271. Hoodoo Gurus / Electric Soup: The Singles Collection. 1992. 4/5.

All metal fans have some sort of 'compromise' CDs in their collection, whether it be for their partner, parents, children, a combination, or just because they like them!
Australian rock is one of my 'weaknesses'

The Hoodoo Gurus were a great band that put out plenty of great singles, and this CD drags them altogether onto one compilation. You can't argue with the quality of the tracks here, unless you just aren't a fan.

Australian rock bands of the 80's generally grew out of the same swamp as those of the 70's, and all hold their place in music history. The Hoodoo's are one of the best of them, and this album showcases why.

Rating : A favourite from the 80's before metal took over. 4/5.

270. Stratovarius / Dreamspace. 1994. 3/5.

This is one of the guys' early albums, and I quite like the way their music was in the early days.

You can notice a distinct difference between the way this album was written and recorded to, say the two Elements albums sound. Whereas their latter albums are undeniably power metal, this would be a very early version of that genre at best. You know what they are aiming for, but this is perhaps a little more 80's heavy than 00's heavy.
Does anyone understand what I'm saying here? I'm not sure I do...

Anyway, what I am trying to say is that I can equate with this album better than, say, Destiny, as the sound is a little closer to my heart than some of their other stuff.

Best for me on the album include Chasing Shadows, Eyes Of The World, Magic Carpet Ride, Dreamspace and Reign Of Terror.

Rating : Not bad for the era. 3/5.

269. Stratovarius / Destiny. 1998. 2.5/5.

Let's get this straight from the start. The rating for this album is a bit harsh, and it doesn't really deserve to be ranked as low as this, but it just doesn't quite slip into the ranking above this, which sustains all of those albums that I could put on at a pinch and enjoy it thoroughly.

Stratovarius are another of the plethora of power metal bands that have sprung up out of Europe in the past two decades. A lot of them are on a very similar footing, whereas their music is quite similar, and their direction is quite similar. And unless you absolutely LOVE one of these particular bands, you may not appreciate their efforts.

Destiny is a good album in this genre. Their power metal songs are excellent, the list including Destiny, No Turning Back and Rebel. Their power ballads are also in this category – if it is something you love.

No, I do not.

I appreciate their quality, but do not like them. Too slow, too ballady. Mind you, the singer really pulls off a great Michael Kiske impersonation during Years Go By and 4000 Rainy Nights, the two songs of which I speak of here.

This is probably a better quality album than I have given, but this is my opinion of music, no one else's.

Rating : I thought it showed a lot of promise, and could have been better. 2.5/5.

268. Eddie Ojeda / Axes 2 Axes. 2005. 3.5/5

This was a really interesting find one day on a music trawl, and an impulse acquisition that has not disappointed since.

This is a solo album by Eddie, better known as the guitarist for Twisted Sister. He has recruited some all-star vocalists to guest for him here, and it is interesting to note how they perform around the material. I'm not sure whether Eddie wrote each song with the vocalist in mind, or whether it was a coincidence, but each songs mood suit the music and vocals almost perfectly.
Ronnie James Dio is his usual brilliant self on Tonight. Cohort Dee Snider has a crack at Eleanor Rigby. Joe Lynn Turner on Livin' Free is great as usual, while Eddie himself sings on the other tracks, where he is a perfect match for Evil Does (What Evil Knows).

Eddie's instrumentals are also worth the price of admission. They lose nothing in comparison to the other songs on the album.

Overall, this is a pretty slick effort. Very much in the Twisted Sister type mainstream of hard rock and heavy metal, this showcases Eddie's guitaring extremely well, and is well worth grabbing a hold of and having a listen to.

Rating : Eddie Ojeda in his own forum to display his skills. 3.5/5.

267. Godsmack / Awake. 2000. 3.5/5

I have only just recently acquired the Godsmack catalogue, but god-damn it is impressive! Awake is just one of those.

This is an instantly enjoyable album. Awake is full of the trademark Godsmack riffage, the kind of growl you want in the guitaring if you are a metal fan. While this drives the album, Sully Erna's vocals are just sensational. These are the two aspects of their music that drew me to investigate them, and they are in fine form here.

OK, so maybe it isn't a perfect album. I find metal of this genre rarely do have the 'perfect' album, if only because the songs can get a little bit similar all through the list. But that does not take anything away from the artist or this album. I think both are great.

Best here in my opinion are Sick Of Life, Awake, Goin' Down and Trippin'

Rating : Lots to like about this album. 3.5/5.

266. Tool / 10,000 Days. 2006. 1.5/5.

Gawd this is a frustrating album to listen to. I wish these guys could make up their mind what they wanted to do with their music!
I got this when it was their brand newie, hot off the presses, and though I am not a huge Tool fan I was quite interested to see what they had produced this time around. The lead-up on Blabbermouth and other such sites was very positive.

So the result? Well, for me as I said, it is frustrating. There is some really good rhythm to some of the songs, and even in the middle of some songs. "10,000 Days" and "The Pot", which was nominated for a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance, are two of the best examples of this. But the mood of many of the songs is just not my style. Sure, maybe the hardcore Tool fans love it, but as a bit of a Johnny-come-lately to their music, and just an average Joe in the fan stakes, I am not overawed at it. It is hardly what I would class as metal these days either. Perhaps they don't want to be labelled that way, and fair enough if that is the case.
This is very eclectic stuff. I can't fault the music itself, but can only express my disinterest in it on a personal level. If you are a fan of Tool, you should love this. I must admit to having trouble.

265. Iron Maiden / Edward The Great. 2002. 5/5.

Another of the increasingly common greatest hits packages that Maiden's record company are throwing at us. How they expect to have a single disc containing 15 songs possibly coming close to compressing their 12 (to that date) albums is beyond me.
You can't argue with the song selection, simply because they are all great songs. You have to give it top marks, because it is an album full of brilliant songs. But really – no one in the known universe needs this album. Haven't you all got every one of their albums anyway?!?

Rating : I just said it! 5/5.

264. Iron Maiden / Ed Hunter. 1999. 4/5.

This was a 3-disc collection released in 1999, which basically incorporated the PC game Ed Hunter, which had Eddie The 'Ead running around killing things in very Iron Maiden type locations, with the band members getting involved along the way.

