1247. Live / Throwing Copper. 1994. 4/5

How many people can truly say that they knew of the band Live prior to the release of their 3rd studio album? I posed this same question about The Offspring on the recent episode on this podcast about their album “Smash”, and I use the same analogy – if someone tells you they did, they are either a purveyor of random bands, or they are a liar.
Live had been together as a band since their high school days, and having completed their high school years they put out a cassette with their own songs titled “The Death of a Dictionary”. They continued to gig around for the next two years before landing a record contract with Radioactive Records in 1991. This allowed them to head into the studio to record a four track EP initially, and then later that year record and release the album “Mental Jewelry”. The major benefit of both of these recordings was the acquisition of Talking Heads guitarist and keyboardist Jerry Harrison as producer, something that the band acknowledged was a benefit to their songwriting in particular, as that was a craft they were still coming to grips with.
With their stock rising, the band entered the studio again in the back half of 1993 to record the follow up, with Harrison still on board as producer. While their previous album had charted in the US, reaching as high as 73 on the Billboard 200 chart, the band was basically unknown outside of the US at that time. All of that was about to change considerably with the release of this album, which was titled “Throwing Copper”.

The moodiness of this album flows upwards and downwards throughout the entire track listing, from quiet lulls to raucous overtones and mid range feelings as well. It’s quite an achievement as you wander down the hills and valleys of the songs, each pulling in its own individuality and yet comprising a part of the whole.
The subtle lows and valleys are a mix of the moody slow flowing water in a peaceful creek and the person sitting under the tree with their hat tilted over their eyes. This is what some of these songs remind me of, or at least have me thinking about listening to them in this setting. The opening track “The Dam at Otter Creek” (no pun intended to the set up to this track) sets the album up in this style from the outset, with Ed’s vocals in a PJ Harvey phasing technique building in intensity along with the drums while the music remains in its calm setting. This then segues in to “Selling the Drama” returning to that softer start again, building up through to the chorus and riding the wave before rising and falling on the swell. Further along the album the third single released “Lightning Crashes” moves along the same lines, with the quiet acoustic first half of the song providing the base of the track and building to middle ground by the end of the track itself. “T.B.D” does the same but for much longer, only breaking out in the back quarter of the song for a 30 second burst, but for the remainder just quietly moving along, while “Pillar of Davidson” settles into the same tempo and calming mood.
The peaks of the hills show a more forceful vocal output both in volume and passion, and the harder element of the band coming to the fore as well. “I Alone” was the second single released from the album and mixes the swell along the way, but this is a bigger more energetic output than the songs already mentioned. The hard core emblazoning of the bridge and chorus are what tags this as a great singalong classic of the era, and one of the songs that the band built their reputation on. The same comes alive in “All Over You”, the fourth single release, which in its more energetic and jaunty approach is the perfect song to showcase the band on radio, getting the attention that the band would have hoped for by this stage of the album.
Along with these well known tracks are the ones that help build the album above the average. “Iris” is a beauty in this regard, with the drumming of Chad Gracey in particular working overtime on this song, driving the song along with Ed’s vocals to the harder element that the album works at its best. “Top” is also one of my favourites in this regard because the whole band sounds engaged throughout which doesn’t always happen on those softer acoustic songs. Here, Chad Taylor on guitar and Patrick Dahlheimer on bass best showcase their skills, and its a great number. Add to this “Shit Towne” which is classic small town belligerence, a song with more than a little frustration coming out in the vocals and lyrics. Along with “Stage” and “Waitress”, all of these songs in particular help build the album to its peaks, and showcase the fact that this album is not built on its single releases alone.

As I have already mentioned on a couple of occasions in this season of “Music from a Lifetime”, 1994 was a year that I bought very few albums due to several circumstances, including moving to the city and not having work for some months, and with money tight there was no opportunity to buy new music. Then came the year of 1995, also already mentioned on previous episodes, where much of my life went to... excrement. And I have also mentioned how albums such as Therapy’s “Troublegum” and The Offspring’s “Smash” became albums from 1994 that helped me survive the obliteration of 1995. Add to that list Live’s “Throwing Copper”.
Once again, I knew of the singles from the radio, as they received massive airplay throughout 1994. What finally tipped me into buying this album was getting to see the band play live at the Alternative Nation festival in April 1995 at Eastern Creek outside Sydney, the same day I first saw the band Therapy? It rained pretty much all day and night, the festival became a mud bath, and the conditions were generally miserable. Live had pulled a good crowd because of their popularity, but because there was so much mud, some of the less discernible fans watching decided to throw mud at each other, and then the band. The band soldiered on, but at the end of the set, Ed Kowalczyk crankily and without warning threw his guitar at the perpetrators at the front of the stage, and made to come off the stage and start pummelling them. Security made its belated way into the throng to stop the carnage and find the guitar, all the while as the crowd cheered the band and egged them on. How could you not follow a band after that?
So I bought the album, and it went into serious rotation. And like those other bands and their albums, what I was pleased to discover was that while the singles were good songs, the remainder of the album also held its own, and indeed for me some of the songs were stronger than the songs I knew. In particular, songs like “Iris”, “Top”, “Stage” and “Shit Towne” came with an intensity and passion that helped the album rise above the average, and prove to be a reward for all of those fans who had indeed made the dive into buying the album rather than just the singles. And, although I was a year behind the actual release date of the album, I became one of those fortunate people. The other endearing memory of this album is of spending a long weekend at Hill End in desolate NSW making an amateur western film, and this album being on the listening list of an evening as we sat back on the balcony of the old hotel we stayed at drinking cold beer at the end of the day.
This album still comes out onto the CD player on a regular basis, and it still as enjoyable as it was when I first bought it. Over the past three weeks it has been on the playlist for this episode, and it has built up a strong following once again. The band plays here in Wollongong in a couple of weeks as of the recording of this episode. I feel I may just pop along once again, if only to see if Ed throws his guitar at the audience at every gig, or if it is just when he has mud thrown at him.

1246. Annihilator / Alice in Hell. 1989. 4/5

Annihilator was formed in Ottawa in Canada back in 1984 by guitarists and vocalists Jeff Waters and John Bates. The meeting of Waters and Bates was through mutual neighbourhood friends with the intention to cover AC/DC songs. After their initial meeting, they decided to instead write original songs together, and the two of them formed what they called Annihilator. Bates then recruited bassist Dave Scott while Waters brought in drummer Paul Malek. The band rehearsed and played in the basement of a women's fashion shop for a two-year period before settling in Val-d'Or, a city in Quebec, after a residency there. During this time, Waters and Bates co-wrote most of the tracks that would eventually make up the majority of Annihilator’s first two albums, though as it turned out, it was not to be with the lineup that was together when they were written. In 1985, the band produced a demo titled "Welcome to Your Death", but not long after this Bates and Scott left the band, citing "artistic differences" and "personality conflicts". Not the first time those phrases have been used in the break up of band lineups. These two went on to form the band Ligeia, notably recording a version of the song “Alison Hell” in 1987 that pre-dated the Annihilator release.
The band, as it was, then went on to record two more demo’s, titled "Phantasmagoria" and "Wicked Mystic", before Waters moved to Vancouver, where he assembled what he hoped would be a more permanent line-up, including drummer Ray Hartmann and former D.O.A. bassist Randy Rampage on vocals. Rampage came with impressive credentials, having been in the influential Canadian hard core band D.O.A, but as bass guitarist. Here he had been brought on board by Waters to take on the lead vocal duties. In 1988, Waters, Rampage and Hartmann went into the studio, with Waters recording all of the guitar and bass tracks himself in lieu of other musicians, and produced what would become the band's debut album. Hartmann’s drums and Rampages vocals completed the task, and “Alice in Hell” was released upon the world as the debut album for the band Annihilator.

