796. Stryper / To Hell With the Devil. 1986. 4/5

To be completely honest, I have absolutely zero idea exactly how I first came to hear of this band, and this album in particular. It was 1987, it was my final year of high school, and I was trying to grab any piece of hard rock/heavy metal music I could find. Stryper announced a tour of Australia, and about of dozen of my group got tickets to go. I'm hazy on whether I had heard this album before that moment, but I certainly listened to it a lot in those months leading up to the tour. I know the band appeared on the "Midday Show" on Channel 9 with the Rev. Fred Nile, who tried to denounce them on live TV, and they were able to win the crowd over in attendance (Nile even had his photo taken with them wearing a leather jacket). So I knew they were a Christian band before getting into the album, that much is somewhat clear. Given my non-religious views and that of my parents, it must have confused them slightly at the time. It probably confused me as well.

So how to take this album? I take it the same way I take albums like Slayer's Hell Awaits or Morbid Angel's Covenant or Mercyful Fate's Melissa. All great albums and all with lyrics that aren't anything I consider important to me or to be a way of leading my life. I love all of these albums on their musical merit and not on anything that the lyrics in the songs may be trying to represent. It is fine that Stryper is a Christian band, and that they are trying to spread their message in their music. Good for them, go right ahead. I'll pass on the message thanks, but I will enjoy some ripping tunes all the same, and try to ignore some rather dreadful ones at the same time.
If I was to focus on the ballads here, I wouldn't get more than a fifth of a second into the album before frisbeeing it across the room into a wall at a thousand miles an hour. Hair metal bands breed power ballads like rabbits, and most of them are just awful. There's no hiding from them here either. "Honestly" is a travesty, that keyboard-based touch-your-heart kind of puking vomit that makes some people feel good about themselves, but which just makes me want to gouge my own eyes out. Michael Sweet can sing, but oh please no more of this! Of course, there is more, because "All of Me" is the Side 2 equivalent of this. It could conceivably be its twin, and they both terribly corrupt the great music that is otherwise prevalent on the album. I can tell you that it was a painful act on my original vinyl copy of this album having to get up and lift the needle off these tracks each time they came on and replacing it at the start of the next good song. Transferring it to cassette for the car took that problem out, as did they 'skip' button when the CD version was purchased, and also now that it has been transferred to a digital copy as well.
Let's get to the important stuff. The opening track "To Hell With the Devil" is a balltearer, and was my first taste of Michael Sweet's pipes - bloody hell, this guy can SING! Then get a load of those twin guitars of Sweet and Oz Fox. Awesome, and more was to come. "Calling On You" falls back to a more basic hard rock track, but is still impressive. "Free" falls into the same category, good solid songs with great harmony vocals throughout. Then after the moroseness of "Honestly" you get the gem of "The Way", a charging metal track highlighted by Michael's amazing vocals. Those notes he hits at the end of the song are just amazing. Even more so when you hear him sing it live, because yes, he does it just as well and note perfect. Ridiculous.
Side 2 commences with "Sing-Along Song", which seems to be a metaphor for a kids song - surely it had to be when they came up with the title. "Holding On" is a straight forward, less convincing track that could have done with a little more power when they wrote it. "Rockin' the World" is much better, faster, heavier and with a more enjoyable beat to it. After the second abominable track, the album finishes with the hard rocking "More Than a Man".

As I mentioned, I saw Stryper when they toured Australia on this album. 28 years later and it is still the loudest concert I have ever seen. The band was brilliant, and Michael Sweet sings everything the same live as he does in the studio. The memory of that brilliant gig probably continues to prop up my enjoyment of this album. I still think the positives far outweigh the negatives here, though it will always held in higher esteem with me through the tinge of nostalgia it will always bring whenever I listen to it, I think it still holds most of that of its own accord.

Rating:  You want it, we got it, rock that lifts you up it doesn't bring you down.  4/5

795. Whitesnake / Slip of the Tongue. 1989. 5/5

The five-year period that led up to the recording and release of this album had seen significant change in the Whitesnake army. Much of this is outlined on the episode dedicated to this album’s predecessor “1987” which can be found in Season 2 of this podcast, with the departure of John Sykes following the recording of that album, with Adrian Vandenberg coming in on one guitar, and then the brief tenure of Vivian Campbell coming in to complete the tour as the second guitarist. There had been some rumblings from long-time fans of the band that the group's leader David Coverdale was changing the sound of the band far too much from their original blues rock roots in order to chase commercial success in the US. Most of that was overridden by the fact that the album DID make progress on that country’s charts, and so the experiment had appeared to be working.
With Coverdale and Vandenberg combining to begin writing for the follow up album, Campbell was given his marching orders, ostensibly being fired by Coverdale because Campbell’s wife and Coverdale’s partner did not get on. Vandenberg was set on being the sole guitarist of the band in the same way John Sykes had been previously, but with writing well underway it became obvious that due to a worsening wrist injury that required surgery he would be unable to perform on the album. In order to get the album recorded, Coverdale came up with a winner in being able to convince guitar prodigy Steve Vai to leave his gig with David Lee Roth and instead record with, and eventually tour with Whitesnake. Vandenberg, in retrospective interviews, has claimed that Vai’s interpretation of the songs that Vandenberg wrote was too flamboyant, and that he felt they required a more bluesy approach, perhaps more like a traditional sounding Whitesnake album. That was never going to be the case with Vai’s guitaring style. What it did was bring a more modern sound to the guitars on this album that had been the case in the past, and actually make it stand out from the pack of what was being released in the commercial hard rock and glam metal market at the time of its release. Perhaps Vandenberg just felt jipped, because he had come along after the recording of the “1987” album, and now missed out on playing on the new album as well.

