" and "Powershifter", all the while being pushed along at speed by Hoglan's machine gun drumming. More is to come, with "Christploitation" careering through into "Oxidizer" and "Controlled Demolition". "Designing the Enemy" uses a similar theme and tracking, but the vocals by now start to grate, though more succinctly the randomness between the almost incomprehensible deep growling into the moaning clear vocal over the top of the synth programming with those drums still underneath. It's all a little too much for me by this stage. I don't like the structure and having made it so far into the album with some degree of enjoyment it is beginning to seep away. The instrumental joiner "Metallic Division" introduces itself into the final track "Final Exit", which combines the fast paced intro into the clear guitar and vocal combination before ebbing and flowing throughout the track, with a complete fade out to the finish. Given how the album started, this is a real character change to complete the album.

There was a real excitement about this when it was released, with the return of Dino to the fold, and while many parts of this album are enjoyable for me, as an overall package I didn't get as much from it as I expected. Still, for the drumming alone, this is worth a listen to try and figure out just how Gene Hoglan can play like this. And then wonder why they went with a drum machine on the next album.

Rating:  Dawn of our extinction, the human affliction.  3/5

552. Fozzy / Chasing The Grail. 2010. 3/5

I must admit that it came as some surprise when I found out Fozzy were putting out another album. Having ‘proven’ themselves as a band with the release of All That Remains and with Chris Jericho back in the swing of things in the WWE, I had pretty much written off any chance of new material from the band.
The start of the album could almost have picked up right where they left off with All That Remains, with “Under Blackened Skies” and “Martyr No More” retaining the best of what Fozzy showed us on that album. From this point on, though, there is a lot more experimentation with their style.

“Broken Soul” is an average attempt at ballad-type song. It just lacks the power and enthusiasm that most of the songs here contain, and as such it feels a bit half-arsed. It almost sounds as though they were attempting such a song just to see if they could pull it off. They could not.Add to this “New Day’s Dawn”, because this seems to be attempting something similar, and it really doesn’t work. Both these songs for me detract from the album. I’m not a nu-metal fan, and it seems to be where this track in particular is leading.

Redemption is immediate with the excellent “Let the Madness Begin” and “God Pounds His Nails”. Both are much more up-tempo, and Jericho’s vocals are at their best here.“Pray For Blood” is a bit cheesy, but Jericho is able to make it work. “Revival” is almost epic in stature, attempting to bring all of the instrumental aspects of the band to a symphonic rhapsody.
Probably the highlight of the album is the closer, “Wormwood”. Unapologetically Dream Theater-esque, this is Fozzy’s attempt at prog rock/metal, and they pull it off brilliantly. Everything about the song shows the amazing versatility of the band. There is no pretence as to the direction this song is written musically, and though it is not Fozzy’s typical song style they do it so well you cannot help but be impressed.

Overall, the album sits above average. Rich Ward is again the stand-out here, his guitaring and riffs once again fully underrated in the wider community. Whether the band has enough commitment to continue in their current line-up is possibly open to question, but this release certainly justifies their continuing efforts to do so.

551. Blaze Bayley / Promise and Terror. 2010. 3/5

With such a solid volume of work behind the band in the past decade, there was some honest anticipation towards this new release from Blaze Bayley.
What I discovered on the first few listens to the album was that it seems quite flat. In many ways, there is little to differentiate between each song, and the power and intensity just doesn't seem to be prevalent. Yes, the songs do start to sound the same, and even after many listens I have trouble distinguishing between the songs.

To be fair to this album in comparison to those he has released up to this point, it had a lot to live up to. Where this release falls down is that it doesn’t maintain the rage for heavy metal like Blood & Belief in particular does. It doesn’t contain anything unexpected or new. The riffs and melodies are all very similar, without the hook to grab you from the outset. No doubt Blaze had a lot on his mind when he was producing this album, and though it is often good to have a general theme running through an album, you need a change in the tone.
Best for me are the openers "Watching the Night Sky" and "Madness and Sorrow".