For what is, for all intents and purposes a thrash metal album, the opening to the band’s debut album is an interesting start. The instrumental “Crystal Ann” starts with classical acoustic guitar strains, completely out of character for what you would expect from this type of album. No “Hit the Lights” or “Over the Wall” or “Loved to Death” here. Simply almost two minutes of classically aligned guitar with no backing, starting off the album. I’m assuming most people were as bemused by this the first time they heard the album as I was. This then strums into “Alison Hell”, where there is more of the same to start the track, before the opening running riff kicks the album into gear at last. The move between clear guitar and distorted riff is an interesting play off against each other, as well as the change of pace literally within the song before it finally finds its groove. The move between a normal vocal throughout to the falsetto piece before the solo is another interesting touch. Given the lateness of the hour in regards to the thrash metal genre when this was released, this opening to the album at least showed the band had their own take and style with their music, rather than copying what had come before.
“Alison Hell” crashes straight into “W.T.Y.D” - Welcome to Your Death – and now the band has its mojo, with this song motoring along nicely and Rampage now find his range vocally. With John Bates credited with having co-written four of the tracks on this album, it’s interesting that both of the songs he contributed to at the top of the album have the insertion of the clear guitar into the tracks in the middle, a stylised impact that doesn’t occur elsewhere here.
“Wicked Mystic” suffers no fools, racing along and plunging headlong into the speed and riffage that you would expect. Both this song along with “Burns Like a Buzzsaw Blade” have elements comparable to bands like Overkill and Testament, and while they are both enjoyable tracks they do tend to hold the same rhythm riff throughout the song, and the same vocal monotone, interjected only by Waters selected solo to provide the balance. “Word Salad” creeps back into the same pattern as the opening tracks, with the slower clear guitar middle breaking up the word cycle first par and the complete over the top shredding guitar part of the second half. I mean, the second half of the song is just that shredding guitar, which does sound amazing but perhaps outstays its welcome.
"Schizos (Are Never Alone) Parts I & II" continues along the journey of amazing guitar riffs and changing song structure which is for the most part another full on instrumental, while "Ligeia" sticks to the style that has been moulded by this album, a rampaging cacophony of noise thumping out of the speakers at you in a formless void. The album then concludes with arguably the best song of the album, “Human Insecticide”, which flays along at great speed and in the best traditions of the thrash genre, again arguably the best formed track of the album.

This album came out at an interesting time for metal music as a whole. The genre of thrash had been on the rise for the previous three years, with bands such as Metallica and Megadeth and Slayer being followed into the fray by Testament, Overkill, Death Angel and others. And for this to be the band’s debut album in 1989, riding on that wave, I guess they had no idea the storm that was coming.
I came across this album through the Australian heavy metal magazine publication Hot Metal, a great source of interviews and reviews that began at about the time this album was released. On the back of its recommendation, I found the cash to buy the album. And it was certainly in my wheelhouse as to what I was listening to at the time, and it fit in well. That cacophony of guitar coming at you like a brick wall found its place for me right between the previous year’s “... And Justice for All” and the following year’s “Rust in Peace”. If it had come out a year later or a year earlier, I feel it may have missed its window to grab my attention. And as a result, it did find its place. And it had its moment in the sun with me in regards to listening pleasure.
Flash forward to today, and I still enjoy listening to it. Granted, I hadn’t put it on in quite a long time before two weeks ago, but since then, I have had a good 20-25 rotations of this album, and I still enjoy it. OK, so it isn’t as structured or overly imaginative as some of the great thrash albums you could mention – the aforementioned Justice and Rust, “Among the Living”, “The Legacy”, “Act III” - but that doesn’t mean that you can’t and won’t enjoy it. And say what you will about the actual song composition on this album, there is little more you can say about the guitaring of Jeff Waters here on his debut. At times sounding like Mustaine, at others sounding like Hammett, he really does try to throw the kitchen sink at this album. It’s just that, sometimes, you are looking for more in the actual songwriting than just fast guitars and smashing drums. Not all the time, mind you, but just some of the time. It does depend on your mood.
Beyond this album, Jeff had a revolving door policy with bandmates, from album to album, and the sound he maintained on those future albums seemed to change with the times. But this album remains as solid a debut album as you could wish for. It isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and if I was to get below the surface I can see why this is the case. But for pure thrash entertainment without trying to break down and critique every part of the album, this is still a fun ride.

1245. The Cult / Sonic Temple. 1989. 4.5/5

The six years that stretched between the band’s opening influence upon the music world and the release of “Sonic Temple”, their fourth studio album, brought forth more apparent change in The Cult’s music than was probably noticeable to those that grew up with the albums as they were released, rather than discovering them at a later date or all lumped into one big collection. Because it would have been slightly more subtle to have experienced the transition of their music from album to album rather than find it in a way that it could get all lumped together.
The Cult’s 3rd album “Electric” had a fairly significant rise in the hard rock genre than had been apparent on the first two albums which reside more in the goth rock area, and especially the gloriously moody and soulful guitar sound utilised by Billy Duffy throughout those albums, and highlighted by the still amazing “She Sells Sanctuary”. On “Electric”, the band changes it up, not the least by the hiring of Rick Rubin as producer, something to shake up any band’s sound. Coming from a very different musical background, Rubin shepherds The Cult through an album that has a far more traditional hard rock basis about it, with simple riffs and drum patterns held together by Ian Astbury’s vocal carcinogens, and almost looking for a way to force its way into the commercial bent that was occurring during that period of the later 1980’s decade. The move worked, with the album cracking top 40 in the US and UK, and the subsequent tour making significant inroads around the world.
One thing you can assess from the band at this point of their career is that they did not want to rest on their laurels. Even though apparently the beginning of the initial breakdown of the relationship between Astbury and Duffy had its tendrils starting to stretch outwards, that didn’t stop the band from pushing forward with their follow up to “Electric”, once again with an evolving sound coming through, and another producer who was about to become enormous in the music world brought in to help with the transformation that they were hoping to achieve. All of that was the lead up to one of the biggest albums of 1989, the star attraction called “Sonic Temple”.

So, something really occurs between the time the band wrote and recorded the “Electric” album and the time they come to record this album. The sound alone is the killer. This is smooooooooth. Listening to “Electric” and then listening to “Sonic Temple is like starting out drinking Johnnie Walker Black whiskey, and then switching over to drinking a Laphroaig single malt whiskey. “Electric” is a great album with a great sound, but from the opening bars of “Sonic Temple” that smooth sound just runs down the back of the throat so easily. And one of the great contributors to that is the new producer, Bob Rock. To this point of his career, he has been a sound engineer and mixer in the main, especially on previous two Bon Jovi Albums, and it was with this purpose that he was brought in here by the band. And although he had produced albums before this, "Sonic Temple” became one of the ones where he caught people’s attention. As it turned out, 1989 ended up being a big year for him on that front. Here on “Sonic Temple” he smoothed out a lot of external noises on the instruments, and really got the best of the sound available in the studio. Everything is clear in the mix compared to “Electric” which had a different producer looking for different ideas – ones that worked for that album and what t band had been aiming for, but different to what they wanted now.
Ian’s vocals here are being pushed harder and getting more from their output. This is noticeable on the first two tracks in particular, where his importance is at its peak. Whereas “Electric” had a very AC/DC feel about it in places in song structure, sound and tempo, none of that exists here. Indeed, when recording “Electric” apparently Rubin had spent the process comparing the guitar riffs as recorded to those of AC/DC. And yet, what is really interesting about this album is that “Sonic Temple” is a harder album in almost all aspects, an interesting feat given the history of the bands that Rick Rubin has produced in the past, and what Bob Rock generally pushes for in the future.
Jamie Stewart’s bass guitar and bass lines on this album are at their most important, and are the true driving force of the songs here. Their quality, and the perfect resonation that Rock’s producing gives them in post-production, helps to makes the songs here the amazing quality that they have. On the albums two opening tracks, that bass line is massive and is glorious in taking a centre stage in the mix. This is exemplified by Mickey Curry’s drums, the man who has played in more top shelf rock bands than just about any drummer ever. The drum sound he gets on this album is perfect, booming out of the speakers at you and wonderfully intricate without having a thousand drumbeats and cymbal crashes coming at you.
And then you have the writers and composers. Billy’s guitar sound on “Sonic Temple” steps up another notch, another refinement from the Angus Young like qualities of “Electric”, and more that the goth rock flow of “Love”. Here he contributes a guitar sound that probably isn’t harder than the previous album, but has more attitude and emotion. This of course is conducted by Ian’s amazing vocals, honeyed in the lower register and yet still with that unique quality he possesses when he reaches the higher positions of his vocal range. The combination of these two not-overtly-heavy-rock guitar and vocals actually combines to produce music that is, indeed, a heavier rock than they had produced before. Between the four members of the band and their producer, they have combined here to formulate an album that arguably has no weaknesses.

