1261. The Cult / Dreamtime. 1984. 3.5/5

Back in 1981, lead vocalist Ian Astbury formed a band with the name Southern Death Cult. Astbury had considered himself a punk when that scene breezed through the late 1970’s but then admitted in an interview with NME in October 1982 that “I was in the army for a while, and then I came out, and I was a punk, and I thought, right, fucking anarchy, this is it for the rest of my life. This has got to last forever. And then when it died down, I just sat there, and I thought... what the fuck was all that about?”. That interview, which profiled the band heavily and saw a bright future ahead, also announced that their first album was to be released shortly, titled “Fatman in the Moya”. Instead, a single release came, before the band played their final gig in February the following year.
Two months later, Astbury teamed up with a guitarist by the name of Billy Duffy. Duffy had played in bands such as the Nosebleeds (along with Morrissey, later of the Smiths), Lonesome No More and then Theatre of Hate. Also recruited were bassist Jamie Stewart and drummer Ray Mondo, both from the post-punk band, Ritual. They called themselves Death Cult, a short trip from that first band name, touring mainland Europe and releasing the “Death Cult” self-titled EP. Nigel Preston replaced Mondo on drums, and further touring continued. In January 1984, prior to appearing on a music TV program, the band decided to change their name to simply “The Cult”, believing it would create broader appeal.
The band had been writing prolifically since they had come together and had many songs ready for their eventual journey into the studio in April 1984 to record their debut album.
The album was originally being produced by Joe Julian, but after recording the drums, the band decided to replace him, and John Brand was brought in to take over the role. Despite this, Duffy has said in interviews that the drum tracks used on the album were those produced by Julian, as Preston’s drumming and availability had become too unreliable by that time. And so became The Cult’s debut album, titled “Dreamtime”.

“Dreamtime” has an interesting premise, both in the subject matter of the lyrics and the style of music the band debut on this first album. There is a mysticism and a tribalism about the songs, drawn from such widely varied and yet closely intertwined subject matter. “Horse Nation” talks about “The whole world is coming, from the four directions, and I scream and shout”, and this actually describes not only the horses of the song, but the four members of the band in this opening salvo, the guitar, bass, drums and vocals all seeming to come from four different directions to meet in the middle. Stylistically it is an interesting approach. showing Astbury's intense interest in Native American issues, with the lyrics taken almost verbatim from the book ‘Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee’. “Spiritwalker” is the first single from the album, invoking the new wave movement of the era, with Astbury’s vocals and Stewart’s bass the distinctive elements of the track, and visualising travelling the spirit world through trance. “83rd Dream” is Astbury’s reflection on mortality and how fast life can pass you by; and is followed by “Butterflies” which also touches on the same themes, of the weight of introspection on one's life choices through the Hopi ceremonial butterfly dance. The song that closes out Side A of the album, “Go West (Crazy Spinning Wheels)” is the second single released, and the style of the track evokes that kind of vibes. It once again brings on board the new wave feels of the time, in an uptempo song boosted by Astbury’s more party boy vocals on show and an almost Andy Summers like guitar strum from Duffy. It’s a good finish to the first half of the album.
Onto the second side of the album, and while “Gimmick” is not the first song on this album that channels The Cure in its style, it is the most pronounced. It has a great atmosphere, and Astbury’s more haunting vocal line does bring a bit of Robert Smith about it. “A Flower in the Desert” moves back into the mystical and profound, with lines such as “I'm alive, see my rivers flowing, don't wanna be like you” and “Step a little closer, I wonder if you can remember me in this way”. Then we are back into the new wave upbeat tempo and fun with “Dreamtime”, which is said to be inspired by the mythology of the Australian Aborigines and First Nations people. Lyrically though, given the title of the song is repeated a great number of times – 38 times, and yes, I counted – I'm not sure it invokes a lot of that.
More repeated lyrics follow with “Rider in the Snow”, while “Bad Medicine Waltz” channels The Smiths in its slow mournful style to finish off the album.
While the album has utilised a lot of influences to draw upon its subject matter, such as the Aboriginal culture from the title and the native Americans throughout, an argument can be made that lyrically Astbury and Duffy didn’t explore these ideas fully, instead, keeping what was sung to a minimum of words but poured out over an extended time. Musically there is a similarity to other bands of the era, which, when listening from the future, can be a bit disconcerting but not unwelcome.

I didn’t catch on to The Cult until their “Sonic Temple” some five years after this release, and then for several years after that only went back to find “Electric” and “Love” as their counterparts. So it was not until the early 2000’s that I first discovered “Dreamtime”, around the same time that “Beyond Good and Evil” was released. There were rumours of an Australian tour, and I decided that I should chase down the only album of The Cult that I didn’t know. What I found was something that was familiar, but perhaps incomplete. I don’t think it is unfair to suggest that at this point of their career, the band has not yet found its own sound. There are sections on “Dreamtime” where you can hear the band that they would eventually become, but in other places there are other influences.
Listening to this album again over the past couple of weeks, I can still hear those overtones of bands such as The Cure and The Smiths and even U2, and definitely an expression of the new wave scene that came with the era that the band formed and began their journey. And none of that is unpleasant because I appreciate and enjoy those things. What The Cult do here though is a form of new wave without synth or sax, where they have stuck true to the post-punk and goth rock that they were looking to draw their music from – it's just that it isn’t quite that defined yet.
The journey of The Cult from this album to what was my entry point on “Sonic Temple” is an interesting one, one that has its defined changes on each album. And each is an important part into the eventual formation of The Cult’s absolute style and significance. And while I have wondered over the years if I would feel differently about this album if it had been the first that I had heard of the band, I don’t think it would have changed for me significantly. I still enjoy this album to this day. As a first act to what was to come it is a good start. The boom came nine months later with the release of the single “She Sells Sanctuary”, and their sophomore album “Love”. But that’s a story for another episode.

1260. Mercyful Fate / Don't Break the Oath. 1984. 4/5

Mercyful Fate’s initial foray onto vinyl had come to fruition with the release of their debut album “Melissa” in October 1993, and album that was to become one of the most influential releases in the extreme, black and death metal scenes over the years. The combination of the twisting turning musical interludes along with the completely unique vocals of lead vocalist King Diamond made for an album that found an audience willing to accede to its charms, and others who protested about its perceived messages. All of this can be found on the episode dedicated to that album in Season 5 of this podcast.
The tour to promote that album had its teething problems. They played in various places around Europe, including the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and their native Denmark. But having signed on for an 11 date tour of England as the support act to Manowar, they left after just one gig in St Albans after a major conflict with the headline act. It was not to be the last time such conflicts arose.
In May 1984, just 8 months after the release of their debut album, the band entered the studios again to write and record their follow up. It seemed as though it was a short time frame between albums, and indeed this album would be released less than eleven months after the debut album, but in a time when albums still made money for record companies and given the initial success of that album, it probably stands to reason that getting a second album out there made sense. It would also give their live shows double the number of songs to be able to choose from to play, and so it was that Mercyful Fate came about to release their sophomore album titled “Don’t Break the Oath”. But could it in any way equal what the band had done on that debut album?

For those who have not heard Mercyful Fate before, it tends to be the vocals of the amazing King Diamond that becomes the most difficult part of the music to comprehend, or sometimes even get past. And to get past it is an amazingly rewarding experience. One of the best pieces of advice I have heard in regard to listening to Mercyful Fate is that you have to just ‘go with it’. Don’t just immediately cast it side because the vocals scare you off. I said the same thing on the episode dedicated to the album “Melissa”. Over time the vocals will fit, you just have to ‘go with it’. Because the music itself is more than enough to make you a fan of this band and especially this album. Believe me, King Diamond and his vocal style will soon be a favourite for you. His singing on this album is a huge jump forward from the debut album as well, he isn’t just throwing those high pitched squeals and screams in at a random place because he can, they are more structured within each song on “Don’t Break the Oath”.
The opening track “A Dangerous Meeting” has a touch of speed metal riffs through the track and a terrific solo into the base of the song. It references a group of friends that visit a seance and meet an untimely end, as Diamond sings “Tonight, the circle is broken forever, seven people dead within a trance, in here nobody is sensing the rain, tonight, seven souls are reaching hell”. It is a great opening track. This is followed by "Nightmare”, the drums and bass intro before the guitar riff that follows, and jumping out at a furious pace. Diamond’s vocals are excellent on this song, moving between high register and middle ground perfectly, while Hank Shermann and Michael Denner on guitar trade riffs and solos to top off a great track. “Desecration of Souls” reigns in the speed of the music and the outlandishness of the vocals and delivers what is the most ‘normal’ heavy metal song on the album, still wrapped in the terrific guitar sonics that Shermann and Denner produce. The middle solo section of the song with these two is outstanding. “Night of the Unborn” steps the album up again, creating the heaviest atmosphere song on the album, and intensified by the guitars again, both in their melodic trade off halfway through the track before breaking into their own individual solos. This is a beauty and is backed up by Diamond with duelling vocal melodies as well.
In a cacophony of dark organ, rain, the church bell and Diamond preaching his dark message, “The Oath” bursts forth out of the speakers and drenches you in both black metal goodness and the evil vibes of the music. These complex time changes and guitar riffs combine to produce a track that takes the essence of what was begun on the debut album and transforms it here into an epic transcendence. Diamond’s vocals here are driven by the rising tide of the guitars, and both combine perfectly here to create a song of atmospheric excellence. This is arguably the album’s piece de resistance. Following this comes the pure simplified condensing of that same energy and heaviness into “Gypsy”, a short sharp retort that settles for that hard hitting 2/4 timing on the drums with a great riff and fun vocals over the top. “Welcome Princess of Hell” soars back in a way of earlier tracks, and then there is the short instrumental break of “To One Far Away”, before the album closes out with “Come to the Sabbath”, a song credited to Diamond alone, which perhaps explains the lesser appearance and combination of the guitars that makes the remaining songs on the album so terrific.

