800. Queensrÿche / Q2K. 1999. 1.5/5

As we approached the new millennium, I guess a lot of the Queensrÿche faithful must have been wondering what was next for the band. It had certainly been a mixed bag during the 1990's, most of it had been either so unlike Queensrÿche you didn't know what to think anymore or had been so bad that you couldn't face listening to another album for fear it would get worse. More than anything else, did the band itself know what direction its music was heading in? And if it did, was it aware that for the most part they were alienating their core fan base with their choices? In the long run you can only make the music you enjoy making and hope that it appeals to your market, but there were serious questions coming forth before “Q2K” was released.
Following the release of their previous album “Hear in the Now Frontier”, the episode on which you can find on Season 2 of this podcast, things had begun to be on a downturn for the band. That album had featured a very stripped back sound that resembled the grunge movement, but given it was well after that scene had moved on it had a lot of trouble resonating with the fan base, who had been used to their progressive metal, twin guitar, hard and heavy attack in previous years. A month into that tour, lead vocalist Geoff Tate had fallen seriously ill, and many concerts had to be cancelled as a result. At the same time, their record company went broke, which meant that the band had to self-fund the remainder of their tour to get it completed. And then, to top it all off, as the tour came to its conclusion, guitarist Chris DeGarmo announced that he was leaving the band. This was the final blow. DeGarmo was a highly regarded member of the group by the fan base and was a heavy contributor to the writing of all of the albums to this point of the band’s career. Burnout was cited as a reason for his departure, as well as a desire to do something else away from the music scene, which he did by becoming a professional airline pilot. His replacement was Kelly Gray, who had been the guitarist in Geoff Tate’s pre-Queensryche band Myth. Gray had also worked as a producer, a role he along with the rest of the band filled for their first album together. We also had a situation where, for the first time, all of the songs written and composed for the album were collectively credited to the band as a whole. Was this to avoid any pressure on the writers of each track, to compare them against the efforts of the songwriter who had just left the band? Whether everyone contributed equally to the process could be questioned given events some years in the future, but the result is that the band lived and died together on the basis of these songs, and their success or otherwise.

From the outset this appears to be a continuation of what was served up for us on “Hear in the Now Frontier”. There is a healthy dose of a revamped or upgraded grunge sound rumbling throughout the album, but without the true inspiration that came from that scene a decade earlier. And given that Queensrÿche the band hails from Seattle you can understand how that has eventually developed into the music that they have created here. For the first half of the album, everything is of a mid-to-slow tempo, lacking any real fire or attitude. There are no scorching guitar solos, there are no breakout drum rolls, there is no real stretching of the vocal cords. There are touches of Pearl Jam, Sonic Youth and Soundgarden through the opening tracks like "Falling Down" and "Sacred Ground", along with repeated chorus lines that fail to ignite any passion or determination to sing along because the songs are so structured and similar all the way through that it is difficult to get enthused by it. Even without DeGarmo at the helm, the songwriting here sticks to the direction taken by the previous album. "One Life" bumbles along at a morbid pace with a morbid sound, sucking all the joy out of life as it plods along. Where is the motivation? There is barely any discernible difference between this song and "When the Rain Comes". Same tempo, same dull lifelessness, with only a barely energetic solo to break up the boredom. Whereas the opening two tracks could be considered to have an alt-rock sound, these follow ups have little to offer the fan of this band.
The Soundgarden-esque "How Could I" follows this, though comparing this washed out lacklustre song to one of a band whose energy never subsided would be an aberration. You really have to ask yourself where it all goes from here. But there is more to come, as "Beside You" almost brings the album to a complete halt. How many songs can you write and perform that simply have his slow, mournful backbeat of guitars, and sad drum beat and the vocals moaning over the top in an indulgent faux-angst tone that does nothing more than bore the listeners slowly to death?
Into the second half of the album, and there is a spark of energy that comes to the fore and finds a way to bring some enthusiasm back into some of the tracks. “Liquid Sky” is lifted by Tate’s vocals and a slightly more positive musical output. “Breakdown” and “Burning Man” both suffer from the whiny guitar riff throughout the song like a poor man’s Stone Temple Pilots or Soundgarden, driven by the perpetual motion of Scott Rockenfield’s drumming. I mean, are they average songs, or just monotonously dull? Take your choice. At least they move forward rather than stagnate. “Wot Kinda Man” and the album closer “The Right Side of My Mind” all sit in a similar mode. And that is something that is not only difficult to explain because it feels and sounds as though I am portraying this album to be a collection of songs that all sound the same and in a less than entertaining way, but also because that is EXACTLY what it is!