Back in 1989, I was at Tory’s Hotel in Kiama, seeing a band that some of my mates played in on a Friday night, no doubt enjoying a few beers at the same time. Actually, you can take that as a given. At one of the breaks the band had so they could... refuel... one of them came up to me and our other friends watching and said... “Have you heard the new Cult album?”. It was at this stage that I professed that I had no idea who The Cult were. “OK’, he replied, “at the next break I’ll play it through the PA”. Sure enough, an hour later, at the band’s final break, he placed the cassette version of “Sonic Temple” on for the listening pleasure of everyone in attendance, and I was greeted by the opening of the first Cult song I ever heard, “Sun King”. For me, despite Ian’s statement of “this is where it all ends”, it was in fact for me where it all began.
It is difficult to describe just what an immediate impact this album had on me. I went out that week to buy my own vinyl copy, and began playing it on heavy rotation. This was different to everything I was listening to at the time, which mainly involved thrash metal and old school heavy metal. This isn’t anything like that. This has a different presence, a whole different feel. And, as it turns out, perfect timing. Looking back now, at the music landscape as it was leading up to the release of this album, and then what occurred in the next few years, this album picked its moment perfectly. The world was heading away from the keys and synth driven 80’s decade into the stripped down grunge and alternative 90’s decade, and this album straddled that moment perfectly. And in doing so, became a monolith that crossed genres, certainly amongst my friends and acquaintances. Us metal heads loved this album, as did the more commercial rock loving friends of ours, and even those who professed no great lock for anything in a heavy direction. Even my sisters enjoyed it, and indeed were more than a little surprised when they heard me singing along to the songs whenever they played the album.
While I have most of The Cult’s albums now, and still enjoy most of them, for me nothing has ever matched the glorious and abundant joy that this album brought me at the time I discovered it, and that it has ever since. And of course that comes from the time it was released, and the memories it brings back of those days, of going to see bands at Tory’s in my late teens and early 20’s, of parties at mates houses where all we did was play albums and drink beer. This was right in the middle of those great days, and still reminds me of that to this very day. To be honest, that’s what I would like to do right now, have some mates around, open a beer, and play this album loud. I mean, what more could you possibly ask for? Just the mere snatch of this opening 60 seconds is enough to do it every time… ‘wound up, can’t sleep can’t do anything right little honey, since I set my eyes on you…’

1244. The Offspring / Smash. 1994. 4/5

If you meet anyone who said that they knew of The Offspring prior to the release of their third studio album “Smash", then they would fit into one of two groups. Either this person stumbled across one of their earlier releases through an obscure occasional acquaintance who only listened to bands that no one knew about until they got big, at which point they disowned them and moved on to some even more outrageously obscure speck of a band... or they are a liar. Because there is no way that you could have imagined that anyone would have COULD HAVE COME ACROSS a copy of either their self-titled debut album or the follow up “Ignition” prior to hearing and probably buying and digesting “Smash” for months on end, and then really wanting more of the band to experience. Absolutely, I was one of those people – not the ones who claimed to know the band before this album, just the one that bought the other two albums on the back of buying this. So I say again, my contention is that no one knew The Offspring before this album, and certainly not in Australia. Then the first single was released from this album, it got played for months on just about every radio station across the nation, and the beginning of the tsunami wave had begun.
The riders of the wave were the new punk-inspired bands like The Offspring. Green Day had released their seminal album “Dookie” just two months prior, and between them these two bands began to dominate the airwaves with their post-grunge reanimated punk pop music that grabbed the attention and the minds of the youth of the time. Add to this bands such as Hole with their album “Live Through This”, Bad Religion with “Stranger Than Fiction”, and Rancid with “Let’s Go”, the teenagers that had been hypnotised by grunge were now becoming the twenty-somethings that wanted something with a bit more rebellion, something they could jump around to and pump their fist at, something that could be the outlet for the rage rather than a railing for their moodiness. Each of these bands were able to harness that through these particular albums at this time. Arguably however, it was “Smash” that grabbed that attention the most fiercely, and through the airplay of the three singles directed that into album sales, where those same people found an even greater barrel of riches awaiting them.

For me, the songs on this album can be split into two categories, the fast tracks and the groove tracks, moderated by the tempo at which the songs come out at you. For me, the better songs on this album are the upbeat, up tempo, fast paced tracks, that really lock into that beat that gets people moving, whether physically on the dance floor or violently thrashing around in their chair while drinking their favourite alcoholic beverage. The opening track “Nitro (Youth Energy)”, as the title suggests is definitely one of those tracks. As an opening song, it casts the album in its best light from the outset, letting everyone who has just put on this CD what they are going to get. “Bad Habit” trends in the same direction, with energy rather than out and out speed the best quality of the song. The overt use of language towards the end of the song, which builds to a shout as the music suddenly disappears and is left as the only sound coming out of the speakers, is very effective in both proving the point that the lyrics are taking and for offending anyone who believes that swearing is not an avenue that should be taking in the musical arts. Fuck the lot of them, I say! “Genocide” is perhaps my favourite song of this category, driven by the forceful 2/4 beat of Ron Welty’s terrific drumming, barely halting for breath along the way apart from the steady break in the middle of the song. No mucking around on this song, it flies along with eminently singable lyrics and that fun Dexter implying vocal that often masks the real meaning of the lyrics. The other great example is “Killboy Powerhead”, a great track at top speed, Ron’s drum and cymbal work powering the song and high-octane vocals. Great song. Then there is the out and out punk track “So Alone” that could easily have been performed in the late 1970’s, though with less precision in the instruments and more English accent in the vocals.
The three singles from the album are the best example of the groove element of the album. “Gotta Get Away” settles into a really beautiful riff in the mid-tempo and allowing Dexter’s vocals to croon over the top without a change of either intensity or drive. “Come Out and Play” does the same by following Ron’s hard-hitting drumbeat, groove guitar riff and Dexter’s loudly explored vocals makes this another great and easy song to sing along with the volume turned up to 11. This is then followed by “Self Esteem” which became arguably the most popular single released off the album, one that I still enjoy but for me has been the lesser of the three. That is also possibly from the number of people who grabbed the band from this track, without knowing any other songs on the album. That kind of thing annoyed me as a teenager, and as a twenty-something... and still does today. “It’ll Be a Long Time” pulls along in the same wake, with faster start into the mid-tempo middle and the faster conclusion, while “What Happened to You” and “Not the One” both travel the same trajectory.
The final soaring conclusion of the title track is a perfectly wonderful ending to the album, with Dexter’s soulful vocals soaring along to provide the concluding track that this album deserves.

1995 is not a year that I recall with any fondness whatsoever. It was a fucked up period of my life, one where I didn’t handle the ups and downs of my life with any clear or organised thought processes. As I have mentioned in other episodes, music was one of the only saving graces of that year, and some albums were grafted onto my psyche as a result. “Smash” was one of them. I bought this album along with four or five others in one hit, but it was a year after its release. I knew the singles from the radio, but I had never felt the urge to actually buy the album. The difficulty of my personal circumstances in 1995 changed that and I grabbed onto it like a life preserver. The album grabbed me almost immediately, and much like another album reviewed earlier in this season, Therapy’s “Troublegum”, it became the soother of the raging torrent that was swirling around me. We all have those albums, the ones that are a port in that storm, and “Smash” acted as that for me.
In the years since, I haven’t really pulled it out very often to listen to. The albums that followed, like “Ixnay on the Hombre”, “Americana” and “Conspiracy of One” were The Offspring albums that I listened to a hell of a lot more than this one. Did it being tied to this time of my life make it less accessible for me in the years following? It’s a fair question and not one I have an answer for, beyond the fact that I do love those other three albums a lot. But certainly, having had this back in the rotation for the last three weeks or so, I can assess that I really should have listened to this earlier and more than I have over the years. To me it still stands up, and it is difficult to reconcile that it is 30 years old, because it doesn’t feel like it was that long ago that I was listening to this often and constantly.
This was the massive breakthrough album for The Offspring, and they have barely looked back since. Commercial success and fan success over the years has often been a bone of contention, but what hasn’t changed is the excellence of their output. Alternative rock, or punk rock, whatever you want to call it, this album was one of the forerunner of the first genres to break out of the dominance grunge had held on the music business for the past three years, and is still as important 30 years later as it was on its release.

1243. Gamma Ray / Power Plant. 1999. 5/5

The 1990’s was a decade of massive change in the music industry, and heavy metal had had its difficult times in adjusting to the changes going on around it. In Europe however, rather than tuning down, getting slower and having vocals go from growls to harsh screams, metal music had gotten faster, utilised more synth to complement the guitars and double kick drums to enhance the speed, and vocalists who hit the heights of the upper spectrum of their vocals.
No band better exemplified this than Gamma Ray, the band helmed by Kai Hansen after his departure from Helloween, and who along with a select few other bands provided the world the counterpoint it needed to the alt, nu and industrial metal that grunge had brought about in other parts of the world.
1995’s “Land of the Free” album was a landmark for the power metal genre, a concept album that not only had Kai return full time to lead vocalist and guitarist, but also brought on board in guest roles vocalists such as Maichael Kiske and Blind Guardian’s Hansi Kursh. This album was then followed by the equally terrific “Somewhere Out in Space” - the episode of which you can find in Season 4 of this podcast - which again pushed the band and the metal genre to greater heights, meshing the fast paced double kick drums with the twin guitars and punishing bass guitar that has formed the base of this band since its inception. The band’s first charted single “Valley of the Kings” showed they could create songs that found prominence in more than just the heavy metal fans bedrooms.
In between, Kai had also been involved in his friend Piet Sielk’s band as a side project. Iron Savior had brought out two albums that he had played on and also co-written some material, and while at this time there was no danger that Kai was going to switch camps away from his own band, some pondered just how full time Gamma Ray could be if he was spending time recording and touring with another band at the same time. Iron Savior’s second album “Unification”, on which both Kai and drummer Dan Zimmermann had played, and the episode on which you can find earlier here in Season 6 of this podcast, had only finished recording when Gamma Ray then went into the studio to write and record this album. It was a double shift that was not to last beyond the next two years, at which time Kai returned to concentrate full time on his number one priority – the glory of Gamma Ray.

