383. W.A.S.P. / First Blood... Last Cuts. 1994. 4.5/5

It’s a funny thing when you look back on – in the mid-1990’s, W.A.S.P. had released five brilliant albums and a live album. However, problems were an obvious concern for the band, and it appeared that it was going to be all over. Blackie Lawless would no doubt continue, but rumours abounded that it would be in a solo capacity.
Here then came First Blood… Last Cuts, a greatest hits compilation that had a couple of unreleased tracks thrown in, like any good record company will do to entice the buying of an album when the fans already have all the songs on it. The problem with that is that it stopped the album having a few more ‘greatest’ tracks on it! As an enormous fan of the band, especially up until this point of its career, there are so many deserving songs that have missed out here. Of course, that is because it is a single disc release, but when I went through all the songs I thought SHOULD have made it, I surprised myself with how many great songs they have.

On the other side of that, this is a great place to start if you are just trying to get into the band. You can probably give the last three songs on the album a miss, but the rest is gold. They are dripping with everything that makes W.A.S.P (of this vintage) such a great band. Raw and intense, no backward step, no apology.

Rating: Only loses points for the final three tracks, which are unnecessary. Other tracks could have been included. 4.5/5

382. Testament / First Strike Still Deadly. 2001. 3.5/5

Now this is an idea that should be used universally, especially in this wonderful age of digital enhancing and so forth. Testament come out here, and take the best of the songs from their first two albums, The Legacy and The New Order and instead of just re-mastering them as is the general rule of thumb, they just re-record them in the modern day environment.

What I like is that this collection doesn’t detract from the original recordings. They still stand alone as their moment in time, and their quality is not diminished. What this collection does is bring these songs to a new generation and with a modernized feel. Tuning down to give them an extra grunt doesn’t hurt either! Production values have obviously improved with the technology of the past few years, and this is a pleasure to listen to.

Rating: A bit of new mixed in with the old makes for a great sound. 3.5/5

381. Deep Purple / Fireball. 1971. 4/5

After three albums to begin their career, a change of personnel to revamp the band into a new era into the 1970’s decade had brought success and a sound that found its audience. Original members Jon Lord, Ian Paice and Ritchie Blackmore had been joined by bass guitarist Roger Glover and lead vocalist Ian Gillan to create what has since been dubbed the “Mark II” line up. Deep Purple in Rock was the first album from this revamped line up, with Ritchie Blackmore pushing for a hard rock sound over Jon Lord’s more classical leanings from earlier albums. It was a success, and Ritchie proclaimed that this is how the band had to progress if it wanted further commercial success.
In attempting to put together the follow up to Deep Purple in Rock, the band themselves between that rock and a hard place. The management had put together a furious touring schedule to cope with the new success of the band, but also wanted a new album out to keep them in the public’s eye and ears. The trouble was, as Blackmore was quoted in several interviews, the management didn’t want them to stop touring, so they didn’t have time to sit down and write and compose the new album – soon to be titled Fireball - and instead were forced to throw things together on off-touring days and try and piece together the new album in that way. Ritchie felt that he didn’t have his best creative moments on this album as a result. The production was haphazard, the recording the same, and the writing of songs didn’t progress as the band would have liked. Blackmore said that rather than being able to creatively come up with ideas in the studio, he instead had to come up with ideas on the run, and just throw them at the other band members on the spur of the moment. Not the ideal way of putting together an album. It also meant that keeping a balance among the tracks was also difficult, given that there was little time together to put tracks together, instead it was all done on the run at different times when they had break in the schedule, thus providing a haphazard approach to the writing and recording.

The mood on Fireball is not as fierce or genuinely heavy as the previous album, slipping back into a tempo between what the Mark I line up had regularly produced on the first three albums, and what was produced on Deep Purple in Rock and albums to come. One wonders if this was more of a source of irritation for Ritchie Blackmore than Ian Gillan at the time it was recorded. Blackmore has felt that the success of Deep Purple in Rock was due to Deep Purple increasing the pace and heaviness of their music from what they had produced up until that time and was interested in furthering that, whereas Ian Gillan was apparently less inclined to move in that direction and was looking to sit more in the middle ground. Certainly the result of Fireball is less hard core and more laid back.

The album opens with the fastest song of the collection, the title track “Fireball”, and the star of the show here is definitely the drumming of Ian Paice which is just brilliant. “No No No” follows this on, a song with a great groove and terrific vocal from Gillan. Then there is the classic Purple song “Demon’s Eye”, one where each band member has their moment but is beautifully crafted around Ritchie’s guitar riff and complementing organ of Jon Lord. Somehow, on the US version of this album, this song is replaced by another, and it seems like a crazy oversight that this could happen. Don’t get me wrong, the song that replaces it is a ripper, but the question I still ask is, why couldn’t BOTH be on the album? The song that appears instead on the US release is “Strange Kind of Woman”, which was only released as a single in the UK and didn’t appear on this version of the album at all. As a single it reached number 8 in the UK... I just don’t understand it... and why?... well... because... “Anyone’s Daughter” is a peculiarity. For an English hard rock group, hearing them do what is essentially a country and western song is slightly off putting. This is more like an early Eagles song without Bernie Leadon’s banjo being interspersed. We even have tambourine involved. If you are looking for a song that is completely out of place on a band’s album, then look no further than this one. How is it possible that the band and management decided that they would put this song on the album proper, but for the UK edition decide to leave off “Strange Kind of Woman”? What a travesty, a complete brain fade of a decision.
The second side of the album has three tracks that are much like the style of the time where band would free form on stage for 20 minutes at a time, reneging on the boundaries of the song and just playing onwards forever. “The Mule” is a shortened version of tis kind of track here, but was played and extended much longer in a live setting. “Fools” stretches even longer, while “No One Came” draws the album to a close with its own sensibilities.

I have to say that Fireball is an album that I have always regarded as being ‘that album between Deep Purple in Rock and Machine Head’, and that’s not to make it sound like a bad album, but it is just that the other two albums are really quite legendary, and Fireball, to be fair, is not. Fireball is an excellent album, and as you have heard has some great songs on it. But it doesn’t blow your house down like Deep Purple in Rock or Machine Head. It gives it a good shake, but it doesn’t live on the same plane as those two albums. And the reality is that somehow Ritchie’s guitar doesn’t get the same opportunities to take centre stage here as it does elsewhere. It comes as no surprise that Ritchie has never really rated this album, even from the time they were writing and recording it, whereas Ian Gillan is a big fan of this album. It shows the stark differences between the two of them in regards to their music, and is no doubt just one of the many factors in why they both found reasons at different times to leave the band.

Once again from Deep Purple, the good is out of this world, and the other songs are still good but without the extra oomph those great songs have to keep them at that high standard this era of the band had. Removing one of those less excellent tracks and inserting “Strange Kind of Woman” into the mix would probably have lifted this album to the highest echelons that other Deep purple albums have attained – I think that’s how close this goes. But the summary remains the same as it always has for Fireball – we want more of Ritchie’s guitar and we want some extra pace and fire in those tracks. And we want less of “Anyone’s Daughter”. Please.

380. Yngwie Malmsteen / Fire & Ice. 1992. 2/5

As I have mentioned on previous occasions, following the release of Eclipse I had given up on Yngwie ever doing anything great again, and stopped buying his albums. It wasn’t until more than a decade later that I drifted back, to see what had actually occurred during those dark days of the 1990’s. Some of it had been quite good, and I found myself regretting my absence.
One listen to Fire & Ice, the album that directly followed Eclipse is enough to somewhat thank my lucky star that I stopped when I did, or I may never have come back.

