1177. Black Sabbath / Volume 4. 1972. 4/5

If you go back to those first three Black Sabbath albums, it is still amazing to hear just how awesome they are, how brilliant the song writing is, and how amazing the playing from those four musicians is. Sure, there is some quirkiness about a few of the songs, especially I guess from the self-titled debut album when they were still coming out of the hippy happy late 1960’s period. But from that had come songs that as influential today as they were when they were released - “Black Sabbath”, “N.I.B”, “War Pigs”, “Iron Man”, “Paranoid”, “Sweet Leaf”, “Children of the Grave” - and practically every other song. All three are outstanding albums, fuelled by alcohol and marijuana.
Following the end of the tour to promote “Master of Reality”, the band headed back into the studio in the US to start the process of coming up with their fourth album. By this time however, their tastes had changed, and cocaine had come onto the scene. Both Ozzy and Tony in their autobiographies describe how speaker boxes full of the white powder were delivered daily to the studio as the band worked. Is it any wonder that the blizzard of white found its way into the lyrics of several songs recorded for the album.
Was it a deliberate ploy to make any significant changes to the style that the band employed in their music for this album? No one really seems capable of making a wholehearted answer of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to that question. There is of course still plenty of the aggressive style in their music on some of the tracks that eventually made the final cut for “Volume 4”. But there is also little doubt that there is a little more experimentation in the track list. And for some people, myself included, it feels as though it was a bridge too far, or at least too quickly. Tony Iommi himself was quoted as saying in 1975 that the album "was such a complete change – we felt we had jumped an album, really ... We had tried to go too far."
Having said all of that, is the album really that much different from what had come before it? The first thing that I have to say is that this is still a great Sabbath album, don’t be fooled into thinking it isn’t. But it is different, and the songs are different, and that could be for several reasons. It could be that the band wanted to head in a slightly reformed direction with their music. It could be, as has been suggested in several forums, that it was the change in drugs that the band were using at the time that created these musical changes. And others believe it was just the next step in the generation of the music.

Let’s go about this album two ways. Firstly, just put it on and listen to it from start to finish. Conclusions? Another great Black Sabbath album. Like the albums that came before it, the great songs are broken up by little musical interludes that aren’t really songs but are labelled as such. And some of those make you wonder “uhhh... why?”. But by the end of the album, you’ve heard great vocals, great riffs, great drumming, and you leave happy.
OK. So that’s the easy version. Here’s another version.
The album opens with “Wheels of Confusion”, a song that goes through three different phases from start to finish. It could almost be three different songs put together, or at least three different sections that eventually were melded into place. Bill Ward’s drum bashing through the middle of the song is amazing. Those drummers from that era – John Bonham from Led Zeppelin, Keith Moon from The Who, and Bill Ward, never left any skins left on the shells. How their sticks survived at times in beyond belief. The mood is fantastic and is a great opening to the album. This is followed by “Tomorrow’s Dream” which continues in the same instance, with a great riff from Tony and amazing complementing bass riff from Geezer.
“Changes” is the immediate first change to what is going on. The song is all through piano and keyboard, and Ozzy singing over the top. It isn’t a ballad as such, but a piano based thought piece. Apparently, the story goes that there was a piano at the home that the band were writing and recording this album, so Tony taught himself how to play the piano while he was there, and then came up with the chords that make this song. I mean, really, it must suck to be talented, right? That’s an amazing thing to do, to just teach yourself an instrument, and then come up with the chords that produce a song that is such an amazing piece of Black Sabbath history, because it is so different. Fantastic lyrics written by Geezer as well, and Ozzy sings it perfectly. Amazing.
“FX” is a waste of space. I mean, what is it doing here? It fills in one minute and 39 seconds on the album, and more or less just acts as a go between, from the quiet serenity of “Changes” to the smash ‘em and crash ‘em that returns with “Supernaut”. Surely there was a better way to do this. Probably just by not adding it. Tony has said in the years since that he agrees with this sentiment. Anyway.
Yes, then “Supernaut” crashes back in with Tony’s brilliant riff and Bill just smashing away on the drums, along with his own solo piece in the middle of the song. This has always been a great song, and sonically here it is brilliant. Tony’s guitar sound is perfect, surprisingly fitting in to close out the first side of the album excellently.
Side Two opens with the amazing “Snowblind”, a song that remains one of my favourite all time Black Sabbath tracks. No prizes for guessing what the lyrics are about, but everything about this song for me is a work of art. Bill’s drumming, Tony’s iconic riffing, the three different main riffs that make up the song are just outstanding. Geezer’s bass guitar, following its own path separate from the guitar but somehow drawing the whole piece together, and Ozzy’s great vocals, able to move between the manic and the serene. It’s a great song, a triumph. “Snowblind” was also the title the band wanted to use for the album, but the record company shied away from it. For some reason...
The rest of side two is still great, but it is a different level to what has come before it. “Cornucopia” and “St Vitus Dance” change things up a bit again. “Laguna Sunrise” is Tony’s instrumental piece, apparently written after waking up and watching the sunrise over Laguna Beach where they were writing and recording. And “Under the Sun” completes the album in a jaunty vision of what has come before it.

You may well have already guessed that I had a hard time getting into this album when I first got it. Unlike the first three albums, which are full of songs that everyone knows, “Volume 4” has relatively few songs that well known to the average fan, and that along with the change in out and out heavy songs at the time that I got the album threw me a curveball. It was also at a time when my real music focus was on the ‘modern’ heavy metal that was coming out in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, and at the time that didn’t fit my listening profile.
Over the years that of course changed, and the more I heard “Volume 4” out of the mix of these other bands, the more it grew on me. And much like the band themselves went on to suggest, it is an album that perhaps came too early in their career to be completely understood. And in retrospect, given the changes that came on the albums later in the 70’s decade, this is much less of a change than came then.
In recent years, this album has become a regular one that I pull out to listen to, much to my surprise. During the covid lockdown weeks and months I actually listened to the whole Black Sabbath discography, and went about ranking all of the albums in order (my order of course, which disappointed many people, and brought back the argument over what constituted a ‘real’ Black Sabbath album – but more of that down the track on a future episode). During that period, I ranked this at number 9 overall, which I think is probably still reasonable. It is far better than some of the later albums that came with different members, but isn’t quite at the level that ranks it as one of the greatest. But what I remembered during that period, and have again over the last few weeks, is what a solid and joyful album it is to listen to. “FX” is a mistake, but Black Sabbath didn’t make many of those in these years.
On its release, this album reached number 1 in Australia, the only country it did so. And last year it received a Super Deluxe release with demo versions and a brilliant concert as recorded at the time, which I spoke about recently on the episode reviewing their “Past Lives” album. All of this makes for a great Sabbath album, one that still stands the test of time, 50 years on. In fact, you will scarcely be able to believe that this ground breaking album and its amazing tracks can possibly be 50 years old.