It is not a bad album, but it is for all intents and purposes an average album. Perhaps the plateau has been reached. I like the album and have no problem listening to it more than a month after first getting it, but how long that lasts for I can't say.

550. Gamma Ray / To The Metal. 2010. 4.5/5

As with pretty much every Gamma Ray release in the band’s history, I was looking forward to this album for months before its release. In these cases you can usually build it up too much in your mind, and as such have some initial disappointment in the outcome (see Heaven & Hell’s The Devil You Know in 2009 for reference). Sometimes this disappointment is too difficult to get past; sometimes you soon see the album in all its glory (as occurred with The Devil You Know).
With To The Metal I initially found small flaws.

There is little doubt that this album harks back more to the power metal aspect of the genre, but there is little compromising from that point on. The arrangement of the songs may be slightly different from recent releases, and the keyboards perhaps are more prominent, but not in a bad way.
The opening tracks are swift and powerful. “Rise” and “Deadlands” in particular are excellent additions to the Gamma Ray legacy. My initial doubts lay in the middle of the album.
“No Need to Cry” is a generic power metal ballad, (written by Dirk apparently over the death of his father, and with Dirk’s vocals through the middle of the song) though with a Gamma Ray twist that helps to make it more bearable than most. This is followed by “Empathy” which is not so generic, but is less in the vein of songs in recent releases. Then comes the title track “To The Metal” which, by all rights, should be the heaviest song on the album, but is more just a chance to chant “hail to the metal” a number of times over and over.
“All You Need To Know” is a lot faster and heavier than the previous three songs in the middle of this album – except when it comes to the chorus, which seems almost deliberately toned down. This is the chorus sung by former Helloween band mate Michael Kiske, whose current aversion to heavy metal is well publicised. It therefore seems a strange choice of song for him to be involved in. Surely on reflection “No Need to Cry” is more his style! Strange…

OK, so I’ve just picked apart the middle of the album, and yes I am being over critical, because I love this band so much, and everything they have produced over twenty years. The truth of the matter is, even though I may appear harsh, I still think all these songs are brilliant. As can probably be guessed, once I got through the first five or six listens, To The Metal had fully grown on me, and I had recognised its excellence.

The continuing brilliance of the musicianship, along with Kai’s scintillating vocals, are just two of the obvious reasons why Gamma Ray is in the top echelon of all metal bands. One often wonders how they can continue to put together such marvellous collections of songs.

549. Foo Fighters / In Your Honor. 2005. 1.5/5

Having just praised the coming of Foo Fighters in my previous review (for Nirvana's In Utero) I now have to backtrack a little and try to understand how this album came together, and the purpose it serves.
OK, so we have a double disc release here, and the early reports did inform (warn) me that the first disc would be the 'rock' album, while the second disc would be a quieter reflection on things. No problem. It's the Foo Fighters, right? How bad could it really be?

Well, 'Album 1' has some reasonably worthwhile tunes on it. Not a solid album overall, but enough there to make you think there is something worth salvaging from the slight wreck.
...and then comes 'Album 2'. Why? What?! Really?!? Look, I'm sure this does cater to some people's tastes, and to those people go my sympathies. Perhaps a more important question is probably - did this band really have this inside them? Was it just a means to release this stuff from their systems? It's not as if they can't write decent ballad-type songs - "February Stars" is probably the finest example of this - but this is just boring, dreary and uninteresting.
Is this by the same man who came up with his concept for the Probot album? Did that album drain all sense of hard rock and metal from his veins? Seriously!!?! I cannot begin to conceive just what was going on here.

Unfortunately this was, and is, a huuuuuuge disappointment. Putting myself through the agony o listening to it all once again over the last couple of days should be penance enough for any wrongs I've done over the past 12 months.

Rating: Completely illogical. 1.5/5

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.