This is an obvious continuation of Yngwie’s desire for commercial success. Vocalist Goran Edman is still on board (the man who had so repulsed me when I saw him live in 1990) and still spinning the lyrics that he and Yngwie have come up with to promote their commercial advances. It is quite disappointing to see the songs of this band degenerate into this kind of formulaic hair-metal “I-want-you-girl” stuff. “Teaser” is the perfect example, an attempt to write a commercial hit which backfires terribly by being awful (apart from Yngwie’s solo, which people whom the song is aimed at wouldn’t like anyway!).

OK, it’s not all bad. The opening instrumental “Perpetual” is great, and there are another two or three songs along the way that make you smile and remember the REAL Rising Force when that’s what they were doing. But overall, you just can’t enjoy the album. Yngwie’s guitaring is still fantastic, his breaks and licks bring you out of you slumber whenever they appear. But as a package, this is just terribly lame.

Rating: Closer to ‘Embers and Lukewarm Water’ than Fire & Ice. 2/5.

379. Rainbow / Finyl Vinyl. 1986. 4/5

Released in the mid-80’s at what was considered to be the final incarnation of Rainbow (we probably should have known better given Ritchie Blackmore’s history), this album is a collection of mostly live tracks. Again, most also generate from the Joe Lynn Turner era, with a couple included from previous eras with Graham Bonnet and Ronnie James Dio.
While on the surface it appears a bit uneven, it does at least show all three lead singers in a live environment on the same album. Could it have been done better? Well, no doubt there, but there was an obvious focus on the final band combination, and at least the singers were singing the songs from their own era.

Not many bands give you the chance to ‘compare’ vocalists on the same recording. This does, and I like it, while I acknowledge many may not. Funnily enough, the highlight on the album for me is the live version of “Difficult To Cure”, which has no singer involved.
I would love to have heard more of Bonnet’s era live. But I don’t get to make these choices, do I?

Rating: One for the nostalics amongst us. 4/5.

378. Jordan Rudess / Feeding The Wheel. 2001. 1/5

In one of those curious phases you sometimes go through with bands you have just discovered, I sought out the solo works of the members of Dream Theater to see what they did when they weren’t on the job. Notably, it wasn’t as if I was expecting to seriously fall in love with this work from their keyboardist. Actually I was expecting elevator music.
In the long run, it didn’t turn out to be that way at all. There is no mistaking the quality of his musicianship, or of those who help him out on other instruments for this project. The tracks themselves are very eclectic and obviously synth-driven. In places it sounds like some of the stuff that my four year old daughter plays on her little electric keyboard when she’s trying to perform one of her ‘symphonies’.

This, therefore, is a fan’s album. To be perfectly honest, you would have to be a frustrated keyboardist or a techno-head to be able to sit down and listen to this over and over again, and get anything of any real value out of it. I like my music to be song-orientated and driven, not just have long-winded keyboard solo-breaks, which is what most of it sounds like.

Rating: One for the musicians I believe. While it is musically very clever, it’s not my thing. 1/5.

377. Pantera / Far Beyond Driven. 1994. 3/5

For anyone who had heard the music produced by the band Pantera in the 1980’s, it would have come as a bit of a shock to listen to the major label debut in 1990 with the album “Cowboys from Hell”. It was a new development, from the hair metal stylings that the band had produced before that, to the riff chugging quality that came on that album. So when it came time to reveal the follow up to that album, most of us were left wondering what could the band give us that would top that, what could they write that would be a further progression along that path. It would be a fair comment to suggest that what came next was beyond what anyone, fan or not, would have expected.

Pantera had had an interesting start to their career, with their early albums very much containing 1980’s material influenced by hard rock or glam metal bands like Van Halen and Kiss, but without the impact that those bands had created. In fact, if you were to go back and listen to those albums, you would have been very hard pressed to believe that it was the same band that eventually was to come out and release their 1990 major label debut, Cowboys from Hell. It was a quite massive recalibration, with the sound now being attuned to such thrash metal bands like Slayer and Metallica. The addition of vocalist Phil Anselmo on the previous album had been a savvy move, and the change in the way he used his vocals for “Cowboys from Hell” proved a revelation. To this point in time guitarist Darrell Abbott had gone by the moniker of “Diamond Darrell”, and bass guitarist Rex Brown had been credited as “Rexx Rocker”, by the time it came to writing and recording “Vulgar Display of Power” Rex had gone back to his actual name, and Abbott became the much more recognisable name of “Dimebag.”
By the time it came for this album to come together, the grunge scene was taking off and proving to be the most popular music genre being pushed. Along with this, Metallica had released their black album, one where they had made significant changes to their artform, and one that was not universally loved.
In fact, in quoting Brown in the book “Survival of the Fittest: Heavy Metal in the 1990s”, he said “Where Metallica had dropped off in the late ‘80s, we saw it was a period of time where it might be our time. And timing had everything to do with it. The timing, the songs, the way the label marketed the band – everything that’s involved. It doesn’t just take four individuals and boom, you’re there.”

I guess I consider “Vulgar Display of Power” to be an album of two halves. It opens with the terrific ‘Mouth for War’ where the clean lines of drums and guitar are firmly established while Anselmo growls over the top in sinister style. ‘A New Level’ stays in the groove that ‘Mouth for War’ established, but does it in a more aggressive way. While some suggest that it is not as catchy as some of the other songs, it’s still a great example of what Pantera is all about. ‘Walk’ is the easiest to recognize in the entire Pantera catalog, probably from being the most overplayed on video programs around the world. The riff while simple and repeating is infectious, with a constant in and out effect created by both Rex and “Dimebag”. ‘Fucking Hostile’ is a 90’s thrash song, or as close as you are going to get to it, and played at a lightning fast speed, Phil spits the words without taking a breath while the others hit each mark dead-on. And check out the absolute Kirk Hammet solo from Dimebag. It almost sounds like Kirk is playing it. ‘This Love’ is the first song on the album that delves into a slower groove. It’s one of those songs that seems kind of annoying and out of place given what has come before it, and it is the dividing point between the better half and the inconsistent half of the album in my opinion.
After all of the high level goodness that came to this point, there is a mixed bag once we cross the divide into the second half of the album. “Rise” kicks it off in good style, but the constant changing of tempo to me tends to get in the way of what had the potential to be a terrific song. “No Good (Attack the Radical)” slips into a similar style to be honest, not utilising the possibility of a great fast running riff and Anselmo delivering over the top, instead sticking by the hard core stop and start method. This tends to drop even further with “Live in a Hole”, which despite some great riffs for Dimebag just doesn’t bring anything majorly enjoyable to the table. “Regular People (Conceit)” is a patented Pantera track, almost like a join the dots Pantera song. It’s not terrible, but like “Walk” is has its deficiencies. As a result, the album has usually lost my interest by the time ‘By Demons Be Driven’ arrives, and while many fans of the band praise ‘Hollow’ as one of the best slow songs ever created by Pantera, as an album closer let alone as a song, it does very little for me.

Pantera the band is a polarising figure. There are very few people in the world who sit in the middle ground and say “oh yeah, Pantera... they’re ok. I can listen to them”. In general, and not ALL the time, you either love Pantera or freaking hate them. And this album is a case in point. Ask a random selection of metalheads what they think of “Vulgar Display of Power” and I’m pretty sure you will get opinions that range from “Man! What an album! Balltearer!” to “Fuck, what a bunch of candy ass overblown bullshit!” In many ways it is like their music. Those first few albums were very air metal, but once you get here it is suitably in what is best categorised as groove metal. Chalk and cheese, if you will.

