1215. Type O Negative / Bloody Kisses. 1993. 4/5

Type O Negative’s first two albums had been well received following their formation in 1989. Bass guitarist and vocalist Peter Steele's previous band had broken up, and he decided to form a new band with childhood friends, drummer Sal Abruscato, keyboardist Josh Silver, and guitarist Kenny Hickey. Their first album “Slow, Deep and Hard” had been followed by the faux-live album “Origin of the Feces”, before moving into this third album.
"Bloody Kisses” has had several releases, but for me none so bizarre as the original release that was then followed a few months later by a digipack release, that omitted the few short instrumental tracks, as well as the two controversial tracks. Obviously they were looking to play down any controversy or banning of the album from certain stores in the US, but for me the second release waters down the great stuff that the original release still highlights. The track listing was also adjusted, and for me this also makes the album weaker and less impactful. The fact that it was Peter Steele himself that requested this always felt even more strange, especially when the rest of the band more or less came out and said that the digipack version “sucked”. As it is, it is the original version that I have and listen to.
It is often said that “Bloody Kisses” is Type O Negative’s break through release, the album where they began to establish themselves in their own right, and find the groove that gave them their ultimately classic sound. Opinions will always differ in this regard. What can be said about “Bloody Kisses” is that the varied output of songs throughout gave a full rounded view of the band and their abilities. That variety is something that some fans feel lets the album down, but for me I’ve always enjoyed it. It doesn’t sit in the same tempo or mood all the way through, it has its rises and falls – at times in the one song let alone through the song list – and we are offered the fun of the change between these moods.

What initially drove the success of this album was the first two singles released, which are the first two songs on the album following the introductory “Machine Screw”. They are “Christian Woman” and "Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)". These had music videos made for them, which were plastered all over MTV and VH1, but they were scaled back versions of the album’s originals, which went for 8 and 11 minutes respectively. Unusually, the singles-released version of the songs are actually quite good, but they don’t compare with the originals here, where you get the full experience of the three acts in each song.
The musical transition from their two big singles to their two controversial tracks makes that difference stark, with the brooding gloom of the doom metal sound then harking back to a post punk hard core riff showing a combination of both the past, present and future of the band’s developing sound.
Those two politically motivated tracks on the album can either be viewed as controversial thoughts or tongue-in-cheek banality. "Kill All the White People" and "We Hate Everyone" were written as a response to the controversy over the bands' alleged racist sentiments that were born after a tour in Europe and due to Peter Steele's previous band Carnivore's explicit lyrics. Now with Steele’s leanings in this respect notwithstanding, taking the songs on face value would be an easy parody of the situation.
“Kill All the White People” leads into “Summer Breeze”, initially intended to be a parody of Seals & Crofts soft rock hit, which morphed into a straight cover of the song after the band objected to the change in lyrics that Steele had composed. And yet, for some reason, it still works. This then jumps into “Set Me on Fire” which then acts as a parody of the cover song they had just performed. The back half of “Set Me on Fire”, with the organ synth in combination with the lead guitar is amazing stuff, combining eras of the 60’s and 70’s in a great mesh of sound. I don’t know why it is so effective, but it really is. This four song swing is then brought to a subtle conclusion with the other bookend track, “We Hate Everyone”, the second hard core punk styled angry tongue in cheek track to complement “Kill All the White People”, that breezes up the album again in an effective and fun tempo. Bravo.
The second half of the album, for me, doesn’t quite live up to the first half. The songs are good, but in the case of the title track, I feel it does stretch out too long – or perhaps it is just the plethora of long tracks here that makes this less tolerable for me. The album tops out at 73 minutes, and that often is too long no matter who the artist is. I know that when I listen to this album even now, I do press the stop button once the title track arrives. But when I do go beyond, there is still that enjoyment from “Too Late: Frozen” and “Blood & Fire” as there is from the songs that come before it.
Should this have worked in 1993? I guess in a way it was the perfect rebuff as well as extension to what was coming out of Seattle and what the world was looking for. The band for me is why this works so well. Kenny Hickey’s guitars capture every nuance of the each song, whatever the mood, genre or speed. So too the drumming of Sal Abruscato, who left the band after this album as he wanted to do more touring than Peter Steele was comfortable with. And the keyboards, synths and programming from Josh Silver sets those moods up wonderfully well throughout.
The shining point in "Bloody Kisses" is of course the crowning baritone sounds of Peter Steele's voice. In previous works, Steele did sing, but there was a degree of shouting as well. On "Bloody Kisses" however, Steele's vocals are clean, deep, and unique for its time and add a wonderful touch of darkness to the album.

The first time I ever heard Type O Negative was on the Black Sabbath tribute album “Nativity in Black: A Tribute to Black Sabbath”, released in 1994. The final track on the album was “Black Sabbath”, performed by this band – and it was completely amazing. The mood, those vocals, it all worked. To which I decided that I had to find out more about this band and perhaps check out their material. As it turned out, a customer who came into my then workplace about 12 months later who knew I listened to heavy metal asked me if I’d ever heard Type O Negative. The next day he produced for me a copy of “Bloody Kisses”, and I was in business. And while it didn’t really suit what I was looking for on my drives to and from work in the car, it certainly used to fill the terrace house I lived in at the time before my wife came home in the afternoons.
I used to pair this often with any number of Danzig albums, as the similarity at times to both Danzig’s work and Glenn’s vocals used to make this a great combination.
I still think this album has stood the test of time. When I first got the album, I found it got better the more I listened to it. And while my cassette copy has been lost in the mists of time since, the occasional streaming still reminds me very much of those days. Having had the album on for the last couple of weeks in order to do this podcast episode, I have smiled often as I listened. This album was one of several that got me through some very ordinary times back in 1995, and though the memories of that time are as bleak as some of the songs on this album, I am still filled with the joy of how it was able to eradicate some of that misery. And that is the power that music can have even in the darkest hours.

1214. Winger / Winger. 1988. 3/5

Hard work and persistence don’t always combine to get the rewards you deserve, and especially in the music industry. How many musicians and bands have fought their way to the brink of a breakthrough, only to have their dreams shattered at the final off ramp? While some people are gifted a chance with little behind them, most artists find it takes years of scrapping to get the chance to make the breakthrough they deserve.
Enter the scene Kip Winger and Reb Beach. Both started playing in bands – separately – in high school, and eventually met up as they were recording material for separate projects under the production of Beau Hill. They even began recording demos together at that time, Kip as bass guitarist and lead vocals and Reb as lead and rhythm guitarist and backing vocals. Then Kip’s big break came, climbing on board with Alice Cooper to record and tour on the albums “Constrictor” and “Raise Your Fist and Yell”, the albums that helped resurrect Alice’s career. It was following these two albums and tours that Kip decided he wanted to form his own band and so moved on from the Alice Cooper juggernaut. He reconnected with Reb, and even snared Paul Taylor, who had been touring with Alice Cooper as keyboardist, to also join the new band. With Rod Morgenstein joining on drums, the quartet was complete.
Initially the band wanted to call themselves Sahara, and even had that named on the front cover of their debut album. However, as the name was already take by another band, they had to choose another name. Eventually, it was Alice Cooper himself who suggested that they should call themselves Winger, which is eventually what they did.