What you will get here today is a more personalised review of the songs on this album. And a fair bit of fanboying over the guitaring od Steve Vai as a result. Because to me this album does not get anywhere near the respect and love that it deserves, so I am going to offer a little bit up for it here on my podcast. Because I can. Because there is too much to like here in Steve's guitaring.
Take the brilliant start and then furious picking on the main riff under the verse to "Wings of the Storm" as just one example. It electrifies the album, lighting it up with a joyful kind of excitement, and along with the brilliant enthusiasm of David's vocals it makes this one of the many highlights of the album. And I'm not sure this could have been achieved if it had been played in the way that Adrian Vandenberg envisioned that it should be. Listen to the layered guitar solos playing off against each other in the break, and then the feverish end of the solo with Vai's fingers flying across that fretboard. Stunning and amazing.
The album is a mix of those brilliant fast paced hard rock anthems, the bluesy slower thought pieces, radio friendly love-and-anguish based tracks and the soulful ballad-based lyrical songs that have a slightly harder edge on the guitars and drums, all of which Vandenberg deserves credit for being a co-writer of. "Fool For Your Loving 89" is another re-recording of one of the band's songs from a previous album, this one originally from “Ready an' Willing”. I love both versions, and it's funny how both versions were released as singles. This version’s single of course was the lead single released from the album and did good business in getting fans to buy the album. "The Deeper the Love" is very bluesy, and Steve's guitaring throughout is very circumspect in keeping with the mood of the song. This is a throwback to the late 70’s early 80’s style of the band and is a great reminder of the strength of the songs from that era as well. "Now You're Gone" is in this mood too, a ballad like song that has that harder edge, making it into more of a rock ballad than a blues ballad, which I prefer and enjoy more because of this. It echoes “Is This Love?” from the previous album. Perhaps the only real disappointment of the album is the penultimate song "Slow Poke Music". While it isn't a bad song as such, its averageness tends to be noticed much more given the two songs it is sandwiched between.
How about that start to the album though? From the get-go, Tommy Aldridge pumps those drums, Rudy Sarzo who has also come on board to record this album hammers that bass guitar, Steve Vai flies his fingers up and down the neck of his guitar, and David Coverdale takes hold of the microphone and gets those vocal chords vibrating. "Slip of the Tongue" careers out of the speakers and sets the tone for the whole album to come. What a top notch song to kick off the album. Not only is Vai’s guitaring incredible, but it also drives Coverdale's vocals to the top of his range which is just incredible. An amazing start. This is followed by the tongue in cheek "Cheap an' Nasty" which is right up Coverdale's alley in regard to lyric writing. I love Tommy's drumming in this song, breaking out the cowbell and emphasising every beat. Great stuff. “Kittens Got Claws” emphasises that speed element once again, and also Coverdale’s ability to write lyrics with that double meaning that can be interpreted however you would like to.
Then we come to the back of the album. Coverdale's vocals are spectacular in "Judgement Day", driving a punch in that song over the moody rhythm that makes up the basis of the track. While each member has their part in creating the scene of the song, the amazing atmosphere created by the vocals here is magnificent in showcasing his undoubted talent. This song gets lost a little bit in a live setting, but on the studio recording it is almost the star showing of this album. I still get shivers listening to it, especially that final push of vocals into the final bridge and chorus, and then Vai’s guitar playing out the track. Amazing stuff. To finish it all off comes "Sailing Ships", which builds slowly throughout from the serene to an amazing climax with Coverdale again front and centre with an amazing vocal performance and Steve Vai complementing it perfectly. It truly closes out the album on a high, with amazing power and energy from each member of the band.

Want to know how to polarise opinion? Get together with a bunch of Whitesnake fans, and pose the question, "When did the band release their best material, pre-1983 or post 1983?" That's a debate that will get emotional and passionate, divide the room and create a heated discussion. Nothing will be resolved of course, because the majority of people who grew up with the immediate post-Deep Purple era Whitesnake will insist those first albums are far superior to anything that was released later on. I came along just a little later, and took my Whitesnake apprenticeship on albums such as “Whitesnake [aka 1987]” and “Slip of the Tongue”. I still think those early albums are awesome, but for me, “Slip of the Tongue” is the top of the tree. There is no doubt many will see this as an overblown late-80's hair metal pop-fest with a guitarist on an ego trip and a lead singer in a similar vein. I think those people are only hearing what's on the surface, and not allowing the music to move through them. I am also aware that I have had this album since the first day it was released, and have worn out my vinyl copy, my CD copy, and now my digital copy. It has been ingrained in me since that first day, and it grows with me as I grow older. Any flaws that someone may find with this album I will probably see with rose tinted glasses. And let's face it, isn't that the way you SHOULD approach the music you love? Because it doesn't matter what anyone else says about albums that affect you the way this always has with me, because music speaks differently to everyone. And this for me will always be one of my favourites.
After having lived off “1987” for a good 18 months, I was champing at the bit for a new album by the time this came to our record stores in late 1989. John Sykes had gone, as had his replacement Vivian Campbell, who I had been dying to hear play on a new Whitesnake album. Then bugger me, Steve Vai gets drafted in! Incredible! And then it got even better when it was announced that Vai had in fact played ALL of the guitars on the album! Wow. Pinch me. How can this not be a triumph?
I can see why some fans of Whitesnake may not like this album. The early albums, and even the latter day albums with Doug Aldrich and Reb Beach and Joel Hoekstra on guitar, all have that very bluesy rock feel about the songs. It was a trademark of the music. Some of that was acid-washed away on 1987, and it has almost completely gone here on this album, no doubt mainly through Steve Vai's influence on guitar. To be honest, I believe this is why I love this album so much, because Steve has infused so much energy into these songs with his flairs and flails on his guitar, which may not have been the case if the guitar duties had been shared in the recording process or only been played by Vandenberg.
So yes, I love this album, and have from the moment I bought it. And this is one of those albums that comes out consistently to be played again. So having had my CD copy out again for the past three weeks, it has been like a walk back in time. And each and every listen has been like reliving great memories from the past, and still marvelling at the brilliance of Aldridge, Sarzo, Vai and Coverdale. It’s a shame that they couldn’t all remain solid following the tour to support this album. I’d have loved to have heard if Coverdale and Vandenberg could have pulled it off again with Vai not running the whole show musically. At least, for a short shining moment in time, they were able to do so to get this album done.