“Power Plant” is most power metal of Gamma Ray’s albums. In general Gamma Ray utilise a combination of both speed metal and traditional heavy metal as their main focus, whereas this is more oriented in the power metal genre that Kai himself helped to define in the late 1980’s. But this album is power metal without the dominance of synths that usually comes to mind when you mention that genre of heavy metal, it still focuses on the twin guitars in the music which gives it a more powerful sound than they key and synth based sound that true power metal bands produce.
The opening track is a beauty, “Anywhere in the Galaxy” powering out of the blocks with Zimmermann’s double kick drums hammering through the opening with the guitar riff and Kai’s high-pitched scream crashing out of the speakers. The double kick runs throughout driving the song to the end, and Kai’s vocals at time become very Rob Halford-like in their screaming verses. It’s a brilliant opening track, and sets the album off on the right foot from the very beginning. This segues nicely into “Razorblade Sigh”, another automatic classic, darker in tone, opening with the phased guitar and Kai’s ominous vocals. This is an underrated classic in the Gamma Ray discography, not often thought of when it comes to best songs but is always one that when you listen to it you wonder why it isn’t considered so. The lead out bridge to the song’s conclusion is an emotionally charged highlight. “Send Me a Sign” follows, the song used as the advanced track prior to the album’s release. It has become the band’s signature song to close out their live sets and is a fan favourite to this day.
“Strangers in the Night” just has to be influenced by Judas Priest. Kai’s vocals in the verses here are so very flavoured by Rob Halford, and awesomely so. They sound brilliant. And the guitar melody and double kick drum is very much like a “Painkiller” album sound. The band has always been an influence of both music and vocals for Kai and his bands, and this song is no exception.
From here we move into one of the band’s best ever songs, “Gardens of the Sinner”. Bombastic, melodic, anthemic. Great singalong vocals, driven by the drums and guitars, everything about it screams ‘Gamma Ray classic’. It is amazing that this song did not make initial live set lists, and it wasn’t until the band gave the fans the chance to vote for the songs they wanted to hear live that this came on board, and hasn’t left since. “Short as Hell” is perhaps the most unusual song on the album, sandwiched where it is, an old fashioned jump step drum and guitar riff that bounces along rather than the double kick that dominates most other songs on the album.
The most surprising song on the album is “It’s a Sin”, a cover of the Pet Shop Boys hit single from the 1980’s. It’s a surprise in a couple of ways, firstly that the band chose to cover this particular song, as most of the cover songs they have done have been old NWoBHM bands songs, but secondly that it is done so well. Guitar replaces synth, and Kai sings it terrifically well. It is the best example of slight change in focus of this album compared to the last two that the band has done. It does polarise fans, with many believing that it diminishes the album. Personally, I have always enjoyed it. Following this comes another song that splits the fan base, the openly obvious metal anthem of “Heavy Metal Universe”. Some fans complain that this is such a cliched song looking for a fan reaction that it again lowers the whole expectation of the album. On the other side of the argument, metal bands have written anthem songs to play live forever. Judas Priest – there's that comparison again – made an artform of it in the early 1980’s, as have many other bands. Again, I like the song, I have no problem with it. “Wings of Destiny” ramps up the intensity and emotion with Kai’s harmony vocals and those terrific twin guitars of Kai and Henjo. The lead out bridge vocally is sensational, and sums up the best parts of the song in style. ”Hand of Fate” is backed back to a mid-tempo and is very much in Dirk Schlachter’s style of song, one that differs markedly from the Kai, Dan and Henjo penned tracks.
The closing epic is “Armageddon”, stretching to almost nine minutes and full of platitudes throughout, along with scintillating drumming from Dan again. While not quite on the scale of the title track of the band’s first album “Heading for Tomorrow”, this is where Kai excels, writing songs of magnitude that command your attention and become the types of tracks that drag you in to start the album all over again.

My undying love for this band has perhaps not yet filtered uninterrupted onto this podcast, given the few albums of theirs that I have so far been able to review for episodes here. That will over time be rectified. Suffice to say that from the first time I heard Kai Hansen play and sing on Helloween’s “Walls of Jericho” album I have been slightly obsessed with his music, which transferred completely to Gamma Ray when he formed the band back in 1989.
This resulted in me ensuring that I had this album in my hands on its first week of release. I had spent several years wearing out my copies of the band’s previous two albums, and I was more than ready for new material. When this album came out, I had just relocated from Sydney back to my childhood home in Kiama, living with my parents, and driving my father-in-law's taxi part time as my only source of income. So let me just say that it was a less than satisfactory time of my life. What helped to keep my spirits up was this album. I would drive the taxi around with this album on constant rotation, something that not only annoyed a few people, but also found some ready converts who enquired about who that band was, and what that album is.
For me, Gamma Ray is fun. You sing along, you air guitar, you air drum. This is what heavy metal is supposed to be, remember? Metal is supposed to lighten your mood, bring you to life, lift you above the ground. That’s why we listen to music, to improve our days. Gamma Ray for me has always done that, and this album is no exception. Helloween was known for its ‘happy guitars’ from Kai and Michael Weikath, and Kai has kept this in Gamma Ray. They are the happiest band on the planet – watch them play live. They are all grinning and smiling through the whole gig, it is amazing. And that’s what I do when I listen to this album as well.
“Power Plant” does prove to be that slightly different album in the catalogue though. The previous two albums are very much in the traditional Gamma Ray style, as are the following three albums. This one ventured down a slightly different path, perhaps through the writing being spread between all four members, with Henjo contributing two songs, Dan contributing two songs and Dirk one. Even so, I still love this album. It is an uplifter of my mood, with one particular song doing that more than most. It was also the first song I saw the band play live, on the only time they toured Australia, and it still sticks in my mind as one of the best moments of my life.

1242. Lionheart / The Grace of a Butterfly. 2024. 3.5/5

Lionheart came into being in their first iteration in the early 1980’s. Sometime referred to as a ‘supergroup’, that doesn’t take into account the fact that most of the musicians in that first group had either left or been fired from successful bands of the time. Vocalist Jess Cox had quit Tygers of Pan Tang. Guitarist Dennis Stratton had been moved on by Iron Maiden. Guitarist Steve Mann’s band Liar had just dissolved. Bass guitarist Rocky Newton’s band The Next Band had had no calls. Drummer Frank Noon... well... didn't seem to like staying with any band for any length of time. There were a few revolving doors, but the core of Stratton, Mann and Newton finally got a record deal for Lionheart, and they recorded their debut album “Hot Tonight” in 1984, to a resounding thud. Finally in 1986, they disbanded, and found success in other areas, especially Steve Mann and Rocky Newton who teamed up in the McAuley Schenker Group to be involved in their successful late 80’s early 90’s run of albums and tours.
Flash forward to 2016 – yes, 30 freaking years later – and there was a reunion of the band to play at a three-day Rockingham 2016 melodic/hard rock festival, held in Nottingham. The success of this gig convinced the band, with Stratton, Mann and Newton now joined by lead vocalist Lee Small from the band Shy and Clive Edwards who had performed with UFO, that they should make a go of it once again, which resulted in the album “Second Nature” in 2017. “Second Nature” found a nostalgic audience out there looking for music from a bygone age, and the five piece fitted the bill perfectly. This was then followed by the album “The Reality of Miracles” in 2020, and a renewed touring schedule that saw them getting exposure that surely none of them would have thought possible so many years after their initial foray into the music business.
With the pandemic having halted their momentum slightly, they now have their third reunion album out, and with the promise of more festival dates and tours in the ether, their new album has arrived, titled “The Grace of the Dragonfly”.