Listening to this album in 2023 is a lot different from picking it up in 1988 and putting it on for the first time. The album had four singles released from it, and all of them are stereotypical of the era of hair metal that this is born from. But the quality of it is what makes it stand apart from some of the pretenders of the era. Reb Beach on guitar is superb. He holds the standard riffs through the bass of the songs, but when given the chance to preach his solos they are fantastic and wholly enjoyable. Kip Winger is terrific on bass and as lead singer throughout gives a performance that doesn’t try to overstate his presence, nor go over the top in reaching for heights he doesn’t have or need to. Morgenstein’s drums hold that steady beat throughout while Taylor’s keyboards also aren’t domineering throughout the songs which gives the album a unique presence. All four are capable vocalists as well which makes for a great chorused sound on all the songs.
The first side of the album is dominated by the main singles releases, and thus the lyrical content of the genre focusing on girls and the wanting to get together with girls and the hope that girls want to get with you. Both “Madalaine” and “Seventeen” are jaunty and rocky and singalong favourites, and were pushed along by the popularity of the videos on MTV and the like at the time. “Hungry” is of a similar ilk, though dealing with the subject of a new girlfriend dying in a car crash marks it as a point in difference in the lyrical content. The power ballad “Without the Night” is a favourite of the genre that for me just kills off the good vibes of the opening of the album. It is one of the best of the genre... by which I mean it is a gag-induced crapfest. I do dislike Power ballads.
Side one then winds up with a cover of “Purple Haze”, which I think is just an excuse for Reb Beach to get his Hendrix on. This is still an ear scratcher for me all these years later.
The second side of the album shows us more of the same qualities as the first half. “State of Emergency” and “Time to Surrender” both sit in a mid-tempo style reminiscent of other bands of the era, whereas both “Poison Angel” and “Hangin’ On” are upbeat and pushed along more frantically, allowed Reb to better utilised in his guitar breaks, and the band to show they can perform those faster joyful tracks just as well as their contemporaries at the time. The downside to this is that we then go back to the power ballad to close out the album. The third single released from the album, “Headed for a Heartbreak”, is such a poor choice to complete the album. All of the credits earned by earlier tracks are thrown out the window again by the train wreck of this particular style of song. There must be those out there who think this is a good idea because it happens too often for that not to be the case, but once again in this instance to me it ruins what has been a pleasant experience leading up to the close.

In all of our lives, there are albums that we buy on the scarcest of knowledge. It might be that we know one band member, it might be that someone recommended it to you, or you might have read about it in a magazine... back when those still existed. For me it was because Kip Winger had played on two albums that I obsessively adored at the end of my school years, the aforementioned Alice Cooper classics “Constrictor” and “Raise Your Fist and Yell”. And I thought that if he’d played on those, then surely his own stuff would be worth checking out. It was also, strangely enough, about three years after its release, so I guess I hadn’t really had that much information on it coming to me at the time. I know this because I am currently looking at my CD copy right now, with the price tag still attached, and I didn’t start buying CDs until 1991.
My memories of what I thought of the album at that time of purchase are vague. I know I used to play it, but I don’t think it was often, and it has probably been a shelf stacker for most of the years I have owned it. Perhaps not surprising given the combination of hair metal plus power ballads that are the mainstay of the album here. My guess is that I bought this, and the follow up, at a time when I had money burning a hole in my pocket and I just wanted new product.
Through the years, it hasn’t been sighted very often. It’s most recent surfacing probably occurred around 6-7 years ago when I went through a phase of going back through all of my hair metal albums of those late 1980’s and giving them a spin again, and I do remember thinking then that it was better than I gave it credit for.
Into the past three weeks, and I have certainly rediscovered the good and the average of the album. The singles are pure sugar, the power ballads are pure bastardry, but there are a few songs here that are probably not heralded by anyone that I enjoyed the most. Reb’s guitaring is certainly the best part of an album that is tied to its era, and perhaps is best left to that time.

1213. Smashing Pumpkins / Siamese Dream. 1993. 3.5/5

It is probably fair to say that no one, not even the band itself, expected that the Smashing Pumpkins debut album “Gish” would perform as well as it did. Its initial success meant that the band had ‘jumped the queue’ when it came to bands of their style and growing genre, not only being at the forefront of the grunge movement but then riding the wave created by Nirvana, Pearl Jam and others. It did mean however that when it came time to begin on their sophomore album, there was a certain amount of pressure on the band to produce something special.
Most of this probably could have been handled, but at the time all four members of the band were dealing with their own individual problems that exacerbated what was happening in the Smashing Pumpkins world. Drummer Jimmy Chamberlain was completely addicted to heroin, and as such was cresting the ups and down associated with that. The band deliberately chose to record the album in Georgia away from their homes in order to be far away from local distractions, but mainly in an effort to break away from Chamberlain’s known drug suppliers, which worked for a short space of time before he was able to find new people in which to ingratiate his habit. Along with this, guitarist James Iha and bass guitarist D’arcy Wretzky had ended their romantic relationship, breaking up just prior to the band's performance at the Reading Festival in 1992. The messy end brought about a great deal of tension and feuding between the two during this period, though they were able to eventually work things out and work together on a friendly level beyond the release of the album. On top of this, though it was not revealed until a decade later, band leader Billy Corgan had been contemplating and planning his own suicide during the writing and recording of this album. He had disposed of most of his worldly possessions, and even fantasised about his own death, and wondering what music would be played at his funeral. Thus it must have been an extremely stressed atmosphere in and around the studio while all of this was going on. And it was under these conditions that Smashing Pumpkins tried to put together the album that would get them noticed on a world stage.