794. Red Dragon Cartel / Red Dragon Cartel. 2014. 3/5

Any one who grew up listening to Ozzy Osbourne's albums Bark at the Moon and The Ultimate Sin knows that as good as Ozzy is, the star of those two albums is the guitarist, one Jake E. Lee. Despite a problem in acknowledging exactly who did write the majority of the material on those two albums, it is obvious that Jake was an overwhelming influence over the music and direction of the material, and his guitar playing is superb throughout, with signature solos that resonate through the ages. Upon his dismissal from the band he went on to form Badlands, another gem of a band whose first two albums are touched by brilliance. Despite the animosity between himself and lead singer Ray Gillen before he sadly passed away, both Badlands and Voodoo Highway are solid albums. And then Jake just seemed to disappear from the face of the music world.

Fast forward to 2014, and a sudden announcement comes to me of a new band bringing out their debut album. The band's name is Red Dragon Cartel, and is helmed by the one and only Jake E. Lee! How did this creep up on me so suddenly? No matter, I have to get this album. I have find out just what this person whom I so admired in my youth is going to produce 20-odd years after the last new material I heard him play. As could probably be expected, it's a bit of a mixture.
The album starts off on a positive cracking note, with a ripping guitar riff starting off "Deceived". Fast paced and heavy, this has all the elements to make the listener immediately stand up and take notice. "Shout It Out" follows with a slower paced hard drum sound, and vocalist Darren Smith testing both ends of his vocal range. This is very much in the alternative metal genre. "Feeder" features the vocal talents of Cheap Trick's Robin Zander, and reverts to a much natural hard rock themed tune. It is a good song, but perhaps rests on the laurels of the known vocalist than anything especially brilliant musically about it. "Fall From the Sky (Seagull)" is somewhat of a letdown, with the tuning back of all pretence of speed or rock, while Smith's vocals do struggle to sing in a register that makes it feel halfway suitable. Probably an opportunity to have someone else sing this song if it was going to work well. Which is amusing that it then leads into "Wasted" which has Paul Di'Anno bringing his rough and roughshod vocals into the mix, which sounds good but was also perhaps a lost opportunity to really add more metal to this track to also make it as promising as it could be.
"Slave" is possibly the heaviest song on the album, with a gutteral guitar riff and fast paced drums set off along with some great vocals from Smith, probably his best of the album. "Big Mouth" features Maria Brink from In This Moment, and is a slow paced heavy monster reminiscent of Godsmack. This is a real impact song from the band, very unlike Jake's typical style of song with slamming drums and amazing guitar work from Jake himself, while Maria's vocals set it all off perfectly. This was a real surprise packet. "War Machine" has a real Black Sabbath feel to it, both musically and vocally. It's a real stomping beat, and Smith even sings it in a way that is reminiscent of Ozzy in his Sabbath days (albeit in a much lower register). Great stuff. "Redeem Me" with Sass Jordan on vocals is a serviceable enough hard rock song, though without the fire and guitar hooks of previous songs. "Exquisite Tenderness" completes the album, and is a piano piece featuring just Jake playing, a mellow piece to finish the album with a reminder than he is not just a guitarist.

Though the use of guest vocalists along the way can tend to deceive you on how you feel about an album, this one holds up pretty well all the way through. It may not be perfect, but it is a joy to hear Jake E. Lee playing once again in a band situation. Hopefully it won't be the last.

Rating:  Bodies burning the whole world is turning insane.  3/5

793. Queen / Queen II. 1974. 4/5

Queen has always been amazing in the studio. The way that they record their instruments and their vocals, and layer them over each other a thousand ways and the get the sound onto their albums that they do is remarkable. With equipment in the modern age it is a whole lot easier to do, but to do it well still takes talent. These guys were able to do it on limited studio time and budgets, and come up with amazing sounding albums. It is quite possible that in this regard, “Queen II” is the standout.
As was related in the episode in Season 5 of this podcast on Queen’s debut album, the delay in its release meant that the band had already moved on from those songs by the time it was released, and had already not only been writing new material but playing new material in their live sets. The first recording sessions for this album actually came less than a month after the first album’s final release, such was the desire of the band to move on from that experience and begin creating even more elaborate and complex songs that their first experience in the studio had been incapable of producing.
Having spent their time on the debut album recording in off hours of Trident Studios to save on costs, this time the band insisted on being able to use the studio during more regular hours. They also had a number of songs already written, but because of their complexity, and the desire of the band to make sure that they were given the time they deserved, they had held them back to be recorded at a time when they had greater freedom to express themselves in the studio, something they had created for themselves with the delivery of that first album.
Recording took place over a number of months, interspersed with short tours in support of bands such as Mott the Hoople as well as their own shows. Their record company wanted to hold back the release as long as possible, as the debut album had only come out recently in some territories and they did not want to overlap the sales of that album with the release of the follow up. It became one of the most ambitious projects of the band’s career, providing such a unique collection of tracks and wall of sound recording techniques that it not only inspired a new generation of recording artists with its sound, but found a fan base that accepted its virtues without really being sure of how they felt about it.