1176. Alice Cooper / Raise Your Fist and Yell. 1987. 4/5

In recent times, as you have to do with bands and artists that have been around for centuries and release albums every two years like clockwork, I have done a lot of podcast episodes on Alice Cooper albums. There has been “Schools Out”, there has been “Zipper Catches Skin”, and others around the times. It does mean that sometimes it feels as though I am repeating myself, so if that also feels like the case to you, then please accept my apologies. On that very recent episode reviewing “Zipper Catches Skin”, I mentioned the difficult times that Alice had been going through in regards to his creative vision, along with his drug and alcohol addiction that was at that time dominating his life. That episode was right in the middle of that crisis, and the downward spiral his music was taking as a result. An episode from Season 1 of this podcast, for his “Constrictor” album, then explained his comeback. Having fought and beaten his addictions, he teamed up with guitarist composer Kane Roberts, and rediscovered the magic that got him back in the game. Following that album and the successful tour that promoted it, it was time come up with a follow up album, one that could build on the goodwill that that album had been able to inspire, and to once again find that quintessential “Alice Cooper” trademark. The same main trio that had recorded “Constrictor” returned for this new album – Alice himself, Kane Roberts on guitar and co-composer of the album, and young bass guitarist Kip Winger.
This album came out within 12 months of “Constructor”, another reminder of how often bands would release albums back in the 1980’s. Building on the themes that had been prevalent on that album, “Raise Your Fist and Yell” has songs that are based and themed around the slasher film genre that was prevalent in the b-grade movie cinemas at the time. They are upbeat, and again mixed with anthemic cries in the lyrics along with the horror themes of those B-grade movies we all watched during that decade, all drawn together by great guitar riffs and hard hitting drums that probably allowed this album to not be as goofy as its twin preceding album, but continue along that line of Alice moving from his 70’s shlock to the early 80’s new wave to the late 80’s hard rock and hair metal genre with remarkable adaptability.

Alice’s albums often have an anthem to kick them off, to get the listener into the right mood immediately. Think “School’s Out” or “Teenage Frankenstein”. Nothing changes here with the brilliant “Freedom”, which invokes the album title within its lyrics. Its challenge to the rock censorship movement at the time is obvious throughout. There is a great quote from Alice at the time, which I’ll read here in full. “I think somebody had to say something back to these people. They start out with the premise that kids in America are too stupid to know what they’re listening to, and that’s really wrong. They say bands are trying to manipulate teenage minds — but kids know they’ve been manipulated all their lives by lots of things, including teachers, the media, their own parents and especially television. So we just have fun with it. Alice Cooper does not preach violence or devil worship, but he DOES make fun of just about everything.” True words. There is more of this on “Give the Radio Back”, another battle cry from the kids to their authoritative overlords. Alice goes straight to the heart of the matter as he sees it for the kids, just like he did in 1972 and 1982. Add to this queue “Step on You” and you have the songs, both lyrically and musically, that have been staples of Alice Cooper’s reign for that almost 20 year period when this was released. Alice and Kane still get it from their main audience’s view, and they are anthemic. They complete side one with “Not that Kind of Love”, a theme that was pursued more on the next Alice Cooper album.
Around these songs are the tracks that are like those B grade horror films I mentioned earlier. Robert Englund (perhaps better known as Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street) makes a guest appearance on “Lock Me Up” to help sell its title. “Prince of Darkness” leaves little doubt as to the subject matter, though it apparently appeared very briefly in the John Carpenter movie of the same name on someone’s Walkman. Seems that this was a movie that passed me by without seeing it. The album then concludes with the continuing schlock horror theme with “Time to Kill”, “Chop, Chop, Chop”, “Gail” and “Roses on White Lace”, all which deliver perfectly with the lyrical visuality and great riffing from both Roberts and Winger, delivering the joy of the material in perfect unison throughout. Alice best explains it again when he was quoted as saying “This is the highest energy music I’ve ever done. I think it’s because I’m experiencing that kind of energy physically. I’m in a hundred times better shape than I ever was — that has to do with wanting to tour and be competitive. Mentally, of course, I’m sicker than I’ve ever been…”

This album initially came my way courtesy of my heavy music dealer from high school, who seemed to be able to give me just what I needed without even knowing. And, given how much I had loved “Constrictor” (you can relive that episode from Season 1 to discover that) I never doubted that I would also love this album. In fact, if my memory still retains most of its ability, I had this recorded on one side of a C90 cassette, and Motley Crue’s “Theatre of Pain” on the other side. However, such was my love of this album, and my general ambivalence with “Theatre of Pain”, that I destroyed this tape eventually in the cassette player of my white Toyota Corolla from playing it all the way through, and then hurriedly rewinding it to listen to it again. This hastened my purchasing of it on CD, which I did from Redback Records in Wollongong on a day out.
So yes, I have always loved this album since I first heard it. The teen anthems all worked on me given I was still in my late teens when it was released and for a couple of years afterwards. It was a feeling of slight disappointment when I first saw Alice Cooper live on the Trash tour that they didn’t play anything off this album. Indeed, apart from “Roses on White Lace” on the most recent Alice tour – another one I was fortunate enough to see, along with taking my whole family – no songs have been on the live setlist from this album since that time. Which is a shame, because there are a lot of cracking songs here, all of which would work beautifully in the live environment. All of the songs are short and sharp, and the album doesn’t overstay its welcome. It’s also a shame that this was the final album that had Kane Roberts and Kip Winger playing on, but beyond this time Alice began in a similar direction but with a huge leap in personnel involved. He co-wrote and played on “Bed of Nails” on the “Trash” album but that was where his involvement with Alice concluded – until just a few short weeks ago when he re-joined the live band to replace Nita Strauss. Roberts has stated publicly he would love to do another album with Alice. Having bathed in the glory of this album over the past few weeks, we can only hope that comes to fruition. His contribution to leading Alice Cooper’s resurgence through the mid-1980's should never be overlooked.
Most fans of Alice Cooper, when asked for their favourite albums, rarely list this or its predecessor in their best five Alice Cooper albums. The early classics, or the chart toppers that followed this album are generally where the popular vote goes. For me this is easily one of the best five Alice Cooper albums ever released. I would have difficulty in ranking them in order in that top five – if pushed it would come down to either “Hey Stoopid” or “Constrictor” - but this is one of the best. And if you don’t agree, then you haven’t listened to this album enough. So pull it off the racks now, and get it spinning!