Given the turmoil going on within the individuals in the band, it is somewhat amazing that the finished product is as terrific as it is. Famed producer Butch Vig was onboard once again to help push the buttons, almost literally, and his experience and patience and drive can be seen to be instrumental in the finished product.
Billy Corgan wrote all of the songs, apart from two - “Soma” and “Mayonnaise” which were co-written with James Iha. Butch Vig was quoted as saying that Corgan wanted to produce an album that people would put on and say ‘what on earth is that?!’ And to do that it wasn’t just in the writing of the lyrics and the music, but the way that it was going to be recorded that made that difference. Because when you listen to songs such as “Quiet” and “Hummer” and "Rocket” there is an easy out to say that they are similar in quality and output, that they share a path where they start and end. And then there are songs such as “Silverfuck” and “Sweet Sweet” where the track almost becomes irrelevant as a song and becomes more an artistic overplay, where the formation of the track with several dozen overlays becomes the focus rather than the output of the song. Corgan stated that in the song “Soma”, there were over 40 guitar overdubs on the track. Butch went one better and claims that as many as 100 guitar parts were compressed into one song. I mean, there is art for arts sake, but why the complete overkill in this respect? The simple answer may well have been Corgan’s state of mind at the time, the complex answer is probably his desire to make a song and album that would truly amaze people at the time.
Recording was not a joy either. Though Chamberlain played all of the drums on the album, he would go missing for days at a time on benders, unable to be found. And tensions rose between Corgan and Iha and Wretzky when they discovered that Corgan was overdubbing or even wiping their guitar and bass contributions and re-recording them on his own. Wretsky was quoted much later as saying that he did so because he could record them better and in far fewer takes than she could, and that Corgan had done the same to her bass tracks on the first album as well. Meanwhile, the album went over schedule and over budget, as Corgan and Vig sometimes worked on small sections of each song for two days at a time to get it to their own view of perfection.
Despite the categorising of the album as a grunge album, the styles were markedly different. Pieces of songs such as “Soma” and “Geek U.S.A” have touches of heavy metal, while a progressive rock feel comes across in “Spaceboy” and “Luna”, and alternative rock in “Mayonaise”. Corgan has fingers in many genres of music as a musician and a fan, and he does utilise many of them in composing this album.
It was the two big singles that pushed this band to the heights it climbed to. “Cherub Rock” and “Disarm” both did massive business in singles sales, when those things still existed, and also proliferated the radio on both spectrums. They are still the gems of the album, but they lift the album rather than acting as the only shining lights. The album may ebb and flow, but their appearance only creates a greater understanding and love of the whole rather than just being a highlight.

Like most of you I suspect, I discovered Smashing Pumpkins on the radio, and it was the two aforementioned big singles that grabbed my ears and made me a fan. Getting the album took a little longer, but once I did it was in the phase of the musical world going completely bananas and me trying to get my head around that. It was not just Nirvana (who I enjoyed) and Pearl Jam (who I did not) taking on the world, but other bands that fans identified as grunge who were probably not so much. And that is definitely the case here on “Siamese Dreams”. There are certainly elements of grunge-induced music, but it is the wide variety including other forms of heavy rock and progressive elements that make it such an interesting album and listen. And it was something that Billy Corgan and his merry bandmates would continue into their next amazing album.
So when I did get this album, I knew those singles, and initially I had to get past them to appreciate what else lay within the walls of the music. And as I have mentioned before, that can sometimes be a difficult task. But once I had played this album a few times over, that all subsided and what I discovered was an amazing release, one that never ceases to amaze if you can just turn it up a touch louder in a quieter place, and hear everything that the band (well... Billy) plays in each song. Because each song does become a little like his own painting, with the layers and the colours that he has perfected. Even better, don a pair of headphones and really get the best out of it, because there is a lot their to dissect.
Many would argue this is The Smashing Pumpkins finest album. Others will go for the following album, and with good reason. Some like me tend to go for the slightly heavier concoction that came beyond that. But overall, this is one of those albums that people put in their ‘best ever from the 1990’s’. On that score, I think you’d have to agree that it is well and truly worthy of being on such a list.

1212. Metallica / Kill 'em All. 1983. 5/5

Like any new band, there is no magical pathway to fame and fortune. Most of it is hard work mixed with some good and bad fortune, and more than a dash of talent along with being in the right place at the right time. And so it was for Metallica in the same way as so many other bands. The lead up to their chance to record their debut album was littered with band member changes and the luck of coming up with the right combination at the right time.
The story of how the band came into being and its evolution to one of the biggest bands in the world has been told and retold in many various formats. The coming together of guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich through a newspaper ad is fate in itself, and with Ron McGovney and Lloyd Grant they recorded a song named “Hit the Lights” for a “Metal Massacres” compilation. The recruitment of Dave Mustaine as full time guitarist and co-vocalist brought a fury to the band, in more ways than one. The band recorded their “No Life ‘Til Leather” demo tape that found itself distributed everywhere by fans, and their exposure grew exponentially. Tension with Mustaine eventually led to the departure of McGovney, which allowed the band to bring in Cliff Burton, someone who had caught their eye as they played around the scene, but only on the proviso that they relocated to San Francisco.
The band felt ready to head into the studio for real, but were unable to find anyone to come up with the money required to pay for the recording, as they were unable to find a record label who was willing to front the money. In March 1983, the foursome back their belongings in a truck and drove across the country to New York, where Jon Zazula, a record store owner and eventual founder of Megaforce Records, agreed to help them out. This ended up requiring him to mortgage his house and almost go bankrupt in the process. These were the lengths to which the band and their supporters had to go to get this album off the ground.
A couple of weeks after arriving in New York, Dave Mustaine was fired after a gig, for different reasons depending on which story appeals to you. His overt drug taking and alcohol consumption, along with volent interactions with the band members, gave Hetfield and Ulrich, in their opinion, no choice but to move on without him, despite his obvious talent as a guitarist, singer and songwriter. His final request of the band was that they not use any of his songs when they recorded their debut album. In his place, the band recruited Kirk Hammett, a former student of Joe Satriani, who it is said learned all of the band’s songs on the flight to New York. A good thing too, because the album’s recording started less than three weeks later, and was completed in two weeks.
And so, with all of this turmoil and hard work behind them, it came time to put their brimstone and fire onto vinyl, and spread their word to the masses, to see if the masses would agree that Metallica was indeed one of the hottest new bands in the US.

One of the things that, in my opinion, worked best for Metallica in recording “Kill ‘Em All” is that there is a varied output in the songs that is not necessarily noticeable unless you are really a fan of the work. And one of those major factors is indeed spurned former member Dave Mustaine. Even though he asked the band not to use his songs, there are ways to get around the literally meaning of that, and ensure that the songs can indeed be retained. Mustaine gets four co-writing credits on the album of the ten songs recorded, and to be fair he perhaps should have received more credit than that. The four songs where his name appears are “The Four Horsemen”, “Jump in the Fire”, “Phantom Lord” and “Metal Militia”. “The Four Horsemen” began life as Mustaine’s “Mechanix”, with sexually-innuendoed lyrics about a girl at the gas station. Dave of course eventually used his version of the song on Megadeth’s debut album “Killing is My Business... and Business is Good!” Here though, Hetfield re-wrote the lyrics to concentrate on the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and added a bridge and solo in the middle of the song in order to create a mostly new song. “Jump in the Fire” was apparently the first song Mustaine ever wrote, again utilising sexually charged lyrics. Hetfield again reworked the lyrics, this time as the devil urging people to commit sin so they end up jumping into the fire of hell. Both “Phantom Lord” and “Metal Militia” apparently had minor cosmetic changes from the originals written by Mustaine. All of these are very recognisable songs from the album, and helped to push its eventual popularity, and as a result Mustaine still deserves part of the acclaim, though it must be admitted that James and Lars’s additions to the songs made them not only better songs but more identifiable to their fan base as a whole, rather than making cheap innuendo in the lyrics such as the glam metal genre had done up to that time through bands such as Motley Crue. The lyrical changes in particular allowed Metallica to stand apart from those songs and bands, something that stood them in good stead going forward.
Another of the varied factors can be attributed to Cliff Burton. The story goes that James and Lars first saw Cliff when he was in his previous band, and he was doing his own wailing bass solo, and that was what made them think “here is a guy who could be something special”. Of course, it is that exact same bass solo that the band then recorded for this album, adding Lars’s drums into the second half of the song and calling it “(Anesthesia) - Pulling Teeth”. It is this kind of unique song and gift that made “Kill ‘Em All” so special at the time, and his contributions throughout the album are amazing, especially in “Motorbreath” and “Whiplash”.
The remainder of the album retains this high water mark. The opening of “Hit the Lights” brings the album to fever pitch from the outset, and given its familiarity with the fans at the time it was the perfect song to open with. “Motorbreath” is electric, with amazing speed both in guitar picking and drumming, and is the short and sharp rebuttal to that which comes before it. “Whiplash” does the same to complete side one of the album in a fury. “No Remorse” is a vastly underrated thrash anthem, one that seems serene to start but finishes in a tide thrash glory, while “Seek and Destroy” has lasted the journey, still in set lists today and still sung as hard by the crowds as it was back when it was released.
In the current day it is hard to imagine a more brutal and incisive beginning to a band’s history as “Kill ‘Em All”. Coming from the bay area as they did, where so many of the most influential thrash bands of all time hailed from at that time, this album not only kick started Metallica’s career, but inspired those around them to follow in their footsteps and create their own dreams as well.