The band's little gimmick for this album was that rather than have the album with Side A and Side B, they chose to have Side White and Side Black, which also had differing personalities of the music as a result. The White side of the album was almost completely composed by Brian May, apart from the last song which was composed by Roger Taylor, while the Black side was completely composed by Freddie Mercury. It’s interesting that they claimed that this was because of the style of music rather than the composer, something that would surprise those that know the style of music each artist preferred to write.
After opening with the instrumental piece "Procession" the album moves into "Father and Son". There are so many pieces to this song that it is hard sometimes to take it all in. There are the quiet, slower parts where the piano or acoustic guitar may be playing, with Freddie's mellow voice singing his sweet vocals over the top, and other pieces where Roger's drums and Brian's guitar crash in and play in an almost heavy metal way, before coming to a conclusion in a more typical Queen type atmosphere. There's a bit of everything here, and it is not the only song that has this. "White Queen (As It Began)" was apparently written some years earlier by Brian, and once again mixes a multitude of guitars and slightly heavier moments with greater moments of acoustic guitars and of reflection from Freddie. It is interesting listening to these songs given Brian’s and Roger’s preference for more uptempo and guitar/drum invested hard rock. "Some Day One Day" is another of Brian's songs, the first to have Brian on lead vocals for the entire song. Again, the acoustic guitars dominate, while another mix of many electrified guitars punctuate through the middle and end of the song. The closing song of the White side is Roger's "The Loser in the End", on which he also sings lead vocal throughout. I always enjoy Roger’s contributions to Queen albums, and when he sings lead vocal as he does here it adds to the depth of the album.
The Black side of the album continues the rare mix of acoustic and electrified timing changes along with the multi-layered instrumentalising that preceded it, but perhaps with a greater frenzy. "Ogre Battle" would be a case in point. The beginning of the song is actually the end of the song in reverse, before bursting into a heavy drum beat and guitar riff from Brian and John. Freddie and Roger's vocal melodies scream over the top, while the middle of the song is a cacophony of guitars and Freddie 'ogre' screams. An ogre battle indeed, this ranks as one of Queen's heaviest songs. This then segues into "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke", by which Freddie was inspired by the painting of the same name by Richard Dadd. The chaotic and frenetic qualities of the song could be accurately portrayed by the painting itself, which surprisingly when you look at it you can feel the way Freddie wrote this song. Terrific. Another segue moves into "Nevermore", another quieter and soothing song following the energy that has been used in the previous two tracks. This short break is then followed by "The March of the Black Queen", where the sound levels are cranked up again, unleashing the boundaries of Queen's every resource. Fast and heavy drums and guitars mix with quiet vocal melodies over acoustic guitar, and multi layered guitars and vocals blend into piano driven choirs of tunes. As they were to do again in the future with similar success, several different pieces of music has been fused together to create a spectacular piece. This is still an amazing song, and when you listen to it you can understand why it just couldn’t be reproduced to be played live on stage. It is a production in itself, a song that for a band’s second album is truly remarkable. "Funny How Love Is" follows this, built around a wall of multi-tracked vocals, piano and guitar, with Freddie's lead standing out at the front of the song. To complete the album is the brilliant and timeless "Seven Seas of Rhye", now in its completed form with lyrics, after an uncompleted section appeared on their first album. This was the only single lifted from the album and was the band's first Top Ten single in the UK.

For those who are paying attention to my Queen album retrospectives, you already know that my discovery of Queen came by the radio singles, and then the arrival of “The Works”, which recently received its own episode here on this podcast. And it wasn’t for a few years after that moment that I went back to listen to all of the albums from the 1970’s rather than concentrate on the “Greatest Hits” album and the “Live Killers” album. And it is fair to say that when I got around to “Queen II” for the first time, it was completely different from anything I expected. And it still is today. There’s no ‘singles’ being written for radio airplay here. This is an album that utilises every recording technique that can be found in the studio (no synths though! - that much is made clear in the linear notes). The songs rise and fall, fade and then bounce back hard in your face. Guitar on guitar on guitar, vocals layered time and again. A cacophony of sound, coming at you out of the speakers. It was all a lot to take in those first number of times I listened to the album, and perhaps it isn’t a surprise that it didn’t grab me at first. In fact, it took quite a while to grow on me. I went through much of the remainder of the band’s catalogue, and knowing what I liked and didn’t like, before I finally settled on “Queen II” again, and listened to it again. And, perhaps finally, having it on my stereo, and just sitting back and appreciateing it rather than playing the album while doing other things, and looking to radio songs to sing along to, is where I found my goal. The amazing way the band has constructed the album, to appreciate their incredible musicianship throughout, and enjoy the way the songs opened themselves out. Yes, it really did take me some time to get this album, but once I did, I discovered something unique and special, something that in the years since has allowed me to marvel at this album along with those who have always marveled at its wondrous sounds.
Along with the debut album that followed it, “Queen II” was the opening act of Queen’s career, as they experimented with their own influences to make a sound that was uniquely theirs, something with which they succeeded. From “Sheer Heart Attack” onwards there was a more structured way about the songs the band wrote (albeit still in a unique and multi-faceted way). What you have here is a band that was willing to do things their way, and record songs in a way that emphasised and utilised their many boundless talents to create an album that sounded bigger than an album with four members had any right to be. While it made playing some of the songs live an impracticality, it makes for an amazing sounding album. Not everyone will get it or perhaps be able to appreciate it for its brilliance, and of course it took me a long time to discover this myself. I for one now continue to marvel at the techniques used here, and the material that it provides.