For me, this album is a far more mature outing than the first album. Most people know the first album through the songs that Metallica have fawned over and played covers of in their time. And don’t get me wrong, it is a terrific album. But this album fits together better, the songs themselves are better arranged and performed, and Diamonds vocals seem to fit in much better and don’t stick out like a sore thumb as much as they do on occasions on “Melissa”.
I was a latecomer to Mercyful Fate, despite always seeing the covers of their first two albums when I visited Utopia Records and wondering just what the band sounded like. But no one in my extended friend group had any albums of the band, and so the temptation to be the first, with the threat of it turning out to be awful, was very small. More is the pity that it took until Metallica’s “Garage Inc” album, and their cover mash up of several Mercyful Fate songs, that I decided to get out there and buy them myself. At least I got there in the long run.
So “Don’t Break the Oath” has been back in the rotation for the past couple of weeks, and I have really enjoyed it all over again. It is one of those albums that whenever I listen to it, I wonder why I don’t listen to it more often, or at least thin to drag it off the shelves more often. So, one of the premises of this podcast, to revisit old albums that I haven't heard in some time and rediscover how much I enjoy them, has definitely come to pass for this album.
Which makes it even stranger that, following this album’s release and subsequent tour, which included the US, the band basically dissolved. Apparently, Hank Shermann wanted to move in a more commercial direction, while King Diamond disagreed and left to go out and form his own eponymously titled band with Denner and bass guitarist Timi Hansen in tow. Reunions were in the stars for further down the track, but having released two such amazing albums, it seems a damn shame that it all stopped at this point, if only for a while.

1259. Iron Maiden / Powerslave. 1984. 5/5

There could have been few bands in the world in the early to mid 1980’s in a better position to reach a period of dominance than Iron Maiden. They had done their time in the pubs and clubs, five years of grind and toil that saw them attain a recording contract, and then release their debut and sophomore albums “Iron Maiden” and “Killers”. Through this saw some rearranging of the furniture, bringing in Adrian Smith as guitarist, who had always been destined to find his way into the band, then Bruce Dickinson on lead vocals, whose powerful range gave the band a wider scope of songs to aspire to, along with the songwriting ability of both he and Smith, and finally Nicko McBrain whose drumming and personality completed the outfit. This line up had recorded the band’s previous album “Piece of Mind”, which had built up on the enduring success of “The Number of the Beast” and pushed on further, showcasing longer and more complicated song structures while retaining all of the characteristics which made Iron Maiden such a unique proposition in the music world at that time. Alongside the boss Steve Harris and the ever present Dave Murray, the band had toured for 8 months to promote the “Piece of Mind” album, which was completed in December 1983. They then allowed themselves a three week break (yep, that’s it) before reconvening to begin writing for the follow up album. Is it any wonder maintaining families under these time pressures was extraordinarily difficult. And this wasn’t unusual in the days of a 12-month cycle being write an album, record an album, release an album, tour the album.
The band returned to the Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas to record the album, the same place where “Piece of Mind” was recorded and that the follow up to this album would also take place.
The success of “Piece of Mind”, which had gone to #3 in the UK, #14 in the US and #17 in Australia, proved there was a marketplace for their music, and having already shown they could write fast paced and heavy singles such as “Run to the Hills” and “The Trooper”, and longer and technically proficient songs such as “Hallowed Be Thy Name” and “To Tame a Land”, in order to go to another level with their music, just what could they produce for their new album that would satisfy these requirements? The answer came in the form of 8 amazing tracks that make up the album that became “Powerslave”.

 
One of the immediate impacts of this album, that if you look at the cover of the album feels so mystical and mythical, is that the first two songs heavily reference and describe war, such that when initially listening to the album you could believe that it is going to be an album all about war. And part of the perfection of the tracks is that the music of each almost makes you feel the differing emotions of the actions being drawn. The opening battle cry of “Aces High” moves from the twin guitar montage before diving hell for leather into the song at a careering pace, which barely lets up for the entire song. As with so many of Steve Harris’ composed songs, the subject takes its basis from the movie of the same name, 1976’s “Aces High” {put in some context of the movie here]. Even the screaming solos from Dave and Adrian through the middle of the song make it sound like you are watching the planes dogfight above you, rolling and turning and diving, and the pace of the song exarcebates that as well, and the conclusion you almost see two of these plavnes colliding as the final note is played. It is a sensational opening track, setting the album off in cracking style.
This is followed by the iconic opening riff of the Smith/Dickinson song “2 Minutes to Midnight”, and while the opening track speaks in a romantically yet realistic tone of the way that air fights occurred during WW1, there is immediately a more sinister sound about the following track. There is a more serious tone about the lyrics here, referencing the Doomsday Clock, which symbolises impending doom, and is set closer to midnight the faster that this approaches. The guitars are more menacing, as Bruce starts singing lyrics such as “The killer's breed or the demon's seed, the glamour, the fortune, the pain. Go to war again, blood is freedom's stain, Don't you pray for my soul anymore”. The solo section is a brooding piece as well, the tempo rising and falling, until at the end it falls into Nicko’s rising drum roll, and crashes back into the main riff, and the tone of the whole song builds to its crescendo as Bruce spits out his lyrics - “The body bags and little rags of children torn in two, And the jellied brains of those who remain to put the finger right on you. As the mad men play on words and make us all dance to their song, To the tune of starving millions to make a better kind of gun”. It is an incredibly powerful finish to the track, one where the built up emotion spills over and crushes to the conclusion. Still just an amazing song.
After two heavy war based song lyrically, the third track takes on a different direction, with the instrumental and cleverly titled “Losfer Words”. Some have questioned why the band would place an instrumental on their album when they have the voice of Dickinson to call on, but this works really well, and does gives you the opportunity to fully concentrate on the music and musicians themselves. The middle piece of the song, with Dave soloing and Steve’s incredible bass guitaring underneath, is still an amazing piece of music.
From here the album moves into two songs that may not be about war but are certainly referencing the use of weapons. Bruce utilises his love of the sport of fencing in composing “Flash of the Blade”, where the lines “the smell of resined leather, the steely iron mask, as he cuts and thrusts and parries at the fencing masters call” is surely a reference to his own early travails in the sport. This song moves along at a quick tempo driven my Nicko’s fast rated drum beat, vastly underrated on this song in particular. Bruce’s doubled vocals through the chorus increases the energy as well, adding that extra layer. It’s a simply structured song but each part is played to perfection. This segues perfectly into the start of “The Duellists”, Steve Harris’ depiction of an old-fashioned duel. The bassline that runs through this entire song, but especially through the middle instrumental solo section that links the two lyric bound stanzas, is truly remarkable. It is the mainstay of the song, and it is no wonder the band has never played it live, because even Harry’s fingers would be bleeding at its conclusion if he did. Take a listen to this track and be amazed at what he puts into this track, that sometimes just seems to blend in so well that you don’t even notice it. It really is a remarkable piece of bass playing. The two solos played over the top sound amazing, but it is the bass underneath that provides the real superbness of the song. An underrated classic.
Opening up side two is “Back in the Village”. Now, I love “The Prisoner”, not only do I love Iron Maiden’s song, but the TV series that it is written about. So who would ever have thought we would get a sequel to that song? Well here it is, the Smith/Dickinson composition that once again returns to the eponymously named ‘The Village’ of the TV show, and we have more rollicking fun lyrically as they again canvas us with the goings on of the show. It is a rollicking ride musically, wonderfully fast paced with great guitar licks from Adrian, that incredible rumbling bass from Harry and Nicko’s drums crashing along the way. Bruce has a ball with the lyrics, both soaring and spitting as he moves through the song. It’s yet another great track with so much energy and purpose you can’t help but be transported along for the ride.
The final two tracks of the album take a different direction and are both arguably some of the finest work that Iron Maiden has ever done. “Powerslave” is Bruce’s second solo composition for the album, and fourth overall, stamping his mark on the direction the band was taking. The Egyptian theme was apparently something Bruce had been working on while on tour for “Piece of Mind” and then eventuated during the writing sessions for this album. It is an epic song, highlighted as with many of the songs here by the two bands of lyrics connected by a long solo section that allows the two guitarists to showcase their ware. Bruce’s vocals here are amazing, but for me the epic brilliance of that middle section is unmatched in all of music. Harry’s bass once again takes the reins of the music, the way he runs his fingers up and down and around the fretboard during this interlude is truly brilliant. The mood he creates here is perfect for the song, less intense than the verses and chorus have been, and amplified by the guitars of Smith and Murray, whose perfect harnessing of the mood brings it all together amazingly. The mood swings lower and higher, serene to more intense, until again the conclusion to the solo section is hammered down the slope by Nicko’s drumming to crash back into the main riff, and the song is off again. Just magnificent, and an epic track that has stood the test of time to retain its magnificence.
And yet - there is still no song written by this band, or perhaps any band ever, that is a more perfect embodiment of bringing a poem or story to life than Steve Harris’ masterpiece, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. Inspired by and referencing direct lines from the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, it is a brilliantly conceived retelling of the story of the poem, with the songs going through all of the lulls and rolls, highs and lows, anguish, fear and redemption that the poem has to offer. Each part of the story has music composed to relate to that part of the tale, and while it isn’t an opera, it is a piece of musical theatre where you can see what Bruce is singing about by his descriptions and the music bringing it to life. Again, the middle section is a superbly written and performed piece, picturing the boat stranded on the lifeless sea, the dead lying around the mariner, with the spoke passage from the poem itself. This then feeds into the return of the band proper, as the mariner accepts the curse and wishes he had taken his shipmates place, as Bruce sing and the music builds, into the cacophony of his scream, and the roller coaster of guitars and drums scream down the precipice into the heart of the solo section, one of the heaviest and brilliant pieces of music the band has ever written and played. I still get shivers down my spine every time I hear this lead into the Dave and Adrian solo pieces. It is magnificent, emotional, headbanging stuff, which continues back into the verse and the end of the tale and the song. The whole song is an experience, not just the final track of the album. Maiden has a lot of long songs, that have their own tales to tell, and the majority of them and brilliant. But “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a step above them all. If Maiden had never written another album, another song, following the release of “Powerslave”, it would barely have mattered, because this album is so utterly brilliant, and this song is the crown that rests at the top.