“The Grace of a Dragonfly” is a concept album, bathed in the shower of power metal, and both of these proponents of the album should be remembered when listening to the album as a whole. The album’s story centres around World War II and is basically aimed at being an anti-war themed album, the lyrics building up the sentiment at war being futile and other options should always be considered.
The album opens with “Declaration”, which builds from its quiet opening to an anthemic chorus with the declaration being made figuratively and literally, and carrying an energy that kicks off the album satisfactorily. “Flight 19” slows up the pace, settles into the long drawn-out spectacle of the post-ballad. The energy of the opening track isn’t quite maintained here, but then segues into “V is for Victory” which is a much more pleasantly paced track, moving beyond the opening keyboard synth dominated beginning to the soaring vocals of the anthemic chorus, backed by the great harmony of the support vocals, and then the great lead breaks through the middle of the song. “This is a Woman’s War” continues down this path, while “The Longest Night” is arguably the best song on the album, played at a great tempo and showcasing all of the members of the group’s best qualities.
“The Eagle’s Nest” on the other hand, is pure syrup, the power ballad at its best or worst, depending on how you wish to identify it (spoiler alert: at its worst). Look, I know power metal bands have to do power ballads, but gee whiz, just once I would love a power metal band to say “you know what? We’re going to avoid the cliche this time around!” If nothing else, this song puts to bed the question as to whether or not this is a power metal band, because this ties it to that genre for eternity. Kill me now. “Little Ships” and “Just a Man” both have a more keyboard oriented basis with Lee’s vocals soaring in while well supported in harmony by Dennis and Steve. Yes, this is more power ballad than power rock, but it doesn’t quite plumb the depths of the other tune, saved in the most part by the great solo break of Dennis and Steve’s guitars. The biggest problem is the song’s length, it does go on a bit too long at five minutes for such a track to retain the interest all the way through.
“UXB” returns to the band’s 80’s roots, with synth that makes it sound like it is from one of those great 80’s movie soundtracks (yes, start thinking “Together in Electric Dreams”), but when the guitars hit in it has a much better more modern take on that... like... 1990’s power metal I guess... but take a listen to the track. This could honestly have been recorded in the mid-1980's, such is the style of song, the vocals, the guitars. This could have come straight from my 1980’s playlist, and I could put it on that right now and no one who listened to it would bat an eyelid. The album rushes to its climax with the title track “The Grace of a Dragonfly”, the album’s epic conclusion where everything that has been put in place lyrically throughout is brought together with the final push, before “Remembrance: Praying for World Peace” finalises the concept album with its quiet keyboard synth outro.
So, this is for all intents and purposes a power metal album. Sure, the guys in the band may be more for the NWoBHM age or the glam metal age, but while there are specks of both f those metal genres on this album, it is basically tied very much to the power metal genre. However, it is a part of that genre where the keyboards are NOT the dominant instrument, and the drums aren’t hammering along with the double kick for the entirety of the album. Here we have the dual guitars, both playing lead and rhythm, while the keys offer filler underneath for the most part of the album. The drumming is also very much in the traditional hard rock style, much in the 2/4 beat and generally keep time and being the solid backing to wat is happening up front. So it’s a real mixture in the music, which perhaps is what drew me so strongly to this album when I first listened to it, because despite being a power metal fan I do prefer the bands that are guitar heavy not keyboard heavy, and sometime the drums can be a bit over the top, but here Clive Edwards knows what his role is, and he sticks solidly to it.

About 20 years ago, I started making a deep dive into bands that I had always heard about but that I had never listened to any of their material. Mostly it was NWOBHM bands that had come and gone so quickly that by the time I got into heavy metal they had already been non-existent for years. This involved downloads, YouTube searches and rummaging in record stores all over the place. One of those bands that I was searching for, or that I eventually came to search for, was indeed Lionheart, but the best that I could find was a couple of songs off that long-forgotten debut album “Hot Tonight”. They were... ok... but that was the extent of my knowledge. And that had come in essence because it was another of the 4000 bands that Dennis Stratton had played for since that one Iron Maiden album had initially brought him to my attention.
We move to the modern day, and I was as mystified as most others when I eventually discovered that Lionheart still existed, let alone had a new album released. It was only through the posts by a fastidious Iron Maiden fan on her podcast’s Facebook page – thanks Kirsty – that it came to my attention at all, and, given that I only had another half a dozen new albums just released to listen to and give a review on for this podcast, I thought, “What the hell, let’s see what it is like!”
And so you have what I have basically outlined here for you earlier. The themes here are unmistakable lyrically, but it is musically where I am still intrigued. Yes, the power metal genre is heavily represented here, though with the two guitars instead of just keys and one guitar, and without the typical power metal double kick drum. In this aspect, it does hold some similarities to the NWoBHM style of heavy metal, tying those two together. But at times I definitely pick up pieces of tracks that have similar strains to euro metal such as Sonata Arctica and progressive metal such as Symphony X, just not as frantic as those bands can be. And as a fan of all of those bands and their genres, perhaps you can see why this album keeps pulling at me, even after I’ve decided it just isn’t going to work for me. It is true that the very nature of the power ballad, that is a majority shareholder in a number of these songs, will eventually win and have me banishing this album to the shelves, only to see the light of day when I am in a particularly narrowed musical mood... for the moment, I can’t help but still have it on my playlist. And every time it begins, I find myself curious as to whether it is THIS time that I finally forgo it, or finally admit that I like this far more than I could imagine.
That being said, “The Grace of a Dragonfly” is an album that will definitely not be a fence sitter – you will either enjoy the story and the music that this band has created, or you will wonder why this kind of album is still being produced in 2024. Whichever way you turn, you won’t find out unless you give it a go. And my suggestion is that you do exactly that.

1241. Judas Priest / Invincible Shield. 2024. 4/5

The latter part of the career of Judas Priest has had plenty of interesting phases about it, notwithstanding the changes in band lineup in that time, and the other difficulties that have faced the band in that time. Following the return of Rob Halford to the band, they put out two completely different styled albums in “Angel of Retribution”, which tried to harness what the band had done best prior to their separation, and “Nostradamus”, the double CD prog metal concept album that threw the Priest rulebook out the window and created a whole new chapter in their songwriting and production. Both of these albums had their fans and their critics. Some felt that “Angel of Retribution” was both not Judas Priest enough and also too much of a change from their normal sound (“Loch Ness” I’m looking directly at you!), while the huge risks and gamble taken with “Nostradamus” was a marvel to some, and an overblown misplaced epic by others.
In 2011, founding member K.K. Downing left the band citing... well... differences... and Richie Faulkner was brought in, and the youthful energy he brought with him seemed to rub off on the next album, “Redeemer of Souls” as it lifted the intensity lost somewhat by the mist of “Nostradamus”, and it felt as though Judas Priest was back on level footing. Perhaps the only doubts arose from Halford’s capability to continue singing live as he had done in his youth. He himself admitted it just wasn’t possible for him to do so, and that he by changing the way he sang those older songs live, he was able to draw out his ability in this respect. There were still concerns over Halford’s vocal capacity... that is until the release of “Firepower” in 2018, arguably the best Priest album since “Painkiller”, where the songs sat in that perfect Priest tempo, and Halford stayed in his capable vocal range, and the combination produced an absolutely killer album. Glen Tipton’s diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease while recording this album meant that he had to pull back from fulltime duties with the band, with producer Andy Sneap stepping in when required to cover his forced absences.
The initial writings sessions for that album’s follow up occurred in early 2020, but with the onset of the pandemic, and not being able to be together, the writing was more or less put on hold. Then the band began their 50th Anniversary tour, which again was interrupted by the shock of Faulkner’s major heart scare, when he ruptured his aorta on stage, with blood filling his chest cavity. A 10+ hour emergency operation saved his life, but even the most optimistic person could barely believe he would tour again. And yet he did. All of this meant that progress on the new album was much slower than the band had hoped for, but eventually in late 2023 it was completed, and in March 2024 “Invincible Shield” was released upon an expectant and excited fan base world wide.