1175. Armored Saint / Raising Fear. 1987. 3.5/5

From their beginnings back in Los Angeles in 1982, Armored Saint had been in and around those bands that became such household names through the course of the 1980’s. Played with them, drank with them, and generally went along the journey with them. It’s interesting that, at different times and under different circumstances in those years leading up to this album, both leader singer John Bush and bass guitarist Joey Vera had been asked to consider becoming a part of Metallica, but both refused as they wanted to remain with their own band. That says something not only for the closeness of the band but in their belief in themselves.
The band's first two albums, “March of the Saint” and “Delirious Nomad”, were well regarded in the industry and did enough sales wise to raise the profile of the band, but it is fair to say that they were really in the second tier when it came to the coverage the band received compared to their contemporaries in the heavy and thrash metal genre during the mid-1980's.
Along with Bush and Vera, Armored Saint’s first formation included Dave Pritchard on lead guitar and brothers Phil and Gonzo Sandoval on rhythm guitar and drums respectively. However, by the time it came to write and record this album, Phil had left the group, and the album was recorded as a four piece, with Pritchard playing all the guitars.
The most noticeable thing about this album is the production and recording. It is noticeable that not only do the songs feel more structured, they are recorded better and have a bit more oomph in the production than the first two albums received. I mean, everyone who knows “March of the Saint” would agree that it would be amazing if it had been recorded a few years later with better production techniques. And while it improves even more come the next album, it still sets this album up as a better prospect in a time when so many of the great albums of the 80s metal scene were released.

Straight up, John Bush takes centre stage and dominates the opening of the album. And as much as I love Phil’s guitaring on the first two albums, I have to admit that Dave really lets rip in great style on this album. It’s interesting that this is the case, with Dave setting up those licks that he also plays off. It is especially noticeable in the opening, self-titled track. It’s a great song, and lights up the album from the outset.
“Saturday Night Special” is a cover of the Lynard Skynard song, a much more upbeat version than the original. Why does it appear on this album? I don’t really know. Maybe the band just loved the song and decided they wanted to do their own version. It’s interesting listening to it because, although it is a good version, it is noticeable that through the verses of the song the guitars don’t really take control and have great pieces like the other songs on the album do – you know, the ones the band actually wrote! No matter, it still sounds great.
“Isolation” is the standing-out-like-thumb track on the album. It mixes up the general style of song that Armored Saint had done to this point of their career, a slower more introspective track, though with the vocals continuing with their loud and powerful cry rather than silently backing off into a power ballad. It also has a great solo from Pritchard in the second half which ignites it beyond what it could have been. It’s an interesting song, one that does defying being catalogued. It is bookended by two great faster tracks. Both “Out on a Limb” and the excellent “Chemical Euphoria” drive the album back to the rafters.
The second side opens up with the excellent “Frozen Will / Legacy” with Dave’s guitaring again a highlight. “Human Vulture” has some great spots from Bush and Vera, with “Book of Blood” and “Terror” continuing on the frenzy. Closing track “Underdogs” is a beauty, screaming along with fire and brimstone from Bush on vocals and Pritchard on guitar, bringing the album to its conclusion in a pleasing fashion.

I had heard very little of Armored Saint until well into the 1990’s, again through a combination of their albums not being easily sought at the time in Australia, and the fact that none of my friend group listened to them or had any of their albums either. So it wasn’t until John Bush joined Anthrax, and came out with the amazing “Sound of White Noise” album that I thought “I wonder where the hell this bloke came from?”, and I eventually went out to track some material down. And as it turned out, this was the first album that I managed to get a hold of, so I know it pretty well. And of course it was a matter of then slowly building up to the other albums. When it came to putting this album on my playlist to listen to again to record this podcast episode, it jumped out of the speakers at me. It grabbed me again from the outset, and my initial reaction was ‘wow, why haven’t I listened to this in a while!’ And like I’ve said before, this is one of the reasons I do this podcast, in order to rediscover great albums that I may not have played in years. So after a good solid three weeks of going around and around, this has been a great catch up. There is so much to like here, and I think that I rate it higher now than I have in the past. It’s not an out and out classic that demands your attention as one of the best ever released, but it does provide all the things necessary to make a really good album.
It also acts as a tribute to Dave Pritchard, as it was his final album. Following the tour Dave was diagnosed with leukemia, and he passed away the following year while the follow up album “Symbol of Salvation” was being written. His guitaring on this album is some of my favourite from the band, and it is fitting that it is memorable because of how good it is and not just because of his passing.

1174. Gamma Ray / Somewhere Out in Space. 1997. 5/5

By the later years of the 1990’s, Gamma Ray had firmly ensconced themselves as one of the leaders of the power metal movement throughout Europe, through constant touring and a developing strength in the material that they were writing and recording as each album came out. It had also come with a constant shift in band members, with each album having a different set of players in the group. Band founder, former Helloween co-founder Kai Hansen had been the mainstay, though even his role had changed. Initially just playing as a guitarist, he had returned to the dual role of guitarist and lead singer for the band’s previous album “Land of the Free”, the album that cemented them as one of the greats of the genre. It brought back wonderful memories of the early Helloween albums where he had filled the same role. Alongside him was Dirk Schlachter, who had been the second guitarist for the band through those years. Dirk however had always been more fond of the bass guitar, and on the previous album the plan had been for him to return to that instrument, and have the bass guitarist Jan Rubach swap on to guitar, but Jan had changed his mind and not wanted to change. After the recording of “Land of the Free” both he and drummer Thomas Nack left Gamma Ray to return to their previous band. This allowed Dirk to move onto his preferred bass guitar, and they brough in the smiling assassin Henjo Richter to play as the second guitarist. Following the tour, Dan Zimmermann was recruited to play on drums. This was the foursome that went on to record “Somewhere Out in Space”, and they remained unchanged as a group for the next 15 years.
Following on the full concept album that “Land of the Free” had been, “Somewhere Out in Space” is a themed album rather than a concept story line. The majority of the songs on this album concentrate on the theme of outer space, but without a common thread throughout. It allowed the album to be full of songs that are strong on their own without them having to blend into the next. It also has writing contributions from all four members, allowing it to be a complete band compilation rather than having Kai doing the majority of the writing and it being like a solo album. The fact that the songs still combine so well with both the theme of the album and the musical flow is the perfect attribution as to why this form of the band blended together so well and then remained together for such a length of time.