792. Michael Kiske / Instant Clarity. 1996. 1/5

There was always going to be an element of ridicule in going into tracking down, purchasing and then listening to this album. It's like watching a movie and knowing how it is going to end, but you watch it anyway, because there is always that chance that you could be mistaken, and it could end a different way. Michael Kiske was a known quality. The brilliant lead singer who presided over arguably Helloween's two finest albums, Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I and Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II, and then was heavily involved in the writing and performing of arguably their two worst albums, Pink Bubbles Go Ape and Chameleon. It was following Chameleon that he was fired from Helloween, and he publicly divulged his abhorrence of heavy metal as a medium, and wanted to hide as far away from it as he possibly could. Thus is the double-edged sword of buying Instant Clarity - you want to hear work from this marvellous singer, but you just know that in all probability it is going to be absolute rubbish.
Guess what?! This is EXACTLY how you expect this album to be if you weighed up all of the factors above. This is Michael's first solo album, and the songs range in style from the boring and predictable to the astoundingly bizarre. Ballads and slow songs abound, causing writhing on the floor and gagging and the odd moment of 'Exorcist' vomiting whilst they assault your senses.

The opening track "Be True to Yourself" I guess is a metaphor for Michael's new-found desire to no longer be "metal". This track emphasises this to a point, being a very dull and boring soft rock sachet of his feelings. However, as if to counter this, we immediately clamber into "The Calling", which not only was co-written by (at the time formerly of ) Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith, it features him on guitar as well, and suddenly the whole tempo of the album is lifted. This is a much better song, with Michael's vocals soaring over a heavier guitar riff and drum beat, and enhanced by a great guitar solo in the middle. Great stuff! So unexpected, and so very appreciated! However, we come screaming back to earth with "Somebody Somewhere", with a dreadfully boring, completely awful, moaning and whining soft rock ballad type song that erases all merit within the first few bars, and does not lift above that again during the course of the song. Oh, but do you think that's bad? Well, take a listen to "Burned Out", which continues down that same path, and yet manages to even out do the previous song with awfulness. So this is what Michael's vision of music was, that which dragged Chameleon into one of the most disappointing albums I have ever bought? Wow. This really is just... unbelievable.
You wonder then how you can then come up with the next song, "New Horizons". Co-written again with Adrian Smith, but also here with former band mate Kai Hansen. After two songs that made me feel my life was seeping away from me, this clicks straight back into gear, and brings a close approximation of metal back to the album. It isn't as 'metal' as "The Calling", but the solo break is a dream, picking out both guitarists solo's is just so easy, and both are brilliant. It's like chalk and cheese between these two tracks and everything else on the album, and an indication of what we may have gotten a few years before this. What a shame.  "Hunted" seems to have a bit of this harder stuff seep into it just from being placed next to it on the album, and is much more listenable because of it.
"Always" is a dreadful piano based ballad, something that does not appeal to me in almost any form. It is written and dedicated to the memory of former Helloween drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg, who had committed suicide the previous year. For that, I am willing to forgive this song its liberties. "Thanx a Lot!" has Michael using effects on his vocals. Why does Michael Kiske need effects on his vocals?! Madness. "Time's Passing By" is very AOR oriented, utilising acoustic and clean guitar most of the way through, thus shunting any hint of power out of the song. There are so many styles being utilised here it's hard to keep track. I don't know what "So Sick" is. Is it a carnival song? Is it a way for the band to have one song that stands out from the pack in a slightly different, interesting manner? I'm not sure. It's different in a stylistic way, and Michael goes with the effects on his vocals again, but not in a way that would be regarded as memorable in a good way. Then, to close out this boredom-fest in style, we have the ten-and-a-half minute ballad "Do I Remember a Life?", which drags on interminably, never really sure when or if it wants to end. Great gosh almighty, it takes a certain amount of courage and will power to hang in for the entire song.

Like I said at the start, I knew what I was in for when I went in to this. It was only in the hope that I could find something out of the ordinary, something unexpected, that I made the effort to find this and listen to it. And to be honest, both "The Calling" and "New Horizons" were enough to say that it wasn't a complete waste of time to track it down. And it was nice to have a song that was dedicated to the memory of Ingo. But the rest really does belong in the crap bucket of easy listening soft rock or something of the sort. Without those two songs, this could well have been a zero.

Rating:  The further you get the more you use it up.  1/5

Listen to full album here

791. L.A. Guns / L.A. Guns. 1988. 4/5

Towards the end of the hair metal explosion that had been brought on by the bands such as Motley Crue, Poison, W.A.S.P., Cinderella, Bon Jovi and others, came the initial release by L.A. Guns, a band that had done more hard yards than most to get themselves to a point where they could actually release their debut album. It finally came in this eponymously titled album.

The band was still evolving even as they approached and then ended the recording process. Singer Paul Black was moved on after the band signed the recording deal, and replaced by Phil Lewis, who sang on the album. The majority of the album though had been co-written by Black, so his influence was still marked on this release. Then after recording had been completed, drummer Nickey Alexander was replaced by Steve Riley from W.A.S.P. Even though he didn't play on the album he is credited as the band's drummer on the album itself.
The opening songs really set the tone for the album, and immediately set the right impression. The jaunty and jumping balance of "No Mercy", "Sex Action" and "One More Reason" are instant hits, the kind of songs that draw you straight into the album one after the other. All albums need this kind of lure to start off with, to be able to grab the listeners attention from the start and not give them any reason to either stop the album or start skipping songs. These are the three songs that pretty much let you know if you are an L.A. Guns fan or not (along with "Never Enough" from Cocked and Loaded). If you have been through the album a couple of times and these three songs haven't got you hooked, then you should probably look elsewhere. "Electric Gypsy" and "Nothing to Lose" and "Bitch is Back" continue the trend set by the opening three tracks. They mightn't be the songs that you necessarily remember, but once you reach them on the album, you still know all the lyrics, and you air guitar along with the great solos in the middle. "Nothing to Lose" especially has always been a favourite for me.
The quiet instrumental "Cry No More" is the signal for something sinister to occur. "One Way Ticket" is a ballad that is clichéd, and been done a billion times over. I know there is a huge need to write and record these kinds of songs, because it was seen (possibly still is) as the way to procure radio airplay. I don't know if it succeeded in this instance, but given the energy that is prevalent at the start of this album, all this song does it stop all of the momentum and bring a halt to the good tidings that had existed before this. I find it such a shame that this kind of ballad consistently finds its way onto albums. If you erase this song this album is close to perfect.This is simply bloody awful.
"Hollywood Tease" restores some of what had occurred before this monstrosity inflicted itself upon us. It is actually a cover of a Girl song, which was the band Phil Lewis fronted before joining L.A. Guns, and was co-written by Lewis and Phil Collen, who went on to mega-fame with Def Leppard. This is followed by "Shoot For Thrills", which is a cover of a Sweet Pain song written by bass guitarist Kelly Nickels, who had come from Sweet Pain to join L.A. Guns. "Down in the City" is the final song on the album, which ends the album on a high note after the short lull in the middle.