It also had what proclaimed to be the fan's Top 20 favourite Iron Maiden songs of all time, in order, as voted by the fan's on websites and stuff. Now, if this is true, there are some weird fans out there. You cannot convince me of ANY Iron Maiden fans who think Iron Maiden the song is their best song ever! Anyway, I guess it is good for an argument.

And for argument's sake, here is a list of what I consider to be Maiden's Top 20 songs of all time, not in any particular order, and only up to the release of this compilation:

Remember Tomorrow

Phantom Of The Opera

Murders In The Rue Morgue

Killers

Children Of The Damned

The Prisoner

Where Eagles Dare

Revelations

The Trooper

To Tame A Land

Aces High

2 Minutes To Midnight

Powerslave

Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

Wasted Years

Heaven Can Wait

Alexander The Great

Infinite Dreams

Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter

The Clansman

Rating:  Reasonable game and reasonable song selection.  4/5.

263. Sonata Arctica / Ecliptica. 1999. 3.5/5.

I have only recently discovered Sonata Arctica, and am still slowly trying to get my way through all of their albums for a decent listen, and also to be able to rank them with a fair hearing behind them.

Ecliptica is a difficult one to rate. Sonata Arctica are fully rooted in the European power metal scene, and power metal bands can sometimes get a little samey when it comes to their music.
For the most part, Ecliptica is a good album, and a very listener-friendly one. Songs such as Blank File, My Land and Replica are terrific, and have a great fast flowing pace about them. The closer Destruction Preventer is also a pearler.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, the 'sameness' comes in a little. I found that unless I was 100% concentrating on the music, I couldn't tell which song I was up to. That does happen with some bands, and I am certainly not lumping Sonata Arctica in with that lot, because it is the fact that they are several levels above most power metal bands that they can occasionally get away with that, and not lose the interest of the listener.

I am still not fully sure how I feel about this album, but I can assure you that it is the higher echelons rather than the basement when it comes to rankings and ratings.

Rating : More power metal for the masses. 3.5/5.

262. Yngwie J. Malmsteen / Eclipse. 1990. 2/5.

This was the album that convinced me to stop listening to any new Yngwie material, until 18 months ago – a time lag of 15 years. Damn this album for that! His stuff since has been markedly better.

Joe Lynn Turner's brief (but brilliant) term in this band had been terminated before this album, and here we find Yngwie really going for the commercial, radio-friendly type of songs that he was lusting over.
The result is a rather disappointing album. Unlike the fire and excitement that was prevalent on this albums predecessor Odyssey, this is a relatively bland and boring selection and arrangement of songs, generally without passion or inspiration.

Why Yngwie felt the need to head down this path is anyone's guess, but it was always my assumption that if he had stayed true to what he had produced on the first four albums, and with better marketing, he would be a 'radio star' anyway!

Anyhow, this was so disappointing that it stopped me buying any new material from him for 15 years. I'll bet that wasn't his intention!

Memories : We got to see Yngwie on this tour at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney, which was exciting in itself. It could have been better. Even though we were in the fourth row, we had to stand on our dodgy fold-up chairs all night to see over everyone standing in front of us. The new lead singer, Goran Edman, was extremely interested in himself, to the point that it looked as though he'd be happier being in a menage-a'one. And the setlist contained a thousands crappy songs off this album and left off a lot of his brilliant earlier releases. A real shame.

Rating : Never really cut it, I'm afraid. 2/5.

261. Echobrain / Echobrain. 2002. 0/5.

Oh. My. God.
Where do I start with this piece of shite?

Jason Newsted created a major stir in music circles when he quit Metallica back in 2000, essentially so that he could find an outlet for his own creative juices, which he was apparently being denied in Metallica. At the time, there was a groundswell of support for him,that he should be allowed to create his own music aside from his duties in Metallica where, let's face it, he barely got a look in when it came to writing and creating the music. At the time, there was also the appearance that the once-great Metallica was self-destructing. This band, and album, was Jason's first port of call once the dust had settled on his severance from Metallica.

It is a stink-fest.

Seriously – if this is what is the result of Jason's creative juices, he really should have stayed with Metallica and kept getting paid a billion dollars to play their hits, because this is vile. It is boring. It is unoriginal. It is liking chewing on cow manure while bathing in diarrhea. It is almost impossible to believe that Jason could believe that this is a good thing. I know it is a band effort, but these guys were always going to have the weight of expectation upon them given the circumstances of their formation. They failed.
It was torture making myself listen to this album again in order to write this review. I shouldn't have bothered. I knew what I was going to say. But I promised myself I was going to do this properly, and that meant ensuring that what I initially felt about this album was still the case. It is.

If you ever watch Metallica's "Some Kind Of Monster" documentary, you will see when Lars, Kirk and Bob go to see Echobrain live. At the end Lars utters his famous quote, “Metallica are the past, Jason is the future!” Despite Metallica not having done much for me over the past decade or so, I still laugh at this comment.

This is one of the greatest disservices to music ever recorded. I refuse to ever listen to it again.

260. David Lee Roth / Eat 'Em And Smile. 1986. 3/5.

This was DLR's first solo album after his split with Van Halen, having already tested the waters with his single releases of I Ain't Got Nobody and California Girls.

While the album itself is not a disappointment, I know that at the time of its release I was expecting something completely different, and as we know that is a dangerous thing to do NEVER go into a new album expecting ANYTHING!!!

So it is true, this wasn't the style of album that I was expecting. But it grows on you, and soon enough I found that I enjoyed it without ever becoming a huge fan of it like others that were listening to it in high school. The songs are enjoyable, and Dave always has a bright mood about his music which is transferred here.

Rating : As long as you aren't expecting Van Halen here, you will get off on the right foot. 3/5.

259. Alice Cooper / Easy Action. 1970. 2/5

This is very early, 4am-type Alice Cooper, and is still very much in the hippy-class of musical style. While the album retains the mood that Alice was building for his big time releases during the 70's, the songs don't hold the same kind of weight.

In the same way that the early Deep Purple albums are OK but not super, so is this from Alice. I can appreciate it for what it is, and from the time period it came from, and what it led to, but I'm not going to be ecstatic about putting it on my stereo at regular intervals to listen to it.

Still worth a listen to anyone who is interested in the way the Alice Cooper Band built its way up into what it became over the coming few years.