So what do I think of it, I guess is the question you've come this far to hear. Well, despite what I have just said... I sit in the middle ground. I didn’t discover Pantera until this album, and those that introduced me to it were very much in the “balltearer!” category of fans. So it was forced on me often whenever we had get togethers, and there was plenty of jumping around and screaming while it was on. And I can’t deny that factor is good for me. I still love “Mouth of War” and “Fucking Hostile” and “A New Level”. I enjoy the riffing and Anselmo’s vocals and just the general vibe of the tracks. The rest? Well, it’s okay. I don’t think it’s outstanding. And from the point of view of whether I’m a huge fan of the band... well, I’m definitely not that. But I have always found them to be an interesting band, especially for the 1990’s, and given they had musicians capable of producing good music. My music tastes were drifting elsewhere at this time, towards the joy of European power metal, so the hard core American metal scene was on the outskirts of my listening priorities. Some have said you could just grab any pissed off 15 year old and they could write lyrics like these. There are those out there who find Dimebag boring rather than a guitar genius. Like I said, most opinions on the band and this album are at one extreme or the other. For me, the fence is where I’m holding fort. I’ve listened to this album again a number of times leading up to this episode, and my interest for the most part held all the way through to the end. When I go to the collection to pull out an album to listen to, is it one I’m likely to immediately go to? No. And, 30 years on, perhaps the kids of this generation would not find the same spark and life that those of 30 years ago did. Nonetheless, this four piece put enough aggression and style into this album to make it a worthwhile experience, even if these days it is just a one-off for a particular reason rather than to impress anyone.

376. Dream Theater / Falling Into Infinity. 1997. 2/5

I have spent the better part of a day and a half at work listening to this album, and trying to work out how I feel about it. As it turns out, my first impressions were pretty accurate, but it is important to check these things out.
I’ve had this album for a while, but have rarely put it on to listen to since I first got it. So I wanted to make sure I gave this a fair go when I was sitting down to rate and review it.

Is this the forgotten Dream Theater album because it is really average? There is very little of what I feel makes Dream Theater a good band on this – few sizzling Petrucci solo blazes, little Portnoy drum thumping mania, almost no register of the Myung bass flicks. Most of the songs sit on the edge of ballads, or are precisely that.
I don’t know the story of the recording of this album, or the theories that the band had in place for it. But it is missing an awful lot of what makes Dream Theater good, and it is quite obvious all the way through.
Was this a hiccup? Certainly they redeem themselves in future releases, but what was the reason for this massive change in quality? One could only ask the band members themselves I guess. I am unable to fathom it. But the boredom I feel from repeated listenings over the past couple of days has not abated, and that’s not a good sign for any album in my collection.

Best for me include “Lines In The Sand”, “New Millenium” and “You Not Me”.

Rating: There are not a whole lot of redeeming features here for me. 2/5.

375. Evanescence / Fallen. 2003. 2/5

I can truly say that I got this album purely on a whim. The two singles, “Going Under” and “Bring Me To Life” had been played incessantly on the radio at work when they were first released, and they had gotten in my head a little. So I thought I had better check out the rest of the album to see how it held up.
I can’t say that I found anything else on there that I would listen to with any sort of enjoyment, apart from perhaps “My Last Breath”. Amy Lee has a good voice, but I think there is only so much of it that I can take in one sitting.

Though not to my particular taste overall, no doubt there are people out there who enjoy it. But to me it is a bit like Bon Jovi’s Crush – one or two great songs, and a whole lotta filler.

Rating: Reasonable without being outstanding. 2/5.

374. Van Halen / Fair Warning. 1981. 4/5

To be honest in some ways it is still a bit raw thinking about Van Halen now that the guitar god Eddie Van Halen left us permanently last year. I think it made casual listeners appreciate more fully how brilliant he was, and as a result just how good the band and their albums were as well. And having already had an album reach its 35 year anniversary this year, it was interesting to come into an album that reaches its 40th anniversary of release today, April 29, and not only hear the differences in the music between the two even though they are just five years apart, but of the general reaction of both albums.

I read a lot of reviews of Fair Warning coming in to do this, both fan reviews of people like me, and then journalists reviews from back in the day when the album was first released. And the reasoning behind that was that I just wasn’t sure if anyone else had the same reaction to the album as I did, and whether that was a good thing or a true indication of the general populous view of the album. Because, and my research tends to prove this, Fair Warning is an album that divides fan's opinion pretty much at 50/50 - and I’m talking huge fans of the band not just casual listeners who might only be interested in the popular songs or the big selling albums of the mid-1980's. In essence, it is an album where people think it is the greatest of the Van Halen discography... or one of the worst. Now, that seems like a difficult thing for an album to do, considering the vast array and number of releases that Van Halen managed in their career. And in some ways, perhaps it was the changing of the style of album that Van Halen have attempted here from their first three albums that has provided this range of opinions.

One phrase that is used heavily when it comes to reviews and descriptions of Fair Warning is “their darkest release”. Now, I understand that the first two albums came across as fun-loving, sunshine-filled anthems with bright guitar riffs and vocals and melodies that sounded like everyone was enjoying themselves, which no doubt was the case. And certainly some of the songs here seem more languid and dark-back-alley type of atmosphere than banging out bright hard rock. But “dark?!” “Sinister?!” I think some of this is a bit of a throwaway in order to describe away what some may think are lackluster songs than to actually call them out for that. I’m happy to do that for a couple of them. “Push Comes to Shove” is a change of scene for Van Halen, it’s almost a blues track being sung in a low key night club rather than a stage filled with noise and thousands of circling spotlights. I don’t hate the song, but it certainly doesn’t match up with what I see as a Van Halen classic track. And I’m happy to put my hand up for a similar observation with “Dirty Movies”. It also strides a similar path, one that has forked away from the usual path that Van Halen had trod. Dominated by the 16/4 rhythm of Alex Van Halen’s drumming and the thumping bass line of Michael Anthony, the sludgy pace and slightly monotonal vocals of David Lee Roth generally leaves me bored. Once again, I don’t hate the song, but it is different, it is a change, and you can see why lots of early fans of the band didn’t enjoy where these two songs in particular headed. But having opened with the excellent "Mean Street" the album then follows it up with another cracker, the harder faster rocker “Sinner’s Swing!”, which contains all of the best elements of Van Halen – hard hitting drums, great bass riffs, Dave’s duelling bright vocals and Eddie’s brilliant riffing guitar.

I wrote a review of this album about 14 years ago, and what I had written at the time didn’t marry up with what I think of the album now. Some of it was still true, but for the most part I had taken a rather negative view of most of the album, apart from probably three songs. It was interesting, because during that time I was heavily invested in listening to European power and speed metal, something a long long way from what Fair Warning is offering up, and I don’t have any doubt that this clouded my opinion as I wrote it then. What I have said here earlier was at the forefront of that, and also with “Sunday Afternoon in the Park” which has never really done much for me. And reading that review made me understand why there were some absolutely hammering reviews of this album that I read in my research. But I think a lot of that is misplaced, as was my own opinion all those years ago. I didn’t listen to this album until well after its release, a few years into the Sammy Hagar era I suspect, and at that time the only song I really cared for is "Unchained". Eventually I got the album and actually gave it a decent listen, and my memories of that is that I thought it was fantastic, which only made my review later on strange even to myself. And while the first single from the album, “So This Is Love?” might seem a bit predictable and completely the opposite of the reaction to some of the albums so called darkness, it was always part of the love I had for the album as a whole.