Back at the end of 1985 I was on an end Year 10 school camp at a place called Bundanoon on the NSW Southern Highlands. For a week 50-60 of us spent that time camping and running around like the 15 and 16 year old maniacs we were and having a superb time. The conclusion of the camp was a skit concert on the final night, where all campers were asked to participate. Some of my friend group got together and pretended to be a rock band, miming to the Stiff Little Fingers instrumental track “Go for It”, and in the process enthralling the crowd so much, that at the end they decided to do an impromptu second performance. This one saw the band miming, quite well from memory, Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills”, receiving rapturous applause at its conclusion. This, as it turns out, was the first time I had heard an entire song from start to finish by Iron Maiden. I had heard one of my best friends all camp walking around humming and singing a couple of songs throughout, without knowing what they were. As it turns out, he had recently rediscovered Iron Maiden in a big way. And so, the following week when we were back at school, as I had on quite a few occasions in the past, I brought in a blank cassette, and asked him to record me some Iron Maiden for me to experience. This friend, who at this point became and remains my heavy metal music dealer, came back two days later with the album “Powerslave” for me to listen to.
That day was Wednesday 27 November 1985. It was the first day I had truly sat down and listened to a heavy metal album. It was the first time I had listened to an Iron Maiden album. More importantly, it was the first time I had listened to “Powerslave” the album. And it was captivating. I sat in my bedroom that afternoon, with my portable tape player that had just spent the past week taping my friends laughing around campfires and playing hijinks on teachers (tapes that still exist almost 40 years later), listening to this album for the first and second times in my life. And, it was surreal, that’s what I remember feeling. Because the journey of the album is quite a winding one, of battles and fights of different eras, of mythology and poetry and mystery. And that’s not an easy thing to understand and take in when you only have your blank cassette cover with the names of the songs on it, rather than the album itself. It was something that I wanted to rectify.
About six months later, on Friday 2 May 1986 as it turns out, I had completed an English exam for my year 11 half yearlies, and was faced with the prospect of either waiting at school for about four hours for the end of the school day to catch the bus home, or instead face the walk home, a journey of about an hour and 20 minutes from school. I decided on the second, so that I would at least have some time at home before the rest of the family arrived. On the way however I decided to divert into town, and take a look at Kiama’s one and only record store, Kiama Sight & Sound, just to see what was in stock at the time. And, beyond my surprise, there was a vinyl copy of Iron Maiden’s “Powerslave” in the racks. My heart leapt, and within moments I had made my purchase ($11.99 for those interested) and returned to my journey. It was warm for the start of May, and the walk home wasn’t a pleasant stroll, but the anticipation of being able to get home to listen to my new acquisition was enough motivation to keep going. And I still remember that afternoon, putting the album on my parents' stereo, and hearing it in pristine condition, holding the album and going over every centimetre of detail in both the cover design and the information contained within.
This has been a very long winded explanation of my discovery of this album, but I feel it is important, because of the momentous occasion that it was. It was my first Iron Maiden album, and first experience of both the band and heavy metal as a genre. Is it a simple and accurate statement to say that my life changed that day forever? Probably, but a more accurate one was that over the proceeding eight weeks of the summer holidays of 1985/86 my whole world changed. The album grew with me at different stages, the rollicking opening of “Aces High” and the intangible opera of “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” the first to cast me under their spell. Then came that middle solo sequence of the title track, one that is still so amazing to the present day. The urgent charging of both “2 Minutes to Midnight” and “Flash of the Blade”, driving relentlessly forward. The utter bombasticness of “Back in the Village”, and the amazing instrumental influences of “Losfer Words”. And finally, the sheer underrated brilliance of “The Duellists”, once again through that middle solo section with the three guitarists and the drummer putting together an amazingly connected interlude. Each piece of that puzzle came to me in different times, and eventually combined to become the whole, the album that is “Powerslave”.
So I wore that cassette out that I was originally given, and countless others once I had the vinyl album. Eventually came the CD as well. I couldn’t tell you the number of times I have listened to this album in my life. It is not unreasonable to guess that it was over 500 by the time I left high school and that was 37 years ago. It has been a constant companion, an album that has never lost its sheen, never lost its lustre. The writing and composition is so superb, with all contributors arguably at the peak of their powers on this album. And the performance of the music, under the brilliant production of Martin Birch, is beyond compare.
The band that my friends and I created not long after high school eventually had a crack at five of these eight songs, with a reasonably high success. “Flash of the Blade” was one of the first songs we learned and was always fun to play. “Aces High” was well received whenever it was brought out, as was “2 Minutes to Midnight”. “Losfer Words” would give the long suffering vocalist a rest during a set, while we famously debuted “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” at our mates 21st birthday party, which saw the metal heads in attendance open mouthed in awe, and the rest of the party bored to death by the end of its 15 minute journey. There’s still video footage of it somewhere.
Today, this still ranks as one of the best that Iron Maiden has produced. Discussions will always occur between people’s favourites, but in writing, music and production this album ranks at the top of the tree. The band went forth on the World Slavery Tour to promote this album, which eventually led to one of the greatest live albums of all time, “Live After Death”. It heralded a remarkable run of success for the band built on talent and hard work.
This was my introduction to this band and heavy metal. And over that timeline of 39 years, hundreds of bands and thousands of albums, I have still heard nothing that betters this album. I believe there are a number that are of the equal of this but nothing exceeds it. Is it just because it is the first I heard? Or because I lucked out on finding it at the exact right moment that I was looking for it? Believe what you will of that. As an album and a band, you would be hard pressed to argue against it. I think it is one of the best albums of any genre ever. And still my favourite of all time.

1258. Testament / Practice What You Preach. 1989. 4/5

Having come up through the breeding grounds of the US West Coast thrash metal movement, Testament had broken out of the pack to some degree, and on the back of their first two albums “The Legacy” and “The New Order” - episodes for both of which you can find on earlier seasons of this podcast – they had begun to build their own audience away from their home scene. This had come from tours such as opening for Megadeth on their “So Far, So Good... So What!” tour in Europe, and through North America with contemporary bands such as Overkill, Voivod, Death Angel, Vio-lence, Nuclear Assault and others, along with replacing Megadeth on some dates of the European Monsters of Rock tour which also featured bands like Iron Maiden, Kiss, David Lee Roth and Anthrax.
Coming into the writing and recording of their third studio album in February of 1989, Testament had spent a lot of time playing with fellow thrash bands that had come from the Bay Area, and could compare exactly where they were in regards to their careers, and just what they were doing with their music at that point of their careers as well. What they would have seen and heard is a mass explosion in the way the music was changing, and how these bands had decided to approach it. Bands like Overkill, Death Angel and Nuclear Assault were pushing the speed metal aspect of their craft and finding their success in that method. Megadeth too was holding that part of their craft, but with songs such as “In My Darkest Hour” had tapped another part of their arsenal and shown they could make some adaptions without putting off their fan base. All of this is interesting in respect to how Testament approached their new album. Did it encourage the less than subtle changes that the band had afoot, in minimising the occult and gothic themes found in the lyrical content of their first two albums, and focusing on issues like politics and corruption, and drawing influences from traditional heavy metal, jazz fusion and even progressive metal in the music. And, perhaps more pertinent, would the fans be on board with this?