Rating : Historical significance is the best I can offer. 2/5.

258. Y&T / Earthshaker. 1981. 3/5

More of the same from one of the bands in the 1980's who knew how to do it well.

This is one of their earliest releases, and while it is a good solid album, it resembles so many of this band's albums in that it has some good songs on it, but overall it can't quite climb out of the 'good' album rating to the 'great' album category.

I've said it all before about these guys, and it all remains the same. Great songs, like Hurricane, Squeeze, Young And Tough and Knock You Out just can't pull this album out of the normal, average and everyday. And there is nothing wrong with that. This is still a good album and a joy to put on and listen to. But when you compare it to other albums throughout history, it can't be considered above them.

Rating : Good and solid. 3/5.

257. Dokken / Dysfunctional. 1995. 1/5.

After eight years since their previous album, and a long break-up in between, Dokken were back with this album. But that is about all that is the same.

Over the period that they had disbanded, the Dokken sound had obviously been forgotten, or they just decided to go in a new direction. Dokken at their peak were once of the finest hair metal bands going around. This album has none of those qualities. It is a slow, more introspective and instrumentally kind of album, that really struggles to get out of first gear.

Perhaps they were going for a more updated sound and image, being in the mid-90's and all. Maybe they just thought this was a good idea. I feel they have made a huge error.

Rating : A really disappointing return from a band that had once been a winner. 1/5.

256. KISS / Dynasty. 1979. 2/5.

Ahhhh... the disco album. Heh heh. How much did they cop for this album, despite its success? I think it's pretty amusing looking back on it, and the stir it must have created.

Is it a great album? Weeeeeeellllllllll... not to my metal-trained ears. It is a very different KISS album, and though they obviously made a conscious decision to go in the direction that they did, they lost a lot of people with this, and then subsequent releases.

It is a fairly average kind of album, even given the hits they had off it.

Memories : The line in the movie Detroit Rock City, when the guys have picked up the disco chick, and she says “Who knows? Maybe one day KISS will record a disco album!” and of course all they guys go “No way would they ever do that!!”
Also, and perhaps more embarrassingly, at the end of the school year in 5th Class, we were all forced to endure mixed dancing – the worst part of course being that the males had to choose a female to dance with. The lovely Stephanie Hill was my choice. As it turned out, at the end there was a dancing competition to the song I Was Made For Loving You, which Stef and I won, much to her embarrassment and regret. I'm afraid being seen with me, even at age 11, killed her social status for years to come.

Rating : Just really bland for the most part. 2/5.

255. W.A.S.P. / Dying For The World. 2002. 4/5.

W.A.S.P.’s previous album “Unholy Terror” had been an exercise in balancing the song writing and the styles they had been composed in over their previous three or four albums, in order to regain a perspective of what the band was hoping to achieve. You can hear the episode dedicated to that album on Season 1 of this podcast. Blackie has been quoted in several arenas as saying that each album is a snapshot of what he was feeling emotionally and in his life at the time it was written, which he used to explain the differences in each album since the band’s early releases. It also helps to try and explain how “Dying for the World” came to be created, and the emotions that lay behind it.
September 11, 2001 needs little explanation, nor to explain why people's emotions sometimes ran off the rails following the event. W.A.S.P. was on tour in the United States when the events of the day occurred, and so close enough to have the full horror play out in front of them. For Blackie Lawless, a native of New York City, seeing the planes fly into the World Trade Centers became a life-defining event. There were plenty of triggers there, but it seems as though the most prevalent was rage. And he used that to his advantage when it came to his song writing. In the linear notes on the album, Blackie tells the story of how during the first Gulf War, he received thousands of letters (remember those?) from men and women in the armed forces, who related how they would blast heavy metal songs at their enemy when they were about to launch an assault, so that they would know they were coming. Early WA.S.P. songs were a part of that. And so, his thoughts as transcribed in those linear notes in regards to this album were as follows:
“...why not give our guys a fresh batch of new songs to go into battle with. Something that will inspire us and scare the fuck out of them. Think of this album largely as a collection of songs to ‘go kill people with’. Fuck political correctness. That went down with the Trade Centers. As the line says in the song “Stone Cold Killers” “my god will kill your god”.
Whether or not that is the kind of thing he should be spouting on the inner sleeve of an album is open to question, but it gives you a firm view of exactly what was running through his mind when he was composing the songs for this album.

This sounds like a W.A.S.P. album from the moment you put it on, which allays any fears that it may have diverged again as other albums have. And as has already been established, there is a lot of emotion in the lyrics on the album which then directs the way the music is written for each track. The tracks that are inspired or driven by the events of 9/11 are where the majority of the album comes from, and thus are the impetus of “Dying for the World”. The opening track “Shadow Man” becomes the first song that references black hearts within its lyrics, a recurring theme for Blackie in describing those who would perpetrate such an act, but does it also describe himself and his anger at those people? Blackie says that “My Wicked Heart” is sort of a prayer asking for forgiveness for his anger, before he goes ahead and expels it. “Hell for Eternity” is a spraying of anger and hatred, that is actually quite restrained in its recording. I can imagine Blackie writing this and screaming it at the walls. Ditto for “Revengeance” and “Stone Cold Killers”. These are simply just songs about releasing the pure vitriol that built up in Blackie’s heart.
However, is has to be said that this album for what it is worth also must have been therapeutic, and outlet for Blackie to get out all of his anger and frustration. The song “Hallowed Ground” resulted from Blackie visiting Ground Zero at the World Trade Centers a few weeks after the incident. The emotions he felt on that day were then transferred to this song once he returned home, composing it that evening. And the song respects those feelings he had after that visit. It is interesting however, that in the linear notes Blackie goes on to say - “After that song my emotions of reverence soon turned to full blown anger. “Shadow Man”, “Hell for Eternity”, “Stone Cold Killers” are the reflections of that. If “Hallowed Ground” was my wake, then the big payback was “Revengence”. I think that one title says it all”.
Interestingly enough, not all of the anger or songs on “Dying for the World” centre on 9/11, which actually gives the album more relevance than if they had. The song “Trail of Tears” was inspired by Blackie listening to The Beatles album “Revolver” over and over, but lyrically was inspired by the enslaving of the native American Indian nations by the US. Because of his Native American heritage, here was the second part of his life that he drew inspiration from to compose for this album, and his anger over the senseless loss of life over the displacement of these people something he was still reflecting on at the time. And “Black Bone Torso” touches on the continuing revelations about who he calls the child molesters (priests) in the Catholic Church. Given his religious upbringing, something he had strayed from but was on the way towards re-embracing, this was the third part of the life that contributed to the conflict on this album and in Blackie Lawless himself.