I still remember as clear as a bell the day when I first discovered this album existed. It was May 1986, and my mother had dragged me to a new shopping centre called Macarthur Square, and as she was having a wonderful time walking through the big department stores, I found this out of the way record store, and wandered in and start to browse, not expecting to find anything that I could afford or would probably know anyway. I made my way through the racks, and came to the one labelled “M” - and here was an album by Metallica. Now, it had only been a few months since my friends and I had discovered Metallica, and those amazing albums “Master of Puppets” and “Ride the Lightning”. But I confess that at that time, I had no idea that there had been an earlier album released. So my excitement levels went through the roof. Here was a Metallica album I didn’t know, with some great song titles. So I nagged my parents to loan me the money to buy it, and the deal was done. Then came the interminable wait to get home so I could put it on my parents stereo and discover it for the first time. The wait ended up being more than worth it.
37 years on from that moment, and 40 years since its release, nothing much has changed. “Kill ‘Em All” remains one of those amazing moments in the band’s existence, and also one of the true masterpiece debut albums of all time. The mixture of raw aggression with anthemic moments intertwined, the melding of the lead and rhythm guitar with the bass lines that really matured their songs beyond what they would have been with another bass guitarist, and the youthful screaming of the vocals that highlighted the enthusiasm and desire of the young band to reach beyond the confines of their San Francisco beginnings.
My original copy of this album was lost in a flood some 22 years ago. The copy I have now is the recently remastered and re-released version. But that hasn’t stopped the majesty over the past couple of weeks, taking this out of the cover, placing it on the turntables, and hearing the fade in if the band going nuts, before the opening riff of “Hit the Lights” crashes out of the speaker, and the goosebumps still appear, and the shudder down the spine still follows. Because this still rates as one of the great albums. It may not be as focused or matured as Iron Maiden’s ”Piece of Mind” that was released a few months earlier, but nor should it, given the different stages those bands were at. And Maiden of course were one of the bands that inspired this album in the first place.
This is still the album you can grab when you decide to take a cruise on the highway, turning it up loud and letting the songs do their work. We did it when we were 17 and 18, it was one of the great albums for that kind of experience. I can confirm that it is still worthy of that kind of treatment, though it is a different experience streaming it over Spotify in the car than having the cassette player blasting it out in 1987.
I supposed you’ve guessed that I still love this album. Perhaps I don’t go to it as much as I used to in those late teenage years and early 20’s, but that is because of the sheer volume of albums I now possess than any dimming of my love for this album. The band that I was in during those years attempted many of these songs in those days, and while we nailed a couple, we made a mess of a few others. This one has always been my favourite to play and listen to in that regard.

1211. Anthrax / Volume 8 - The Threat is Real. 1998. 2.5/5

For all of the success Anthrax had had during the back half of the 1980’s as they rode at the forefront of the thrash metal scene, and then into the beginning of the 1990’s, the troubles away from the stage into the mid to late 1990’s was just as difficult for the band to negotiate as the changes in the music scene itself. They had released the album “Stomp 442” in 1995 on the back of this, but it had been the changes at the top of Elektra Records that created the most problems, with the new head of the company openly telling the band in a meeting that she would never have signed them to the contract they did if she had been in charge at the time. The result of this hostility was that “Stomp 442” received practically zero promotion by the record company, which contributed to it being far less commercially successful that their previous album, and eventually led to the band leaving the label.
Anthrax instead signed with an independent label, and went about writing and recording their new album. As with the previous album, Charlie Benante wrote the majority of the music, and played most of the lead guitar, as well as his main job with the band, playing the drums. Paul Crook, who was the touring guitarist for the band at that time, contributed solos to three songs, while Dimebag Darrell from Pantera again contributed solos to two songs.
As an ‘old school’ metal band, Anthrax was well aware of the changes within the music world. It was a tough gig out there for those bands. Some had altered their sound to mix in with the change of era, others had toughed it out, and many had ceased to exist. For Anthrax, with a new record deal and a shrinking live audience, the challenge was to ensure that their product continued to reflect what their fans wanted, and to keep them excited in their work and to push to regain the lost ground that had occurred with the lack of support of their previous album.