From the outset, the album announces itself as going along the same path that Gamma Ray had trodden along with their previous album. It’s a nice intro for both Dirk and Dan to have the bass and drums open the album with their own start to the first song, before crashing into the opening riff, a way of announcing their place in the band. Dan’s amazing double kick is evident from the start, something that not only drives this album but those following for the next decade or so. “Beyond the Black Hole” is a brilliant opening track, full of wonderful riffs and solos and great singalong lyrics about searching deep space for what may lie beyond, that set the album off on the right foot. “Men, Martians & Machines” follows on in perfect fashion, even utilising those five tones at the start of the song that are synonymous with the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and the absurd soaring scream from Kai to remind everyone he can still do so with the best of them. It’s another song that flies along at great pace, utilising the best that Gamma Ray has always offered, that wonderful combination of the rise of power metal and the speed metal that Kai also pioneered back in his early Helloween days. “No Stranger (Another Day in Life)” is a song that Kai initially wrote for Michael Kiske, his former bandmate in Helloween, to use on his then solo album. Kiske, as was his fashion at the time, having basically turned his back on the metal scene, said that the song was ‘too heavy’ for him to use and so he rejected it. This just allowed Kai to use it here, and it fits in perfectly with the album theme and style.
The title track is a ripper, and has become a mainstay of the live set in the years since this album was released. The song is the band’s tribute to the science fiction series ‘Star Trek’. But it’s the amazing riffs and soaring vocals here that are the winner. The dual solos through the middle of the song are just exquisite, and the amazing end to the song is up there with the best moments of the band, with the power and the emotionally charged ending... it is just superb. This is followed by the Henjo Richter written “The Guardians of Mankind”, another great song driven along by Dan’s double kick drumming. I love how, lyrically, this song is not as positive about the outcome of the human race, that it openly questions just what we are doing, and that the Guardians of the human race are losing their faith and their battle against evil. Another excellent song with the guitars through the middle just beautifully in synch.
“The Landing” and “Valley of the Kings”, which tells the story of the arrival of aliens on earth thousands of years ago and how the inhabitants felt about them, became the single released from the album, one that did well in the European markets. It has the simplified song pieces that is almost a lesson in how to write a single 101, while retaining the integrity of the music about it. These first six songs on the album are the absolute strength of the band, and show all facets of what makes this band so brilliantly marvellous in every respect.
“Pray” is Dirk’s tome piece that also looks at the desolate stage of the human race, about the loss of hope of saving humans from extinction. “The Winged Horse” is Henjo’s song that is based around mythology more than space, of his magician and titular winged white horse being the opposite forces of good and evil. Following Dan’s drum solo’s song “Cosmic Chaos”, Dirk’s “Lost in the Future” then chimes in to again sell both sides of any argument that travelling through time is a clever place to be.
“Watcher in the Sky” is a song that Kai wrote and played on for the band Iron Savior with his mate Piet Sielck, an album that was reviewed here on this podcast just a couple of months ago in Season 2. As the Iron Savior project was a concept piece about science fiction and space, and this album is also themed that way, it isn’t a surprise that Kai chose to have it on this album as well. This is the same version, with Kai, Piet and Thomas Staunch playing on it, and not the Gamma Ray members. The album then concludes with the instrumental intro of “Rising Star” than segues into Dirk’s “Shine On”, a terrific song to bring the album to its natural end. It follows the same theory that “Valley of the Kings” does, that extraterrestrial life visited Earth long before and planted the seeds of mankind. There is also the obligatory ‘bonus track’ that CDs had become fashionable at this time, with the band doing a ripping version of Uriah Heep’s “Return to Fantasy”.
It would be easy to suggest that the first half of the album sounds much stronger and more brilliant, with faster paced songs and greater emphasis on the guitars, because it contains songs mostly written by Kai Hansen, while Dirk and Henjo produced almost all of the material in the second half. Personally I see it as different rather than a pervading sense of brilliance. Is it noticeable that the styes of the songs are different with the writers involved, but doesn’t make them any less Gamma Ray than any others.

I can be very easily upfront in admitting that I am a massive fan of Gamma Ray, and the chances of you hearing me say anything bad about any of their albums would be as close to zero as you could possibly imagine. And this album is no different. I was on this as soon as it was released, having played “Land of the Free” to death over the previous two years. Like most new albums, I always felt as though I was going to expect too much of this album, and be disappointed as a result. All of that went out the window within about thirty seconds of the opening track beginning. It stayed in my stereo at home in one of the five CD slots for a year. The cassette copy for the car went around and around for months. When I went to England for a month the following year I took five CDs with me to listen to on the trip. This was one of those CDs. When I was getting back into drumming and needed practice on the double kick, this was the album I TRIED to drum along to. 1997 was a lean year for the metal that I loved and listened to. Alternative albums, yes. But the old bands I listened to had changed or died off, and I was still a late convert to the newer forms of metal that were coming out of the US. So I guess I grabbed on to this for dear life, as it was familiar, and as it turns out, one of my all time favourite bands, so it all worked out ok.
When it comes to Gamma Ray, I think “Land of the Free” is still the absolute benchmark. Beyond that, there are up to six albums that sit on the rung that is just so very slightly below that, and “Somewhere Out in Space” is definitely one of those. The high voltage speed and energy that come from tracks like “Beyond the Black Hole”, “Men, Martians & Machines”, “Somewhere Out in Space” and “Valley of the Kings” in particular makes it an album that provides everything that Gamma Ray can offer. And the musicianship is second to none, with each member providing their own brilliance. And when you see them perform live, as I was so fortunate enough to do back in 2006 at the Gaelic Club in Sydney, you understand just how good they are.

1173. Black Sabbath / Past Lives. 2002. 5/5

Live albums. Yes, I’ve spoken about them before, and if you know this podcast at all, you know that my opinion is that live albums should always rank as top marks, because they should almost always contain the best songs of the band, in their perfect environment. Of course, that is not always the case despite what I think.
This compilation was released in 2002, and I’m not sure whether it was an afterthought or not. During Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward’s time with the band through the 1970’s, Black Sabbath hadn’t released an official live album, which seemed like an oversight. As it turned out, it wasn’t until the band had recruited new singer Ronnie James Dio that a live album of those years appeared. Titled “Live at Last”, and despite its success, the album was released without the permission or knowledge of the band. The album was, however, released legally by the band's former manager Patrick Meehan who owned the rights to the recording. The first official live album from Black Sabbath was 1982’s “Live Evil”, and album that will be reviewed later in Season 3. Then, in 1998, the original foursome got back together for a tour and released the live album “Reunion” to wide acclaim. So, was there a reason that this album needed to be released? By the time 2002 rolled around, it appeared that any pretence that Black Sabbath would ever record another album had gone, and that they were just playing their annual gig at Ozzfest. Was it just for nostalgia? An attempt to keep the band in the limelight in the modern day by releasing recordings from the past? Or was it just an excuse for the band to say, “okay well, we accept that ‘Live at Last’ existed, but now we are going to release it on our own terms”? I don’t know the answer, but I know that as a fan of the band I still found a way to procure a copy, just to satisfy my own interest in what they had released along with that long held old fashioned album.

“Past Lives” contains two discs. The first disc is the re-release of the “Live at Last” album. That album was taken from recordings over two nights in March 1973 from Manchester and London. Now, something that has cropped up in recent reviews of other live albums has been the action of not having the songs in the order they were played in the concert they are taken from. And that occurs here again. Now while it doesn’t disturb the listening pleasure of the album (especially when you don’t KNOW what the order of the songs was when they were played) that still sticks in my craw a little. Of course, I was completely unaware of this being the case, until the recently remastered and deluxe edition of the album “Volume 4” was released. As a part of that package, the original analog tapes of these two gigs were remastered and released as a part of the boxset. They left in the onstage banter that this album eradicated, but also put the song back on the order they were played! Imagine my surprise when I first heard it. Now as I said, it isn’t a big thing, and this album is great to listen to, but if you happen to get a chance to listen to that remastered edition of the tapes on “Volume 4”, check it out.
The second disc here contains recordings from 1970 and 1975. Again, it’s interesting that they mix these up a little, with the 1970’s tracks acting as bookends to the 1975 tracks. Now it’s easy to pick up the differences in when and how these were recorded, and even in the way Ozzy sang the songs as the years differed. In 1970 it was at the high point of his range. By 1975 he occasionally adapted to compensate for the ridiculousness of his vocals on some studio versions of the songs.
This isn’t a clean live album, and by that I mean that it hasn’t had a dutiful effort to record these shows to the ultimate sound. But neither are they bootlegs, recordings made by fans with their cheap cassette players. If anything, this is an excellent compromise, live recordings with all of the pieces intact but with a rough and ready sound that exemplifies just how a Sabbath show must have sounded in those early to mid 1970’s. You get the incomprehensible drumming of Bill Ward, where you can imagine his hair and beard flowing over the kit as he rained down upon it, the gutteral bass guitar of Geezer Butler that is perhaps the one thing that gets missed a bit in the recording mix, the massiveness of Tony Iommi’s guitaring, and Ozzy’s quite brilliant live vocals that still stand the test of time. And the songs – it is just a who’s who of the great Sabbath tracks of the 1970’s. There is really nothing to complain about.