This was a rite of passage for Blackie, who wrote all of the album in his own words. And the songs are strong because of the conviction behind them. The band sounds great, Darrell Roberts on guitar, Mike Duda on bass and Frankie Banali on drums all doing their job well.
I bought this not long after its release date, as I had with all W.A.S.P. albums since the 1980’s. As a band they grabbed me from the start, but the albums had begun to swing wildly with each release. Whereas I enjoyed the tone of this album from the start, there was a distinct difference, in that there was none of the tongue-in-cheek humour on any of the songs here that W.A.S.P. had generally incorporated into parts of their albums in the past. The subject matter here was straight up serious, no puns, no relief, just for the most part anger and aggression, and no relief from it. As an album, that made it great to put on if you were really pissed off after a long day, but made it difficult to put on if you were just looking for an album to listen to in any other company. For me that didn’t really phase me, I’m happy to listen to it anytime, but the sheer belligerence of the material here must have pigeon-holed it for some fans. It was a different feel, one that did take some getting used to. The other part of the album that stuck out to me was the similarity to parts of some songs here to those from other albums, and in particular from The Crimson Idol. Two instances stick out immediately, the bridge in “Stone Cold Killers” especially, and then the several similar parts of “Hallowed Ground” that correspond to “The Idol” form that album. It’s only a small thing overall, but in being drawn to those similar riffs and harmonies it still grates with me a little to this day.
I still enjoy this album. It needs to be played in a closed environment to get the full effect in my opinion. Playing it in open air without volume does not give the full effect of the songs as they are written and performed. Headphone, or sitting in front of your stereo and letting them hit you rather than waft around you will allow you to feel Blackie’s anger, and after all that’s what drives this album, so you should be in a position to receive it.

253. Michael Schenker Group / Dreams And Expressions. 2001. 4/5.

Another completely instrumental album from one of the best guitarists going around.
Though on the album, each song has been designated a letter of the album title rather than a name, you wouldn't know when you are listening to the album. Each 'song' ranges from 30 seconds to 3 minutes, and as they all flow into the other, it just sounds like a 43 minute instrumental piece.

It is all very rocky and guitary, and extremely listenable. My description will not be able to express to you how enjoyable this album is. Think of Joe Satriani's Surfing With The Alien, but with Michael Schenker.

Rating : A surprisingly terrific instrumental album from one of the masters. 4/5.

254. KISS / Dressed To Kill. 1975. 4.5/5

This album is almost amusing to listen to now, but maybe that is what is so good about it.

This was probably one of the first Kiss albums I heard, when my elder cousin played it at a million decibels at my grandmothers house when he was living there.
It is a real old fashioned 1970's rock record. You can't help but bop your head along, and even start dancing around to it. This is where the classic KISS sound was – the 4/4 drum beat, Gene's bass bubbling along and Ace and Paul's guitars not doing anything fancy, but just playing the tune.

This really has dated, but the songs are still great. You can't help but pick it as a 70's album, but there is nothing wrong with that either. Its charm is still evident, and that is tribute to the songwriting and recording process that the band went on.

It is now 30 years since this album came out. If I was managing KISS, I would have got the band in the studio for two days, and re-recorded this album, given the songs and sound a modern punch without mucking about with the format, and re-released it. I reckon it could have done big business.

For favourites, see entire song list, but if pushed try Room Service, Rock Bottom, C'mon And Love Me, She, and of course Rock And Roll All Nite.

Rating : Classic KISS. 4.5/5

252. Dio / Dream Evil. 1987. 4.5/5.

For four years, more or less, Dio had been storming the world, with band leader Ronnie James Dio finally in the drivers seat and doing things his way. On the back of three massive albums - “Holy Diver”, “The Last in Line” and “Sacred Heart”, the band had had albums that reached top 10 in various countries and even had singles charting as well. As the bands that Ronnie had fronted in the past, Rainbow and Black Sabbath, had begun to slide in popularity after he had left them, his own band was ascending to its own platform of immortality.
As was discussed in the review for Dio’s “Intermission” EP, the falling out of guitarist and founding member Vivian Campbell with the band’s management had seen him leave the group, and in his place had been recruited Rough Cutt guitarist Craig Goldy. The one studio song that came on that EP had featured him on guitar, but the real test was yet to come, and it was something that fans around the world were focused on. Yes, we had heard him on “Time to Burn”. Yes, we had seen him perform live and been impressed. But now we were waiting to see what the band with Goldy involved would produce for the follow up album. Having been amazed and spoiled by the riffs and solos of Vivian Campbell on those first three albums, as well as his contributions to the writing of the songs, Goldy changed up that dynamic completely. But what was being felt at the time was not a sense of foreboding but a sense of expectation, of excitement to see what the band would produce with their new guitarist.
It was the age of releasing an album every year, where bands were still earning good dollars from producing more material, and Dio was no different in this respect. An album a year for the previous four years, including “Intermission”, for the fans meant a new album and a new tour for that year of 1987. But having moved from the dark and heavy “Holy Diver” to the more mystical thought provoking on “Sacred Heart”, the question posed was would the band continue on the course they had become the standard bearer of with their new album, or would they sail into a slightly different direction than their previous albums had taken.