One of the big things that pops up very quickly on this album is that Rob has decided to extend himself vocally once again, with several songs and lines in other songs reaching for those highs of days gone by. You have to admire Halford, who at an age when he could easily rest on his laurels and sing within certain parameters without anyone feeling cranky about it, that he still has the ability and DESIRE to want to bring out those brilliant top level vocal highs at different stages, which really help to make the songs involved. Will he be able to do the same things night after night in the live environment? Well, that's a problem for Future Bill, because at the moment I just think it's great to hear them coming out of my speakers here in the Metal Cavern.
Those vocals on the album opener “Panic Attack” are that first impression, one everyone has had for months after it was released as the first single from the album. It also has very “Painkiller” like vibes in the guitars, that classic duelling solos and then twin harmony in between. It’s a Judas Priest gold standard type of song, coming at the kind of speed that immediately gets the blood pumping and the fist raising in glee. Those scream range vocals continue into “The Serpent and the King” which continues along the same old school Priest past path, with solos and riffs and drums that just crush out of the speakers. From the outset a different path has been set by this album than was the case with “Firepower”. The band has made a conscious effort not to replicate the success of that album, and instead, early on at least, has ramped everything up including Rob’s vocals in order to differentiate it from that album. And for me, it works beautifully. More of the same comes from the title track “Invincible Shield”, with Scott Travis’s driving double kick being the leading light along with Rob’s doubled harmony vocals throughout the song. There are pieces of this song that remind me incredibly of “Ram it Down”, thus increasing my belief that there is a definite desire to bring in that era of the band’s music into this album. I love it. Others may not, but the sense of deja-vu I get from the opening to this album is a good thing, not one of impending doom. As the album progresses there are examples of these kinds of songs, especially “As God as My Witness” which charges along with the same principles in place. Then there is also another interesting phase towards the end of the album with “Escape from Reality” and “Sons of Thunder”, which on my initial listens to this album reminded me of earlier Priest, those albums from the early 1980’s such as “British Steel” and “Screaming for Vengeance”. It wasn’t until a little bit of research (I occasionally do some) brought forth the fact that Glenn Tipton was the main writer of both these songs, and that unlike the rest of the album that had Andy Sneap as sole producer, these two songs had Tom Allom involved in the porduction, the man who had produced both of those legendary early Priest albums, and a lending hand on “Firepower”. The connection does sound obvious once you have that information.
Other songs such as “Devil in Disguise”, “Gates of Hell” and the album closer “Giants in the Sky” tread a path that contains a similar drum beat throughout and favoured by a rhythm riff that doesn’t change much in the tracks. The mid tempo favoured tracks, each with their own take on the variety to be offered by the band, are songs that act as the glue portion of the album, songs that don’t particularly offer anything extravagant or groundbreaking, but pay their part in the whole.
On the other hand, songs like “Crown of Horns” and “Trial By Fire” stick more closely to the format devised for the “Firepower” album, set in a great hard mid tempo range with Rob’s vocals settling in and not pushing the envelope of his vocal range, instead creating that wonderful mood through his normal range soar that makes modern Priest the wonderful band it is. Scott’s drums don’t overplay themselves, sticking in a great pattern along Ian Hill’s booming bass guitar, which has a terrific resonance throughout this album, and Tipton and Faulkner’s guitars flowing along in harmony together. Like I’ve said before, “Firepower” is an amazing album, and having songs that still utilise that writing style here is terrific to listen to.

The modern digital age has some amazing things in place that make it superior in some ways to those of, say, my teenage years. One of those is being able to hear a new album on the day of its release from midnight, which is when it goes live on the streaming services available, rather than having to wait to be able to get to your local record store and purchase your physical copy and then take it home and put it on your turntable for the first time – or by having to wait for your heavy metal music dealer to get HIS copy and then record it for you on the cassette you provide. In the instance of “Invincible Shield”, my first listen started at 5.50 am on the day of its release, the first of lots of listens in the days since.
Judging an album after such a limited span of time, despite the number of listens to the album equating in the thirties, is never easy, and will no doubt over the course of time become more rounded and probably more accurate. Should this podcast last another 20 years (or indeed, if I last another 20 years) then it would be interesting to listen to what I would say about my thoughts on this album having had that amount of time to digest it. What I can say is that at this point of the journey, this album has a lot going for it. I immediately have my ears prick up as certain songs begin, and I immediately notice when this album comes into the rotation of the other album that I have on my current playlist. I am looking forward to gaining my physical copy of this album and being able to give it the chance to fill the Metal Cavern with its music through my stereo rather than streaming to my Bluetooth speaker or through my headphones. That will be the real test.
At this point though, I would rank this alongside “Firepower” as the best Judas Priest albums since “Painkiller”. As with the previous album, the band has made a conscious effort to reintegrate their historical sound into their newest songs, and they have done it terrifically well. Their sound here is again amazing. Tipton, for as much as he is doing with Sneap in support, is great, and Richie Faulkner again is superb. K.K. Downing is showing with his own band that he still has what it takes, but Faulkner’s injection into Judas Priest has definitely been a positive for the band in both ability and writing. The grand old man Ian Hill continues to prove his worth to the band, and Scott Travis’s drumming still drives the machine. An of course, Rob Halford. Has he lost any of the power in his voice? At times during this album I have just shaken my head at what he can still achieve vocally. He is a remarkable person.
The verdict? Of all of the new albums I have listened to over the past month, this is the one that still demands the most attention. That’s about the best recommendation I can give for this album.

1240. Bruce Dickinson / The Mandrake Project. 2024. 4.5/5

It’s not as if Bruce Dickinson doesn’t have enough to do in his life. A pilot who flies planes, a brewer who brews beer, a writer who writes tomes, a DJ who does radio shows, and just as an aside a lead vocalist who has been at the forefront of the music industry for over 40 years. That touches the surface of what Dickinson has done in a life that seems to get busier every year. You can now add on to this creator of yet another solo album, something to tide him over until the next Iron Maiden tour or album or project manifests itself. There is little doubt that Dickinson is a marvel when it comes to what he sets his mind to.
The duo of Dickinson and his frequent collaborator Roy Z last put out an album together in 2005, that being the “Tyranny of Souls” album that came during a break between Iron Maiden releases and tours. Despite the success and general positive reviews of that release, time worked against both men when it came to producing another follow up. Despite this, it is well known that Dickinson had been writing songs with a new solo album in mind at least a decade ago. In fact, Roy Z said in a recent interview that the next Dickinson solo album was prepared to be recorded in 2012 during a break in Maiden proceedings, and that at that time 14 songs had been written, and that many of those songs are still unreleased and that he hoped they would eventually see the light of day. One of those songs of course found its way onto an Iron Maiden album, much like another had done so back in the late 1980’s.
With the onset of the pandemic in recent years, and the delayed release of Maiden’s last album “Senjutsu”, time has been more readily available in order to not only finalise the writing and production of the tracks that make up this album, but the eventual release of the album and even a tour in certain places in the world (not Australia of course) to promote it. Then there is the comic book and the overreaching story of the whole project... but you know, what we are interested in here on this podcast is the album, and if it is any good. It matters not about the story if the songs just don’t hit you in the right places.

The opening track of the album was also the first teaser single release, “Afterglow of Ragnarok”. It’s a different approach from opening tracks on his other solo releases, which have generally been really heavy riffs and hard and fast, whereas this opening track has a more atmospheric feel about it, as though it is setting the scene for what is to come, which of course it is. I must admit I only listened to this a couple of times before the album was released so as not to allow it to dominate my early listening of the album, and I think that worked well. Bruce’s vocals are terrific here, in an easy register to sing along with. It is to become a recurring theme. It’s a really good opening track, that is then immediately crushed by the brilliant follow up “Many Doors to Hell”. Bruce’s dulcet tones on those opening lines... almost sinister in the lower depths of his range... we haven’t heard this for a long time and it is just brilliant, before returning to his more regular register for the bridge and chorus. It has a terrific solo through the middle of the song, and just a great beat about it all the way through. Bruce has said this has nothing to do with the comic – the song tells the story of a female vampire bored with eternity and wanting to find a way back to her humanity – but it sounded good anyway so it made the cut. I agree with him, I think this is a terrific song.
The second single “Rain on the Graves” follows, a song that has its beginnings back in 2008, and continues the same grain that the album has tracked along so far, with another moody musical aspect pulled along by a midtempo range that feels more intense than that description. That is perhaps the best aspect of the opening to the album, the groove is the main drive, but it is more amplified that just a simple midtempo beat, it moves much freer than that.
“Resurrection Man” not only features Bruce on guitar (a real twanging surf-type almost DAD-like guitar too) but is a change in direction musically as well, with this track tying directly to the comic release with the mention of the anti-heroes Doctor Necropolis and Professor Lazarus, and teasing the promise of eternal life. Continuing this change in musical journey, “Fingers in the Wounds” is based around a piano keyboard base with Bruce driving the song with firstly the soaring vocal and then the powerful forceful vocal, through to the middle of the song where keys and synth dominate. It’s an interesting track, one that harks back to earlier solo material Dickinson has done and is one that does take a few listens to dissect given it is so different from his usual pursuits.
The original yet rejigged “Eternity Has Failed” to me is a triumph. Revisiting it after the song was purloined by Mr Harris for his band, this version loses nothing in comparison in my opinion. Some of the lyrics are changed to continue to story of “The Mandrake Project”, and Bruce’s change in the way he sings, along with the slower and more intense sound of the track makes this a joy. I love Maiden’s version, and I find I love this just as much. Then “Mistress of Mercy” cuts in with its heavy opening riff in true Roy Z style, and provides the best straight up heavy song of the album, with Roy given his best opportunity to solo unhindered through the middle of the song.
“Face in the Mirror” drops back out of that mindset and dials everything back as the acoustic guitar and keyboard dominated track brings back “Tears of the Dragon” like tones without replicating the majesty or power of that song. Bruce’s guitar returns, and this track is credited with the first recorded Dickinson guitar solo. “Shadow of the Gods” is almost like a prog metal song, drifting along for the first half like a power ballad, before finally breaking out into a heavy riff and almost a growl in Bruce’s vocals, something that comes as a shock the first time you hear it, and then a grandiose finish with the soaring vocal returning. It could almost be a progressive metal suite. Finally, the album closes out with “Sonata (Immortal Beloved)”, with similar tones to the way the previous two tracks have gone. Stretching to almost ten minutes, here again we are exposed to vocals from Bruce that he rarely uses but obviously has in his repertoire to utilise, the beautiful quiet soar through the mid-range that he used in a song like “Navigate the Seas of the Sun”, but in a more operatic stage musical way, rather than the high range of his pitch. It’s an epic, a slow burner, a song that builds slowly but determinedly over the course of the ten minutes to its eventual conclusion. This song apparently dates to before the release of “Tyranny of Souls”, something that makes you think that it was a project that both Bruce and Roy were passionate about, enabling them to use this as the final chapter of this long awaited new album.