I think you get the idea, without me using similar such metaphors for the songs on this album. There is nothing here to grab you, to hook you, to move you. Everything is so similar throughout, without any interesting lyrics or vocals, or guitar riffs or drum rolls. It is yet another massively disappointing release from a band that I had so much respect and admiration for a decade earlier.
I have talked at length on this podcast over a dozen episodes or more about the path taken by once great metal bands of all genres, and how they change and try to adapt to the 1990’s, for the most part without success. Cue Queensryche for another spiel on this matter. Their first four albums are all different and yet retain the basis of the sound that the band became famous for. Their next three albums, to the release of this album, all head down a completely different path, directed by the musical trends of the 1990’s, and for me at least, suffer immensely for it. I’m sure there are fans out there who disagree with this sentiment, but you cannot argue the vast difference in sonics from those first albums to these albums, and “Q2K” in particular.
I hesitated to buy “Q2K” when it came out, because I had splashed out my hard-earned money on the previous two albums for little reward, and at that point in my life money was tight, not something I could just throw at an album that may not cut the mustard. About 12 months after its release, I decided to take the plunge and check it out. Suffice to say it was a major disappointment, another album of the age that the band had changed their style to fit a perception of what they felt was required to continue to be relevant, and it did the opposite. Then came the time to do this anniversary episode. When I did my episode on “Hear in the Now Frontier” I found that I actually could find some good in that album that I had not had before, so I was hoping that when I came to “Q2K” I would find something similar. Well, the past two weeks has seen me listen to this album over a dozen times, for the first time since I reviewed it for my blog sometime in the past decade. And all it did was reinforce what I thought then, and definitely thought 25 years ago – that this album really doesn’t have a lot going for it.
This was the only album that Kelly Gray was involved in. He probably thinks that is a good thing overall. Without wanting to give the plot away, the next decade for Queensryche became even murkier than it had already become, and a once great and popular band found that they were unable to reconnect to their fan base with the direction the ship was steering. In effect, this is not Queensryche’s worst album. That horrific effort is still yet to come.

799. Queensrÿche / Hear in the Now Frontier. 1997. 2.5/5

Hear in the Now Frontier indeed. The fact that Queensrÿche's previous album sold so well despite the steaming pile of rubbish it turned out to be was obviously only contributed to by the brilliance of the previous two albums. I am guessing that if most of us had heard Promised Land before plonking down our hard earned to purchase it, there would have been a hell of a lot of people who would have reversed that decision. And yet, most of us still went out when this album was released, and paid our money again for another Queensrÿche album. What is it that drew us all back again for another instalment? The belief, or hope, that Promised Land had been an aberration, and that the real Queensrÿche would return bigger and better than ever on this album? Of course it was!