One of the criticisms of this album from some sections of the fan base is the changing direction of the songs from straight out thrash to a more technical playing and composition of the tracks. It has even been compared to Testament trying to follow the path taken by Metallica, who had in their own way both begun to play much more technically composed songs on their instruments as well as beginning to sing about more worldly topics. To a certain extent, that IS what Testament do on this album, but to suggest they were trying to follow Metallica’s lead can’t be concluded. For a start, guitarist Alex Skolnick himself was not just a thrash metal guitarist, having also been one of a long line of amazing guitarists that had their start under the tutelage of Joe Satriani. There is little doubt that the songs that Alex was beginning to write by this stage of the band’s career were ones where he was looking to inject more of his technical proficiency on his instruments into the songs, rather than just being called done of the ‘fastest’ guitarists in the world. So his influence, let alone any other of the writers in the band, saw him looking to expand their pure thrash roots into a band that had songs that may not be as fast as they had played before, but sounded brilliant through their skills involved. As well as this, having now toured extensively over the course of the previous two years, the band had begun to have more worldly views, seen things that peaked their interest, and gave them ideas on what to write songs on that differed from what they had written on the first two albums. And look, there are enough similarities here for someone to point out and suggest the similarities here are too close not to be deliberate. But while it would be easy to say ‘Testament was following Metallica’, it is perhaps more accurate to suggest that by this third album, the band had matured and wanted to expand its horizons, an evolutionary path that other bands had already followed for the same reasons. Or, maybe I’m just looking for reasons not to state the obvious. As always, everyone is entitled to their opinion.
People coming into this album away from the time it was released do seem to have more problems with its output than those who were around at the time that it was released. I get the criticism, because it is like when all bands change their stripes, whether it be a little or a lot. No band is immune from it at some point of their career. There is less use of atmosphere and melody to stage the more aggressive rhythm guitars. The songs are more mid-tempo than on the early albums, and while the guitars still have a great sound to them the speed of the songs has been reigned back as Skolnick and Peterson spend much of the time in cruise mode, allowing Chuck Billy's more melodic vocal range to carry the songs.
The title track “Practice What You Preach” is a barnstorming opening and sets the album off on the right note, and is well followed up by “Perilous Nation”. "Time is Coming”, “Blessed in Contempt” and the second single “Greenhouse Effect” all hit all the right places. Skolnick’s soloing in particular continues to be a highlight of the band's music.
OK, let’s talk about the conclusion to the album. In particular, “The Ballad”. Yes, that is the name of the song. Yeah... not a fan. Not a fan of the quiet start, not a fan of Chuck Billy’s attempted quiet morose vocal, not really a fan when it finally tries to become the fast thrash final three minutes. Do I say what we all know?... ok... Testament’s attempt at a Metallica “Fade to Black”? It doesn’t work. It stops the momentum that the album has built up... and they released it as the third single from the album! Gee. And sure, “Nightmare (Coming Back to You)” and “Confusion Fusion” kinda redeem it, but I seriously wonder if Chuck and Alex dropped the ball a little there.

Back in 1989, I’m over at my mate's house as he mans the phone for the taxi business his parents own. This mate will eventually become my brother-in-law and the owners of the business my parents-in-law. We are watching the late night music video program “Rage” on ABCTV, a staple for teenagers on Friday and Saturday nights once the pubs have closed and you have to come home. Usually around 1 or 2am they would play their metal selection, and on this particular night, the first song from that section is a song that slams out of the TV, of a band I’ve never heard before. We both go ‘wow - who the hell is this?’ The band was Testament, and the video playing was for the song “Practice What You Preach”. It was one of those moments that you don’t forget. Now in those prehistoric pre-internet days, the only way to find out what was going to be played on Rage on those Friday and Saturday nights was to phone a number, and they would read out the entire playlist for the eight hours of music videos they would play. So the following afternoon I did just that, found out they were going to play the video again that night, and I stayed up again – just to record that video on my VHS tape with all my other metal videos on it. Having then watched that song a hundred times, I went out to my local-ish record store, The Rock Factory at Shellharbour Square, and bugger me, they had this album on vinyl, just waiting for me to purchase it. Which I did.
And – as my first taste of Testament, I loved it. It was new, it was different. And I didn’t notice any supposed similarities to Metallica, because... I didn’t know any better! Once I went back and listened to the first two albums, which were a good shock because of their real thrash metal roots, I understood where the qualms had come from in those metal magazines I read. But I didn’t care, because I just thought – and think – that this is a terrific album. Yes, it will always be special because it was my introduction to the band. And it isn't perfect, there are a couple of songs that don’t maintain the standard. But having had this on again for the last two weeks, and had it pouring out of my speaker at work, I have annoyed my work colleagues enough to know that it still works. Because this is not an album that you can play at half volume and expect to get the most out of it. You need to turn it up, and have that album charge out at you, to get the full experience.
What has always amused me is that, given the way this album is received by some, the follow up album “Souls of Black” moves in an even more interesting and distinct direction.

1257. Alice Cooper / Trash. 1989. 4.5/5

As we approached the end of the 1980’s decade, Alice Cooper had been through the wringer, from the depths of the inordinate drug and alcohol fuelled lows to the going clean and fighting back highs. As has been noted in several episodes throughout the run of this podcast on albums that have been reviewed from his 1980’s period, Alice had recorded albums that he dubbed his ‘blackout’ albums, as he has no memory of actually recording them. There is also a difference in opinion in Alice Cooper fandom of the quality of those albums from early in the decade. From here Alice got clean and sober, with a break of three years before making a return alongside Kane Roberts and Kip Winger to record the hair metal themed hard rock albums “Constrictor” and “Raise Your Fist and Yell”, which also tended to split the fans as to how they felt about the modern sound and feel of the albums.
In 1988 two things happened for Alice. Firstly, he almost died after a safety rope broke during a rehearsal pretending to hang himself, a stunt he often performed during live concerts. Secondly, his record contract with MCA Records expired, and he instead signed with Epic Records, a move that was to prove revitalising.
Having spent two albums centring on themes such as b-grade horror movies and teenage angst, no doubt Cooper decided he needed a reboot, a way to kickstart where his music was heading. 1989 signalled 20 years since the first album released by the Alice Cooper Band, and it was a long bow to draw to keep producing albums like those classic ones of that era. The music scene had changed, and Cooper needed to adapt to the change, and find a way to invigorate his brand, and become the sneering frontman he had always been.
In a move that was to be the biggest he had made since deciding to go out as a solo artist for the “Welcome to My Nightmare” album in 1975, Alice approached songwriter and producer Desmond Child to become his partner for his new album. Child has earned the nickname ‘The Hitmaker’ after a career of writing some of the most popular songs of all time. By 1989, he had been involved in the writing of songs on several Kiss albums, as well as the two biggest Bon Jovi albums and the two albums that revitalised the career of Aerosmith. At the time Alice was quoted as saying: "The rarest of moments is when I find myself turning up the radio in my car, and it almost always seems to have been from hearing a Desmond Child tune. There is this certain crazy insanity mixed in with genius". In bringing Child on board as producer of the album, and co-writer of all of the album, Cooper was banking on his magic rubbing off on him and bringing him to a point where he could once again stand up and take centre stage as the popular entity he had once been. It is fair to say that with “Trash”, this was well and truly achieved.

When this album first appeared, it was probably one that all areas of the Alice Cooper fan base were taken by surprise by. It wasn’t a return to his 70’s roots, it wasn’t the experimental new wave of early in the decade and for the most part was also not like the hair metal of the late part of the decade. What “Trash” ended up offering was a mature sounding album that was the hallmark of what Desmond Child was able to achieve with so many artisits over the years, but in essence built on the success he had achieved in those recent years with Bon Jovi and Aerosmith. And the way to build that success was to write a couple of hit singles, ones that caught the imagination of the listening public and then get expansionist exposure on radio and music video shows, and drag in old and new fans alike as a result.
Queue “Poison”, the opening track to the album, the lead single from the album, and the huge and somewhat controversial video from the album. Yep, a leather clad beauty partially exposing her breasts is one way to create controversy and draw in the viewers. There are a multitude of voices in a supporting role throughout the song, but it is the cool calm menace in Alice’s vocals through the song that capture the moment, that draw you in to the song and in the long run capture you. Alongside this is the second single released from the album, and the track that opens side two of the album, “Bed of Nails”, which again utilises Alice’s menace in his vocals. It is heavier in style and retains the atmosphere of the first single, with another catchy chorus surrounded by backing vocals with Alice firmly in the centre. Kane Roberts, Alice’s partner for the previous two albums, co-writes and plays guitar here, and his presence is a great lift for the song. Both of these singles signals this next era of Alice Cooper, moving from B-grade horror to true glam metal icon, with lyrics and music that draw from the battery of sexually charged lyrics by Motley Crue and Ratt while harnessing the integrity of the ‘boy wants girl’ playfulness of Bon Jovi. Alice and Desmond unashamedly write songs here that are anthems sung to and about the female sex, either wooing them into the bedroom or proclaiming the darker side they possess. Both have had experience in writing songs of this description through their careers, and here they combine it into one big best seller.
There are two distinctive power ballads on the album, and for me, one works and the other doesn’t. The fourth single released from the album was “Only My Heart Talking”, the closing track of side one of the album, and also the only song on the album not co-credited to Desmond Child. Perhaps that is telling. “Only My Heart Talkin’” is Alice begging for one last chance, trying not to lose his love as she tries to walk away, and more me is too sickly sugar sweet to enjoy overly. That could also be Steven Tyler’s guest vocals that perpetrate that. On the other hand, “Hell is Living Without You” is a more true Alice type of power ballad, like his great tracks such as “Only Women Bleed” and “You and Me”. Lyrically it is a similar story to “Only My Heart Talkin’”, but musically it is far more heartfelt and emotionally performed, making you feel the pain the protagonist feels. Play them back-to-back, and you will hear the different nuance between them. This has the polish of Child, along with his Bon Jovi co-conspirators Jon and Richie Sambora that the other power ballad does not. The addition of guest guitarists in Sambora himself and Steve Lukather adds to the track immensely.
Then you have the Alice songs that continue this drive but draw upon more recent ideals as well. “This Maniac’s in Love with You” draws on the fun and menacing side of Alice from the previous two albums, more a statement of Alice’s proclamation of love and the warning of that in the same breath. Then you have the closing track “I’m Your Gun”, the double-entendre laden song that became a hallmark of some of his most popular tracks from the late 1980’s albums. Middle class songs that play the role of advancing the album beyond the big tracks. And the title track “Trash” finds itself in this category as well, a fun filled upbeat song with Jon Bon Jovi joining in along the way.
Filling in the gaps between all these are other top shelf songs. “Spark in the Dark” gets the album moving after the opening track, a typically crafted Desmond Child song with Alice playing his alter ago to perfection throughout. “House of Fire” utilises Cooper’s anthemic style again, with chorused backing vocals helping him along, along with Joe Perry’s excellent solo slot on guitar. And “Why Trust You” is arguably my favourite track on the album. It moves at the best tempo, it has Alice at his moody best, and it sounds light and fun even when lyrically he is spitting venom. Modern Alice at his very best.