547. Scorpions / In Trance. 1975. 3.5/5

The progress of German band Scorpions had been a slow burn since the first iteration of the band under that name back in 1965, through to the recording of their debut album in 1972 called “Lonesome Crow”. Listening to that album now, or anytime after the 1980’s in fact, is like trying to search out how the band could have gone from the sound they produced in that post-1960's era to what the band became in the MTV era of the 1980’s. On the back of the album, they toured Europe and the UK, and in particular as support to the British hard rock band UFO, who were also trying to find their niche in the music market. So impressed were the band with the Scorpions young guitar prodigy Michael Schenker that they asked him to join their band. Having consulted with older brother Rudolph, who encouraged him to further his career, Michael left Scorpions for UFO. A fusing of two bands, Scorpions and Dawn Red, saw the coming together of Uli Jon Roth (guitars), Francis Buchholz (bass) and Jürgen Rosenthal (drums) with Rudolph Schenker and Klaus Meine, and with it a change in the dynamic of the writing teams. Scorpions split into two camps, with Rudolf and vocalist Klaus Meine on one side and Uli Jon Roth on the other. Their sophomore album “Fly to the Rainbow” saw these new writing partnerships put together for the first time and showed the creative forces that were available, and the meshing of both brought together a different sound from the debut album and yet one that still felt fragmented, not yet ‘a band’.
For the follow up album, another change was forced upon the band. Drummer Jurgen Rosenthal left the band because he was drafted into the Army. He was replaced by Rudy Lenners, another fellow German, and by the time the band entered the studio they were in a much better place. Having toured together now on the back of “Fly to the Rainbow”, they felt like a band and were comfortable within themselves moving forward. The other move that proved to be an important one not only for this album but for those moving forward was the appointment of Dieter Dierks as producer. His influence, not only on this album but for the next decade was an enorous part of the rising success the band experienced.
As such, everything was set up for Scorpions to truly find their feet with their third studio album, and album that with the firm base of the band and its new producer, would be released in September 1975 under the name “In Trance”.

The album kicks off with one of the band’s most interesting songs, “Dark Lady”. It is a typically offbeat Uli Jon Roth track, incorporating his amazing guitaring style that doesn’t seem to stick to the road, it is always looking for off ramps to explore. It is a first for the band with both Uli and Klaus sharing lead vocals. You have Uli on the verses and Klaus screaming on the chorus, shrieking to the heavens. Ui’s solo pieces are just as entertaining. It’s a truly unique song, one that challenges everything that the band has done to this point, and opens the album in an infectious way. To then move from the outwardly raucous beginning to the title track that follows is something that probably shouldn’t work. The quiet almost acoustic opening passage of “In Trance” is a complete opposite to what has come from the opening, and yet, here for the first time, Scorpions make it work, and indeed make it an absolute classic. Not a power ballad per se but with tidings towards that direction, “In Trace” highlights what the writing core of Schenker and Meine produces, a melodic and harmonic track both musically and vocally. The harmony vocals from Klaus in the chorus are spectacular, and the addition of the keys that complements and in no way overpower the beauty of the song are sublime. The power comes from the song, not any singular piece or part of the composition. Scorpions would become one of the greatest composers and writers of power ballads through the years, and while this song doesn’t really classify under that banner it showcases everything great that would be utilised in those songs in the future. As the benchmark, it radiates its aura here. “Life’s Like a River” is another softer rock track that is highlighted by the terrific rhythm of Francis’s basslines and Lenners’ drumbeat, which give the song its deep meaningful sound all the way though. Uli’s solo and Klaus’s manoeuvring vocals highlight the change in tone through the song. This is interesting as it has co-writing credits for Uli and Rudolph, but also Dieter Dierks’s wife Corina Fortmann.
“Top of the Bill” immediately comes in with that wonderful Schenker rhythm guitar riff, the type that he writes so well, that are immediately invoke a reaction that requires air guitar and a mimicking with your voice. While it may sound simple, it is the perfect structure for a Scorpions song, with Burchholtz’s bass running alongside. Klaus sings to the ceiling on this track, telling the story of the rock and roll life, trying to be top of the bill, and the vocal harmonies are superb and add to the dynamic. And Uli plays out the back half of the song in his uniquely fluid style of solo that ends the track on a high. Still a great song in the Scorpions catalogue. This then sweeps back into another slower less energetic tune as per earlier in the album with “Living and Dying”. It is a brooding moody track that sludges through the mire to complete the first side of the album.
Side 2 opens with another killer track, “Robot Man”. Here we are treated to a song that sounds nothing like what has come before it, the guitars and drums drive us out of the blocks at pace, the combination of Schenker’s fast guitar work and Klaus’s vocals picks up the energy and pace from the outset. Klaus and Rudolph showcasing the other side of their writing partnership, the ability to produce a high octane track that pushes the bands boundaries. Then we have the other side of Uli’s writing with the ballad “Evening Wind”, an atmospheric opening heavy on the bass, and back to a morbidly slow pace where everything seems drawn out, Klaus’s vocals and Uli’s guitar solo included. It’s a very blues based song that does brings thoughts of Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin in places. As it fades out, we have the introduction of “Sun in My hand”, which does have a bassline and guitar riff sound that is derivative of other bands of the era, one that is basically repeated through the course of the track while Uli squeals and solos his guitar over the top. The lead vocal is also provided by Uli, which brings the song down in both energy and inspiration. Again, the question can be asked that if you have Klaus Meine in your band, why do you need anyone else providing lead vocals on any track? These two Uli penned tracks are the longest on the album as well, and they do both tend to overstay their welcome. The second of the Roth and Schenker songs is “Longing for Fire”, which is fine, but it just isn’t an inspiring sound like the songs on side one of the album. Francis’s bass is very high in the mix here and sounds good, and Uli’s solo to play out the song again is a highlight. But there is a modicum of averageness about the songs as a whole. And the album then closes out with another Uli track, this time an instrumental titled “Night Lights”. It’s a pretty song, almost a singular playoff between lead guitar and bass guitar. It is that slow, mid-tempo track with dreamlike qualities, almost enough to send you off to sleep by. Is that the way you want a Scorpions album to finish? Given down the track they almost always ended with the ballad, perhaps it is one and the same.