Put the CD on the stereo. Press Play. Well, there's a guitar riff! Already this album has points over its predecessor. OK, it may be a simple riff, but a riff is what it is. Perhaps the fact that it tends to trend throughout the whole song without a change is a cause for concern. Could the title of the song, "Sign of the Times" be an omen as well? Is it a sign of this album that they will produce a guitar riff, but it won't change throughout? The possibility of this remains as we move into "Cuckoo's Nest", because it does seem to be similar again. And what about those vocals? Does it sound to you like Tate and DeGarmo are trying to imitate some other kind of bands? They just sound similar to something else, but I can't quite place it...
Oh, and then it hits you right between the eyes as "Get a Life" starts, and moves through the remainder of the album. This is a bloody GRUNGE album!!! How the hell did that happen?! How did we get from what the band released three years ago, to what we have here? I'm just totally blown away. I clearly remember picking up the CD case and making sure I had the new Queensrÿche album on, and hadn't mistaken it for another album. It becomes so obvious as we move along. "The Voice Inside" is pure Alice in Chains-like, even the vocals in the chorus are trying to mimic Layne and Jerry. The guitar solo is almost country/western though, or perhaps just so stripped back with slide guitar I don't know the difference. Wow. "Some People Fly" is more of the same, slower and less energised, but still unmistakeably of this same genre. The vocals are harmonising in that way. The main difference here though between this and those high profile grunge bands is that the guitar rhythms here are very bland and uninteresting, not really producing anything memorable in themselves.
"Saved" comes along with a harder element infused in the mix, allowing Rockenfield's drums and Wilton and DeGarmo's guitars to light up for a brief moment, though not with enough panache to really hold the interest long. "You" tries to continue in that vein, containing a closer mix of drums, riff and vocals that can showcase the better side of the band. This is probably the best song on the album for me. Unfortunately we delve back into the depths of despair from here. "Hero" is dreadfully dull, acoustically driven slow slop, with Geoff crooning as he is wont to do more and more often. There is no power here, no progressive nature in the music. It continues what seems to be a cross between slow unadulterated grunge and country which is bereft of any redeeming qualities. It could almost be catagorised as easy listening, because it can send you to sleep listening to it. "Miles Away" goes with a combination grunge/AOR sound. Now there's something to keep the punters wondering what the hell is going on. I'd have thought it almost impossible to combine those two genres of music until I heard this song. Remarkable.
"Reach", like "You", tries to be the up tempo track on the album. Still it's closer to a soft rock song with a solid but not memorable riff throughout. "Hit the Black" starts off well, but stutters to a slightly unsatisfying conclusion. "Anytime / Anywhere" is in a similar category. There are good moments in the song, but the way it segues through rock to grunge makes it difficult to enjoy completely. The album concludes with "sp00L", for which the previous comments can be added along with this song.
So it's basically a Seattle grunge album in 1997. But did we really need this in 1997? By this time Nirvana had folded after Kurt Cobain's suicide, and from this had been born Dave Grohl's hard rock phenomenon Foo Fighters. Ditto with Alice in Chains, who were hamstrung by Layne Staley's drug issues. Soundgarden had split up. Grunge was basically over, and yet here was a successful progressive metal band deciding now was the time to embrace their hometown's traditions by stripping everything back and recording a grunge album! It's not as if you can throw all of the blame for this at the feet of Geoff Tate either, something which evidence suggests you could do from this release onwards. Chris DeGarmo is the chief contributor in writing to almost every track on this album, which theoretically should mean he was happy with the direction the music went here.

It is fair to say that Hear in the Now Frontier is a vastly superior album than Promised Land was. Here we once again don't have what most fans would have considered to be the band's natural sound. It certainly isn't a progressive metal album. And it really doesn't stack up to their early albums. When you go looking for a Queensrÿche album to play it is highly unlikely you would reach for this album, because if you want the kind of music that you find on this album, you would go for Alice in Chain's Dirt or Soundgarden's Superunknown, because they are superb examples of Seattle sound, whereas this resembles a cheap knock off. It isn't a total loss, but it also isn't Queensrÿche.

Rating:  No matter what goes down, I'll still be there for you.  I'm beginning to believe otherwise.  2.5/5

798. Queensrÿche / Promised Land. 1994. 1.5/5

Over their first decade in existence, Queensryche had dabbled and manoeuvred and reinvented their image and their music. Each album that they had released - “The Warning”, “Rage for Order”, “Operation: Mindcrime” and “Empire” - was different in some way. There may have been a thread of essence that connected some of the music on each, but overall, each album had changes that didn't corrupt the fans enjoyment of those albums. There is no distinct pathway between one album to the next apart from the familiarity of Geoff Tate’s vocals, the guitars of Chris de Garmo and Michael Wilton, and the hummed in rhythm of Eddie Jackon’s bass guitar and Scott Rockenfield’s drumming.
“Operation: Mindcrime” of course had been a hit, in many people’s eyes the zenith of the band’s career. The follow up “Empire” was not as bombastic overall but infused the maturity the band was progressing towards to create a collection of songs that somehow combined the quiet introspective with the hard and heavy outbursts into the one collective album. The tours to promote both of those albums continued to sell, and so it was some time before the band truly worked on the follow up. Writing and preparing had begun as far back as August 1992, but with burn out being a factor after almost ten years on the road and in the studio, the process took longer than expected.
Having had so much success with their heavier faster music, but also the success of the single “Silent Lucidity” from the “Empire” album, an acoustic and strings dominated song that reached top 10 in the US, the diection of this new album was always going to be of interest. Add to this the changing landscape of music in the early 1990’s and the fact that Queensryche WAS a Seattle band, along with the continual evolving of the band’s sound over their first four albums, and the most likely result was going to be an album that again changed course slightly from where they had been before. The end result was something more than probably anyone could have predicted.