To be in the music business for over 55 years – and to be successful over that huge amount of time – you do need to adapt to the changing music climate. Not to ignore your roots, not to completely remake yourself, but to be able to incorporate what is happening around you into the way you are writing and recording. Alice Cooper has been extraordinarily good at this, creating albums that often absorb what is happening in music at the time, but still remaining quintessentially Alice Cooper. That doesn’t mean that old fans or new fans will necessarily like or adore what you do at each step of the way as it happens, or feel that an album holds its legacy as the years retreat. In many ways that is how “Trash” is looked upon. And the comparisons can sometimes be skewed. On its release, there was a backlash from the fans of the original band and of the solo albums he had released in the 1970’s. They felt this album was a sellout, of Alice selling his soul to the Desmond Child conveyor belt of hard rock singles and hit makers. It was felt he had lost his way and forgotten the songs and albums that had ‘made’ him, and that now he was just out for a cash grab at the expense of those fans that had also “made” him.
For people like me, 19 years of age at the time and no doubt one of the prime examples of who this album was aimed at, we couldn’t see what the fuss was about. Those old singles and some of the albums from the 1970’s were great, but so was this. This was Alice Cooper seeing our generation, and coming out with an album that, for the time, perfectly fit what we wanted. The leather, the hair, the top hat and cane, the make-up... Alice Cooper was COOL, something that nerds like me aspired to be (sadly, never to eventuate). Was all of that selling out, or was it adapting to his market as it was at the time? A couple of my parents' friends were Alice Cooper fans, and they all listened to this album. Sure, at the party to celebrate my 21st birthday, where at one stage I was playing “Trash” on the stereo, one of my parents' friends did ask me if we could play some ‘old’ Alice Cooper instead (which I readily acceded to), but they weren’t hostile to the new Alice Cooper.
On top of this, there are many people today who look back to this album, having been a fan in the day, and feel that it has either dated badly, or feel now that it was ‘overrated’. These are the kind of fans that wrote off all hair and glam metal as soon as grunge hit the scene. People’s tastes change over time, and not feeling the same enthusiasm for this album now as you did 35 years ago is something that can be quantified.
For me, I still love this album. Of course, I feel and listen to it differently today than I did 35 years ago. This album was ripe for 19-year-olds, and everyone remembers those days of that age with an air of reminiscence, and the albums released at that time is the soundtrack to your life. For me, this is one of them, along with Skid Row’s debut album, Motley Crue’s “Dr Feelgood” and Whitesnake’s “Slip of the Tongue”. Many would have the same feelings about those albums as well, that they are tied to the age and that they perhaps don’t feel the same way about them now as they did then. I can assure you I feel EXACTLY the same now as I did then.
And for me all of Alice’s work of this era and beyond is fantastic. “Constrictor” and “Raise Your Fist and Yell”. Then “Trash” and “Hey Stoopid”. And then “The Last Temptation” (just recently reviewed here on this podcast) and into “Brutal Planet” and “Dirty Diamonds”. Alice just finds a way to write and record albums that don’t all sound the same, that can absorb what is happening at that time, and yet still remain an Alice Cooper album. It is a wonderful gift.

1256. Stryper / The Yellow and Black Attack. 1984. 3/5

The arrival of Stryper on the music scene in the early 1980’s is an interesting story of returning to one’s faith and building a band around those beliefs in an industry that on the surface appeared to have little of that about it. The band itself began under the name Roxx Regime in 1983, the double x in Roxx showcasing the era of the band and the direction their music was going to take. On formation the band looked to be a straight-out glam metal band, with brothers Michael and Robert Sweet the core. A number of soon-to-be-famous guitar players, including Doug Aldrich and C.C. de Ville, all had short stints in the band before the arrival of Oz Fox who became a permanent member of the group. At around this time they began to write songs that reflected the band members Christian beliefs, and this was the direction they followed from that point onwards.
A change of band name came once bass guitarist Tim Gaines came on board, to better reflect the songs the band was writing. The name of Stryper is coined from a passage from the Book of Isiah from the Old Testament that concludes “by his stripes we are healed”, with the band taking ‘stripes’ and extending it to ‘Stryper’. They also began wearing what was coined as their bumblebee suits, with the yellow and black stripes becoming a major part of their stage act.
Signed on by Enigma Records in 1983, the band then recorded what would become their debut EP. It was originally just a six song EP, with a limited number of pressings made, as their record company was still unsure just what the Christian metal music market would be like.
The opening track “Loud ‘N’ Clear” is the clear winner on this EP, energetic, enterprising and fun to sing along to. Th true mastery of the song can really be judged on the album “Second Coming’ some 20-odd years later, when the band re-recorded their best songs, and this one got the full metal treatment that it deserves. It slays. This version has the bones without the meat. “From Wrong to Right” is highlighted by the great duel guitar solo breaks in the middle of the track from both Michael and Oz, which showcased their amazing talent on their instruments, and that they had more to offer than Christian themes. Michael’s vocals are also supreme during this song. “You Know What to Do” offers the harmony vocals of Michael along with Oz and Tim as its highlight in a feel good tone to pull along the lyrical content. “Co’Mon Rock” sounds great musically, again moving at a fast clip with a good riff throughout punctuated by that dual guitar solo spot in the back half of the song, the way Stryper does so well. “You Won’t Be Lonely” dials things back a little, not to the extent that future Stryper ballads would, as the music here is still up tempo and actually moving forward, not something that could be said about songs on future albums in this respect. “Loving You” closes out the EP in an energetic burst that also suggests the power that this band has musically without the production really giving it what it feels it deserves. This was another song that benefitted from being re-recorded down the track to showcase how good it can sound.

Let’s address the lyrical side of this album and band first. I’m not a Christian, and for those of you who happened to listen to the episodes that cover other Stryper albums on this podcast, you’ll know that for me it hasn’t been an issue. It’s great that the band has a message that they want to expand on, but for me the music and the band’s performance far outweighs anything I may or may not believe about what they are singing about. And I guess this is what their record companies worried about early on. Would there be enough Christians who wanted to listen to Stryper’s music? The answer really ended up being that you don’t have to be a Christian to like their music. I am a case in point.
This album, however, was initially a bit different. The EP gained a slight following but didn’t set the world on fire. It was eventually re-released following the success of the band’s follow up “Soldiers Under Command”, with two additional songs included to make it more appealing. And this was where I first heard it, having already digested and loved the two albums that followed it, “Soldier Under Command” and “To Hell with the Devil”, and having seen them in concert on the “To Hell with the Devil” tour in Sydney in 1987. Still probably the loudest gig I have ever been to. The problem for this EP was that, compared to those two albums, this one was... a bit tame sounding. It came across as less energetic and exciting in comparison to the material I knew so well. So I listened to it, but never really with ears that were willing to accept it.
Flash forward 20 years to the afore-mentioned “Second Coming” CD, a best-of by the band where they re-recorded all of those hits, including the two I mentioned from this EP. And – they sounded enormous. I actually couldn’t believe how good they sounded, so I went back and listened to this EP again, and two things happened. One, I was again left slightly disappointed by the original versions of those two songs compared to the new versions, but second, I gained an appreciation for the EP as a whole that I probably hadn’t had before. And over the time since, that appreciation has improved. Having pulled this CD off the shelves again over the last couple of weeks, it has been fun reliving it once again. It is only six tracks long (unless you count the re-released version from 1986 that has those two added tracks, which in my opinion actually drags back the enjoyment rather than expand it) so it is only a short sharp visit, but from a historical aspect it shows a lot of the great aspects of the band that were exploded over the next five years.