The opening two tracks are the best examples of the then-current day Anthrax tunes. Heavy rolling drums, heavy guitars and John Bush’s hardcore vocals overlaying throughout. “Crush” delivers as a solid opening track, while “Catharsis” is probably the better song, bringing better energy and delivery. In the Bush era of Anthrax, when he is going hard at the vocals the songs are at their peak, and both of these songs have those best moments about them.
“Inside Out” has a mood and tempo typical of the age, heavy guitars and hard hitting drums in a slow mid tempo grind and groove with vocals growling rather than soaring with a Dimebag solo tying it all together. While Scott Ian likes to suggest Anthrax stayed true to type during this album, this song, the first single released from the album, offers something that is not that. The song is a good one, but it most definitely brings the era into the album. I guess I should just say it – it sounds like a Pantera song. I wonder why. “P & V” or “Piss and Vinegar” which is what the title actually is, typifies the Bush era with those same hard guitars but at a better tempo and with Bush rallying the troops in a better vocal style that does the song justice.
It has to be said here that, for me at least, a part of this album feels as though it is a cross between an S.O.D album and an “Attack of the Killer B’s” album. “604” and “Cupajoe” are both short and to the point in a similar frame that Charlie and Scott created for Stormtroopers of Death in the 1980’s and seem to have been revived here for this album. On the other hand, “Toast to the Extras” is an “Attack of the Killer B’s kind of song, because of the song lyrics and the style of music written and played for the song. In fact, when you listen to it, even now, the instant reaction is ‘what the fuck is this?!’ For me, none of these three songs fit the concept of what I think of as an Anthrax album, at least an Anthrax mainstream type album. Those songs had their place in the past, but to me it feels as though they are wildly out of place here.
“Born Again Idiot”, “Killing Box” and “Alpha Male” are all much more like it, energetic in a much more positive fashion, and providing a better selection of riffs and solos as well as Bush’s vocals at their best. Offsetting that though is the song “Harms Way”, which starts off as a borderline country western song on steel guitar, and while the song does ‘harden up’ as it progresses, it still sounds like Nashville based song than New York. On the back of that, “Hog Tied” and “Big Fat” are back to the average song style, somehow trapped from being either classic Anthrax or mildly unnecessary.
“Stealing From a Thief” is the album’s closing song, which contains “Pieces” as a hidden track to actually finish the album. Frankie Bello wrote “Pieces” about his brother who was murdered outside his girlfriend’s house two years prior to this, and which Frankie also sings. It is fine, but is it not out of place here? The acoustic guitar and remorseful reflective tone of the song again seems like it is placed here because it was important to the band that it be acknowledged, but the style is all wrong for the departure to the album.
Earlier I mentioned part of this album being like an offshoot of SOD and Attack. Now is the part where I mention that the style associated with the majority of the rest of the album is very much influenced by the sound that Pantera had brought to the scene during the 1990’s. And we know the band admired what Pantera was doing at the time, and the fact that Dimebag Darrell was involved in pieces of this album, and that both Phil Anselmo and Vinnie Paul were present on the album as well, really brings that home to roost. It is in no way a Pantera album, but the sound and the format of the songs here have a definite trend towards that style. “Stealing From a Thief” absolutely trends this way. So the influence of Pantera appears obvious, but the album also lacks cohesion, it appears that in places there is too much going on, and in others not enough. Some fans complain that it sounds too much like nu-metal, and I can hear and understand those thoughts. I’m more of the opinion that they ride the wave of nu-metal (or at least attempt to) without actually getting their feet wet, but others would disagree.

Anthrax is another band that I have supported since my discovery of them in the 1980's, and another of whom I own all of their released albums. This was another of those ‘purchase on love of the past’ albums that I went with in 1998, mostly on the continued belief that they couldn’t put out a poor album, and that I would more than get my money’s worth from it. And it must be said, I was certainly in my phase of European power metal when this was released, mostly in order to avoid the oncoming charge of nu-metal and industrial metal which didn’t sit great with me.
So I bought this album, and I taped it to cassette, and put it in my car to listen to on the way to work and back... and it got the mandatory listens before being swapped out for the next album in line. And it is fair to say that it suffered from what a lot of albums did at the end of the 1990’s, which was me going back to albums a decade earlier and enjoying reminiscing about them rather than giving the new material a fair listen. You can blame “Load and “Reload” for that! They really killed off a lot of new album listening at the end of the 90’s decade!
It wasn’t that I disliked the album that made me stop listening to it at the time, but it was a fact that I would listen to it, and then listen to “Among the Living” or “Persistence of Time” again and roll in the joy and ecstasy of those albums instead. And when it comes to pulling out an Anthrax album from the collection to listen to, there is no doubt that “Volume 8: The Threat is Real” is not high on the list. In fact, as the record company that released this album went bust not long after its release, it was out of print for about 20 years, which at least made this album somewhat valuable before its re-release in the past couple of years.
For the past four weeks I have listened to this album at least once a day, and this is what I have learned from that – most of my initial instincts on the album remain today as they did 25 years ago. There are some good songs on here, but none I would categorise as great. There are some songs on here that just don’t belong in the mix and I think probably harm the flow of the album. And that Pantera influence is undeniable, and the fact that Charlie is now drumming for the ‘band in name only’ as they tour the world probably nails down why this album sounds like it does. Some Anthrax fans like to dislike the Bush era albums because they aren’t the 80’s era albums. There is still enough goodness here for the everyday fan to enjoy. And it still kills “Load” and “Reload”, so it at least has that going for it as well. Final word – good, not great, but not terrible. How’s THAT for sitting on the fence?!

1210. Deep Purple / Shades of Deep Purple. 1968. 3.5/5

The formation of one of the most iconic, revered and influential bands of all time began as most bands do – with fellow musicians conversing and deciding to form a group of like-minded people who are looking to make music on a similar path. It was 1967 when they were first pulled together, and the whole story of how many people were involved in the swapping between groups is, once again, a story that would defy the parameters of what I am trying to do within this podcast. Actually, it might make a nice offshoot of episodes somewhere down the track. For today though, we can concentrate on the fact that eventually the five main players of the earliest incarnation of Deep Purple initially came about through the earlier band called Roundabout, a project that had the drummer from The Searchers, Chris Curtis, recruiting his then-flatmate Jon Lord, a classically-trained Hammond Organ player, and a maverick guitar player based in Hamburg by the name of Ritchie Blackmore, who was eventually encouraged to return to England and join the band. Curtis then tired of the project, and he moved on, leaving Lord and Blackmore to continue on. Lord brought in his friend Nick Simper as bass guitarist. Several people were considered for auditions to become lead singer of the band, including Ian Gillan who declined the offer, and Rod Stewart, who was not considered up to standard. Eventually Rod Evans from the band The Maze was hired for the role, and re then brought his drummer, 19 year old Ian Paice along, to audition for the already filled drummer’s spot. Following his audition though, Paice took on the role, and the first line up of Deep Purple was completed.
Having recorded a demo and done a short promotional tour, the band returned to London to record their first album. As with all new bands, the money available for studio time was scarce, and most of the tracks were recorded live in one or two takes. In all, the album was finished in three days, and then released upon the world to be judged.

It should not be a surprise that this album’s music mirrors’ that of the time it was written and recorded, especially in the UK. It has been acknowledged that at the time this album was recorded, none of the band’s members were accomplished or experienced song writers, and there is certainly a mix of styles in the songs that appear here. Jon Lord was really the only member who had experience in music composition, and so it is he who dominates especially with the arranging of the songs. This is certainly true of the cover songs that appear on this album, of which there are many. This was a common thing of the time when it came to recording albums, and especially in the case of a new band, where the time to write new material was almost non-existent. “Shades of Deep Purple” has no fewer than four of the nine songs as cover songs, most of which are stretched out from the originals allowing some musical extensions with guitar and organ o not only make them an original addition but to lengthen the album.
The cover version of the Joe South penned song “Hush”, which was recorded the previous year by Billy Joe Royal, is a treat, and is far superior than the original. It performed very well in the US on the album’s release, and allowed the album to perform better in the US than it did in their native UK. The version here of Skip James’ “I’m So Glad”, that is prefaced with the band’s composition “Prelude: Happiness”, is also terrific. On the second side of the album, the band does a slower, drawn out version of the Beatles’ “Help”, which I’m afraid is a pale comparison to the original, while the closing song “Hey Joe”, which has been covered a hundred times over the last 60 years, was Blackmore’s effort to emulate the Jimi Hendrix version that had come out prior to this. It also pushes different styles within the song, with Spanish influences coming in as well as the more laid back hard rock flowing through his guitar solo through the middle of the track.
As for the originals on this album, they all showcase great parts of this Mark I version of the band, and prove that for the time they had to put this together, they had done an amazing job. The opening track is an instrumental, “And the Address”, which is a terrific way to start the album, and it acts as a great precursor to “Hush” which follows it. “One More Rainy Day” is a less frantic song written by Lord and Evans where the organ dominates. “Mandrake Root” touches on the kind of guitar-based tracks that Blackmore was pushing towards, and this is even more noticeable on “Love Help Me” where his guitar is front and centre and pushing the speed of the song along harder than the songs where Lord is dictating the arrangement. All in all, despite the different influences that were brought into the music from all five members, they have all combined here better than anyone would have imagined given all of their backgrounds, and the time they had to actually put this all together.