When this was first released, I thought this album was just terrific. It was different enough from other similar bands that it stood out from the pack, and could make its mark without unnecessary comparisons to the other bands of the genre that were either established or starting themselves. It contains that style of high energy hard rock that makes the best standard of the hair metal genre. Sing along choruses with energetic guitaring and drumming that is found on the majority of the tracks here gave us all a belief that here was another band set for greater things. Band turmoil and the approaching grunge phenomenon probably stifled that it the long run, but this album still holds up all these years later, which is a fair sign that they had the right ingredients.

Rating:  Fall from grace, child in time, born of thunder, one of a kind.  4/5

Listen to full album here

790. Judas Priest / Redeemer of Souls. 2014. 4/5

To say that I was a little hesitant when it came to approaching the new album from Judas Priest would be an understatement. I tried hard to like Angel of Retribution and I failed to get much out of the rock opera that was Nostradamus. Both albums for the most part were a huge disappointment, given the initial excitement of Rob Halford returning to the fold. Then we had the retirement of K.K. Downing and the 'last tour' stories, which as with most of these kinds of stories has instead extended itself to further tours and a new album. Throw it all together like that, and there was a lot of pointers to the possibility of further disappointment.

Right from the get-go, this album allays most of those fears. Here is that famous Judas Priest dual-guitar attack, here is Scott Travis and his more renown double kick, here is Ian Hill and that solid-as-a-rock bass sound, and here is Halford sounding loud and strong. "Dragonaught" comes at you with the cannons firing, and continues with "Redeemer of Souls" and the excellent "Halls of Valhalla", which races along at a satisfying speed and heavy ratio. "Sword of Damocles" is a ripper, tearing it up and showcasing the best that the Priest can perform.
"Hell & Back" is a more moody offering, sitting in a placating lounge chair with Rob serving up molten chocolate vocals as Glenn and Richie play their comforting fireside solos. It is a strong song despite not accessing any speed or screams. This follows up with "Cold Blooded" which follows a similar path, a slower side to the Priest beast without forgoing any of the power.
"Metalizer" indicates a rise in the tempo by the name alone, though it is probably only Scott's double kick that indicates a rise in speed as such. "Battle Cry" is a beauty, charging along with that typical guitar riffing solidly backed by the double kick drum and rising vocals. it can't all be golden I guess, and I have problems with the album closer, "Beginning of the End". Is this trying to be another "Beyond the Realms of Death"? Or "Loch Ness"? Because I hated "Loch Ness". Why end an album with such a slow, reflective, mournful-like song? It just sucks out all of the great feelings that have been built up beforehand. This song is a mistake, perhaps the only one made on the album, but a mistake nonetheless.

Say what you like about Judas Priest in the modern age, but you have to admire their stamina. Richie Faulkner has injected some youth into the line-up, and perhaps even influenced the song writing to the positive, given the improvement overall in this album over other recent releases. The band themselves still has it, and sound fantastic. Any discussion will as a matter of course refer to Halford's vocal capacity in the modern age, and certainly age has caught up with him. Long gone now are the days when he could reach those notes that defined the first two-thirds of his career as a vocalist, and punctuated Judas Priest's greatest songs. He literally cannot do that anymore - but that does not mean he has lost his capability to sing. Everyone who listens to this album can pick the places where a young Halford would have unleashed an ear-splitting scream, where now he substitutes it for a different line and pitch. Anyone who didn't know Rob Halford's singing abilities would not even notice the change, because now he is singing in the range that he is capable of doing, and it sounds great. Every great singer has had to make sacrifices and changes as they get older. Rob's singing here is terrific. Those that mourn the lack of his historic abilities should just get over it.

"The Priest is back!!" can be shouted on stage for this album's tour with gusto, because it rings as true now as for anytime over the past twenty-five years. If this is to be their final album then it is a fitting way to conclude their magnificent career. If there is still more to come, it is a positive indicator that while their greatest albums may be in the past, it doesn't mean that there cannot be more great albums to come.

Rating:  There's no holding him back, the ransom announces his deeds.  4/5

Listen to full album here

789. DragonForce / Sonic Firestorm. 2004. 3/5.

I was expanding my mind by trawling the internet one Friday evening while listening to music and drinking scotch when I came across a link that invited me to listen to the brand new song by a band called DragonForce. As it turns out, I had never heard of them, and for interests sake duly followed the link to be greeted by song that began with fury and barely stopped for breath for the next eight minutes. It could have been the alcohol, but I was entranced, and duly played it four or five more times, each time finding more I liked about it. The song was "My Spirit Will Go On", and it was my first introduction to the band. Within a couple of weeks I had purchased not only the debut Valley of the Damned, but this release as well.