1255. Alice Cooper / The Last Temptation. 1994. 4/5

Alice Cooper has been on a bit of a tear over almost all of the previous decade. Having first made a triumphant return to music with his hair metal albums “Constrictor” and “Raise Your Fist and Yell”, he had then dominated the charts with his Desmond Child co-creation “Trash” that had charted all over the world and brought Alice back to prominence once again, a podium he had not stood on for over a decade at that point in time. This was followed by the equally wonderful “Hey Stoopid!” that was a torch being held at the very end of the hair and glam metal movement. Through this whole period, Alice not only regained his place as the top of the tree for all round entertainer and performer of songs that people of all ages and genres could love, but proved to himself as much as anyone else that he could rise from the depth that he had crashed to in the early 1980’s and find his way back to the top of the industry.
1991’s “Hey Stoopid” fell right at the start of the world’s eclipse by grunge and alternative rock, and thus was not affected as much by the rise of this tempest. However, by the time it came for Alice to start working on the follow up to that album, he would no doubt have been very aware that he needed to adapt. And if there was one thing that Alice Cooper had been good at over the years, it was to adapt to the changing circumstances that he found himself in. The first decision that was made was that the album would return to one of Alice’s old habits, the concept album. Indeed, it would be the first concept album Alice had recorded since the album “DaDa” at the end of his blackout years in 1983. It was a savvy move, looking to lock in both his long-term fans along with the newer fans he had picked up over the mega successful past couple of albums. He formed a new writing crew, including Dan Wexler and Bob Pfeiffer, who composed most of the first half of the album, which set up the story from the outset and included the first single from the album, “Lost in America”. In the second half of the album, Jack Blades and Tommy Shaw from Damn Yankees co-wrote two songs, as did Soundgarden alumni Chris Cornell. All of these writers had experience in the style of music that had begun to dominate over the first half of the 1990’s decade, and their efforts alongside Alice gave the album the story and style it needed if it was going to make its mark on the music of the time.

As always with concept albums, you can either buy into the story being told and enjoy it for that aspect or put all of that aside and just enjoy the songs for how they each sound individually. And for me, from the first time I got the album, I have enjoyed the story as it is laid out through the album, but enjoy the album purely for the tracks themselves. Everyone will take a different viewpoint.
As for the story itself, Alice himself explained at the time of its release, "The Last Temptation takes place in an average Middle American town where one particular group of young boys, who think they've done and seen everything, stumble across this old vaudeville theater that they've never noticed before in an old part of town. Emerging from the shadows within to greet them is a mysterious figure called The Showman (who bears a remarkable resemblance to the classic Alice Cooper character himself) who runs the theater along with his assistant, the temptress Mercy. None of the kids accept the invitation to enter for a free show apart from Steven (the same Steven from Cooper’s groundbreaking album "Welcome to My Nightmare”). Once inside, Steven's temptation at the hands of The Showman begins in earnest. But will he succumb? It's all based on the question of whether or not Steven gives in to modern-day temptation”.
The crafting of the album and the story required a great deal of planning, and indeed in the long run Alice utilised several different producers for different parts of the album and story, in order to get the kind of sonic atmosphere and theatrical environment that he felt was required to make this album work. This led to Alice using Andy Wallace for the bookended tracks that open and close the show and the album, “Sideshow” and “Cleansed by Fire”. Much like a stage musical, these tracks take on the role of introducing the story, and then finishing off the tale, and Wallace’s style was perfect for this. He was also involved in the two tracks in which Chris Cornell contributed vocals, the beautiful ballad-esque “Stolen Prayer” and the more bombastic “Unholy War”, written solely by Cornell himself. Cornell’s backing vocals in “Stolen Prayer” are perfectly attuned to the track and worth the journey of this album alone. Then there was the contributions of producer Don Fleming who handled the ‘street-tough’ sound required for the tracks that followed the opening of the album, “Nothing’s Free”, “Lost in America” and “Bad Place Alone”, which needed a particular aural vocal style to fill its place within the concept, and it is performed beautifully by Alice here. And then Duana Baron and John Purdell come on board to help with the melodic and rock ballad styled songs “You’re My Temptation”, “Lullaby” and “It’s Me”. This, with three different production teams brought in to produce on story masterpiece, Alice has trodden an unusual path, and one that it is up to the listener to decide if it has worked.
The performance of Alice’s band here is exceptional. Unlike his previous two albums, there are no guest musicians (apart from Chris Cornell’s to vocal contributions) and it is just the core who play on every song. Drummer David Uosikkinen, better known for his work with The Hooters and Derek Sherinian, better known for Dream Theater, are both excellent here, along with Greg Smith on bass and regular contributor Stef Burns on guitar put their best foot forward.

Unusually for me in 1994, the first half of the year of which I had zero money due to being unemployed for a large portion of it, I did purchase this album almost immediately on its release, from Virgin Records in Pitt Street Mall in Sydney, on an afternoon I had walked into the city from where I lived in Leichhardt to deposit my work pay check. And I had excitedly gotten home and put in on my stereo, fully expecting an album as awesome as “Hey Stoopid!” and “Trash” had been. And of course, this album wasn’t that at all. It was designed for the times, it was one that was crafted in a different way from those albums that had been released over the previous eight years, the ones I had grown with and loved. And, no question, it took me by surprise. There was no big hair, huge guest artists, overplayed guitar solos and a cacophony of guest adding their vocals to the back up mix. It was... well... what I eventually came to believe was “Welcome to My Nightmare” for the 1990’s.
So, I did enjoy some of it, and some of it was a stretch. But I didn’t stop listening to it, because every time I put it on, and got to the end, there was something else that had grabbed me. And within a month, it was my go-to album at the time. When I used to drive home to Kiama for the weekend, this was the first album that went in the car’s cassette player. I knew all the words, sang them all loud. It was great. And then it eventually moved back to the CD shelves. And waited.
20 something years later, and here we are. And as I’ve said before, this is one of the main reasons I do this podcast, because it makes me go back and listen to albums that I had otherwise forgotten. And some are still not great. But from the moment I took this one back out of its cover, it grabbed me again. From the opening track, but especially from the moody opening of “Nothing’s Free”, into “Lost in America” and then the fabulous two-toned storyline of “Bad Place Alone”, I was drawn back to the fold. WHY had it taken me so long to indulge in this album again? The simple answer of course is – Alice Cooper has so many albums, and so many of them iconic. So when it comes to deciding on an album when I feel like listening to Alice Cooper... this just somehow dropped off the list. I can assure you that won’t be the case in the future. Because while this ISN’T “Welcome to My Nightmare”, or “Billion Dollar Babies”, or “Trash” or “Dirty Diamonds”, or any of another dozen suggestions I could make, this to me is still a terrific album. It transcends the time it was recorded and released, it fit then, and it still fits now. Perhaps you disagree. That’s perfectly fine. But if that’s the case, I feel you may be mistaken.

1254. Ratt / Ratt. 1999. 3.5/5

The 1990’s was a tough old time for hair and glam metal bands that dared to venture out of their comfortable decade, and try to play with the big boys of grunge, alternative and industrial rock and metal in the 1990’s. Most of those that took it on either died by the sword of remaining true to their roots, or died by the sword of trying to make a change to their sound to try and remain relevant in the changing marketplace. One band that made the decision to lay down their guns and move away to separate and differing battlefield was Ratt, who through five albums in the 1980’s and into the year 1990 had managed to attain a high level of success and popularity with their party style and glam metal tunes.
In February 1992, lead vocalist Stephen Pearcy announced that he was stepping away from Ratt to follow other pursuits, and while it was never officially announced if Ratt was going on a hiatus, or whether the band had actually split, all five members of the band went out and pursued other interests. It wasn’t until five years later, with the grunge phenomenon having finally worn down and the industrial metal side of things ramping up, that the members of Ratt moved to come together once again. With a new project looking to be in the works, guitarist Robbin Crosby was sidelined due to the ravages he was suffering after having been diagnosed as being HIV positive back in 1994, while bass guitarist Juan Croucier also decided not to participate. Robbie Crane was brought in as his replacement, and the compilation album “Collage” was released late that year. With a new worldwide record deal secured following this release, the rejuvenated four piece went about the task of writing and recording their first album with wholly new material since 1990’s “Detonator” album. After a break of nine years, and with the music industry having been through a great deal of upheaval over that period of time, it was always going to be interesting to hear just what the band would come up with for what could essentially be regarded as their comeback album. To throw more confusion into the mix, the band decided that the album title would be “Ratt”, which while being the band’s name, was also the name of their first EP back in 1984. The dual naming was not to be the only confusion part of the new album when it finally reached the shop shelves.