So what do I really think about the album? Honestly, I think I’m an idiot for whatever I was thinking back in 2006 or whenever it was that I penned that previous review. No doubt I was listening to a lot of stuff that wasn’t related to this at all.
Because, quite simply, this contains all of the great elements of Van Halen. I thoroughly enjoy Alex’s drumming on this album, he is synched into the groove and his drum sound is just perfect, and uses every form of timing at some stage during the album. I’m not sure his drumming ever sounded better than it does here. Michael’s bass thumps through the speakers, and his backing vocals are as ever such a massive part of the band’s sound. Dave's vocals are as sensational as ever, and Eddie is just Eddie.
Not every song on here is a winner, and that’s okay because that’s the case with about 95% of all albums ever recorded. And perhaps the greatness of the good tracks is what weighs so heavily on the couple of tracks that are not quite up to that standard. I don’t know. But 40 years on, this album still rocks the house, and holds its place – in MY opinion – as one of the best the band released. And the major reason for that? It’s because of the song that will, in my opinion, always be arguably Van Halen’s best song, with the opening guitar riff that still send shivers down my spine each and every time I hear it.

Rating: "Maybe enough ain't enough for you..." 4/5

(Updated April 2021)

373. Yngwie J. Malmsteen / Facing The Animal. 1997. 2.5/5

Yngwie Malmsteen keeps churning out the albums in the hope he can find something to inspire the next generation. And sometimes as a result of this his albums can be a bit hit and miss as many of his albums through the 1990’s decade were felt to be. Well, by the time this album was about to be released, his career could be categorised by the decade they were in. With most of his previous albums from the 1990’s, all of the songs had been fairly generic, power ballads and then guitar expositions where the structure of the song barely mattered over what Yngwie was actually playing.
On the other hand, his best album in years had been the one prior to this one. Titled “Inspiration”, it was full of cover songs that Yngwie loved, by bands such as Rainbow, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix and Kansas, and with several different vocalists such as Jeff Scott Soto, Joe Lynn Turner and Mark Boals, who had all been his vocalists on his best albums. So this new album was really up against it when it came to creating material that was going to better those songs and that manner of band members.
Yngwie has a history of pissing off his fellow musicians, and requiring replacements. Here on “Facing the Animal”, new lead vocalist Mats Leven is introduced, along with legendary drummer Cozy Powell to provide the backbeat. Also, for the first time, all of the writing of the songs is solely credited to Yngwie himself, something that could have been the making or the breaking of the whole project. And, in a time when Yngwie’s style of melodic hard rock and heavy metal was being overrun run by the advancing popularity of industrial metal and the like, one could only wonder if he still had a place in the music world outside of his native Europe where that style of music was still able to retain its popularity.

There’s no denying that Yngwie is a great guitarist, and his solos and licks are unmistakable. And those early albums were ground breaking in many ways. But eventually we all suspected that he would have to come to the realisation that the only people who are going to buy his albums are the ones who love his guitaring and appreciate his heavier work in song writing and his instrumentals, and not the attempts he makes at rock ballads and radio-friendly fare. At least, from my perspective, that appeared to be the best course.
Except that, once again on this album, he tries to go down that road, where radio-friendly fare as well as power ballads are the way he wants to go. The particular examples here that I am thinking of are “Alone in Paradise” and “Only the Strong”. Both are songs that turn me off his work completely. Indeed, songs like these were the reason I went over a decade from listening to any more of his new albums – which included missing this one on its release, and not picking it up until a few years later. They have a typical Yngwie solo break which is always enjoyable, but the ‘slow and mushy’ tone of the songs and lyrics really does stuff up an otherwise fair album. And you know what I’m talking about, the songs that change the momentum of the album, and really go down a path that is better left unwalked.
The tempo of this album is very different to what has come on some of the earlier work as well, mainly because of the style of Cozy Powell. There is little to no double kick, on which much of Yngwie’s best work follows. But that is not the criticism it sounds like, because Cozy’s drumming here is as powerful and enjoyable to listen to as always. It was one of his final recording moments before the tragic accident that took his life, so there is always a touch of melancholy for me listening to it. Mats Leven gives a solid performance on vocals, though this is the only studio album he appeared on.
The album is saved by songs such as “Braveheart”, “Enemy”, “My Resurrection” and the particularly excellent “Poison in My Veins”, but they don’t compare to his work in the 1980’s. And again that is not a fair comparison to make given the obvious excellence of those albums.
On a completely different note, the album can probably lay claim to having one of the worst covers of all time. It’s got to be a difficult to promote an album that has that photo as the cover art. It may as well be in the used section of old 1940’s albums that no one looks at in the second hand record stores.

As I mentioned here earlier, this album came out during the time when I had blacked out all Yngwie Malmsteen releases. The last album I had purchased of his was the “Eclipse” album back in 1990, the year he first toured Australia. Now while I had enjoyed pieces of that album, it did not inspire me to follow him any further, and it wasn’t until the “Unleash the Fury” album in 2005 that I bought another Yngwie album. And that one was well worth it, I must add. So I went back and discovered all of the albums I had missed in the preceding 15 years, to find out if they match the enjoyment I had gotten from that 2005 release. And a couple did have some good stuff on it. And the same applies to “Facing the Animal”. There are some very good songs here. Sure they may not have the ferocity and energy and passion of his earlier work, but they are enjoyable with some nice vocals and supporting guitar shredding from Yngwie.
I did initially review this for my old album review blog (still out there if you are interested in checking it out) and was fairly scathing of it at the time. And I wonder if that was still the scars of the feelings I had back in 1990 when I swore off his work. For the last two weeks I have had this going around and, while it may not be the album that is the stand out of those that are in my current listening bundle, several songs keep making themselves noticed, and the odd Yngwie guitar lick still brings music to the ears. So it isn’t as ordinary as I had thought when I first reviewed it over a decade ago. But it is the same old story, that if I am in the mood for Yngwie Malmsteen, then the albums I am generally going to reach for are from the decade of the 1980’s and not the 1990’s.

372. Alice In Chains / Facelift. 1990. 5/5

At a time when the music world was a’changin’, this band – and especially this album – came out of nowhere and brought forth those changes with a bang.

Try and class this as you will – heavy metal, grunge, alternative – it doesn’t matter. Appealing to a multitude of masses, this album brought a new face to the music scene and made its mark immediately. Combining riffs and breaks that on the surface seem so simple, and yet are quite brilliant, and the magical quality of the diverse vocals of Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell, Facelift is a blending of anger, sorrow, frustration and determination that combines to produce an album that constantly drags you back for more.

Without doubt, as has been mentioned previously a number of times, it is the first four tracks on the album – “We Die Young”, “Man In The Box”, “Sea Of Sorrow” and “Bleed The Freak” that are the gem. They set up the whole mood of the album and make it what it is. “Love Hate Love” centres the album, and you can feel every word Layne screams at you through the speakers.

This created a storm amongst those I was friends with at the time it was released, and it hasn’t really lost much of its gloss since. A groundbreaker at the time, it still shows why all these years later.

Rating: One of the best of its time. 4.5/5

371. Godsmack / Faceless. 2003. 2.5/5

Godsmack are a band that I tracked down after their excellent tribute to Judas Priest on the VH1 Rock Honours a couple of years ago. They also did a great cover of Black Sabbath’s “Sweet Leaf” on a tribute album some years ago. Sometimes there is always a problem that the band might have too much to live up to when you have heard them pull of classic covers. This may well be a case in point.