Prior to the re-release of the Black Sabbath early album with the deluxe versions coming out with unreleased live concerts that had been remastered, “Live at Last” had been the one peek at that time in the history of the band. To be fair, even now it is worthy. And its re-release as a part of “Past Lives”, with the extra disc of two other years of the band live, is really amazingly important. For the very reason that Black Sabbath, and this original foursome, is so significantly influential on heavy metal actually becoming a thing, and growing to what it is now, 50 years later.
All those who were old enough and fortunate enough to see the band live in those days must still be grateful for the experience. And for those of us since who have seen pieces of that genius by seeing those four artists performing in other arenas in later days, such as Ozzy on his solo gigs, Heaven and Hell with Tony and Geezer, and then the final almost-complete reformation on the album “13” and the two subsequent final tours, have at least seen that genius in those forums. But it wasn’t the original band, and the band in those early days at their peak, before drugs and arguments killed the vibe. And that is what makes “Past Lives” such an important release, one that gives you a window to that time, and lets you experience what it must have been like.
This is an album worth listening to, probably in a darkened room and letting it all sink in. This continues to be such an enjoyable experience, and one that if you haven’t heard all the way through before, you should definitely consider doing.

1172. Elf / Elf. 1972. 3/5

Elf came into being over a period in the late 1960’s, with Ronnie Dio and the Prophets making a name change to become the Electric Elves, along with the addition of a keyboard player. This was eventually shortened to just Elf. The band was in a car accident not long after, putting all of the band in hospital and taking the life of their guitar player Nick Pantas. Eventually the line-up settled, with Ronnie James Dio on vocals and bass, David Feinstein on guitar, Gary Driscoll on drums and Mickey Lee Soule on keyboards. The band ended up coming to the attention of Deep Purple members Roger Glover and Ian Paice, who saw the potential of the band. Not only did this end up with Elf being a frequent opening act for Deep Purple over the following three years, it also led to Glover and Paice co-producing the band’s debut album.
I love how on this album, all of the credits for Ronnie’s work are credited to Ronald Padavona. In an interview in his later years, Ronnie claimed that he did this on this album (and only this album) so that his parents could, just once, see their name on an album. It is also interesting to note that guitarist David Feinstein is Ronnie’s cousin, and his guitaring on this album, when given the real chance to shine, is exceptional.


The album opens with “Hoochie Koochie Lady”, a title that leaves you in no doubt as to the heritage behind the music. Very much in the boogie style that a lot of Ronnie’s previous work had been, it is upbeat enough even when it is not what you probably expect coming into the album. This is followed by the similarly styled “First Avenue”, one that does tend to over harp on the title of the song by the end.
“Never More” is a real Deep Purple type tune, much more in standing with the hard rock scene that the band grew towards, with guitar and keyboard combining beautifully. Whether this was written to appease the two producers I don’t know, but the change from the opening two songs is significant. This is followed by “I’m Coming Back to You”, which has an early Elton John feel about it with the keyboards and complementing guitar riff. It mightn’t quite pop like it could but it is an entertaining track.
“Sit Down Honey (Everything Will Be All Right)”, with its piano heavy riff as the base of the song, reminds me remarkably of the song “Old Time Rock and Roll” by Bob Seger. Now his song wasn’t written until 1979, with this being back in 1972. I wonder if there was any inspiration for that track from this song, because there are some very similar pieces between the two. Even Feinstein’s guitar solo at the close of the song has that same sort of tune to it. Perhaps it is just the style of the song that Seger was trying to copy for his tribute to the time, but it is an interesting comparison.
“Dixie Lee Junction” is a strange song. The first half is very Led Zeppelin-ish in its guitar and vocals output, before it concludes in another full blown boogie and blues number, again giving Ronnie a rather easy job on vocals to just bounce along his lyrics with the music. It’s almost two songs combined into one. Very... strange. More was to come with “Love Me Like a Woman”, which sounds like it is straight out a blues hall in the 1930’s, or even a saloon from the 1800’s if you ignore the slight injection of electric guitar, which does come in strong at the end of the track.
The album concludes with “Gambler, Gambler”, the third hard rock song on the album, still heavily blues influenced and with that boogie piano, but the guitar and vocals make it worth the wait.

It is amazing just how much your feelings about an album can change over a period of time depending on how much you are listening to it, and probably in the environment you are listening to it. Anyone growing up with this album, taking in the music of the day, would have a much easier time of getting on with the album than, say, someone going back as being a fan of Dio and listening to it. And for all of us growing up in the 1980’s that’s the predicament we found ourselves in. And as with all of Elf’s three albums, though I listened to them when I first got them in the 1990’s, there was no real joy there, and the quickly found their way onto the shelves.
Coming into the past few weeks as I prepared to record this podcast episode, I have listened to this album more than I have collectively previous to this. I have let it go, let it play, and after several go’s around I found a way in. Those opening two tracks with their boogie rock feel can dictate how you feel about the album just as it is starting. Especially if you are not really a fan of blues or boogie rock. But after repeated listens, I found my way in, through “Never More” and “I’m Coming Back to You”, which are a much better hard rock sound than those opening two songs, and that allowed me to get through to the end of the album. And then, over more repeated listens, I found the album was much more enjoyable than I had ever felt before.
It is true that it still isn’t my style of music, and that will forever be the case. But there are some things you can hang your hat on. Ronnie’s vocals here are amazing. I mean, they always are, but here they are supreme. It’s a different style of song that he is singing, but purely listening to him sing is always worth the price of admission. And David Feinstein’s guitaring is great. I think he has some really good moments on this album that actually lift the songs when they come along. The drums and keys hammer together nicely, and overall all come together in a good style.
This won’t be to everyone’s taste. Realistically, it isn’t to MY taste. But 50 years on it still has some persuasive argument about it, such that it is worth listening to even just a couple of times to experience where one of the greatest vocalists of all time really began to come of age. That alone is worth a few moments of your day.