"9:28 A.M." is a concoction of sounds and noises used as an intro to the album, recorded by drummer Scott Rockenfield to create an atmospheric opening into the first song proper. Most will have their own opinion as to whether it works or whether it just sucks a minute out before you finally move into that following track "I Am I". Perhaps that was necessary to prepare you, because this isn't the most interesting song Queensrÿche has ever recorded. Vocally it comes across fine, but as a song it still seems to be lacking something. The fact that Chris DeGarmo is using a cello and even a sitar during this song gives it a very middle eastern sound, the first inference that a change in the band’s musical stylising is underway. It’s a middling beginning. This segues immediately into "Damaged", which is by a long shot the best song on the album, though at this stage of the album that may be a talking point. It is the closest by far to a traditional Queensrÿche song, and really should have been a springboard for the rest of the album, the lead off to be followed by the strong middle section of up-tempo songs. Instead, we get "Out of Mind" which is a soft acoustically based ballad, with the lack of power immediately noticeable. This song is solely composed by de Garmo, who perhaps was looking for another “Silent Lucidity”, which this definitely isn’t. Then it is on to "Bridge" which provides more of the same, once again composed by de Garmo, with lyrics that are about his relationship with his father who passed away during the recording sessions for the album.
"Promised Land" and "Disconnected" are almost a throw back to the past, to the 1960's and 1970's when the progressive rock movement was taking shape, and was all about songs like this. It was once mentioned to me that the music here is reminiscent of Pink Floyd, with the big musical expanses with little occurring except the progressive-like freeform instrumental extensions. No doubt some members of this band use Pink Floyd as an inspiration. I am not a big fan of that band or those types of passages. Geoff Tate even contributes saxophone on both of these songs. At almost 8 minutes in length the title track feels far too long, while “Disconnected” is an apt title. It’s more about a collection of sounds like those gathered for the opening instrumental track, with that freeform style and Tate’s saxophone taking over. These are difficult songs to get on board with.
"Lady Jane" reintroduces the piano element and still misses the mark by a long way. It’s another de Garmo solo composition, and by this stage it is plainly obvious that he is heading in a different direction than what he had written for previous albums.
The closest the band comes to producing anything remotely interesting and like their earlier work (apart from "Damaged") is on a song such as "My Global Mind", where Tate's doubled harmony vocals are joined with a slightly more noticeable solid rhythm and then a brief spurt of the harmonic guitars. But even here we move along in a stagnant mood, hardly getting out of first gear, before having the reflecting middle section again. "One More Time" ends that journey as well, delving back into places that have some familiarity with past glories. Then we have "Someone Else" which is the album closer and is performed only by Tate on vocals and DeGarmo on piano. It is a hundred miles away from what you would expect. Compare it to the closer on the previous album, "Anybody Listening?" That had everything, and was such an uplifting song that you couldn't wait to play the album again. Here, with no band backing, only the piano, it is almost like signifying the end of a funeral. In many ways, looking back from this distance, perhaps that is exactly what it was doing.

By the time 1994 had arrived, Queensrÿche had made an indelible impression upon my music loves. Their first three albums had improved on each other, the latter of those which by now had reached legendary status, whilst its follow up had taken a little more time to grow on me, but before too long had also reached a status of invincibility. It had been four years since the release of “Empire”, and now finally the follow up was being released. Aware that I had put too much pressure on the last album early, expecting it to be a masterpiece like the album that had preceded it, I was adamant that “Promised Land” would not be judged too quickly or harshly by myself, that I would give it the time required to grow on me and no doubt become as indispensable as those other Queensrÿche albums had become.
To be honest, I am glad that I took this approach with this album, because on those first couple of listens when I first put the CD in my stereo, I could easily have taken it out, put it back in its cover and thrown it out the window, never to listen to it again. If not for Geoff Tate's distinctive vocals, I would barely have believed that this was a Queensrÿche album. To say it was a shock would be understating the disbelief that I had while first listening to the album. It wasn't a shock, it was SHOCKING! Where were the drums?! Where were the duelling guitars?! Where was ANYTHING that resembled the Queensrÿche I had come to love? Surely this was a mistake, that I had been given the wrong CD in the wrong cover? Yes, I could easily have put this back on the shelf never to be pulled out again, but I recalled my promise, my need to give this album time to grow on me like “Empire” had, and to then become as beloved to me as that album is. So, I kept giving it every chance - at work, in the car, at home. I gave it my best, and for a period of about two weeks I listened to this album at least once a day, more often at least three times a day. The result was that, despite my best efforts, I could find nothing on here that could draw me back to this album.
The power of the music has been eradicated from every song on this album. There is little to nothing remaining of the metal element that made their previous albums so enlightening, so unique and so listenable. Yes, they are a Seattle band, a city that harboured the majority of the grunge movement that had become so popularised over the past five years, but they pre-dated this movement, and had had success with what they were doing, so surely there is no point in trying to use this as a reason why the band's sound has changed so significantly on this release. It can only be surmised that the writing team of Tate and DeGarmo had decided this was the direction they had wanted to go in.
The production of this album is also credited to the band, along with James Barton, which means that they had the hands on the wheel in the way the album was recorded, the final proof if any was needed that this is exactly what the band wanted when it came to this album.
I have been through the painful and difficult task over the last two weeks of having this album on again, hoping against hope that this time around I would find something – ANYTHING – that would make this a joy to listen to. I have suffered for my art once again, as I have listened to this all the way through almost a dozen times, and each time it has been like being force fed a plateful of Brussel sprouts and cauliflower. This album reeks, and it always has. I can join the dots and see how this album eventuated, with the combination already discussed of writers changing their desire, of the music scene flipping on its head, and the changing nature of the band from album to album. It’s all there for you to see – in hindsight.
There must be fans out there who love this album, and I am happy for them for that to be the case. Personally, if I never have to listen to this album again, then I will be a slightly happier person overall.