Overall the album is good enough. It isn’t special, and won’t make any “Great Albums Of All Time” lists, but the heart is there. The most noticeable thing is that most of the songs are very similar. Both the music and the vocals seem to retain the same tone throughout the album. Trying to listen to an album that is so similar in structure eventually will bore the living daylights out of you.
To me, Godsmack appear to be somewhat of a combination of the sound of bands like Therapy? and Pearl Jam, but without the angst and emotion in the vocals that both those bands have with their vocalists, and certainly not the intensity in the music that I believe Therapy? have. Perhaps they were trying a little hard to be someone else rather than being their own band. That might be a harsh call, but that’s what it sounds like to me on constant listens.

There’s no doubt the lyrics are trying to evoke an emotional response. I just don’t think that, on this occasion, it works for them.

Rating: Despite the effort, they miss the mark. 2.5/5

370. Exodus / Fabulous Disaster. 1989. 4/5

Listening to Exodus on Fabulous Disaster is an interesting experience, especially when trying to compare styles of bands of similar vintage. Metallica and Megadeth, for instance, released what I would term very serious metal albums – … And Justice For All and Rust In Peace. Both great albums, and both very serious musically and lyrically.
Fabulous Disaster is another great album, but to me very different from those two albums. With multi-tracked choruses enticing you to sing along in a group anthemic way, and lead singer Steve Souza very bouncy in his lyrics, especially in songs like “Fabulous Disaster” and “Toxic Waltz”, it reminds me of (a much heavier) Quiet Riot of the early 1980’s.

I love the way this album seems to build as it moves along. The early songs on the album such as “The Last Act Of Defiance”, and from there we build into a forceful middle and a slamming end to the disc. It’s easy to see where Australian 80’s metal bands like Mortal Sin and Frozen Doberman got their inspiration from – it’s pretty much all here on this album.

Favourites here for me include “The Last Act Of Defiance”, “Verbal Razors”, “Open Season” and “Overdose”

Rating: Still gets better with every listen. 4/5.

369. Black Sabbath / The Eternal Idol Demos [Bootleg]. 1986. 3/5

These are the demo versions of the album that became The Eternal Idol. Ray Gillen is the singer here, who eventually did not record the album, that being left to newcomer Tony Martin.

In reality there aren’t that many differences. The vocals change a little here and there, and of course the production is not A1, but it is good for interest sake. It won’t make you like the album if you don’t already like it, however…

Rating: Interesting for fans. 3/5

368. Masterplan / Enlighten Me [Single]. 2002. 5/5

An absolute pearler of a single release.

Containing the first single off the unbelieveably brilliant self-titled album by Masterplan, it also has the equally brilliant “Kind Hearted Light” as the 2nd track, the quite wonderful unreleased track “Through Thick And Thin” (which I find remarkable it wasn’t on the album itself), and the Led Zeppelin cover “Black Dog”.

Top notch all the way through. If only all single releases were this good.

Rating: Brilliant. 5/5.

367. Killswitch Engage / The End Of Heartache. 2004. 2.5/5

There is little doubt that Killswitch Engage are probably the best of the modern metal bands. Having had one short stint of seeing them live, they are no doubt also a better live band that a studio band.

Here on The End of Heartache I think they are probably a little bit samey when it comes to their songs. Sometimes I can put the album on, and before I know it I haven’t the faintest idea what song I’m up to. Actually, it has just happened as I type this. A 20 minute break , come back, and where the hell am I up to?
The genre does lead itself to that a little, to my ears anyway.

The music itself is still solid, and there are a few standout tracks, such as “World Ablaze”, “Rose of Sharyn” and “When Darkness Falls”. In the end though, I find myself thinking, ‘Meh… what album do I listen to next…’

Rating: Average fare. 2.5/5.

366. Trivium / Ember To Inferno. 2003. 2/5

Like everything Trivium has done, the majority of people really love it, or really hate it. For some reason I have sat on the fence with all three of their albums. Sure, I have made my point that the vocals that the group employ are not my cup of tea. Funny thing is, with clear vocals there would be no power in the music, which means there is something lacking there. But with guttural screaming, I find it difficult to enjoy the songs. So there is something lacking there.

Ember To Inferno, the group’s first album, has similar problems to the other two albums. And it’s not that I really hate the album – but I don’t love it either. There are just too many obstacles set up that can’t allow me to appreciate it like many people do. Can I listen to it? Sure, if someone puts on the album, I can get through it without shrieking. But so help me if they decide to play it again!

Rating: Still sitting on the fence somewhat I guess… 2/5

365. Iron Maiden / Eddie's Archive [6 Discs]. 2002. 5/5

Even if, like me, you seem to own almost everything that Iron Maiden has released, you still couldn't go past buying this boxset. It is a spectacular release of old and rare and some hard to find stuff, all stashed into a little box that puts more dollars into Rod Smallwood's wallet.

Containing six discs, this has the best of everything. The old live stuff from the BBC Archives that most of us have had on bootleg tapes for years, combined with pieces from the 1988 Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour. The Beast Over Hammersmith set, once again a gig most of us have bootlegs of, but now have on crystal clear CDs. And the combined B-Sides collection, most of which we own from the Ten Year anniversary albums we bought back in 1990.

So OK - we had it all before. But we went out and bought it again, didn't we? And why? Because it's Iron Maiden, and you just have to have it.

Rating:  Some great stuff on here, that major fans of the band will love. And probably already own.  5/5

364. Armored Saint / Eindhoven 12-5-1989 [Bootleg]. 1990. 4/5

This is an A quality soundboard bootleg from Armored Saint at their theoretical peak back in 1989.
It contains the very best of the Saint's songs, the band are in awesome form, while John Bush screams at his best throughout.

As the band lack a full live release, this is probably the best that you can find if you want to experience how the band sounded live. A terrific mix of great songs and great attitude.

Rating: "March of the Saint" indeed! 4/5

363. Foo Fighters / Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. 2007. 2/5

Following In Your Honour I went into this album without any hopes whatsoever. I didn’t run around excited to hear the new album, nor did I allow my expectations to get the better of me. Whether this was the right thing to do or not I don’t know, but when it finally arrived… I found it was no better than I expected.

I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who think this is great, but to me it is a long way from their best stuff. Where has the aggression gone? What have they done with the passion? I read somewhere where someone had said it was as close to the music of Nirvana that Dave Grohl has done. WTF is up with that?!?!
The single that was released from this album, “The Pretender”, is the one song on the album that would nearly make a best-of combination. In reality, it is a complete misrepresentation to the public as to the kind of album this is.

Never mind. You can’t always have what you want. Perhaps they have just drained all of their best stuff, and now they are heading down the road of ‘easy-listening’. If that’s the case, I really can’t see myself investing in their future releases.

Rating: In almost all respects, just not the kind of album I like, nor was looking for. 2/5.

362. Sting / The Dream Of The Blue Turtles. 1985. 3.5/5

When this came out, I was excited. What would Sting produce now that he had left The Police? Would it be as brilliant as, say, Synchronicity had been? Could he reproduce anything like that?
And so I put my vinyl on the record played, lowered the needle, and away we went.

The verdict? At the time it was enjoyable, but mildly disappointing. I was looking for "Synchronicity II" and other similar songs. What I got was softer, less edgy, more radio friendly kind of stuff. Nothing wrong with that, really, unless you were searching for The Police, cos this ain't them.