1171. Def Leppard / X. 2002. 1.5/5

The 1990’s had been a journey for Def Leppard, one that had built a wedge between fans of the band. “Adrenalize” had made some subtle changes to the band’s sound but still topped charts around the world. Then came “Slang”, the band’s first album with Vivian Campbell, and the desire to create something very different from their usual music made this an album that created an impasse. Then came “Euphoria”, where the band had tended to feel that they had gone too far on the previous album, and that they needed to reinfuse some of their harder rock roots back into their material. So it was a decade where the band probably experimented with their sound more than they ever had done previously. Sales were still good, but not anywhere near the extent as they had had with “Hysteria” and “Adrenalize”, concerts still sold out, but exactly which direction was Def Leppard trying to head in? Taking in all of the changes that had occurred in recent years with the hard rock genre, stretching to industrial and nu-metal, and the fact that the band had gravitated (somewhat) back towards their hard rock roots on their previous album, would this dictate their sound going forward? As it turns out, the answer to that was ‘no’. Instead, much like they did with the “Slang” album, they came back towards the popular side of music, and created an album that was more pop rock than anything else. And does anyone remember those times, and the style of songs that were being played on the radio back in 2002? Beyond Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” single, which seemed to eat up the airwaves the year before this album was released, that kind of rock nostalgia track had grown in popularity, and in some ways, Def Leppard tried to create their own variant of that with the songs on this album.

If you are going to listen to this album – and to be honest the ‘if’ is implied heavily – you really have to be able to approach it from two points of view. Because without that, you will either believe it is one of the best pop albums ever released, or one of the biggest travesties from a once great band ever released. And my opinion at the conclusion of the review resides heavily in one court.
So here you go. Do NOT come into this album as a fan of Def Leppard. Whatever your age bracket, whatever your preferred genre of music is, come into this album and accept that this is as close to a 1980’s pop album as you are going to come to for an album released in 2002. So pretend you are 15 again, living in the early 1980’s, and only listen to the radio and the tracks they play. If you do, I guarantee you will get more out of this album than if you come in thinking “oh good! Another Def Leppard album! I wonder if this is as good as Pyromania!”
Will this actually help you get the most out of the album? I think so, and I’ve listened to it a lot over the last 2-3 weeks. There are the full blown ballad tracks such as “Long Long Way to Go” and “Four Letter Word” and “Let Me Be the One”, completely and especially designed for radio airplay and to generate sales from a new target audience. What interests me about this with singles sales is that none of the singles released from this album really charted at all, and though most of this was because file sharing had begun to shrink music sales drastically, my opinion is that it was also because this style of song at that time was not as popular as perhaps these bands thought they were. Nickelback and Creed were filling the void that the old Def Leppard had left, and selling more albums and singles as a result along with Linkin Park and Evanescence. These bands were treading along lines that Def Leppard had created, but were now outstripping them because they either crooned power ballads a bit harder or they were transcending the power of the “High n Dry” and “Pyromania” era into their songs. To me, a single that might have really worked in that era was “Love Don’t Lie”, one that retained the sentimentality that the band was obviously now looking for, but at least had a bit more rock to it and a little guitar riffing to inspire listeners. But no, they went with the two obviously ballads and the opening track instead.
Then there is a track like “Gravity” that sounds like it is trying to recreate a song like ‘Armageddon It’ from “Hysteria” with its attempted upbeat vocal, but it really does fall flat, as I guess you may expect. And there is so much generic material here. “Girl Like You”, “Torn to Shreds”, “Scar”, “Kiss the Day”, “Everyday”... I mean, yes, if this is marketed and approached as a pop album, you have a chance to enjoy it all the way through. If you don’t... well....

The last few weeks have been eye and ear opening in regards to Def Leppard. I have reviewed, and therefore listened to a LOT, four albums from four different eras of the band, and this is by far the most polarising. I had this following Hysteria on my playlist for a few weeks, and the amount this album pales in comparison to that is even more stark when you hear them both back to back like that so often.
It remains completely ridiculous to me, and I’m sure I’ve said this before, that a band with Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell on guitars has so little material that truly showcases their abilities on their instruments. When you see the band live, they both shred, and they are both awesome. Here they barely have to get out of first gear when it comes to playing, apart from the very end of “Kiss the Day” where you FINALLY get some guitar action, but overall it remains my biggest disappointment of this band over the past 30 years. There is no Mutt Lange here curating the material, and pushing the band for perfection. It is, indeed, a new era.
I don’t own this album, indeed I never had the desire to go out and buy it at the time. I heard the singles on the radio at the time (not as much as I heard Bon Jovi and Nickelback and others of that ilk), and there was no need to delve any further. And now here we are, 20 years later, and over the past month I have listened to this album... I would say... ten times more in that period than I had in the almost 20 years before that. And as I have probably intimated already, this just isn’t for me. At work it has been a pleasant enough distraction. It’s a little bit like elevator music, it's there in the background and it provides a nice ambience while I tap away at the keyboard. It’s harmless pop. But the test of any album is to go home, and listen to it in the Metal Cavern, with the stereo at an appropriate volume to get the full effects. And this album fails that completely. I am sure there are fans out there who love this album. They definitely listen to a different genre of music than I do.

1170. Iconic / Second Skin. 2022. 4/5

The first wave of the covid pandemic – and yes without becoming political I don’t think it’s over just yet – bands and artists found a way to keep active by doing online jams with their own band and with other artists, keeping their names out there and keeping themselves occupied at the same time. And, as I mentioned in the intro here, some of those appear to have progressed to the point that players got together and pooled their material and had it eventually released to the listening public. It has also been true that record companies have looked to facilitate these kind of mergers amongst their own artists, in order to have more albums coming out at a time where it has been difficult to come together and make them happen. Nostalgia is a popular theme amongst these so-called supergroups, because they can contain either artists from bands from a bygone era, or songs with a sound like those old times to draw in the punters who yearn for a return to those ‘simpler’ times, or better yet a combination of both of these things.
And so that is what we have here, the coming together of some quality musicians in the quest for musical glory, and by naming the band “Iconic” it feels as though they are either pretty confident that the group is a killer line up, or they are just on themselves. Leading the charge is Joel Hoekstra, current lead guitarist for Whitesnake, and given that that band is apparently on its farewell tour, perhaps Hoekstra is auditioning his next gig. He has been joined by excellent bass guitarist Marco Mendoza, who has played for such bands as the Dead Daisies, Thin Lizzy and Black Star Riders, as well as lead vocalist Nathan James whose main job is in the band Inglorious and Alessandro Del Vecchio on keyboards. This would normally be enough to draw in even the most undecided fans, but then you can add two further legends of metal music. Drummer Tommy Aldridge has been around for over 40 years, played for Ozzy Osbourne and Whitesnake amongst other greats, and lends his talents here. But perhaps the star attraction is Stryper vocalist and guitarist Michael Sweet, who comes aboard to lend both of those amazing talents to this crew. All in all, it’s a hard outfit to go past without at least checking out what they’ve produced.