For all those playing at home, you will have heard on the very recent episode I did on Scorpions second live album “World Wide Live” that it was my true introduction to the band, and that everything that I discovered came after that. When it came to the 1970’s albums, including “In Trance”, that was quite a few years after that fact. I had happily sat with the 1980’s second phase of the band’s career albums for quite some time, and not really given those early albums much thought at all, until I then got another album that I have reviewed on this podcast all the way back in January, episode number 6 of this season, called “A Tribute to the Scorpions”, which had a wide range of Scorpions songs covered by other bands, some well known, others not so much. And, what I discovered on that album was not only new bands I needed to check out, but some great songs that I only had a minor grasp on. And it was at this point that I decided that I needed to invest in those first five studio albums, along with the first live album, from the band, and see what I had missed along the way.
“In Trance” is an interesting fulcrum for this lineup of the band, of the Uli Jon Roth years. Michael Schenker had been in the band for the debut album and was a heavy influence in the writing. On “Fly to the Rainbow” he had moved on to UFO, but in agreeing to let him go he had had to help with writing that album, which meant Uli only had one writing credit on that album, even though his guitaring was noticeably different and a major part of the sound of that album. Here on “In Trance”, we have the first teu album of this line up, with Schenker and Meiene writing together on one hand, and most Uli Jon Roth on his own on the other. And this created the different pathways that helped create the uniqueness of this band. Both writing teams produced both genres of tracks – the hard rock to heavy songs and the slower to ballad songs – but they did it in their own way. “Dark Lady” and “Robot Man” for instance, which open up either side of the album, are similar in pace and heaviness, but are different because of the different writers. The same can be said in comparing “Sun in My Hand” and “Living and Dying”. This is where the band moved on this album, and it can be argued that it is more authentic as a result.
Having had the album out again, for the first time in a while, over the last few days, I find that there are songs that stand out more than others. I question – as I almost always do – the decision to have fast paced energetic songs immediately followed by softer quieter and slower tracks, and then back again. Some albums are good enough structurally to be able to handle these changes without by default losing focus. Others are not. Having the momentum of the album drained or constantly changed may be something that some people enjoy. For me it is often an album killer. There is some truth in that for me with “In Trance”, but I must say that I can overlook that when it comes to this album. I’d prefer it structured another way, but that is not how the bad wanted it to be, and when it comes to the Scorpions I will allow it. Perhaps it is just because I don’t listen to this album as much as I do others, you know, those from the 1980’s that I mostly grew up with. With “In Trance”, when I DO put it on to listen to it, I let it flow as it is put out there.
This is an album that the Scorpions fans who are bigger fans of the 1970’s decade Uli Jon Roth years love to a fault. And I can understand why. It has all of those qualities that make it one of their best of that era. It also has some of their best songs of the era, “Dark Lady” and “In Trance” and the brilliant “Top of the Bill”. It is, remarkably, now 50 years old, and that in itself is something to ponder, to consider how an album of this type has weathered over the massive changes in the music world since its conception. As it turns out, it has weathered pretty well.