23 years later and things haven't changed much, except Sting has gone back to The Police for a reunion tour, meaning he must be down to his last few million dollars. Some of the songs still work here, and others still don't. If it was not for the brilliant closer, "Fortress Around Your Heart", I think this album would have been written off as very average. That last song on the album always brings me back.

Rating: It was never promised to be The Police, but I still can't help remembering that I wish it was... 3.5/5

361. Iron Maiden / Download Festival 10-6-07 [Bootleg]. 2007. 4/5.

By mid-2007, Maiden had flogged A Matter of Life and Death all over (most) of the world. With the usual plethora of mid-year festivals coming up to complete, the band decided on a change of tact. Retaining half of the setlist they had been using for most of the previous two months, they then added a couple of extra songs from The Number Of The Beast and called it a 'celebration' of 25 years since that album's release. In essence, the gig contained mostly songs from those two albums.

This bootleg is A- quality, and while are still at the top of their form, we've heard most of the early songs a thousand times (c'mon - why not "Invaders" or "Ganglands", just for a change?!), and the later songs were done better when they played the whole album live in previous gigs.

Rating: If you were to go to a Maiden gig and see only these songs, you'd be disappointed. 4/5.

360. Elf / Carolina County Ball. 1974. 1.5/5

Well… it’s not hard to see why the lads from Deep Purple liked the band, and why Roger took them under his wing. Their sound is somewhat reminiscent of an early Deep Purple, though not so much like them that they were ever going to be a threat to them either.
This is very safe 1960’s hippy rock. The piano sound, rather than that of the organ, doesn’t do much for me, even inhibits the music somewhat. The songs are generally slow and emotionless, and are very much anchored in the era they were written.

The reason that I bought this, of course, was for the historical element of hearing what Ronnie James Dio’s band sounded like before he signed on to sing for Rainbow. Of course, his voice is just brilliant, as it always is. The material though is a hell of a lot different from that which I fell in love with from his post-Elf bands.

Rating: Historically poignant, but uninteresting nonetheless. 1.5/5.

359. Arch Enemy / Doomsday Machine. 2005. 3.5/5

Doomsday Machine mixes touches of brilliance with pieces of monotonous boredom, and one can only wonder how. It is difficult to fathom just how an album that has so much in its favour, and so much potential, can fail to ignite and find the higher reaches. Perhaps it is Angela’s vocals – ahh, my old prejudices rise again… J

Certainly, listening to the album four or five times in a row at work today, I felt no need to suppress any particular songs, or not to put it back on again when it was over. I think it holds its own quite easily. But I can’t shake that nagging feeling that they left something in the kit bag when they had an opportunity to do better.
The guitaring is as great as it always is, and there is still much to like about the release.

Favourites for me include “Enter the Machine”, “Nemesis” and “I Am Legend / Out for Blood”.

Rating: Middle of the road for the guys and gal. 3.5/5

358. W.A.S.P. / Dominator. 2007. 3.5/5

Ooooh, if ever a band, or a man, had to work his bollocks off to regain lost support after some dodgy recent years, it was Blackie Lawless and W.A.S.P. Following the critically acclaimed 9/11 themed Dying For The World with the flawed and basically just dreadful rock-opera that was The Neon God Parts I and II, Blackie was a million miles from the sound he had produced that shocked the world back in the 1980's.

I can confirm that Dominator repairs as much of the damage as it possibly can. For the most part Blackie has gone back to the basic formula with his music. Like everything he has released since The Crimson Idol however, it all has the same sort of melody lines and bridges. This isn't a problem unless you allow it to be. His usual ballad (on this occasion “Heaven's Hung In Black”) sounds just like his others have on previous albums of the past 15 years. The majority of the album returns W.A.S.P. to the standing of albums such as Unholy Terror and Dying For The World, a solid release with solid songs. Strangely, the energy Blackie usually exudes seems to be missing for the most part here. Perhaps he is now in a place in his life where his influences on his music from past decades now escapes him.

Favourites for me include “Mercy”, “Long Long Way To Go”, “The Burning Man”, “Heaven's Blessed” and “Deal With The Devil”.

Rating: A return to a much more enjoyable setting. 3.5 / 5.

357. Alcatrazz / Disturbing The Peace. 1985. 3/5

Funny how with the previous album I reviewed (Gary Moore's Dirty Fingers) I gave it almost full marks even though it is obviously anchored in the 80's, because I grew up with it. Here we have another album that is quite definitely 'trapped in the 80s', and has dated somewhat as a result, but I probably don't rate it as high simply because I didn't get it until much later in life.

Perhaps I digress, but I am trying to explain why it doesn't rate as high with me. Disturbing The Peace has its moments. Graham Bonnet on vocals is a good as ever, though perhaps not with as much passion as he had in previous bands like Rainbow and MSG. Steve Vai is great and easily recognisable, his licks and riffs popping up through out the album. It's certainly noticeable even from this early time in his career that he was going to be something special. The songs have their moments, some are even better than average.

Overall though, I guess I can't get past the fact that there is no real heaviness in the music, and though the album has potential, I think they failed to get as much out of the material as they could.

Best for me include "Wire and Wood", "Desert Diamond" and "Stripper".

Rating: Worth it if for nothing else than Steve Vai's guitaring. 3/5.

356. Gary Moore / Dirty Fingers. 1983. 4.5/5

This is one of those albums that you just love, because you have had it for so many years, and that it had just ingrained itself into your psyche.

I always loved this album, and the songs are catchy from the start and keep your interest. OK, maybe they are a bit corny, and certainly a lot '1980's', and perhaps if you picked up the album for the first time in this day and age, it would be very dated, and maybe - just maybe - you wouldn't get as much out of it as I do. But, in my case, it brings back so many memories of the time when I had it, and how I wore the grooves down in the vinyl on the record player, and how I would jump around screaming "HIROSHIMA!! THE PLACE WHERE INNOCENCE WAS BURNED!!", and "RUN TO YOUR MAMA, BUT DON'T COME CRYIN' TO ME!!", and thrashing that air guitar at the same time.

Gary Moore's rock is still great, and this album is one of my favourites, because it's simple with great riffs and a message in his lyrics.

Best for me include "Hiroshime", "Run To Your Mama", "Nuclear Attack" and "Rest In Peace".

Rating: In my view, a very underrated album. 4.5/5

355. Black Sabbath / The Dio Years. 2007. 5/5

This is the compilation album brought out to commemorate the three albums of the Dio era.
While it would be foolish to argue over the inclusions, when you are only drawing material from three albums and still leaving out great songs, you know you are on a good thing.

Most interest from this album comes from the three new songs written by Dio and Iommi and recorded by them and Butler and Appice – “The Devil Cried”, “Shadow Of The Wind” and “Ear In The Wall”. All three are good solid additions to the legacy, though it is interesting to notice how the balance shifts without the input of Geezer into the writing process. While I think all three are just great songs, "Ear In The Wall" is my favourite - just a little bit more up-tempo than the other two, and this is where the band sounds at its best.

Bring on the new album in 2008!!

Rating: Impossible not to give it full marks. 5 / 5.