Any doubts about what this band was going to bring to the table in regards to its music are shot down in flames from the start of the opening track “Fast as You Can”. Filled with great riffs, brilliant trading solo licks and the combination and duelling of crushing vocals, this is as good an opening track as you could wish to hear from a new formation in the universe. Everything about this song completely showcases the best of what each member has to offer. “Ready for Your Love” follows, and is the first of many tracks here that have an undeniable Whitesnake flavour to the music and vocals. It is in songs such as this one, along with “Nowhere to Run” and the slower “Worlds Apart”, where James’ vocals slow into that Coverdale croon, helping that Whitesnake comparison. Given that Hoekstra and Aldridge and Mendoza all have history with Whitesnake it shouldn’t be too difficult to understand why there is some similarities to that band’s music in places.
The title track again allows James and Sweet to combine with duelling vocals, which really lifts this song and the opening track above the rest of the album. James' vocals throughout are awesome and powerful, but paired with Sweet the combination is amazing. More of this would have made this album... iconic? More iconicer? It would have made it more superb I guess is what I’m saying. Sweet has been quoted as saying that it made a nice change for him to be playing more guitar than just singing on this album. C’mon, you’re in the studio, do more of both!!
“All I Need” is the power ballad, the kind that bands often depend on to draw in their fans, but I have to give credit where credit is due here, James’ vocals and the harder edge of the guitars throughout make this a great track. It actually reminds me a bit of the ballad the former band of Jack Black’s character in The School of Rock play at the battle of the bands... remember that? This is better though, much better. “All About” is a mid-tempo rocker that is lifted from the average through the vocals and harder riff edge of the guitars, with the solo section starring again. “This Way” is a less attractive power ballad, a bit more staid. “Let You Go” steers towards the 70’s AOR sound, the one time this album heads in that direction, but with a nice guitar solo in the middle to break it up. “It Ain’t Over” finds a nice groove and excellent guitar riffs to lift the album again, before “Enough of Your Love” concludes the album in what I can only describe as a slightly less showcasey fashion than I would have expected considering what had come before it.

There are a few things I can throw at you as to my thoughts on the album and the group as a whole. Firstly, it is tremendously disappointing that we won’t hear any of this material performed in a live setting. The band has no agenda to touring, with everyone having commitments to their actual bands rather than this group. And that seems like such a waste given what has been produced here. Even if they tried to get together for a festival run sometime next year, the album will be in the history books by then and have come off the radar. Secondly, as much as I love Nathan James’s vocals on this album, and he is quite spectacular in places, I do think it was a missed trick not to incorporate more of Michael Sweet in more than the two songs where he is involved in singing. But perhaps you can’t have everything. I think the guitars of Hoekstra and Sweet here are electric, with great riffage and excellent solo breaks between the two.
I was drawn to this album because of those playing on it, and I have to say that the positives far outweigh those couple of negatives I may have risen. Like all new albums, this takes a while to grow on you completely. But once those vocals and those guitars and that solid rhythm section come together, and you get to know the songs from repetition, I think it is a terrific effort.
This is the fifth of five new albums that I have reviewed for this blog over recent weeks, and for me this is the best of them, overall. Each has good things about them and a couple of negatives. This album’s negatives only come from a slight change in style of a couple of tracks, that despite this the band still perform so well you can’t help but enjoy them. That is what will keep this album on the turntable longer than other albums.

1169. Michael Schenker Group / Universal. 2022. 4/5

It has been two months now since the release of Michael Schenker’s new album. Schenker of course is a legend, and whether you know him as the guitarist for UFO in the 1970’s, or for his own band through the 80’s and beyond, or his all-too-short stints in Scorpions with his brother Rudolph, you will know of his prowess on the guitar and how influential he has been as a result. It’s hard to believe that many, probably myself included, felt that he had reached his peak thirty years ago, and that his album output could possibly exceed what he had produced to that point of his career, or that his success could exceed what he had achieve to that point. Indeed after some surprisingly good outings in recent years with the Michael Schenker Fest albums "Resurrection" (2018) and "Revelation" (2019), and then his 50th anniversary album “Immortal” just last year, there was nothing to suggest that the new album from the Michael Schenker Group “Universal” wouldn’t be more of the same.
Ronnie Romero again features on vocals on this album, and is also still the lead singer on tour, which recently included the summer festival season throughout Europe and will continue through the US after this. Now while Ronnie has a great set of pipes on him, it is interesting to note two things in this regard; firstly he is still sharing vocal duties with other guest singers on this album, all of whom (in my opinion) out do his own contributions to songs on this album. And secondly, for other reasons, during last year’s tour to promote the “Immortal” album, former lead vocalist Robin McAuley filled in, and from all reports was a hit.
Working again with producer Michael Voss seems to be something that Schenker is also comfortable with. In describing their working relationship recently, Schenker was quoted as saying “Michael Voss is happy to wait until I have worked out an idea and takes the time to really get to know the song, simultaneously developing ideas for the vocals. Then we work out the drums, bass and some keyboard parts together. He always has plenty of great ideas up his sleeve.”

While both Ronnie and Michael are real talents, they are only part of a wonderful line up that includes vocalists Michael Kiske (Helloween) and Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear), drummers Simon Phillips (Toto, The Who), Brian Tichy (Whitesnake, Foreigner), Bobby Rondinelli (Rainbow) and Bodo Schopf (Eloy), as well as legendary bassists Bob Daisley (Black Sabbath), Barry Sparks (Malmsteen, Dokken) and Barend Courbois (Blind Guardian, Zakk Wylde), along with Tony Carey on keyboards.
If you’ve enjoyed Schenker’s recent albums then you will find that this follows a similar pattern. Opening with the brooding ‘Emergency’ and the more melodic build of ‘Under Attack’ there is a definite trend towards the sound that slightly resembles that from the MSG albums on the 1980’s. They aren’t quite as anthemic or bright and energetic, but there are some concurrent similarities.
Following on from this comes the pointed and poignant tribute of “Calling Baal” into “A King Has Gone”, a tribute to Ronnie James Dio and particularly to the classic Rainbow album “Rising”. “Calling Baal” is an instrumental intro into the main track, and features Tony Carey on keyboards in a callback to his intro to that album that he played on, the opening keyboard solo of the song “Tarot Woman”. It’s a nice touch by Schenker to invite him to play on these two tracks given he played on the album it is paying tribute to. This is then extended to the appearance of Bobby Rondinelli on drums, who did not play on the “Rising” album but played for Rainbow in their latter 1980’s years, as well as the legend that is Bob Daisley, who again didn’t play on this particular album but did so on its follow up “Long Live Rock n Roll”. Thes three former Rainbow members give this song a nice touch of nostalgia, ably sung by Helloween’s Michael Kiske. Great stuff.
This is followed by “The Universe”, a soft ballad that sees Gary Barden and Ronnie Romero share the duet. ‘Long Long Road’ picks things up again, before the vocals of Ralph Scheepers return on ‘Wrecking Ball’, one again providing probably the real highlight of the album.
The final four songs all provide good moments. ‘Yesterday is Dead’ has a great riff and solo combination that Schenker does so well, before ‘London Calling (No not the Clash song – imagine that!) pays homage to the 80’s UK rock bands that put hard rock in the mainstream. It’s a great song that is probably lifted by Schenker’s solo again, another real treat. ‘Sad is the Song’ that follows gives off a Rainbow vibe especially in the verses which are vaguely Eastern, and in Schenker’s guitar work again. The album is concluded by the red hot fretwork of ‘Au Revoir’, the paciest song offering here and another of the best, and again really draws from that 1980’s MSG legacy.
The album features two bonus tracks, something in this day and age that barely matters given all formats seem to include them, so they may as well be considered album tracks. ‘Turn Off the World’ which with that opening guitar is actually one of the best on the album, while ‘Fighter’ is a mid-tempo rocker that would be worth inclusion just for the solo. So... let’s just say they are the final two tracks of the album instead, shall we?