Perhaps the best way to give you an idea of how much people were waiting for this album to be released was that it was impossible to find a copy of the standard CD for sale anywhere on the eastern seaboard the day after its release. Everywhere I looked, it was sold out. You have to say that that is a fair indication of the anticipation that was felt about the release of “The Mandrake Project”. Whether or not that knocks off every single Taylor Swift album from the Australian charts – yes, ALL of them take up the first ten or twelve positions on the Australian Albums charts as I record this - remains to be seen.
It was of course available on all streaming platforms, and that was where most people turned to for their initial listens to this album. Including me. And up to the recording of this episode, I have barely listened to anything else. Six days, and I’m up to 45 rotations of the album... or streams in this case. So I feel as though I have enough initial knowledge to render my verdict here.
What Bruce does best on all of his solo albums is put forward songs and music that he could never produce in Iron Maiden. That’s why he does it, and it opens another door from the material he writes and performs for that band. Which is why we all become drawn to it. And it is also the reason that sometimes some of the songs don’t always hit the right spot for everyone.
For me on “The Mandrake Project”, this is true of the closing three tracks, and that is only through my personal preference of music genre. All three of “Face in the Mirror”, “Shadow of the Gods” and “Sonata (Immortal Beloved)” are that style of song that I don’t personally care for a lot. I APPRECIATE the music, massively in fact, because they are composed and performed brilliantly and beautifully. But having gone through the first half of the album, where songs like “Afterglow of Ragnarök”, “Many Doors to Hell”, “Rain on the Graves” and “Eternity Has Failed” have been so powerful and energetic and riff worthy, the back third of the album slows down to a trickle, and softly moves into the distance. It’s a really interesting transition, from the first third of the album, through to several changes in the middle, and then the final third as written and performed. Like I said, I didn’t come here for Iron Maiden, and I expected a range of songs that showcased the differences in the writing collaboration of Dickinson and Z. And that’s exactly what we get. The band is great, and there is probably more keys and synth in places than I expected. That should not have been a surprise overall. This isn’t the “Accident of Birth/Chemical Wedding” era after all.
Is there more of Bruce’s solo music to come? Or is this like a crack in the window, allowing something to sneak through before that pathway is covered over. This is a truly enjoyable album, because it has the voice of Iron Maiden once again performing songs that Iron Maiden never would, and of course this is why Bruce has chosen to do this. Here, he drives the bus, and he is in control of what direction it goes, and it gives him the freedom to express himself in every way he would like to. It is the reason the album has moments that you might feel are a step too far, and others where you get even more than you bargained for.
Personally, I am enjoying this album a lot, probably more than I expected. It may not be all in a style that is my favourite to listen to, but the album as a whole is quite the triumph. There was always an expectation from myself that I would overhype this before its delivery and have it end up being a disappointment. It turns out that exactly the opposite has occurred. I didn’t listen to the early release of tracks, and went into the album more or less clueless as to what was to come. And through this I have discovered a lot of new songs to enjoy, and an album that, when taken as a story in itself, is another musical triumph for a collaborating pair that still know how to please their fans.

1239. Blaze Bayley / Circle of Stone. 2024. 4/5

There are few harder worker and more genuine artists out there than Blaze Bayley. In a career that has spanned bands such as Wolfsbane and Iron Maiden, and then almost 25 years out there fronting his own band and then his own solo project, Blaze has fought adversity and snatches of ill fortune in continuing to produce albums and live shows that are more often than not hailed as fan favourites. Name any other artist who continues to host FREE meet and greets with his fans, before or after his gigs. In doing so, he makes a connection that few artists can truly say they have with their fan base, a man of the people, who has a vision for his music and a solid working relationship with the individuals in the band Absolva who continue to be his backing band and co-collaborators.
Much continues to be made of his connection with Iron Maiden, and the two albums where he replaced Bruce Dickinson in the 1990’s. Part of this is pursued by Bayley himself with his tours where he plays only those Maiden tracks, which for fans of those albums is terrific as the band itself rarely touches that era. But the conglomerate of work Blaze has produced since those years is incredible, in particular the three albums under his Blaze persona, and then the first couple as the solo artist under his own name.
In more recent years he produced a trilogy of albums in a concept story called the Infinite Entanglement trilogy, before riding through the covid outbreak with the “War Within Me” album in 2021. Having completed the tour to promote this album, Blaze and his band went back into the studio to write and record their next album. In March 2023, just two days after the conclusion of the recording of what became the “Circle of Stone” album, Blaze suffered a heart attack which required quadruple bypass open heart surgery. The release of the album was put on hold as Blaze put his recovery as his priority. During this convalescence Blaze turned 60, and in itself felt as though it could have been a marker on his music career. Somewhat amazingly, almost seven months to the day from his heart attack, Blaze was back on stage performing once again. This is not the resume of a man who gives up despite everything the world sometimes throws at him. And with the man once again able to carry out his craft live on stage, he has now released his new album almost a year after it was completed to show the world he is still here and still means business.

In discussing the writing of the album, Blaze has confirmed that the album can be split into two halves. He is quoted as saying “Side one comprises six unconnected songs that describe human frailty, resilience, courage, and gratitude. Can you look to yourself for answers? Can you fight against all the odds to take your future in your own hand, or do you accept the fate that other people tell you is what you deserve? Believe in yourself. You can survive the knocks, defeats and disappointments of your life and come back stronger. That is the hope we hold in our first six songs.”
“Mind Reader” kicks off the album on the right foot, uptempo with Blaze in fine voice with the kind of energy that he puts into his best songs. “Tears in Rain” follows straight on with a great guitar riff to kickstart the song and Blaze back into his best vocals. This is a great song both musically and lyrically, referencing the great Rutger Hauer monologue from the movie Blade Runner as his character Roy Batty meets his end. Perfectly sung by Blaze and excellently performed by the band. Great stuff. “Rage” follows and moves into a slower and darker musical tone without losing the energy provided by the opening tracks. This song again moves in a story line, referencing a Welsh folk tale of Prince Llewelyn who kills his dog Gelert believing he had killed his infant son, when he had in fact defended him from the attack of a wolf. Sombre stuff, but a good song nonetheless in a typical Blaze fashion. Indeed there are similar notes and tones of songs from Blaze’s early solo output here in these songs which adds a nostalgic feel to the album. Two other excellent songs follow in “The Year Beyond This Year” and “Ghost in the Bottle”, both looking to be positive about the future, but accepting that fate could always step in and create its own mayhem. The Appleton brothers Chris and Luke are excellent again on both these tracks, with their driving and harmony guitars providing the impetus that makes these songs so enjoyable. The opening to “Ghost in the Bottle” especially is excellent, and I really enjoy this song, but I must admit the potential to really let fly on this track is a missed opportunity.
“The Broken Man” closes out side one of the album and is one of those songs that... just don’t appeal to me. Sure, it’s heartfelt, it’s poignant, and it builds from Blaze’s almost unaccompanied vocals at the start to a crescendo of Appleton’s raining solo in the middle of the song and Blaze raising the stakes in his vocals by the end. I appreciate what they are doing with this song, it just isn’t what I came to the album for. I’m not knocking the quality of the track, just the fact that it doesn’t appeal to my tastes.
Blaze has described Side Two of the album as consisting of six interconnecting songs telling a story, which Blaze is quoted as saying is “the story of our forgotten tribe: a search for the truth in the heart of the circle of tall stones. Seeking the mystical portal, whilst the ancestors call to you in dreams, you have denied them. They demand vengeance and reckoning but you are a selfish, materialistic coward, and you have avoided the true path of your future. You must find a way to become selfless and courageous to lead our tribe back to the homeland of our ancestors.”
The bagpipe laden “The Call of the Ancestors” segues into the title track “Circle of Stone”, utilising a guest vocal from Niklas Stalvind and sitting in a mid tempo range throughout, which pleasingly speeds up once we reach the guitar solo break in the middle of the song, once again excellently accomplished by the Appleton brothers. It takes it time, but the song once it finds its mojo is another good one.
“Absence” further enhances the guitaring excellence, along with the other players from Absolva. The bass line through this song from Karl Schramm is terrific, and backed up by the superb drumming from Martin McNee helps make this one of the best songs on the album. “A Day of Reckoning” pulls back into the id-tempo range once again, allowing Blaze to powerfully pull his vocals over the top of the retentive drum beat and cast itself out, filling the speakers with his dulcet tones. You can feel the passion in Blaze during this song. Then we speed up again with “The Path of the Righteous Man”, another starring effort for the Absolva boys who really deliver this song musically quite brilliantly.
The album closes out with “Until We Meet Again”, a song that I both admire musically and dread inwardly. Here again is an instance of finishing off an album with a song that has the potential to leave you amiss after the excellent energy that comes through most of what comes before it. Blaze duets with Welsh singer Tammy-Rae Bois and is accompanied solely by acoustic guitar and the violin of Anne Bakker. Now, while the combination of these two voices is spectacular and eminently enjoyable, and indeed creates the concluding chapter to this six-part musical concept story that covers the second side of the album, I have reservations as always. Personally, I’m not a fan of slower emotionally charged song completing albums. Sometimes it works, mostly for me it is a forbearance. It is performed beautifully. I just am not a fan of the style of song or of it ending the album.