As you will have already heard often through this podcast when it comes to me going back to review albums by Deep Purple, I didn’t come into the band itself until the mid-1980’s as I grew up through high school, and found my way gradually into the hard rock and heavy metal scene that existed at that time. Like most people I then followed the Mark II line up and their album releases, before eventually discovering the eras of the band both before and after that period. And when I first went back to discover the first three albums, and in particular this album, it was an initial shock. As it should have been, because the style of music here on “Shades of Deep Purple” is very much of that era of music in the UK. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Herman’s Hermits… there is a lot of similarities here to that style. So I know that initially I was resistant to it, and refocused on those wonderful heavy albums of the early 1970’s which I loved.
Eventually though, there came a time when I had a second foray into these albums, knowing that I needed to understand these early albums and to better appreciate them. And over time I did. To the point now that I love this album and everything on it. Having had it going for the past month has been terrific, especially coming home from work in the arvo, and putting on my vinyl copy of the album and hearing it the way it needs to be, on the turntable with the crackling and the occasional skip.
Some of these songs are still fantastic. I love the opening instrumental “And the Address”, it’s a great opening to the album. I enjoy “Happiness”, the moodiness of “Mandrake Root”, the Blackmore-defined “Love Help Me”, and even the platitudes of “Hey Joe”. It is interesting that even though it was Jon Lord’s vision that basically drove these early albums, it is still the playoff between Lord’s organ and Blackmore’s guitar that is the starring feature of the band.
It is interesting that this album did better business in the US than it did in the UK. The band made no secret of their admiration of the band Vanilla Fudge and were often compared to them, which actually worked in their favour in the US but against them in the UK. And probably no more so than with one of my favourite all time Deep Purple songs.

1209. Slayer / South of Heaven. 1988. 4/5

Slayer’s 1986 album “Reign in Blood” is considered one of the greatest thrash albums of all time, if not the greatest. Its 30 minutes of pure adrenaline fuelled speed and anger can be sampled by those of you who have not done so yet on the episode in Season 1 that is dedicated to its glory. The tour that followed cemented Slayer as one of the premier heavy thrash bands in the world, and no doubt posed the problem to the band as to how they were possibly going to follow that album up. Indeed, in an interview some years later in discussing that time, guitarist Jeff Hanneman said that “South of Heaven” was the only album the band members had discussed before actually writing the music, that prior to this they wrote what they felt and presented it to be recorded. However, according to Hanneman the band was aware that they couldn't top “Reign in Blood", and that whatever they recorded would be compared to that album. He then went on to say that the band believed they had to slow down the tempo to the songs on the next album in order to draw apart those inevitable comparisons, something that Slayer had not done before. And though there are faster songs here on “South of Heaven”, it is noticeably not as furious as its predecessor, something that had some fans upset when the album was eventually released. The band also looked to tone down the vocals, something that Tom Araya does so well on this album that it also proves a point of difference among other Slayer albums. It actually ended up proving what a fine vocalist he was, and gave him the opportunity to focus on his vocal craft. However, retrospectively guitarist Kerry King felt that Araya had added too much singing to his vocals, which he was critical of, and drummer Dave Lombardo felt that “South of Heaven” signalled the point where the band allowed the fire in the music to die down compared to what had come before. As it turns out, in interviews over the years looking back at the album, some of the band members are more critical of the end result than some of their fan base.

The most fascinating part of this album is the references made to different songs on it over the years from the band members themselves, and their disappointment or even disdain for some of them. The fact that they made a somewhat united decision to record an album of songs at a different tempo from what they had done before, in essence in order to have this album have a point of difference from what they had recorded prior to this release, doesn’t seem to have changed the fact that after the event they all seem to have picking points about the album.
The opening title track is a beauty, a classic, and one still adored by fans all over the world. It’s moody, it’s a creeper, and it has a beautiful build to the middle of the track. The fact that people misinterpret the title as suggesting they are talking about hell, when in fact it is world we live in itself that is being referenced is a nice counterpoint to the usual ignorance Slayer and their songs have received. “Silent Scream” ramps up the energy again, charging onwards throughout. It’s a great track to follow the opener, reminding everyone of what the band is best known for.
It’s interesting that this is considered a slower paced album overall by some people. There is no doubt that a few of the songs have rocked back in tempo, in particular the opening title track, which I think is what leads people into this perception, because the album starts a little slower than the previous albums. The other main song in this mid-tempo category is “Mandatory Suicide”, and it’s interesting that it is these two songs that were still in Slayer’s live set list right up until their disbandment. Go figure. So, it mightn’t be as conclusively fast as “Reign in Blood”, but it doesn’t fall into a complete mid-tempo movement. What does happen here are that the lyrics are at a pace that gives everyone a chance to know what Tom is singing, rather than just the diehard fans. Songs such as “Live Undead” and “Behind the Crooked Cross” mightn’t be as fast as previous albums, but they aren’t a snail’s pace either.
Kerry King seems to have taken great umbrage at the album in the years since its release. He openly rubbished the song “Cleanse the Soul” in interviews, and when asked whether the band may one day play the whole album live, as they did with “Reign in Blood” on Dave Lombardo’s return to the band in the 2000’s, he simply replied “I don’t think so. I just don’t like enough songs on the album to be bothered”. King’s contributions to the album also were less than usual, which may have contributed to his general malaise of the album, and perhaps even the introduction of the decision to cover Judas Priest’s great track “Dissident Aggressor” on this album. Or perhaps there really was a problem with the songwriting for the album, and this allowed the band to fill a gap that otherwise may not have been filled.