From the first time you listen through the album, it is noticeable that the keyboards are more prominent here than they have been on the earlier albums. Claude Schnell had been a member of the group and features on this album as a co-writer on many songs, and although there are certainly keyboards used on “Sacred Heart”, in particular the title track as well as “Rock n Roll Children” and “Hungry for Heaven”, most of it is understated and only really brought to the fore when the songs are performed live. Most of the songs on “Dream Evil” though have that keyboard presence, once again though not as addition to the guitar but in complementing it in pieces of the songs. Indeed, it opens the album with the first chords of the first track “Night People”, a song that is yet another terrific opening to a Dio album.
The imagery of Ronnie’s lyrics continue to be a driving force in how wonderful these opening songs are. “Night People” asking ‘do you like the dark, do you like the way it moves’, based on those people who only come out at night and who are gone by dawn. “Dream Evil” having you fight around in the dark again, this time trying to ward off evil that is always surrounding you - ‘don’t think about the darkness, or the rumbling in the sky’. “Sunset Superman” again going with the night theme, ‘The night has a thousand eyes...before... the night tells a thousand lies’, and then ‘when you wake up in the morning, were you dreaming, screaming, trying to hide your broken heart, before somebody cuts it all away...’ again harking on dreams or nightmares, the terrors of sleep, or the hero of the dream as it ends. As always with his lyrics, Ronnie gives you both sides and in many ways allows you to interpret them in the way you want to. Is “Dream Evil” a horror movie or is it just the mind skirting around that idea? Is “Sunset Superman” a nightmare or a dream of the individual seeing themselves as the hero? Take it as you like it. But all three songs musically are just brilliant; the fast pace of “Night People”, the wonderful heavy riff of “Dream Evil”, and the sway between the two in “Sunset Superman”. And then there is the side one closing track, “All the Fools Sailed Away”, a track misinterpreted as a power ballad by some so called expert. This ain’t no ballad sweetheart, this is a fantastically developed song where the mood flows like the tide, telling its tale and having the song build to its crescendo through the use of Ronnie’s amazing vocals, the power of the guitars and drums, and then utilising the boys choir in the chorus to help bring the power to the lyrics. This is an epic song, as much of a ballad as “Egypt (the Chains are On)” is. It’s a tale with terrific emotion that is supported by the players. It is a triumph.
Given how amazing the opening side of the album is, if you were to be critical, the second half of the album doesn’t reach the same brilliant standard. They are perhaps what you would call good solid songs rather than awesome ones. Somebody with an unbiased ear may perhaps lay the claim that the band threw all their eggs into one basket and got those first four songs to start the album, and then had the leftovers to piece together in the second half. That is perhaps overly harsh, and as someone who adores this album I can still see the sheen that isn't quite chrome on these tracks. “Naked in the Rain” is credited solely to Ronnie as a writer, and the tempo as such does show the direction his future albums began sliding to. “Overlove” picks it up again, while the subject matter of both of these tracks differs 180 degrees from those on side one, as does the final track “When a Woman Cries”. It’s almost a dark and light side of each album. “I Could Have Been a Dreamer” was actually released as the first single from the album, which strikes me as very peculiar, because it does feel like one of the weaker tracks here. For me, the best song of the second side of the album is “Face in the Window”, one which feels much more like a Dio song both lyrically and musically.

When “Dream Evil” was released, it was a day of celebration in my school group. We had devoured those first albums of the band, some of us had been fortunate enough to see the band in concert the previous year, and we were desperate for all new music to be released. This came to us just a little later than this date in Australia, but I remember the day I walked into my record store and purchased it, before taking it home and putting it on for the first time. And it really was magical. It was like the previous year when I first got Iron Maiden’s “Somewhere in Time” and listening to it for the first time. Those first four songs in particular just boomed out of the speakers, that opening to “Night People”, the change in voice at the end of “Dream Evil”, the joy of almost flying along with the bridge in “Sunset Superman”, and the chorus with the boys choir of “All the Fools Sailed Away”. All of those dominate my memories of the back half of 1987, things like standing in the school hall on our Year 12 graduation muck-up day, playing this album at full volume at midnight and singing along with half a dozen other like-minded mates, and my 18th birthday, spent listening to this over and over while on a family holiday at the time.
I listened to this album a LOT. And it would be difficult to express just how much I listened to it. Every time I put it on to listen to now, it sends me back to those final school days and the hijinks we got up to, and the great memories of that time. They are all tied up with this album, so it is hard to extricate those emotional memories from the album itself. Yes, I do believe in retrospect that the second half of the album is a different tone from the first half, and that a couple of the songs here – perhaps for the first time in the bands history, don’t quite cut it to the same brilliance as all of the others written to this point in time. No doubt other individuals will feel this is a lesser album as a result. But for me, it takes nothing away from how this album ingrained itself to me, and how my love of it 35 years ago has never gone away.


This album signalled the last of the stability of the band and could be labelled as the end of the glory days of Dio. Personnel changes, directional changes and other projects coming along meant that the true brightness of Dio’s music probably ends with “Dream Evil”. There was still great songs and some excellent albums yet to come down the track, but this first and greatest phase of the band pretty much sailed away at this time.

251. Alice Cooper / Dragontown. 2001. 3/5.

Following on from Brutal Planet, Alice continues his journey along the new musical style he has built for himself in the new decade. This is also a continuation of the story that Brutal Planet forged.

Once again, this took some getting used to, but not as much as I found with Brutal Planet. Alice's voice continues to be the driving force behind his albums, taking centre stage and changing the mood of each song with his subtle vocal changes.

It's Much Too Late is supposed to be for John Lennon. "I'm sending you all to hell / I'm tired and I'm wired here”. The Sentinel is some creature of the devil out there harvesting souls - possibly the souls of dead rock & rollers. The ode to Elvis Presley is a bit closer to the mark - Disgraceland is metal rockabilly with blazing guitars - "Went to the pearly gates / Said I'm uh here to sing / And Peter said, 'Well son, you see we already got ourselves a king'”.

The more you listen to the album, and get the most out of Alice's lyrics, the more you enjoy the album. Alice always did try to make you think when it came to his music, and he does so again here.

Rating : More Alice Cooper stuff to digest. 3/5.

250. Motley Crue / Dr Feelgood. 1989. 5/5.

Whoa Nellie!! What a rush this caused when it was first released!!

The Crue had shown what they were capable of throughout the 80's, especially on Shout At The Devil and Girls Girls Girls, but one could only imagine what was to come when this album came out.
And when it did, it really exploded. Certainly the reaction from those I listened to music with was monumental.
Though a lot of the album carries the usual Motley Crue type of songs – such as Sticky Sweet, Without You and She Goes Down, there are also the balltearers that just blow you away.

You know the ones. Dr Feelgood – what an opening track, just sensational. Same Ol' Situation – a real mood lifter. Kickstart My Heart – still a classic even to this day.

This album was paydirt for the Crue, taking the best of everything they had done in the lead up albums, and put together correctly on Dr Feelgood. A classic. I'm not a fan of the slower ballad type songs, but those on this album fit so well you barely even notice.