One thing that was obvious was that we were not going to get a glam or hair metal album from Ratt in 1999. Given the length of time since their previous new material release, it would have been something that would never have worked at that time. However, that does not reign in the surprise Ratt fans may have experienced when they first put this album on. Because, from the outset, what we are met with is a very blues rock-oriented track list, stylised completely from the vocals through to the guitar riffs throughout, and with a mid-tempo that rarely gets itself out of second gear. Producer Richard Zito brought in several guests to help co-compose some songs on the album, which does add to the style of the album. Jack Russell from Great White and Jack Blades from Night Ranger contribute, along with several others with a production and soft rock background. There is little doubt that this is a deliberate move to craft the sound that this album obviates to the listener.
“Over the Edge” taps into this immediately, perhaps only missing the true blues twang of Warren de Martini’s guitar to complete the full picture. The vocals from Stephen Pearcy are the immediate noticeable change to the albums we have heard in the past, the pulling back of his natural energy when singing makes this a less energetic sounding Ratt than we have had in the past. “Live for Today” has De Martini pushing a fuller complement of solo for his guitar, while the song actually sounds more like a latter day Def Leppard song than anything Ratt has produced before. It’s an interesting mix from the outset, with both of the opening tracks setting the platform for the layout of the album to come. Then we have “Gave Up Givin’ Up”, which is even more surprising because both vocally and with a certain guitar riff leading into the bridge and chorus, this has all the sounds that come from a Dream Theater song. Not the intensity and overplayed encompassment of the instruments, but just the sonic sounds of the track itself. The solo by de Martini lifts the song above the average once again, but the mix of tracks here and the incorporation of sounds does make this an interesting journey. Further troubles arrive with “We Don’t Belong” which is basically a country and western song, no doubt coming from the influence of one of the co-writers brought in for the album. Now we’ve already discussed that this album is different from what the band has issued before, but a C&W ballad?! Come on lads, this just won’t do.
“Breakout” returns to the blues formula from earlier in the album, and along with “Tug of War” and “Dead Reckoning” pick up the middle part of the album from the slower manifest that had come immediately prior to it. Then we have “Luv Sick” (spelled LUV) which it probably the closest the band comes to writing a song from their halcyon days, at the least lyrically if not necessarily musically. “It Ain’t Easy” is an interesting piece as well, as Pearcy actually sounds more like Axl Rose on this song than he does his normal self. Basing itself on an acoustic rock sound, it seems like a strange choice, but again appears to be at the whim of the co-writer on the track, which this time is the producer of the album. Possibly the best two songs on the album are left until last. “All the Way” is the best sounding song, best tempo-ed track, and most enjoyable of everything on this album. I think it would have been a better album overall if they had stuck to this formula more than they did. And the album closer “So Good, So Fine” rocks more than everything before it as well. It seems like an oversight to leave both of these songs until the end, when they may well have picked up the interest of the album if they had been utilised earlier in the track list.

I initially found Ratt the band through my heavy metal music dealer in high school and loved them from the outset with their first two albums, “Out of the Cellar” and “Invasion of Your Privacy”. They were hair metal gold, one of the best of that genre coming through and I played those albums to death over a number of years.
I didn’t pick up this album until about three years after its release, mainly because I wasn’t even sure the band was still together at that time, or that they released another album after all those years. So when I first got the album I was looking forward to what it contained. To say I was underwhelmed and disappointed would be accurate. As I have mentioned throughout this review, the music is of a different genre than what I had enjoyed back in the glory days, and while I did understand why that was the case, it didn’t make it any more palatable. Given the progression of metal music over the previous decade before this was released, I guess I expected the on-the-verge-of-the-millennium Ratt to be a more tuned down and aggressive style, harping on those characteristics that were most prevalent. Instead, we get what is basically a refined blues rock album, with a tempo and style that is not in the top five of my own favourite musical genres. The songs are composed well, and performed well. Pearcy’s vocals are not anything like what I expected from their original material, and there is not enough Warren de Martini magic on the guitar to help save these songs either.
Over the past week, I have listened to this album again, ten times in total, to correlate what I thought of the album at the time, and what I think of it now. My mind hasn’t been swayed from my reactions 20 years ago. I know when I first got the album I listened to it, found it was nothing like what I was listening to at that time, and shelved it. I can say with full confidence that now I have finished this podcast episode, it will return to my shelves without any qualms, where it can rest until the next time I have to do something similar to this. Which is probably never.
It would be another 11 years before Ratt released another studio album, which was also to be their last. But unlike this one, the band listened to their hearts and pulled out an amazing album. But that is for another day, a long way down the road.

1253. Faith No More / The Real Thing. 1989. 5/5

Back in 1987 Faith No More had released their second studio album titled “Introduce Yourself”, the episode of which you can find in Season 2 of this podcast. It contained the song “We Care a Lot” which became a minor hit at the time and allowed the band an increased profile with which to tour places that to that time they had been unable to reach. However, during a tour of Europe through 1988, there were a number of incidents involving lead vocalist Chuck Mosley that caused disruption in the band, both on stage and off. At the release party for the album, Mosley fell asleep on stage as the band was being interviewed promoting the release. Then he allegedly (both parties have different versions of the event) punched bass guitarist Billy Gould on stage, and at one stage one of his roadies got into a fistfight with guitarist Jim Martin. All of this came to a head once the band had returned home from that European tour. Billy Gould, in a story published in Classic Rock in 2014, was quoted as saying, “There was a certain point when I went to rehearsal, and Chuck wanted to do all acoustic guitar songs. It was just so far off the mark. The upshot was that I got up, walked out and quit the band. Just said: ‘I’m done – I can’t take this any longer. It’s just so ridiculous’. The same day, I talked to Bordin, and he said: ‘Well, I still want to play with you’. Bottum did the same thing. It was another one of these ‘firing somebody without firing them’ scenarios”. It was similar to the same way the band had moved on from another former member some years earlier. If it works once, surely it will work again. And Chuck Mosley, just like that, was out.
In his place, the band hired Mike Patton, who at the time was singing with his high school band, Mr. Bungle. Jim Martin had heard their demo tape and urged the band to at least audition Patton for the role. When Patton came to the band, the music for the new album had pretty much already been completed and recorded. According to producer Mike Wallace, when Patton came in, he would occasionally ask if a piece could be extended, or changed, and he was summarily told “No, this is it, it’s done, so you’ll have to do it this way”. And then he went and wrote the lyrics for the entire album in a 10-12 day period, at the age of 21, having to fit the contours that had already been decided. An amazing feat, and to then sing them in the way he did, to help create what was this album “The Real Thing”, is quite an accomplishment.

For so many fans, this album was the first that they had experienced the band, and what better way to be introduced to Faith No More than the barnstorming opening track “From Out of Nowhere”, which blazes out of the speakers without warning and trips the album into overdrive from the outset. Energetic and browbeaten from the start, it is a killer opening, and surely impressed the fans who knew the first two albums with the onus on the new lead vocalist.
Everybody on the single’s release knew “Epic”, a song particularly well named for the way it sounded and the way it was treated on release. The video is mayhemic, and indeed created some controversy because of the vision of a fish out of water, flapping madly to breathe. But it was the manic energy of the track both on screen and on vinyl and CD that made it so popular, that drove the sales of the album because it funnelled the popularity of the single into people wanting to dive into the album itself and find out what else they could find. Surely no one left disappointed.
“Falling to Pieces” was also released as a single and is perhaps the most mainstream song that the band performs on this album. It is followed by the amazing “Surprise! You’re Dead!” which apart from being incredible musically must have been ridiculously difficult to write lyrics to fit to the music the band had written. In the end, it is triumphant. It was written by Jim Martin in a previous band Agents of Misfortune, which had also had Cliff Burton on bass guitar.
If nothing else, on this album you get the full burst of what Faith No More was so good at – songs that could be calm and pretty and almost beautiful in musical output, and then descending into the heaviest and hardest change up, without creating a song that you can’t listen to. The composition may sound strange in explanation, but when you actually hear the output, especially on the amazing “Zombie Eaters”, which defies the normal characteristics of what goes in to composing a song, you know how well it works. “Zombie Eaters” is a triumph, an amazing progression from the sublime to the subliminal. The title track “The Real Thing” is in a similar style but without the same range of difference of the previous track. These two songs especially stand out because of the way they are almost a hybrid of sounds and vocal styles that shouldn’t mesh together, and yet with this band do so as if it is just the normal thing to do. Both of these tracks are undeniably brilliant.
The back third of the album mixes up what has come before and offers another dimension to the band’s music. “Underwater Love” and “The Morning After” retain a less manic and more uniform song structure than what has come before, with just as much enjoyment from the band’s efforts. “Woodpecker from Mars” is an instrumental, and a terrific one, but I do wonder if Patton just ran out of ideas for lyrics, or found it too hard to find a way to incorporate them into the music the band had recorded. It would have been a difficult task, that’s for sure. The cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” is amazing, although Patton has always shown a lot of ambivalence for it. Indeed, when singing it live on that tour, he often was unable to show enough interest to sing the lyrics correctly on occasions. The album concludes with the much more serene “Edge of the World”, a style of song the band would drift back to down the track
The band itself is so perfectly represented on this album, that everyone who was a fan or not could discern exactly how wonderful each musician in the band is, because each of their instruments are all powerfully audible in the mix of each track. The brilliant funk bass sound from Billy Gould is so prominent throughout, and indeed alongside Mike Bordin’s perfectly attuned rum style is perhaps the driving force of the band as a result. Sometimes these two instruments become just the background of a band on an album, holding time, but not much else, not given the stage they deserve. That’s definitely not the case here on “The Real Thing”, as both the bass and drums are in your face on every song. Matt Wallace can take a massive bow for his production here, it is superb. Then there is Roddy Bottum and his keyboards, whose expression on every song is so important, and are so intrinsic to the song without sounding like they are just filling a gap between the other instruments. As one of the main song writers alongside Gould, Roddy helps compose the tracks so that each instrument is prolific, including his own, and that is not an easy thing to do for the keyboards, which in other bands can dominate without a purpose. On “The Real Thing”, they complement throughout while still being able to be a major part of each song. And Jim Martin on guitar brings the heavier side to the band, sticking his landing perfectly every time he is asked to punctuate the song with his trademark riffing.
The vocal performance by Mike Patton on this album is one of the most remarkable, and perhaps one of the most outstanding performances in the history of music. The way he is able to sing in every possible genre of music ever, sometimes all in the same track, is quite incredible. The more you listen to the album the more you can understand just what an amazing performance it is. He hits notes in a normal sounding vocal line but can hit the same note again in a soaring melodic voice and then also in a raging metal scream. It is out of this world, and in a way he never did again on a Faith No More album. Everything following this album was different again, and no less spectacular, but definitely in a different category than what he does on this album. Most likely, that was deliberate. Patton is nothing if not an individual who does not like being pigeonholed into one persona.