797. Savatage / Hall of the Mountain King. 1987. 4/5

1987 was one hell of a year for music. Take a look at the list of best rated albums for that year on Rate Your Music and shake your head at the awesome content of that list. Not just heavy metal either. There are great albums from all genres of music. Most of them I either bought or heard at the time. Some gems did slip through however, and it wasn't until a few years later that I came upon the band Savatage, and in particular this album, Hall of the Mountain King.

What I liked most about this album from the start was that it was immediately impressive on all levels. Jon Oliva's vocals are uniquely his own, moving between a conversational lyrical tone to a higher register with ease, and despite the gruffness about his vocals it is a higher and tuneful voice than a growl, before then throwing in a real scream and what is a trademark cry every now and then. It helps to typify the Savatage sound. This is cross purposed with his brother Criss and his wonderful guitaring. His riffs and solos on this album are just sensational, and though parts of them may remind you of some other past songs of other bands, (there's a bit of Yes' "Owner of a Lonely Heart" in the riff of "Strange Wings" and a bit of Black Sabbath's "Hole in the Sky" in the riff of "Devastation") they are on a whole brilliant. In some places they are breathtaking, and he has an amazing flair in his playing. Check out especially "Beyond the Doors of the Dark", "Legions" and "Devastation" for his solos. Something special. Backing all of this up are Johnny Lee Middleton on bass guitar and Steve Wacholz on drums, who do their job so well that you probably don't even notice their excellent contributions while you listen to the Oliva brothers - but the album couldn't be this good without that solid rhythm section pounding away in the background.
The album itself flows almost perfectly from song to song, not losing any momentum from a change in style or radical changes in song structure. "24 Hours Ago" and "Beyond the Doors of the Dark" are both dominated by a heavy guitar riff and Jon's vocals, punctuated by those amazing guitar solos from Criss. "Beyond the Doors of the Dark" is just brilliant. "Legions" follows and is dominated by Criss' amazing guitaring, which is the highlight here. "Strange Wings", perhaps because of the aforementioned riff similarity, comes across as almost a mainstream sounding song especially after the opening tracks.
"Prelude to Madness" is an instrumental that incorporates Edvard Grieg's theme from his "In the Hall of the Mountain King". In combining a well known music piece to this instrumental intro to Side 2 of the album, it not only deepens the anticipation as to what will follow, it increases the interest of those that do not know the album as well, and opens the second half in style. This segues beautifully into the title track "Hall of the Mountain King", with a great riff that immediately generates that feeling that a great song is about to follow. This is the track that can sell you the album.  "The Price You Pay" has touches of Accept in both vocals and music which is amusing when Jon hits his high screams. Following the second instrumental of the album, the reflective "Last Dawn" leads into the final track "Devastation", which ends the album on a high note.

I'm not a fanatic about either this band or this album. That comes from not having found them earlier or having grown up with them. When it comes time to throw on a album at home or in the car or at work, Savatage is not one of those bands that immediately jumps into my mind to find. But that doesn't detract from the fact that I like the band, and I think this is a really good album. And when I do run my fingers along and they come to rest on this album and I pout it on, I am never disappointed. In fact I am constantly reminded about how good an album this actually is, and wonder why it doesn't get recalled by me in that way often enough. It has all of the hallmarks of the albums that I rate as my all time favourites, it just doesn't have that unconditional love that those albums have from me. Despite this, Hall of the Mountain King is a terrific album and worthy of your attention.

Rating:  Hell is eternity, Hell is your destiny.  4/5

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