Memories : We all saw Motley Crue on this tour in 1990 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, one of three gigs in three weeks (Alice Cooper and Skid Row being the others). The best of the best that they ever wrote. Just a sensational evening of music.

Rating : Their finest hour. 5/5.

249. Rainbow / Down To Earth. 1979. 4.5/5.

Following the split with Ronnie James Dio, Graham Bonnet was hired to take on the vocalist duties with Rainbow, and it works to spectacular success. In my eyes, anyway.

With such legendary albums to try and live up to, it must have been a somewhat daunting task that faced the new line-up. But they came out and put together this brilliant album, containing some Rainbow classics.
Bonnet's vocals, which are also up there in the list of most prominent and recognisable in metal music, combined with Blackmore's distinctive guitar, blend together here in perfect harmony.

Not only is it hard to believe that this album is so maligned in Rainbow's history, it is a real shame that Bonnet did not make more albums as Rainbow's vocalist. He had a history of being unable to stay in bands which given his talent is a crying shame.

Best here on this album include All Night Long, Eyes Of The World, Since You Been Gone, Danger Zone and Lost In Hollywood.

Rating : What Rainbow lost with Dio they then lost with Bonnet. 4.5/5.

248. Ozzy Osbourne / Down To Earth. 2001. 3/5.

Six years after Ozzmosis was released, and ten years after what was supposed to be Ozzy’s ‘farewell tour’ took place after the release of No More Tears, from out of nowhere and with almost no promotion and fanfare came a new album titled Down to Earth. And given Ozzy’s statement upon its release, something along the lines of he was happy to keep promoting his own brand by his music festival Ozzfest, but the record company wanted a new album, it just seems strange that I and most people I know had zero idea it was in the works. Record companies must be strange beasts.

Anyway, the album arrived, I put it on, and after those first few listens I become aware of a few little things that have changed in the Osbourne music empire. The first was that Zakk Wylde was not involved in the writing of the album due to being away on tour with his other band Black Label Society. That immediately felt like a loss. Secondly, there was a vast array of co-writers of all the tracks, something that always makes me feel that the album itself will not meld together because of the difference of styles and thoughts on songs to write. That isn’t always the way (Alice Cooper’s Hey Stoopid) is a perfect example of this working to perfection) and Ozzy had done this before with success... but I didn’t really know these writers, so I went in with trepidation. And thirdly, well... did Ozzy still have what he needed to produce a great album?
The start of the album comes at you with “Gets Me Through” which while it has a similar energy in the song as other opening tracks on Ozzy albums, it does not have the same speed or momentum as those. It is a sign of things to come, but probably wasn’t unexpected given the way that has begun to be wound back in plenty of American metal music of this vintage. Settling in alongside Mike Bordin’s drumbeat rather than flying over the top of it, it creates the kind of heavy slog paced song that has become the norm for metal bands. It isn’t unpleasant and indeed works well in songs like “Gets Me Through” and “Facing Hell” and “That I Never Had” and “Junkie”, but while giving us a heavy sound it has traded off the faster tempo of earlier albums. Which again, is great when the song works, such as the three I’ve just mentioned, but it makes it harder to enjoy if that combination doesn’t come good. Picky much? Yes, I can admit it certainly is.

Now there are areas where some of the songs don’t work – for me. “Dreamer” is the album’s attempt to find Ozzy’s perfect ballad, and Ozzy can definitely perform them as he has on most of his albums through his career. As per my other reviews, they rarely win me over just because they are not my preferred kind of song. Ozzy sounds great on this song but it isn’t my cup of tea. “No Easy Way Out” is on a similar plane, and is another of the songs that has gone for a keyboard/synth base rather than the guitar strength. Whether this is by the design of the song collaborators or the fact that Zakk wasn’t involved in the writing process, I don’t know. Add in “You Know... (Part 1)” which is really just a filler between two other songs for me. “Running Out of Time” dips into ballad territory again, and finishes with the keys and backing sighs dominating again, in a very 1970’s progressive style. “Black Illusion” doesn’t do anything for me at all, and with the chorused vocals and sludgy tempo and guitar it actually feels as though it would have been a better Black Label Society song if Zakk had taken over the writing of it. “Alive” is very similar, just too darn nu-metal in pace if not musically. And as a closer, “Can You Hear Them?” doesn’t inspire much except some relief that the album has in fact come to an end.

When this came out I was sitting with a couple of friends listening to the whole album a couple of times, drinking beer under the clear skies. All of us came to the same conclusion, which was “What the hell is Ozzy coming to?” It wasn’t as if we hated the album, but it was so very different from what we had loved from him and his various bands in the past that this album was difficult to collate. That feeling hasn’t changed over the years, and I doubt it ever will. There are some very listenable songs on this album but some other pieces that are from another planet, another Ozzy. I have no doubt that the writing of the album was influenced by the kind of bands Ozzy had been playing with at Ozzfest, and that he was trying to incorporate that into his own music. There’s no problem with trying to do that, and maybe the younger fans enjoyed the change. But for those of us who have been around a while, I guess what we wanted was to hear what he usually gave us, and we didn’t get that. Ozzy released his Live at Budokan album from this tour, and to be fair the three songs off this album that he performed live on that all sounded better live.

But overall, I feel as though this was turning point for Ozzy. The past was in the rearview mirror and it felt much different from what the present held, and maybe what the future had in store. Ozzy sounds great here, as do Zakk, Mike and Rob Trujillo. But the songs... well... there is a conflict there.

Best Songs: “Gets Me Through”, “Facing Hell”, “That I Never Had”, “Junkie”.

Rating: “Is it god that sits there waiting or will the darkness suck me in.” 3/5

247. Soundgarden / Down On The Upside. 1996. 3.5/5.

This was unfortunately the final album for Soundgarden, who split following this tour. Their break-up signalled the beginning of the end for the Seattle scene as it had been for the past six or seven years.

Their final album is a mixture of brilliant and average. I've always thought that the first seven songs of this album represent the band's greatest work, while most of their hardcore fans see it as too commercialised and a sell-out.
I think Pretty Noose, Blow Up The Outside World, Burden In My Hand and Ty Cobb are just great songs, and the equal of anything else they released.