354. Midnight Oil / Diesel And Dust. 1987. 4/5

If you are Australian, and you grew up through the 1980’s, then you know the band Midnight Oil. On the back of extensive and furious clubbing in their early days to garner their reputation, the band had chart topping success with both albums and singles throughout the 1980’s decade. Albums like “10 to 1”, “Red Sails in the Sunset” and the EP “Species Deceases” were enormous for teenagers like me and 20-something adults, who all bolted on to those big singles that dominated the airwaves, and the albums that were played over and over in lounge rooms and bedrooms. People would try and dance like Peter Garrett, and manically play the drums like Rob Hirst. And, sometimes without even knowing, they would learn some things about the world, as the band’s intelligent and thoughtful lyrics exposed the holes in governments and industry and other wrongs being perpetrated in the world.
Prior to the writing of the “Diesel and Dust” album, Midnight Oil went out on the road on the so-titled Blackfella/Whitefella tour, which included indigenous bands the Warumpi Band and Gondwanaland, which focused on touring remote Aboriginal communities. For several months of 1986 the band saw first-hand the seriousness of the issues that existed in both health and living standards in these communities. When it came to writing and recording their new album, it was these experiences that the band drew upon, and became the basis of “Diesel and Dust”. The band members in interviews at the time expressed that the album was focused on the need for governments and so-called ‘white Australia’ to recognise the past injustices involving the First Nations, and the need for a reconciliation between the two on all levels. And it is obvious when you listen to the album that this message is quite passionately exclaimed throughout every song.

The four singles released from the album are the best known tracks, but it is perhaps the other tracks on the album that reveal the changing style of the band at this time of their career. Having been known for their high octane live gigs and songs with amazing energy and passion that had drawn in their fan base over a period of over a decade, some of the songs here reveal the bands' ability to write and record songs that didn’t lose their passion or appeal, and that the power of the music could remain even though they brought it back to a slower, softer and somewhat quieter level. “Arctic World” is a prime example of this, focused more on keyboards and Garrett’s vocals with other instruments non existent or muted. This segues almost unnoticed into “Warakurna” which is a beautifully understated song musically, restrained even. It allows the lyrics to grow their full meaning, be the prominent part of the track in an easy singalong style, with the music there to contribute but not to dominate. It is a great example of the way Midnight Oil were changing their style to incorporate tracks like this, not to bombard as they do on stage but to offer their thoughts in an open light. “Whoah” offers a light takedown of several issues hiding in plain view at the time. “Bullroarer” is another great song, again understated musically, not pushing the boundaries of the group’s former high energy output, but instead invokes the lyrics that are being sung. It’s another song invoking the altered style of the band and performed beautifully. “Sell My Soul” and “Sometimes” and “Gunbarrel Highway” all paint their own pictures, perhaps in a more traditional Oils fashion with more Garrett passion in the vocals, more percussion beats in Hirst’s drumming, and more hard hitting on the guitar strings by Moginie and Rotsey.
You know the singles here, or if you don’t you have been on another planet. “Dreamworld” is the bright and fast track that the Oils have always produced in their energetic frame. “Put Down That Weapon” is the anti-arms track of the album, a step away from the ideology and stories of the majority of the songs on the album to keep listeners know they still have an ear and eye on the outside world. “The Dead Heart” is the most prominent of the change in styled songs form the album, released as the first single prior to the album being composed for the tour that preceded it. And of course “Beds Are Burning” which became arguably the band’s biggest ever song, and one that was played on radios... well... still I guess.

I’ve spoken of 1987 often on this blog, the year I finished high school, and how so many albums released in this year have ingrained themselves on me, that remind me of this time of my life because of it. As it turns out, this album reminds me of a different time, of a decade later. Why? Well, when this album was released, my music tastes were dominated by heavy metal. Any type of heavy metal. I was discovering all of these new great bands, and they were my main focus. So when “Diesel and Dust” was released, and those that loved pure rock more than metal began to play it, I listened to it as well. But it just didn’t take. For me, “10 to1” was my template, that album was what I believed Midnight Oil was, and it was that album that I judged everything else they released on. And it is quite clear that early listens to this album didn’t fit that template for me at all. The quiet and soft songs were... quiet and soft... and I didn’t have any motivation to sit down and listen to that at that time of my life. And so I bypassed it, noticing that it sold amazing numbers and the singles were played to death on the radio, and that’s it. Until, as I said, about a decade later, when my wife and I went on a month long trip of the UK, and in the car we had almost all Australian artists to listen to as we drove around the countries. And it was Midnight Oil that struck home hardest on that trip, and the stories they told and the music they played. It was instrumental in my return to the band in a big way. And on revisiting “Diesel and Dust” at that time, I discovered what I had missed in my teenage years. In essence, I was now ready to hear it, and embrace it, without only having to have thrash guitars and double kick drums traipsing through every song I listened to. And now, when I listen to this album, as I have once again a couple of dozen times in the last few weeks, it reminds me of driving around the UK, and how Australian music had kept us company on our overseas journey.

More recently, a few years ago my family and our friends family journeyed through the Aussie outback to Uluru and experienced first hand the magic that this monument exudes, which was a truly amazing experience. And what did we listen to while staying out there while we enjoyed our evening beer? Why, “Diesel and Dust” of course, because this album is the soundtrack to Uluru, the outback, the First People's nations. It is even now a most remarkable album. “10 to 1” will always be my favourite Oils album, but this album continues to grow in significance and importance – and brilliance – the more I listen to it. It is one that everyone should listen to, to hear the lyrics and feel the mood of each song, because they are all entwined in the story being told, and that story is no less important today than it was 35 years ago.

353. Danzig / Devil Songs: Live USA 1989 [Bootleg]. 1990. 3/5

Here is another bootleg (geez I copped a few in a row here...), this one from Danzig in 1989, and is a B quality album from the 1989 tour.
This contains the best of Danzig's early work, as well as a couple of hits from his Samhain and Misfits days.
Overall I think the first half of the album, containing songs such as "Mother", "Am I Demon" and "Twist Of Cain" is terrific, but is let down a little by the back half of the concert.
Still worth a listen for the fans.

Rating: Good for the fans, probably not for those with only a passing interest in the band. 3/5.

352. Megadeth / Deth at Woodstock 1999 [Bootleg]. 1999. 5/5

Soundboard bootleg of the entire Megadeth set at Woodstock 1999, as broadcast on FM radio.

This is a great set, with the best of everything from Risk back to Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? Not only are the four piece in fine form, they blow Metallica off the stage from the same gig.
This is the last performance I have of the Megadeth Prime outfit of Mustaine, Ellefson, Freidman and Menza, but it is a worthy one.

Rating: Great songs, great band, great performance. 5/5

351. Iron Maiden / Den Bosch 27-11-2006 [Bootleg]. 2006. 4/5.

It had become habit forming in the first decade of the 2000’s to perform a concert that contained one of your own albums (or in Dream Theater’s case, someone else’s) in its entirety. Countless number of bands did it, and some did it with multiple albums over multiple tours. 

It was then no surprise when Iron Maiden announced that they would be performing their latest album, A Matter of Life and Death, in its entirety during their touring schedule of 2006. Perhaps the only surprise was that it was this album they chose to follow this path with. Sure, it meant that the band could actually play songs they had not worn out to death, and no doubt this came to them as a fresh idea that carried a lot of merit.
Of course, fans would no doubt have preferred to have heard Piece of Mind or Powerslave in their entirety. The slight downside with this choice was that, as an album, this can bit a bit slow and morbid in its subject matter and music. To be honest, if it had been me seeing this on tour, I would have felt a little bit ripped off, given there would be lots of other songs I’d have rather seen.

Still, getting back to the subject, this is a good quality audience bootleg from this show. From an interest perspective, it is an experience to hear an entire, newly released album played in its entirety. Generally you might get three, four, sometimes up to six new songs played at a gig, most of which will then never be played again on subsequent tours. Here, we have the entire album, and while the same result will be true for most of the songs, at least we have had the opportunity to hear them all live. 