I still get sucked into anything that has the name of Michael Schenker attached to it. It’s an addiction. Those albums for the 1980’s by the Michael Schenker Group, and the albums from the 1970’s with UFO, still contain some of the best riffage I’ve ever heard, and it is all from this man. So I always want to check out what he’s up to in the current day. And in recent times that has been a slightly paying off gold mine, because there have been some terrific moments over the albums he has released with all of his friends over recent years. And that continues on this album. I felt last year’s “Immortal” album had some good moments, and some average moments. It was, perhaps, a bit uneven. “Universal” is a much better compilation of tracks and players. Ronnie Romero and Michael Voss combine much better here in their vocals and songs, and Michael definitely delivers on a more aggressive scale when it comes to his guitaring. In fact, Schenker’s guitaring here is still just as brilliant as it ever was, and I think it is because he has started to look back a bit to those glory days, and realised that not only is that still what people are coming for, but that he is still capable of creating riff and solos of that calibre. And despite the fact that he has some great guests here, who all deliver as you would expect, it can’t work if the Schenker guitar is not on centre stage and the number one part of the mix. “Universal” is that album, and it is great to hear.

1168. Jorn / Over the Horizon Radar. 2022. 3.5/5

Jorn Lande has one of the most amazing voices in modern day heavy metal. Having started off in bands such as Ark and the legendary Masterplan as well as the well-received Allen-Lande project with fellow brilliant vocalist Russell Allen, Jorn has concentrated on two projects in recent years, being a part of the Avantasia project that was conceived by Tobias Sammet, and his own solo releases. Within those solo releases Jorn has often concentrated on bringing his own unique takes on great songs in doing cover versions of them and has released a number of albums just with cover songs on them. He did a whole album dedicated to songs sung by Ronnie James Dio, and two others called “Heavy Rock Radio” where he not only did some recent favourite metal song covers, but 70’s and 80’s popular songs with a heavy twist, which he does perfectly. His presence always seems to be around us, and he comes across as one of the hardest working artists out there.
Like all artists, the last couple of years has allowed artists the time to go within themselves and write material for release upon their release from covid internment. And for Jorn the result of that was this album titled “Over the Horizon Radar”.

From the outset, the vocals are as terrific as they have ever been. But they are also sitting in Jorn’s mid-range, not extending themselves to the horizon, as such, as they do on other albums.
The songs themselves are in a very mid-to-low tempo, many for the most part not getting much beyond second gear in regards to their speed. In many ways, this was the direction that one of Lande’s hero’s, Ronnie James Dio, went in his later years, and perhaps this was an inspiration to him in what he has achieved here. Now while there is nothing wrong with that, in my opinion it does make it difficult to have this album on too often. I started out by putting this album on in the car when I first started listening to it and it was always great, but four or five songs in i would begin to wonder how close to the end of the album I actually was. Too be fair that is an overstatement regarding all of the tracks here. The drive of the album also isn’t helped by the lack of an influence from the drums, as well as any superlative riffs from the guitars. But as with a lot of Jorn’s albums, it is about his vocals, and that doesn’t disappoint.
The opening does promise a lot, with the title track “Over the Horizon Radar” making its presence felt immediately, and followed by “Dead London”, where the tempo gets dialled right back but Jorn’s emotive vocals give the track an ominous feel. This tempo then remains into “My Rock and Roll” and “One Man War”, two songs that to me always feel as though they are lacking a punch to really get the album going in the right direction, but again that is a personal judgement call by me. “Black Phoenix” does have a slight rise in tempo and drive that helps make it one of the best songs here. This is followed by several songs that all retain the key elements of the album, sitting in the style that Jorn and his supporting band have set this album in. And as with the earlier tracks, there is nothing wrong with “Special Edition” and “Ode to the Black Nightshade” and “Winds of Home”, it is just that I feel that having the songs at a quicker tempo and adding a bit more riffage to would have enhanced their joy. “In the Dirt” is without a doubt the best guitar driven track on the album, and as a result immediately raises your head when it comes through the speakers. “Believer” is then followed by the final track, “Faith Bloody Faith”, an extended version of the song that Jorn entered as a contestant to become Norway’s entrant in this year’s Eurovision contest. The song failed at the final hurdle, with some experts suggesting it was too heavy to really be considered. Perhaps this is the case, but to me it is more suggestive of the style of song the decision makers wanted entered rather than the quality of the song, because the quality here is certainly not in question.

Jorn isn’t breaking any new ground here. He’s not creating a stylistic masterpiece nor revisiting any old ground by cannibalising star moments from his past. My opinion of Jorn’s work in the past is that he is a masterful vocalist who is at his best when he performs songs that have been written by other people especially for his vocals. The first two Masterplan albums were masterpieces where Jorn co-wrote with Roland Grapow and Uli Kusch. They are still a template for power metal from the early 2000’s. His work with the Allen/Lande project was all written by Magnus Karlsson. His parts in Avantasia have been constructed by Tobi Sammet and Sascha Paeth. It is where Jorn has performed on songs that integrate his amazing vocals with the amazing musicianship of those other projects, as well as writers who know how to put all of that together. Back to “Over the Horizon Radar” however, and there is some good material here, and some good pieces that find their way to the surface. And while I enjoy the rest of the album, I guess it doesn’t quite capture the imagination the way other music and albums do that Jorn has been involved in. And there is no doubt that the covid years contribute to that, as with other recent release albums, because the writing and recording process has been so stagnated.
Jorn is not the only great singer out there to find that, in my opinion, they need to be a part of a conglomerate to get the best out of them – Ripper Owens is another I can name immediately in that boat – but one thing that is for sure is that I will always check out any music where Jorn’s name is involved in the linear notes. Because his vocals alone are enough to bring me to the party. And the one thing I believe I get from this album is that, if you come into this without your expectations raised and without truly knowing Jorn Lande’s past amazing albums, you will gain a better perspective of it. Because you won’t judge it as harshly as I probably have here, because I know what has come in the past. This is still a terrific album, and it remains on my playlist up to today, and the slight disappointment I feel for some of the songs are only because I feel by bumping up the tempo and energy just a little on those tracks, it would have made this an even better album. And if you aren’t sure I know what I’m talking about, check out Masterplan’s eponymous debut album. And judge the differences for yourself.