I will lay my cards on the table here, and let you know (for those that don’t already know) that I am a Blaze Bayley fan. Have been since his Maiden days, but more especially of those early Blaze albums such as “Silicon Messiah” and “Tenth Dimension” and “Blood & Belief”, and also “The Man Who Would Not Die”. For me they hold up against the Maiden albums of that era, albums where Blaze and his band went hard in the heavy metal genre and showed that he wasn’t just a one trick pony.
Since then? Well, the albums are still good, but they are mixed. I still like them all but some of the songs don’t quite reach that awesome level. One thing I do know is that I am always looking forward to a Blaze Bayley album. This one was no different.
This took a little time for me to really get into, more for the fact that I was listening to a number of new albums from different artists all at the same time. But one of the things I enjoyed immediately was the music. Chris Appleton, Karl Schramm and Martin McNee have been on Blaze albums for a decade now, but with Chris’s brother Luke Appleton returning from Iced Earth to be a part of the makeup now... that’s a terrific thing, and the brothers combine excellently here. The tracks that really make you sit up and take notice are the ones where they are prominent in the mix.
Blaze himself sounds amazing, and though this was recorded before his health troubles last year, he’s singing amazingly well for a 60 year old. You can’t help but admire a man who was basically held out to dry because he couldn’t sing Dickinson’s songs live while in Iron Maiden, and yet still come back and been able to amass this amazing collection of albums since. Like the other new albums I have reviewed on this podcast recently, this “Circle of Stones” is still growing on me day by day. Each time I listen to it I find more stuff I like, and getting to know the songs and words always helps. I really enjoyed “War Within Me” when it was released, I felt Blaze had found a platform for his moder day take on metal. At this stage, I think this album surpasses it. The band are on point, and Blaze knows where he is taking his vocals. Yeah, I’d probably drop a couple of the songs if I had the

1238. Mick Mars / The Other Side of Mars. 2024. 3/5

Keeping up with news from the band Motley Crue shouldn’t have been this hard, given that they very publicly decided to cease touring and all activities back on December 31, 2015. The “Cessation of Touring” contract lasted almost four years, at which point in December 2019 they announced that they would be taking part in a stadium tour with Def Leppard and Poison the following year. Well, contracts are meant to be broken, something that guitarist Mick Mars was about to find out for himself.
Due to covid, the tour was postponed a couple of times until mid-2022. During this time, the band insisted that they had no intention of recording new material and instead would only be a touring band. In October of 2022, a statement was released stating that Mick Mars had retired from touring due to his ongoing health issues but would remain a ‘member’ of Motley Crue. The next day the band announced that John 5 would be their touring guitarist. Of course, all of this then escalated, as by April of 2023 John 5 was not only announced as the now guitarist of Motley Crue, but that they WOULD in fact begin writing and recording new material with him. At this, Mars sued the band claiming they were trying to rid themselves of him and of reducing his percentage of profits from the band, while the band countered by saying they had NOT fired him, and that the status quo remained that he was not a touring member of the band.
Lots has gone on since then but let's move away from the politics of the situation.
While Mars would no longer tour, he did announce in October 2023 that he would release a solo album. At the announcement he released the lead single from the album along with a music video, a song that caught everyone’s attention at the time. Despite all of the turmoil and slanging match between Mars and his former bandmates, it was his music that most of the fans were more interested in. Just what kind of material would Mars produce away from the band he had been with for 40 years, how relevant would it be, and would it, as the title of the album suggested, show off a different side to his musical prowess?

The greater portion of the album is written by Mars alongside lead vocalist Jacob Bunton and Winger keyboardist and guitarist Paul Taylor. Bunton has an interesting background, mixing being an Emmy winning composer and producer with artists including Mariah Carey and Steve Tyler, but also being lead vocalist of other middling metal acts such as Lynam and Adler in the past. His modern and progressive sounding vocals on this album are a huge plus to most of the songs here, and his career path is certainly something that appears to have been drawn heavily upon for this album. Taylor, who used to be credited as Paul Horowitz, has a long career with Winger and other hair and glam metal bands, and his proficiency on several instruments and in writing help to add to the upside of this album.
Two of the songs, “Killing Breed” and “Undone”, have a different lead vocalist in Brion Gambona, who was lead singer and guitarist for the band “Third Mist” that achieved recognition when they became semi-finalists on the “Star Search” show is the US in the mid-1990's. Both songs are written by Mars and Taylor alone and have a different focus with Gambona singing. There is a marked difference as a result, a change in tone that makes them stand apart from the rest of the album. True to his word, Mick Mars certainly delivers on his promise of the other side of Mars, by which he meant that he had the Motley Crue styled side of his guitaring, and the Mick Mars side of his guitaring.
There are several songs on this album that have a similar vibe and sonics to the band Fall Out Boy, both musically and in the vocals, which could be attributed to the phasing that they have in places on those songs in the same way Patrick Stump does for that band. The above mentioned “Loyal to the Lie” is certainly one of them, but so too is "Ain’t Going Back” which is cast from a similar mould, albeit in a heavier mode than that band performs. On these songs Bunton sounds great and is a driving force, acting as a great combiner with the hard hitting rhythm and Mick’s tough sounding guitar. For me these are the songs that are the best on the album, alongside the second single “Right Side of Wrong”, “Broken on the Inside”, “Ready to Roll” and the closing instrumental “LA Noir” that was composed solely by Mars.
“Broken on the Inside” got me at the end every time for many listens, as the song starts to break up towards its conclusion, as if the wifi is cutting out and the song is being corrupted by the lack of signal. It does take getting used to when you listen to the album, and stop the tendency to reach for your player try to work out what the hell is going on. I’ll probably still be doing it with my CD copy of the album when it arrives.
The slower tracks on the album do reflect on Mick’s other style, and while it is done well, for me it is less enthusiastic. “Alone” is the slower paced hard rock ballad that bands believe they need but some of us think we would be better off without. “Memories” sets out on the same path, with keys and violin being the sole basis of the song. I do understand these types of songs making their appearance here on his solo album, in order to showcase that he can do these songs as well just like his former band did, but they aren’t for me.

I don’t know about you, but thoughts about a new Motley Crue release doesn't hold any great anticipation for me. If they do, I’ll listen to it, but I’m not looking out for it. On the other hand, I was really looking forward to hearing this album, because I wanted to know just what Mick Mars away from that setting could produce. Some of his riffs in those great Motley songs are iconic, and he knew how to get the crowd pumped with his guitaring. So, even though I was aware that it couldn’t really match the music that band made in its glory days, I was truly looking forward to what he may have had saved up all of these years.
For the most part, I think it’s great. In the same way as I felt about Ace Frehley’s new album, which was released on the same day, this has gotten better with every listen. The upbeat style of Jacob Bunton’s vocals, and indeed the songs written by the main three songwriters with him singing, are really good. To me, they are good solid songs. Mick doesn’t come out as the star of this album – he doesn’t stick out as the only good thing here, his guitar dominant over everything else. It’s the songs that are becoming more memorable the more that I listen, not necessarily Mick’s riffs and licks being the standout. And I think that makes this a standout album, because it seems to have been MORE about the songwriting than being a vehicle for Mars to show off.
Look – this isn’t going to blow your mind, and you aren’t going to be saying this is Album of the Year when we get to December. But for me, like Ace’s new album, like the Smith/Kotzen album and the Sunbomb album a couple of years ago, this is a pleasant surprise because it has enough elements that you will enjoy, and a few tracks that on repeated listens you will say, ‘wow, actually that’s really good!’
My opinion on this album will no doubt change over time, but I’m now into more than 20 listens, and I’m still finding new things to enjoy. Not all of it is great, but there is enough here for me to suggest that you give it a go and see what YOU think about it.