If memory serves, I was excited about Sonic Firestorm over the first days of listening to it. It was new and pristine, full of ridiculous flying guitars and keyboards, double kick drums and high pitched vocals and melodies. And it was fast, like good old fashioned European speed power metal, the kind that could easily bring a smile to your face. And it did. For a while. Because then as I moved into the many multiples of listenings, rather than becoming like the company of a best friend it became like company of a person who once seemed like a nice guy, but you've now learned is a hanger-on and becomes increasingly annoying to be around.
Let's face it, as much as there is great merit in the music on this album, it does tend to sound the same all the way through the album. There is a tendency for the double kick and guitar to blend into similarity from one song to the next, and for the vocals to begin to stay in that same register wherever you are in the song or album. And while that all works while it is new, as you move further into the relationship, you begin to think it would be nice to have something that doesn't just sound similar, no matter what point of a song or the album it is that you move to.
Despite the bawling out, I still enjoy putting this album on. "My Spirit Will Go On" is followed by the equally good "Fury of the Storm". "Soldiers of the Wasteland" and "Prepare For War" are my other favourites. There are no radio-friendly length songs on this album, with nothing under five minutes. "Dawn Over a New World" is the album power ballad, which does little to redeem anything in my eyes. Yep, this style of music must have its power ballad. It surely on day will be a crime to do so.

There is no doubt that my ratings for this album diminished over a period of time from when I first got it. I'd be willing to lay odds that during that first week of purchase I could well have had it as high as four and a half stars. As that initial joy slowly wore off, and the weight of the album brought it back from the stratosphere, I learned that although I enjoyed the album a great deal, it had a few slight flaws that brought it back to the better-than-average class. Which is where it still lies today, better than average.

Rating:  You know that sanity is not as it was meant to be.  3/5

Listen to full album here

788. Tygers of Pan Tang / Wild Cat. 1980. 3/5

Tygers of Pan Tang was formed in the late 1970’s in a small industrial town named Whitley Bay in the north-east of England, a place that like many of the time was not much different from other such towns, whose main entertainment comprised of gatherings in local pubs. It was here that the band first came to prominence. The band was founded by guitarist Robb Weir, who like so many of us decided to find like-minded people with whom he could earn some money by playing his favourite music. He placed an ad in the local paper and had two responses, from drummer Brian Dick and bass guitarist Richard “Rocky” Laws. Originally, they played as a three-piece beginning in 1978, at various pubs and clubs around the Newcastle area in England. The name of the band, Tygers of Pan Tang, came from Rocky Laws, who was a big fan of the fantasy writer Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné fantasy series, whose wizards keep tigers as pets on a fictional archipelago called Pan Tang. The band's music tended towards the style of heavy music that had been popularised by bands such as Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.
As none of the three members of the band could sing, or at least well enough to consider the job full time, the first performances of the group were exclusively instrumental. The music was suitably gloomy and heavy but without words. Eventually they decided they needed a lead singer. The first vocalist for the band was Mark Butcher, found again through ads in the newspaper. Butcher left after only 20 performances, suggesting that the group would not make it anywhere at the pace they were growing. In retrospect this could be seen to be an error as such. The band eventually hired Jess Cox to become the lead vocalist, and then on the back of this signed a deal with the independent label Neat Records which in 1979 released the first official single "Don’t Touch Me There”.
On the back of this, the band toured extensively throughout the UK, performing as an opening act to bands such as Scorpions, Budgie and Iron Maiden. They were championed as one of the growing New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement, and their profile grew. In 1980 they were signed by MCA, and went into the studio to record their debut album, hoping to funnel all of the goodwill they had received on the road into album success, which they called “Wild Cat”.

How best to describe this album, in a way that will suffice for both sides of the Tygers of Pan Tang argument? Not an easy task. From the very beginning of the album can hear snatches of bands like ZZ Top and Motorhead and Def Leppard in their music. There's nothing overly technical about the songs on this album. For the most part they are straight up hard rocking songs with a fast 4/4 drum beat from Brian Dick which is mirrored by the bass guitar of Richard "Rocky" Laws. The guitar riffs from Robb Weir are all catchy enough, while Jess Cox's vocals are serviceable without providing any real energy which may have helped to lift these songs. Cox has a vocal sound that will remind you of Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, but without the range that Joe has, nor the backup from his bandmates that occurs in the early Def Leppard albums.
In essence there are ten tracks on this album that feel and sound extraordinarily similarly structured. If you did not know the album well, and were listening to it for the first time, you could be forgiven for thinking that the same songs often get repeated throughout the length of the album. There are riff structures that seem to appear multiple times during the album
This isn't helped by the very monotone vocal performance of Jess Cox, which fails to help in trying to perceive the differences of each track. There are good songs here that you feel could have been much more spectacular if they had been managed better. "Euthanasia" and "Slave to Freedom" both start the album off as well as they are allowed. “Euthanasia” has a bouncy start to the track that provides the energy up front, while there is quite a progressive feel about “Slave to Freedom”, the breakdown in the middle of the track tends to equate to their mid 1970’s heritage, and perhaps even the band’s beginnings prior to hiring a lead singer. But by the time we reach "Don't Touch Me There" you can already feel the sameness creeping in. This was re-recorded for the album, a different version from the single release they did with Neat Records at the start of 1980. With "Money" we have the slight case of boredom seeping into the music. The riff remains basically the same throughout the song, and Jess’s vocals don’t move out of the vocal line he starts with. A more upbeat tempo number like "Killers" can get away with this lethargy, and a more energetic disposition of lyrics and guitar lifts this song. But (criticism incoming) it just goes too long. It sounds like it should be a four-minute track tops, but it stretches beyond 6.5 minutes. The rolling drum and bass riff opening of "Fireclown" is excellent, again lifting the tempo and the enjoyment - but the guitar riff again is just too similar for comfort. It sounds too much like the opening track in its progression from that great opening, and the vocals too singularly toned as well once again. And then, bugger me, the same this happens on “Wild Catz”, though this is memorable for the fact that Jess Cox does extend his vocal range out of the monotone it has sat in or the entire album to this point. “Suzie Smiled” checks back in for that stop-start guitar riff that Robb Weir tends to favour for so many tracks on this album, which just adds to the feeling of similarity throughout. “Badger Badger” picks up the energy again, replete with rolling drums building the tempo and the body of the song through the middle. The album then concludes with “Insanity”, combining almost everything that comes before it on the album into one song, and is an energetic way to complete the album.
One of the positives of the songs here are the solos from guitarist Robb Weir. They add something different to each song, breaking up what in many cases here is a singularly long repeating of riff and vocal pattern. Brian Dick’s drumming also provides a counterpoint to the sameness that does creep in through the track list.
The album has its challenges. It is by no means a poor album, but it has little memorable that lifts it into the conversation of better albums. Whether that was going to be something more distinctive from the rhythm section than just the timekeeping element, or some breakout riffs and/or solos from the guitars, or some change in tone from the vocals that helped to lift these songs, it didn't really matter. An overall conversation on “Wild Cat” may suggest that there just had to be something to make these songs stand out from each other, rather than feel they are all mostly very similar.