546. Led Zeppelin / In Through the Out Door. 1979. 3/5

Led Zeppelin’s amazing run through the end of the 1960’s and through the 1970’s saw fans elevate them to legendary status, both through record sales and concert tickets sales, both of which had reached extraordinary heights by the time their 7th studio album “Presence” had been released in 1976. The band had toured extensively behind it as well and appeared to be on a constant rise in the eyes of their fans. In some ways however, there were doubts beginning to crop up as to how long this could all be sustained. In some quarters “Presence” received a mixed reaction, with the band changing their output to exclude acoustic ballads and intricate arrangements, and instead look for a more straight forward rock guitar sound. They were also unable to tour their home UK at this time for tax exile reasons, and then vocalist Robert Plant and his wife Maureen were involved in a serious car crash while on holiday in Greece. Plant suffered a broken ankle and Maureen was badly injured. This meant the band was losing the hearts of those fans. On top of this, both guitarist Jimmy Page and drummer John Bonham were facing their own addictions, Page to heroin and Bonham to... everything.
To cover for not being able to tour in 1976 the band released the concert film “The Song Remains the Same” along with the live album to accompany it, but the reception was lukewarm at best. A 1977 tour of the US saw big crowds in attendance, but it was then cut short by the news of the death of Plant's five-year-old son due to a stomach virus. It put the band on an indefinite hiatus.
It wasn’t until another 15 months had passed that the band reconvened and began to write and record their next album, and even that was made difficult through events. The album was named to describe its struggles after the death of Plant's son and the taxation exile the band took from the UK which resulted in the band being unable to tour on British soil for more than two years, and trying to get back into the public mind was therefore like "trying to get in through the 'out' door." And thus became the start of Led Zeppelin’s determined course to lift its profile once again, one that ultimately came to signal the end of more things than was expected.