Take that with the second half of the album, which fails to excite me at any point. They are average songs without any fire. Did they run out of inspiration? Maybe. Perhaps that's why they went their separate ways. It is as if they only had enough for seven songs, so they put those at the front of the album, and put all the filler in the back half.

No matter. Though we were not to know that it was their final opus, the door certainly closed on a great band.

Rating : 1st half of the album 4.5/5. 2nd half of the album 3/5. Total 3.5/5.

246. Y&T / Down For The Count. 1985. 3.5/5.

More of what you know from the Y&T stable.
This is another great rockin' album. Every song keeps the tempo up and moving. Dave Meniketti's vocals are one of the most recognisable in the heavy metal industry, a great signature for a band to have.

OK, it's a Y&T album, and as with most of their albums in the 1980's it is very similar to its predecessors. Most of the time this can be a hinderance for a band, as it eventually became for these guys. Still, what I like about Y&T is that when you put on one of their albums, you generally know what to expect. Meniketti really is one of my favourites of all time, mainly for his vocals, but also his guitaring and song-writing.

What is with the cover of Your Mama Don't Dance though? I find it OK, but just unexpected.

Favourites on this disc for me include Face Like An Angel, In The Name Of Rock, Looks Like Trouble and Don't Tell Me What To Wear.

Rating : Y&T still rockin' in the '80's. :) 3.5/5.

245. KISS / Double Platinum. 1978. 5/5

This is the definitive best-of collection of KISS pre-1978, which many call their Golden Age. Whether or not you believe that, this album holds the best that they produced

No need to go any further really. Best-of. If you want it, get it!

Rating : Couldn't do better than this for the era. 5/5.

244. W.A.S.P. / Double Live Assassins. 1998. 5/5.

Hot on the heels of the return of Chris Holmes and the rising of W.A.S.P. from the ashes came this double live album, recorded on the K.F.D tour through 1997.

Double Live Assassins brilliantly captures the band live and in their element. The album, while containing quite a few songs from the latest album, still covers material covering the band's entire career, and while it is not a definitive song list, it does justice to W.A.S.P.'s greatness.

I have always been slightly suspicious of the vocal quality on this album – has there been any overdubbing? I have found no evidence either way to suggest they have or haven't. I am also not as taken with the songs from K.F.D, but you can't have everything, can you?!
I'll give you this though – this sounds bloody superb, especially at 200 decibels at 10.30pm in a deserted BP service station!!

Rating : As good a live album as you could wish to hear. 5/5.

243. The Mutton Birds / Don't Fear The Reaper [Single]. 1998. 2.5/5.

This was the single off the soundtrack to The Frighteners. I've always like the song (the original of course by the Blue Oyster Cult), and bought this on a whim in Newtown one day.
The single of course is good. Not a bad remake at all. The other two songs are ordinary.

Rating: Meh. 2.5/5.

242. Andi Deris / Done By Mirrors. 2000. 3/5.

This is pretty standard stuff from Andi, doing his own stuff away from what he is better known as these days, which is a part of Helloween.

He doesn't set any records for originality, but it seems that this album is really serving as the opportunity for Andi to get his other influences out of his system that he doesn't with his band.
And in a lot of ways, that is a good thing. Like I said, there is nothing too special about this release. It is middle-of-the-road hard rock kinda stuff, non-threatening and easy enough to listen to. But it doesn't inflame the desire or capture the imagination either.

Best on the album for me include Let Your Love Fly Free, Free and Back Again.

Rating : Not for the true heavy metal fan, but worth listening to if you are a hard rock connoisseur. 3/5.

241. Symphony X / The Divine Wings Of Tragedy. 1997. 4/5.

I didn't discover Symphony X until their Odyssey album, and then backtracked to pick up their back catalogue.

This album reminds me a lot of Yngwie Malmsteen's best stuff – great vocals, great guitaring, prominent keyboards and terrific drumming. Though from this popint of their careers they go more in the Dream Theater vein musically, this is very much in the 80's Malmsteen tradition. This is especially so on the first three tracks of the album – Of Sins And Shadows, Sea Of Lies and Out Of The Ashes.

The song The Divine Wings Of Tragedy is certainly a marathon, and doesn't quite hold itself all the way through. Unlike those songs listed above, and Pharoah and The Eyes Of Medusa, it just doesn't maintain the album for me. I think they could have done it better. That of course is just my opinion.

Rating : A great album with a great sound. 4/5.

240. Slayer / Divine Intervention. 1994. 4.5/5.

The departure of Dave Lombardo meant that Slayer recorded an album without the original line up for the first time. Paul Bostaph was drafted in to replace him, and Divine Intervention became the result.

Subtle changes from their previous recordings? Perhaps. Perhaps it is just my ears. Tom's vocals on Serenity In Murder certainly throw you the first time you hear them. Overall of course, it is business as usual for the band that still reigns at the top of the thrash tree.
By not following their exact blueprint with each album, Slayer are able to continue to provide brilliant albums without repetition. Divine Intervention is a great follow up to Seasons In The Abyss.

Favourites from the album for me include Fictional Reality, Dittohead, Circle Of Beliefs, SS-3, Serenity In Murder and Mind Control.

Memories : I was lined up to see Slayer on this tour, but an unfortunate separation between myself and Helen had me doing a lot of crazy things, including missing this. Looking back now, why?!?! Surely Slayer would have been the best antidote to having the crap kicked out of you?!?

Rating : Another superb piece of album-ship from the masters of their craft. 4.5/5

239. Van Halen / Diver Down. 1982. 1.5/5.

Van Halen’s popularity had been booming for a number of years prior to 1981, when they released their album “Fair Warning”, one which you can find an episode of this podcast on in Series 1. The tour following that had been extensive, and following it, the band had been looking to gain some down time, before they began again and looked to record a new album. As I mentioned in the intro, in the days where albums still sold enough to be a main form of income, record companies were looking for more releases rather than an extended time between albums being recorded. So what the band did instead, in order to buy themselves more time was to record a cover song as a single to release as new music. Though David Lee Roth had suggested doing a cover of the song “Dancing in the Streets”, it was eventually decided to do a version of “(Oh) Pretty Woman”, the Roy Orbison song. The problem was, it began to move up the charts, and with that success, there were even more demands from their record company to get a new album out. Pushed into a corner, the band relented, and moved into the studio.
Was there a deliberate ploy to involve cover songs on the album? Was it a way of filling an album and getting it out as quickly as possible? Or did the band truly think this was where they were at in their career and that this was a ‘bold’ move? To be honest, I don’t know the answers to those questions, but given the album that “Diver Down” is, they are questions that are worth asking and mulling over.