Having come into Slayer on the album that followed this one, for me going backwards to discover their first few albums meant that I probably didn’t have to have competing ideas about each of the albums and what they presented at the time of their release, because I more or less devoured all of them at the same time, swapping over the vinyl and CDs one at a time, and becoming encapsulated in their overall greatness. Their following album was an immediate hit with me, and – surprise, surprise - “Reign in Blood” also created a storm.
But unlike what it appeared many of the so-called critics at the time experienced, I never had a negative thought about “South of Heaven” as an album. To me the album comes together well, the tempos, while different from earlier pieces, are fit nicely in sync, and the album flows nicely. The difference in opinion of the band members on the album retrospectively to me was somewhat of a surprise, though Kerry being narky about the songs where he had little to do with them perhaps wasn’t so much of a stretch.
Some have suggested that “South of Heaven” is a maturing of the band and its sound, but I don’t like that analogy. To me, the following album “Seasons in the Abyss” is a next step in an evolution of all three previous albums, “Hell Awaits”, “Reign in Blood” and “South of Heaven”. What this album brings to that process is the focusing of Tom Araya’s vocals such that they are not the out and out shouting and screaming from early in the career, and the focusing of the guitars from out and out speed to bridging a melodic touch to the tempo. In doing so, this album may well have differences, but not ones that detract from the band and their music. And while in time the force of aggression would return to Slayer’s music – for better or worse, depending on your point of view of some of their future albums - “South of Heaven” still stands as one of their most important albums.

1208. Ozzy Osbourne / Live & Loud [Live]. 1993. 5/5

By the time Ozzy Osbourne had released his “No More Tears“ album, an episode of which you can listen to on Season 1 of this podcast, he had decided that he had become jaded and sick of touring, and that he would go out on one final world tour, calling it the “No More Tours” tour, and that a resulting live album recorded on that tour would be his final album. Looking back now, thirty years ago, it seems like a facetious remark, given that even into his 70’s now and suffering from a number of ailments including Parkinson’s disease, he’s still out there making live appearances. And given that there have been a number of things said over the years that appear to be more of a promoting of Ozzy and his music, and things including reality shows and series made which, in the long run, come across as brazen promotion of the artist and his music, is it so wild to believe that the whole “No More Tours” thing was just a way of selling out more shows and selling more albums? Or was it simply a case that once he had gone on a break following this tour, that he realised how bored he was, and that it was making music that was keep him going? In the long run, it probably doesn’t matter, that even if it was a promotional tool it turned out to be a good one, but other things that went into it did create some ructions.
As it was going to be his last time out, Ozzy invited the other three original members of Black Sabbath to come out on his final night and have a reunion for the encore, and asked the band to play as support for that night. At the time, Sabbath was touring on their “Dehumanizer” album with Ronnie James Dio back as lead singer. When Iommi and Butler agreed to this, Dio dead set refused, saying that to be considered as a support act for Ozzy was degrading for the band and not what their status demanded. It caused this second formation of this lineup of Sabbath to dissolve immediately (although the band played the support slot with Rob Halford filling in on vocals), and also eventually led to a reunion of the original foursome for a tour in 1997, though a new album did not eventuate from this.
All in all, lots of consequences came from the tour that this live album was recorded on. Most of all, it produced a cracking live album of some of the best music Ozzy and his bandmates ever produced.

The “No More Tours” tour stretched through the back half of 1992, and the songs from this live album were taken from several shows on that run, including from Orlando, Atlanta and Cincinatti.
The first thing to consider here are the performances. And they don’t miss a beat. Ozzy is in fine form, no doubt standing in front of his autocue to make sure he doesn’t forget the words, but he sings everything terrifically. Zakk Wylde on guitar is as awesome as ever, every nuance of every song is found with the correct ting of the string, from the ferocity of “War Pigs” and “Bark at the Moon” to the mood swings of “Mama I’m Coming Home” and “Goodbye to Romance”. He was truly on a prominent rise at this stage, before his journey into Black Label Society, when this was the dream gig that he had been waiting for. Mike Inez finds all of those wonderful Bob Daisley written bass runs perfectly through each song, and Randy Castillo is as powerful as ever on the drums. The performance of the band here is second to none.
The song set list is also a who’s who of the best that Ozzy has to offer. The Sabbath tracks “Paranoid” and “War Pigs” are as bombastic as always. The mix of tracks for the rest comes from all six of the studio albums to that point in time, with the focus remaining on the album they were touring on at the time, “No More Tears” with five songs from that album. Only one song appears from each of the mid-era albums, represented by “Bark at the Moon”, “Shot in the Dark” and “Miracle Man”, while the Randy era albums get the six classic tracks played, as one would expect.
At the end of the album we have the aforementioned reunion of the original four members of Black Sabbath performing that title track, which, while it was a somewhat momentous moment at the time, has paled into insignificance in the years since. And for all the grief it caused at the time, with Dio leaving Sabbath again and Tony Martin returning to Sabbath again, and Ozzy deciding he WASN’T going to retire after all and in fact go on for another 30 years of albums and tours, including one more with Black Sabbath again... it feels more and more like an Ozzy promotional exercise than any other possibility. But in the long run, the people behind Ozzy’s career were always looking for those angles.

The most annoying part of this album’s recording and release was that, once again, Australia got looked over for a tour by the band, and as it had been ‘the final tour’ we believed we were never going to get to see him perform these songs live, which was very frustrating.
I got the album on its release and played it on rotation over a long period of time. The live versions of all the songs were just fantastic. Sure, perhaps the Randy era versions on the “Tribute” album were better, but not by much. And it was great to hear songs like “Bark at the Moon” and “Miracle Man” get the live treatment.
And as I’ve said before here when reviewing live albums for this podcast, live albums really all should be brilliant, because you are getting the best songs in their best environment, and that is absolutely true of “Live & Loud”. Great songs, performed by a great band. And there is probably no better way to “finish” your career than for it to be with this song.

1207. Deep Purple / Nobody's Perfect [Live]. 1988. 5/5

In many ways, the release of this new live album by Deep Purple came at the right time. Having brought back their classic line up, toured the world endlessly and brought out two brand new albums, ones that showcased each member of the band perfectly and also showed that they could still write songs and albums that were contemporary of the time yet retained the essence of what made them Deep Purple, all that really remained was to show that they were still doing that on stage as well.
On top of this, the ability to not only play their newer material live was counter argued that they had to show they could still pay the older material with the fire and passion that they always had in the past, and that they still deserved in the next decade.
Recording of the live tracks took place in several locations, including Irvine Meadows California, Phoenix, Oslo and Milan. As it is a collection of live tracks from several shows rather than just one concert, there is a fade in and out between most of the songs on the album, which is something with live albums that can sometimes annoy me greatly. However, it is done so seamlessly here that it doesn’t affect the enjoyment of the album at all. Roger Glover as producer finds a way of putting these fades in without destroying the live appearance which is excellent. The mix between the old, well known songs and the newer material is also well done, so that it doesn’t feel as though there is a proliferation of one over the other when listening to the album for the first time.