About fifteen years ago, I spent a lot of time and energy in delving back into finding albums of bands tied up (some very loosely) in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. With the internet as it was by this stage, finding bands and albums of a past age was becoming easier to do, firstly to listen to and then to being able to track down. It is even easier now, but back when I began this quest it still required some work. I started with a list of bands that I knew the name of but knew little else about them. The Lars Ulrich and Geoff Barton compilation album “New Wave of British Heavy Metal '79 Revisited” that was released in 1990 and which I bought on its release, was a good starting point, and one of the bands featured on it was Tygers of Pan Tang. The song on that album was “Killers” which is off this debut album, and it was one of the first that I tracked down to listen to.
One of the easiest and most dismissed arguments about most albums released in this time frame of 1979 to 1981 is that it has a very noticeable and familiar tone about the songs, the sound of that era. Listening to albums by bands such as Praying Mantis, Holocaust, Diamond Head, Angel Witch and others of their ilk, alongside Tygers of Pan Tang, there is a similar tone about the guitars, the drums all seem to be recorded the same way, and even vocally there are similarities. Now this not to say that they are all on the same level. There are certain albums that are leaps and bounds above others, but the characteristics are similar. Personally, I have a high tolerance for the sound of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. I am more likely to be able to sit and listen to the albums of this era without feeling the need to judge or criticise or vent. Others are unable to do that. I do understand why, for instance, this album, does not appeal to many people’s tastes. As already mentioned in this episode, you can hear why it created a following at the time, in its era, but outside of that it could be said to be dated, to have lost the sparkle much as the sparkle of the era soon dissipated. If you listen to this album with the perspective of today’s music in your mind, then you will find it hard to be able to penetrate what the vinyl holds here. If you listen to it as a piece of history, of the bedrock of what came from so many other bands that had this as their inspiration, it is a far better listen.
I have had this album on rotation again for the last couple of days, probably for the first time in fifteen years since I first collected the band’s first four albums. And I have enjoyed it again. And I’ll admit, it took a couple of listens to get back in the groove, but once I did, it was worth it. I tried to listen to the album as it must have been 45 years ago, when on its first week of release it made it to #18 on the UK albums chart, and how exciting that must have been for the band. And for a band that had been mentioned in the same breath at that time as Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and Diamond Head, this must have been some sort of justification.
On the tour to promote this album, they even brought in a second guitarist, one who would be an integral part of the bands next two albums. He may not have been a part of this album, but John Sykes was about to come to the party as well. And the ever-evolving story of the Tygers of Pan Tang moved to the next level.

787. Brides of Destruction / Runaway Brides. 2005. 1/5

Having been drawn in to buying the first album, Here Come the Brides, by the lure of a project containing Nikki Sixx, John Corabi and Traci Guns, and having been unsatisfied completely by the results of said album, I approached this follow up release, Runaway Brides, with a positivity I probably didn’t completely believe. Nikki had moved on, and whilst the debut had its moments, could the sophomore release build on that? Or would it fail dismally to live up to any type of expectation? Sadly, in the long run, it is the second thought that dominates this release.

My greatest problem with this album is the lack of vitality in the music. At least there were songs on the debut that were up tempo numbers, ones you could drum along to on the table or air guitar along to. For the most part, Runaway Brides plods along at an interminable tempo with little to be joyous about I any form. If the band was looking for a latter day grunge of morbidity, then they have succeeded. But why would you head in this direction? Like so many ‘project’ bands, I guess you generally only do them to indulge in music that is different from what your main focus is. So, if you come looking for a Motley Crue/L.A. Guns knock off here you aren’t going to find it. What we do have here is some slow, grinding, passionless drivel, from the somewhat pointless intro of “Aunt Biente” which then moves straight into “Lord of the Mind” with its moaning monologue and motionless music, all the way through to “Dimes in Heaven” which with its grunge guitar riff that a thousand bands have played in the 90’s and lacklustre vocal performance isn’t sure whether it should be a punk or hardcore extravagance. Between these two extremities of the album there is some rather more ordinary material, with a couple of songs that break the mould and could be classed as ‘not as bad as the other tripe’. “Criminal” is awful. Truly, some of these songs sound like garage band demos, ones that have just been thrown together and then put on a disc. “White Trash” and “Brothers” especially sound like this.

There’s no a lot of doubt why this was the Brides’ last album. Sure, Traci went on to re-form one version of L.A. Guns, but this album and the material within just isn’t very good at all. Some may say it is vile crap. More is the pity after the promise of some songs on the first album. None of that promise appears here.

Rating:  And I’ll never say never again. Well, something like that.  1/5

Listen to full album here