My first memory of this album was on the release of “Epic” as the single, and the video that promoted it, which was a good six months after the album was released. I didn’t hear the album until the friends that I was in a band with at that time actually played it one afternoon after band practice, and then began suggesting we should play songs off it. I did buy the CD sometime after that (because the cover of “War Pigs” only appeared as a bonus track on the CD and not the vinyl), and once I had digested it all I became hooked. Our band did eventually play some of the songs off this album. We first had a crack at “Epic” for our first ever gig, at our mates 21st birthday party in the back half of 1990, an interesting experience given that we had practiced it twice, and we only played it because a number of people actually requested it that night. Yeah ok, it was awful, but the drunk attendees loved it. It was NOT as awful as the version of “From Out of Nowhere” we played at Jamberoo Pub about six months later, which was truly diabolical. However, we then played “Surprise! You’re Dead!” at another gig about six months after that, and it was a triumph, at least according to the crowd in attendance. It was fun as well. There is nothing easy about playing Faith No More songs, I can tell you from experience. It probably would have helped if we had practiced those first two songs more than we did as well.
1990 was a pretty hectic year in heavy music, but this album held its own throughout the listening year for me. The unique combination of song composition, brilliant musicians and amazing vocals was more than enough to keep interest in this album and band for years to come. And it was one of those rare albums that crossed genres, that was able to be enjoyed and even loved by people of vastly different music tastes. On the tour of Australia to promote this album, the band played amazing smaller venues like The Venue at Dee Why, The Cobra Club, the Revesby Roundhouse, the Marquee Nightclub, and the Sylvania Hotel, where I happened to see them with about 300 other people. It was just amazing to see such a band in such an intimate venue. On their next tour, there was no chance of that.
This album has been on my playlist for the last three weeks. I made mention on my episode on Nirvana’s “Bleach” album that another album had been overshadowing it completely. That was this album. The brightness of the songs, the ecstatic energy and stylistic brilliance of “The Real Thing” is a beacon, even today, over most albums. It’s a mood changer, one that still turns people’s heads whenever it comes on.
Faith No More of course continued on their merry way, but in a different form. The story goes that, having played most of this album on the tour that followed, given the lack of superior material on their other two albums, that by the end of the tour the band was well and truly tired and over playing the same style of songs every night. It led to them moving in a different musical direction by the time they came around to recording the follow up album, one that divided the opinion of the fans they had picked up from this album. But that story is for another episode.

1252. Nirvana / Bleach. 1989. 3/5

In another one of those ‘school bands made good’ stories, vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain and bass guitarist Krist Novaselic met when they were at high school together. Their band, and the lineup, went through a number of changes over their initial period together. In fact, they started out as a Creedence Clearwater Revival covers band, with Cobain on drums and Novaselic on guitar and vocals. Eventually they began to write their own songs, and rotating through drummers like spinning tops, almost as many as different bands names that they played under. Some of their names included Skid Row, Ted Ed Fred, Pen Cap Chew, and Bliss, before they finally settled on the name Nirvana. Around this time, having collated a football team full of former drummers, Cobain and Novaselic were introduced to Chad Channing, who became their next, and longest serving to that point in time, full time drummer.
After six months of playing together, the band recorded their first single release for the Seattle independent record label Sub Pop. It was a cover of the song “Love Buzz” by the band Shocking Blue, a Dutch band from the late 1960’s. Following this, the band practiced for two to three weeks in preparation for recording a full-length album, even though Sub Pop had only requested an EP. The band went back into the studio in the final week of December in 1988, to record their debut album, with the main sessions taking place at Reciprocal Recording Studios in Seattle, with local producer Jack Endino. Combined with three tracks that had been written and recorded in January 1988, these came together to form what would become Nirvana’s debut studio album, titled “Bleach”.

As mentioned in the first part of the episode, three of the album's songs were recorded during a previous session at Reciprocal Studios in January 1988. These recordings all featured Dale Crover on drums, who was the drummer from the band The Melvins. The band did try to re-record them with Channing but eventually decided to just release those original versions. Those tracks all have a similar vibe as well, but the most obvious one is ”Paper Cuts” which is difficult to take for several reasons, but one of the main ones for me is the amazing similarity in a 16 bar snatch of the song, on two occasions, that sounds almost exactly like the song “Angry Chair” by Alice in Chains. Of course, this song came before that song, so it begs the question – was the Alice in Chains song a direct rip off of this? Or is it just an amazing coincidence? That’s for you to work out I guess, but it is uncanny just how similar the music and vocals sound between the two. I also know which is the better song. “Downer” only appeared as a bonus track, while the other song was “Floyd the Barber”, whose lyrics are somewhat strangled while the riff and drumbeat retain the same medium throughout. An early example on the album of less lyrics and more repetition.
In the back half of the album, you have songs such as “Scoff” which continue in this tradition of five or six lines of lyrics that still fill four minutes of the song through constant rotation. “Swap Meet” also does this, and with the less refined way that Kurt sings in only to keys all the way through the song. And the closing track “Sifting” repeats this style once again.
Elsewhere, “Blew” opens the album on a positive note with Cobain’s warbling guitar and early grungy guitar riff. The band’s first single, the cover track “Love Buzz”, also found its way onto the album, and is an immediate obvious different track from those written by the band. It is almost a freeform psychedelic journey, with those changing qualities from the rest of the album. There is a lot of buzz coming out of the speakers on this track.
The upbeat songs for me generally come across the best. “Negative Creep” is one of them, though the lyrics again aren’t anything to write home about, pretty much four lines repeated ad nauseum. The same goes for “School”, a song from the same lyrical song book, with the music banged out for Cobain to sing over. It mightn’t be imaginative, but again here the riff chords and drum lines are excellent and enjoyable to listen to. And “Mr Moustache” is perhaps the best of them all, finally breaking out into a faster tempo, allowing the guitar to speak, and Kurt actually sounding like he wants to break into a more energetic vocal line.
The star attraction of the album is “About a Girl”, with almost no distortion, the drums perfectly played and recorded, and Cobain’s best clear vocal melody. It is still difficult to comprehend that this song comes from the same band and the same recording sessions, so different is it from pretty much every other song on the album.

While I did pick this up on CD at some point following the demise of the band in the mid-1990's, my best guess is that it was after the demise of Cobain, and a point at which I had played both “Nevermind” and “In Utero” to death and went back to find this album as a stop gap. I was also eventually gifted this on vinyl by a work colleague, who had a still shrink wrapped second edition vinyl on the Sub Pop label, unopened and unplayed, which he claimed he would never listen to because he didn’t have a turntable. So that was an absolute bonus. Cheers Trent.
One of the problems with re-listening to this album over the past couple of weeks has been that at the same time I have been listening to an album that was released just five days after this, one that got a far greater exposure around the world, one which I knew a lot more of on its entry point to the world, and is a far superior release in every way, shape and form. And that episode is coming up next, on Music from a Lifetime. Stay tuned!
The other major problem that this album always holds, is that there are very few people who could honestly say that they knew of this album, and had heard this album, prior to the release of the band’s follow up effort, the slightly better known “Nevermind”. Indeed, if you meet one of these people who say they DID know of “Bleach” before hearing “Nevermind”, I’d suggest you make them take a lie-detector test. So, it is easy for people’s thoughts on TIS album to be swayed by what they thought of the sophomore effort.
And to be perfectly honest, I have never really been a fan of “Bleach”. There are a few songs here that I enjoy, but for the most part, the songwriting and performance is light years better on the next album and trying to judge this album having listened to “Nevermind” for so long before that, always made this a difficult job. Especially as it really has none of the spark and energy that that album has.
So did this have much going for it? Honestly, no. It cannot be compared to the other albums the band released. It is a perfectly reasonable debut album, one that probably offered a glimpse into what could possibly occur in the future. For me though, it's an album that I might put on for a couple of songs. And that’s about it.