The first half of the album concentrates on material from the two albums released in the 80’s, “Perfect Strangers” and “The House of Blue Light”. “Perfect Strangers” and “Knocking at Your Back Door” both come from the aforementioned album, while “Dead or Alive”, “Hard Lovin’ Woman” and “Bad Attitude” are from the album they were touring on at the time. Other songs were played on the tour from that album, including “Call of the Wild” and “The Unwritten Law” but didn’t make the cut here, which seems unusual as “Call of the Wild” was the single released from that album. All the new tracks sound great here, which makes it unfortunate that most rarely saw the light of day live again.
Of the rest, all the great songs from the bands golden era are here - “Highway Star”, “Strange Kind of Woman”, “Child in Time”, “Lazy”, “Space Truckin’”, “Black Night”, “Woman from Tokyo” and “Smoke on the Water” - songs that would be hard to leave out of any Deep Purple set list.
What is also great about this album is that it shows the play off that goes on stage during their gigs, banter between Ian Gillan and bandmates and the crowd as well, Ritchie Blackmore chiming in with doodles and riffs from other songs which Gillan then plays along with. For two guys who had a long running disagreement while in the band together, they still did this kind of stuff really well.
The last song on the album is a reimagining of one of Deep Purple’s earliest hits, “Hush”, this one with Ian Gillan on vocals and a modern sound to it. Personally, I love this version, more than the original. It’s how the song always sounds to my ears now even when I hear the other versions that have been recorded.
The band, as you would expect, sound brilliant as always. Apart from Gillan and Blackmore, Jon Lord’s organ playing is magnificent, and his little solo leading up to “Knocking at Your Back Door” is wonderful. And the rhythm of Roger Glover and Ian Paice as always drives the band from the back seat, rarely afforded a leading position in front of the other three, but just as important in bringing the power to the songs, and in particular to the intro to one of Purple’s best ever songs.

There were several releases of this album with different variations of the songs available on them due to time constraints of the audio device produced, and I have owned all of them over the years. I initially bought the cassette version because it was the only copy available at my local record store when I found it, and so it went into the car and was played a lot at that time. Eventually I bought a CD copy of the album some years later to complement it.
I loved both of the albums the band released in the 1980’s, and therefore loved this album that combined the old and the new together in a terrific format. And given that I never believed I would get a chance to see the band live, this was as good as it got for me. Fortunately, down the road, I got that opportunity.
As live albums go, this gets an A from me. You know my opinion of lie albums, they should ALL be good because they contain the best songs, but as this one does combine the two eras of the Mark II lineup, it is especially good. Sure, you won't get any of the Coverdale/Hughes/Bolin songs here, as is also the case since the 1970’s sadly, but you will get some great songs performed excellently. And that in itself is worth the price of admission.

1206. Nuclear Assault / Survive. 1988. 4/5

Perhaps the greatest component about thrash metal - and certainly this is probably more relevant to the early origins of the genre and not necessarily the latter day proponents - is that it is just FUN! What's not to like about drums that are flying along at an indelible speed, careering almost out of control, as the guitars riff and crush along at the same tempo, whilst the front man sings and screams his/her lyrics over the top. And who cares what the lyrics are about? Death? Satan? War? It's not a contest to become the most poignantly relevant band in the world you know! (well, not for everyone). It's about enjoyment of the music and how that music makes you feel when it comes on.
Nuclear Assault grew out of the dismissal of bass guitarist Danny Lilker from Anthrax, and his decision to not only put together another band, but one that wanted to go in a more aggressive fashion than his previous band was heading. Bringing together John Connolly, Anthony Bramante and Glenn Evans, the band released the EP “Brain Death” before releasing their debut album “Game Over” two months later.
After a touring schedule that saw them support many of the best bands of their genre across the country, the same foursome came together to write and record the follow up album. Prior to this they released a second EP titled “The Plague” which contained a song critical of the decision to allow Vince Neil to escape jail time over the car crash he created that killed Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle. It was the sign of things to come lyrically for the band, with more potent songs taking on issues that they had problems with, and combining it with their increasingly faster and thrashier style of music, heading into extreme territory in their quest to create the sound that would make them stand out from the crowd. The result was something that, for many people, exceeded that successfully.

After the excellence of the first album, the band needed to ramp things up here on their second effort if they wanted to continue to be successful and bring in more fans. And while they had done so in that first album and both of the EP’s, on “Survive” they brought a more topical lyrical content to the songs, along with ramping up the speed and intensity of the tracks.
A number of the songs still deal with the band’s title, and the threat of nuclear war and the aftermath it may bring, but they also tackle current topics, such as in “Fight to be Free” where they take aim at the government over decision making that the ‘young’ (whom I presume they are including themselves in) find to be incoherent. “Great Depression” seems to be a vicious cycle of abuse, but works well for the youthful fans who would have had no trouble at all chanting away the lyrics to offset their dark moments. Still, “Rise from the Ashes” and “Survive” and “Technology” all still harp on the nuclear winter, dark and angry lyrics that lend themselves to the music around them.
Having said all of this, the album finishes off quite strangely with a cover of the Led Zeppelin song “Good Times Bad Times”, which more than anything else highlights the complete difference between what Nuclear Assault write, and then what comes from one of the great classic bands from another era. It is noticeably different, and indeed weakens the end of the album because it is so different. Was it added just to get the album length to 30 minutes? Or did they really think this was a good idea. The first thought seems the more likely.
The music itself is excellent, for those that are fans of thrash metal at its core. It isn’t the mature almost smooth sounding thrash that that age of Metallica was. It was thrash metal at its essence. The influence of Anthrax is still noticeable in some songs and some of the riffs that arise, but this is definitely not a clone album of that description. Anthony Bramante and John Connelly are excellent here, with some of the lead breaks excellent, while the hard core rhythm of Dan Lilker and Glenn Evans is excellent, providing the engine room that drives the album to its peak.
The album tops out at the 30 minute mark, so there is nothing much left in the tank once you get to the end. It’s fast, it’s furious, and it’s here for a good time not a long time, notwithstanding the cover song to finish it all off.

No one in my friend group from high school came forth with material from Nuclear Assault at the time this album, or all their albums, were released. More is the pity, because it took me a little over 20 years to finally track down their albums and listen to them. Such was the problem living in Australia, some bands albums were difficult to source, but also you need someone to ‘discover’ them for you as well, and then pass it on, in those days of shared cassettes. So though I knew the band existed, I didn’t hear this album until well into the new century. And from the moment I heard this album and their debut album, I knew I’d missed a trick. Because it is pure 80’s thrash metal, there is no mistaking its place in time. And it is prior to growling vocals and all the other tricks that came later on in the 90’s and 2000’s.
So once I found these two albums, I played them a LOT, and bathed in the glory of the guitars and speed and relatively short songs, with the album almost over before you knew it, so you just had to put it on again because you feared you had missed a couple of tracks.
I really enjoy this album. Danny Lilker’s experience with both Anthrax and then Stormtroopers of Death does shine through in the songs here, but in their own style rather than being a copycat. Beyond this album things appeared to change, but that seemed to be from internal issues and the changing landscape, something most 80’s bands suffered from. But “Survive” stands as a testament to this era of thrash, and even to today retains its freshness in attitude and fun. And if an album can continue to draw out great feelings like that after 35 years, then you know it was done the right way at the time.