I guess, for me, I need to split this album into the two halves that it comes in – the original tracks that appear on the album, and the cover songs that take up the remainder of the album. So let’s look at those cover songs first. And in all there are five of them. And all five are mostly well known tracks from their original forms, or from further more popular cover versions that were created form them. The opening track is “Where Have All the Good Times Gone” which was originally recorded by The Kinks. And it opens the album fine. Would I have expected a harder edge on the song? Perhaps. Was the band trying to do a fairly close cover of the song, and just adding a bit of Van Halen to it to create a point of difference? My guess is yes.
The second cover is of “(Oh) Pretty Woman”, which was also the single released before the album. The band wrote an instrumental intro piece that led into the song, on the album called “Intruder” which actually acts as a nice lead in. Once again though, perhaps I expected more guitar influence to come into the track, expecting Eddie to flail. Don’t get me wrong, his guitaring here is terrific, but I guess I expected, and expect, more from it. Side 2 opens with “Dancing in the Street” which really sticks to the same tempo of the original. It’s interesting that the Mick Jagger/David Bowie version that came out a couple of years later was far more upbeat and rocking that this version. I’ve never really understood that. If you are going to do cover songs, why just recreate them without a bit of artistic licence? Again, Dave sings it well, the band plays it well, but would my life be different if I hadn't heard it?
THEN we have a song called “Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now), from all accounts a song Dave found on an obscure radio station, recorded it and played it to the band, who laughed and said ‘let’s do it!’ If nothing else, at least you get to hear Alex and Eddie’s father Jan play clarinet on the track – Jan was apparently a very accomplished player in his day. But apart from the novelty of that, it’s just not what I want to hear. And yes, Dave especially is always very eclectic in his music, his solo career has shown that, but isn’t this just a step too far? Fan-wise, this isn’t for me. And nor is the album closer, “Happy Trails”.

Beyond that, the original Van Halen material for the album fluctuates. “Hang ‘em High” had apparently been floating around for awhile, and was reworked to fit into the album, and it does fit in snugly after the opening track. “Cathedral” is an instrumental piece Eddie had apparently written more than a year before, and had played it on stage a bit, and he wanted it to have its place on vinyl. “Secrets” is a slower lounge club song of the style Dave seems to enjoy. “Little Guitars” has a great feel to it, mixing Eddie’s styles of guitar riff over Michael Anthony’s great bass sound. It’s almost like early Police in sections, it’s a good one. And “The Full Bug” sees the real Van Halen return, with DLR squeal and Eddie’s guitar on fire, the chorus back up of Michael and Eddie backing Dave’s vocals, and Alex’s solid hard core drum beat.
In summation of the original songs here, more than anything, these songs sound like Van Halen. They are played at a clip, the vocals don’t sound forced, and Eddie plays his guitar like he wants to, putting it his pieces like they fit rather than integrated within a framework.

My discovery of Van Halen came from the “1984” album and beyond, and it was several years before I really began to research and discover the albums that were released prior to it. And despite some reservations about certain parts of certain albums I enjoy all of them.
But I can assure you that when I first heard this album, I was... appalled? I guess? It completely took me by surprise. And you know, it’s not that Van Halen hadn’t performed cover songs before. “You Really Got Me” came right off that first album, so cover songs are not a surprise. But the ones they chose to do here, and in the style they did? That really harmed the way I saw this album for a very long time. And certainly once I started asking around about what other people thought of the album, it surprised me as well. I can’t believe this album spent something like 65 weeks in the US charts, I really can’t. And there have been polls and articles written ranking this as one of the great guitar albums, and I can’t wrap my head around that either.
So yes, my first impressions of this album was that it was dogshit. I didn’t like it, It pretty much either bored me or just plain didn’t interest me. And although that was a few years ago, I still feel that at the time it was accurate. Have things changed over the years? A little bit I guess. I have enjoyed the album (for the most part) over the last couple of weeks. I still enjoy the opening tracks, I love “Intruder” and the way it acts as the segue into “(Oh) Pretty Woman”. And I still love “The Full Bug”. Overall, I have enjoyed “Diver Down” a hell of a lot more over this period of recollection and reminiscing than I have ever done so previous to this. So I guess I don’t HATE this album anymore. I certainly seriously dislike some of the tracks, but I guess I can stand to live with that. Perhaps I’m just getting old.

238. Live / The Distance To Here. 1999. 3.5/5

This is more a return to form for Live after their inconsistent previous release Secret Samadhi. For the most part of this album, it is a return to their real rock sound, with their alternative roots.

Live is a band that I have very high peaks and troughs with, not because of the music generally, but because of my mood swings in regards to the likability of other forms of music other than heavy metal. Live have always fallen into that category.
Here though they put together an album that keeps the beat flowing through most of the album. There are what I would term a few flat spots on the second half of the disc. But overall it is a good album.

Favourites for me include The Dolphin's Cry, The Distance, Run To The Water and Feel The Quiet River Rage.

Rating : A pretty good effort. 3.5/5.

237. Alice Cooper / Dirty Diamonds. 2005. 4/5.

Alice Cooper just keeps on keeping on, and has another great album here.

What you will notice about this album is that it is a real throwback to his early work. It is a real danger to compare albums, especially to bonafide great ones, but Dirty Diamonds reminds me a lot of the way Billion Dollar Babies and Welcome To My Nightmare were written and arranged. There is plenty of fast and heavier material, then slow and retrospective material. The guitaring on this album is different from just about anything else Alice has ever done, and it gives the album a modern feel that agrees completely with the style and arrangement.

This is an Alice album for the new millenium. It is an impressive advancement once again. Alice has already shown his ability to adapt from the 70's to the 80's and 90's, and here he had made the slight adjustment that he needed from Brutal Planet and Dragontown to find the right balance.

My favourites from the album include Woman Of Mass Distraction, You Make Me Wanna, Dirty Diamonds, Steal That Car, Your Own Worst Enemy and Stand.

Rating : A great entry into the Alice Cooper discography. 4/5.