The songs composed for this album again show a different style to what the band had produced early in their career. This could be attributed to the fact that both Page and Bonham were still very much in the throes of their own addictions, and this resulted in them being less involved in the process from the rehearsing and writing stage. Both often failed to show up on time at the recording studio, which left bass guitarist and keyboardist John Paul Jones and Robert Plant to their own devices, and as a result the music written for the album saw their greater influence. This skewed the direction eventually taken, with Page for the first time not being credited on every song on a Led Zeppelin album. It also got to the point that Jones and Plant would arrange the songs during the day, and Page and Bonham would come in at night to put down their parts. It seemed like something that would not be sustainable down the track, but that was a problem for another day. There is also in increase in the front and centre position of the keyboards being utilised by Jones on this album. In the past the keys have been there, but act as a secondary styled instrument behind Page’s guitar and Jones’s bass. In a lot of ways the music on the album acts as a transition from what the band had achieved in its early years... to what could have been for the future. The rise of the synth and keys with the rise of new wave in the early 1980’s does tend to cultivate this thought.
Of the seven tracks created and recorded for the album, there is more atmosphere from the keys than the stomp of the guitar and drums. And the changing face of the songs does make for some rearranging when it comes to fans of the band. The opening track “In the Evening” tends to process this, with the quiet opening and then serene melodic guitar in the middle bookended by a harder beat and Plant’s vocals that come across in a very un-Plant way. “South Bound Saurez” follows with a very southern blues rock piano dominating the song, and the low mixing of everything else. This is one of two songs on the album credited to Plant and Jones without Page, and the music of the song does play this out. Then comes “Fool in the Rain”, which combines differing rhythms in a basic rock sound, and ends up coming across as a repeatable tempo plod through the first half of the track, and then a faster beat into the second half. It almost has a reggae feel at different times which was not unusual for music at the time but surely was unusual for a band such as Led Zeppelin. “Hot Dog” then goes in a different direction once again, incorporating rockabilly ragtime piano again with almost Elvis-like vocals throughout. It’s short and sweet, and draws on very US country themes as well. It’s a strange song, one that takes some time to get used to.
“Carouselambra” is a 10 minute monster, dominated throughout by Jones’s keyboards. And this is something that I mentioned earlier, that the keyboards and synth sounds on this album, and in this song in particular, showcase the way that new wave was impacting the music work at the time, and how it then began to be so prominent especially in the UK music scene. So while this may not be what many would classify as a typical Led Zeppelin track, it did come across as a glimpse of the future. Even if Led Zeppelin was not to be a part of that. And it is interesting to ponder whether the band would have explored that further after this, or if they were to return to their hard rock roots as the members suggested in interviews after this album’s release. “All My Love” is the second Plant/Jones composition, which is about Plant’s son. Jones plays a keys and synth solo throughout the middle section of the song inspired and flavoured by classical music, offset by Page’s quietly sombre guitar leading out the song. The album the concludes with “I’m Gonna Crawl”, a blues/soul track with the extra addition of Jones’s synth again proving a dominating factor. Once you have listened to the whole album, it is amazing that that instrument has had such a heavy influence on the album, but by this point it is the easily held conclusion.

As I have probably mentioned somewhere here before, I have never been the biggest Led Zeppelin fan. My appreciation of their work has only really come as I have gotten older, but when I was growing up it was a little like ‘old people’s music’. I had acquaintances at school who kept telling me I HAD to listen to albums like “Houses of the Holy” and” Led Zeppelin III” because they are the BUILDING BLOCKS of rock music!... but I generally didn’t find that to be the case. The only Led Zeppelin I owned for a very long time was the Remasters double CD released in 1990, which I really enjoyed, as the songs chosen by Jimmy Page to remaster on that album were terrific. But for a long time that was enough for me.
Eventually I found a time where I began to go back in time and try and collect albums and bands that I knew I should probably listen to but had never done so, and Led Zeppelin was one of those bands. And through that, I eventually got around to “In Through the Out Door”.
When it came to doing this episode however, I had no recollection of what I thought of it at the time. I had to delve back to my old reviews that I had done over 20 years ago, and find the couple of paragraphs I had written when I was first listening to this album. And what I had written is this. “Compared to the ground breaking efforts that Led Zeppelin made early in their recording career, this is just average. Not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, but just a run-of-the-mill one that suffers more for the name of the band that recorded it than the material it contains. Certainly, listening to the album again today, none of the songs jumped out at me as memorable in any fashion. Probably its most damning critique”.
Listening to it over the past couple of weeks, and it is quite probable that I have listened to it more in that time than for the rest of my life combined, I again fall back on that old word to describe my feelings for it. “Appreciation”. Because I appreciate the music here, but I don’t love it. It is an interesting listen but now that the episode is completed, I don’t know how often it is going to come off the shelves again.
This proved to be the band’s final offering, with drummer John Bonham’s passing just over a year after its release, and the band’s unwillingness to continue without him. This was the only album that did not have a song credited to him, the reason behind that the same as for his eventual demise. This album therefore concludes the career of one of the most influential bands of their age.