Even if you weren’t entirely enamoured by the album, it is worth catching this to see the difference the songs take on in their live setting. And if you didn’t see the tour (we in Australia did not) then it is probably the only time you’ll ever hear them played live. 

Rating:  An interesting piece worth listening to at least once.  4/5.

350. Metallica / Demonic Invocation [Bootleg]. 1986. 5/5

A-quality bootleg from the Ride The Lightning tour, which like others of its vintage is absolutely sensational. 10 songs, everyone of them classics, featuring Hetfield at his best on vocals.

As good as other tours have been, this one is my favourite Metallica era in regards to bootlegs. It's when they played these songs best, with a real passion, and before James began to sing them rather than emote them. Once again the songs from Kill 'Em All such as "Phantom Lord" and "Motorbreath" and "The Four Horsemen" are in their prime, and sound just brilliant.

Rating: Another brilliant bootleg in every respect. 5/5.

349. Armored Saint / Delirious Nomad. 1985. 3/5

Armored Saint was one of those bands that, in the 1980’s in Australia, you heard about but couldn’t really gain access to. I know I was familiar with their name through the end of high school, but ‘regular’ record stores didn’t carry their albums, and they most certainly didn’t want to order in that ‘heavy metal rubbish’, and the second hand record stores that littered the cities also didn’t ever seem to have any.
Finally a couple of years ago, when John Bush was forsaken by Anthrax and returned to his former band, I decided it was time to check them out, now that the opportunity to gain music from overseas is much easier. Delirious Nomad was the first album I found.

There is little wonder they had a good following in the day. John Bush’s vocals are just fantastic, and the songs rock along. OK, maybe in this modern age the songs have dated, like many of the bands from that era, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them just as much. I find myself disappointed I didn’t have this album in high school – I could have annoyed a lot more people.

Rating: Good solid outing from a good solid band. 3/5

348. Scorpions / Deadly Sting. 1995. 4.5/5

Bring it on! Another best of collection for the Scorpions! And just in case you don’t think you can fit everything onto one album – we’ll make it a double disc!!

OK, so it’s the record companies who put these out constantly, not the band. And in retrospect it probably wasn’t such a bad move considering the success of Crazy World and in particular the single “Wind of Change”, which brought a whole new fan base to the band that probably hadn’t experienced all the great stuff they had released before that.
As for the tracklist, you can’t fault it. As a greatest hits release, it is top notch.

Rating: For the very best of the Scorpions, this is where to come. 4.5/5.

347. Arch Enemy / Dead Eyes See No Future [EP]. 2004. 3.5/5

This is an EP featuring the excellent song “Dead Eyes See No Future”, two live tracks from Paris, “Burning Angel” and “We Will Rise”, and three cover songs.
Megadeth’s “Symphony of Destruction”, Manowar’s “Kill With Power”, and Carcass’ “Incarnated Solvent Abuse”.

All songs are good. Worth catching if you get the chance.

Rating: Good EP. 3.5/5.

346. Dream Theater / Dark Side Of The Moon [Live Covers Series]. 2006. 1.5/5

OK. I know what you are thinking. “Why did this guy get this album, when it is obvious from his previous review of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon that he dislikes the album?”
Quite a reasonable question really.

Well, the answer is, I was interested to see what kind of treatment Dream Theater would give to it, and see what it would sound like live.
And to me, it sounds like the same old dribble that I didn’t like in the first place.
Don’t get me wrong. Dream Theater do a great job, and the sound is good. It is extremely well done. But it is not to my liking.
I also have the bonus disc, with more Pink Floyd material. I rate it the same.

Rating: Sorry. It doesn’t improve for me. 1.5/5.

345. Alcatrazz / Dangerous Games. 1986. 1/5.

Following the departure of Steve Vai to join David Lee Roth’s solo gig, Alcatrazz hired guitarist Danny Johnson to record Dangerous Games, an unsightly blemish on the world of hard rock/heavy metal music. All pretence at being in this genre of music has been scrubbed away on this release, and they have obvious tried to go for the big 1980’s pop power hit, and failed dismally even at that. They are not the only band that has fallen for that trap (Def Leppard in the past two decades come to mind), but this is incredibly disappointing considering the start they had, and the musicians who have been in the band.
Graham Bonnet has a great rock voice. His work with Rainbow and Michael Schenker Group is outstanding. Here however he has sunk to new depths, and there is nothing even remotely interesting on this album. It is truly cruddy, awful stuff – cringe-worthy even.
It is no surprise the band went their separate ways following this album. There was obviously no future. What a shame.

Rating: As poor a release as there was during the 1980’s. 1/5.

344. Iron Maiden / Dance of Argentina 11-1-04 [Bootleg]. 2004. 4/5

This is an A quality bootleg, with this gig actually broadcast on Argentinian radio and recorded as such. Taken off the Dance of Death tour, it contains all the best from that album and recent releases.

The downside is that throughout the gig, the radio announcer comes in over the songs to remind everyone who they are listening to, and what song it is, and what station they are on. Still, at the time I got it, it was the best quality bootleg I had from that tour, and was getting a workout.

In fact, had Iron Maiden not eventually released their double live album from that tour, Death On The Road, I think I probably would rate this higher than I have. Once that release came out of course, this was relegated to second banana status, and returned to the racks for only the very occasional return visit.

Despite this, the concert itself is terrific, and the audience loud and vocal, well led by the ringleader himself Bruce Dickinson who is in fine form throughout.

Rating: Lose the commentary and it is pretty much perfect. 4/5.

343. W.A.S.P. / The Crimson Idol. 1992. 5/5.

When it came to stable line-ups, W.A.S.P. had not really been able to work down that path. Most of that appears to be related to band leader Blackie Lawless and his iron grip over what the band did, and according to several former band mates, the way he held the purse strings. That of course has been the way of bands in music throughout the history of recorded music, but with W.A.S.P. and their level of success, coming from the early 1980’s hair metal to become a much heavier version of that genre of metal, and utilising their shock value on stage in much the way that Alice Cooper did in the early stages of their career, the changes between albums came a member at a time. In 1989 the band released “The Headless Children”, a more mature and thoughtful album in both music and lyrics than the band had produced before. The three singles highlighted this, with the ball tearing metal track “Mean Man”, the hard rocking cover of The Who’s “The Real Me”, and the hard rock ballad of “Forever Free” showcasing the range the band had in their songwriting. However, halfway through the tour founding guitarist Chris Holmes left the band, citing a need to have fun as his parting shot. In return Blackie accused him of being pulled on his apron strings by his new wife Lita Ford. It would be six years before they worked together again. The end result was that W.A.S.P. was disbanded. In its place, Blackie eventually began working on a solo album, one that he wrote from the heart, using pieces and passages of his life to create what would basically be a rock opera concept album. He created the character Jonathan Steel who would be the central role in this story, and his life story from being isolated from his parents, to running away from home to chase stardom as a musician, to his dodgy manager and discovering drugs and alcohol, to reaching the stardom that he had been striving for, to the inevitable fall.
The album took shape, but as Blackie composed this for his own release, the pressure from the record company came to have it released as a W.A.S.P. album, the monetary value of that name foremost in their minds. Eventually Blackie caved, and the W.A.S.P. name was attached to the release, though he was the only member of the band still remaining. He recorded guitars and bass himself, along with Bob Kulick on board to help, while drumming duties were shared between Frankie Banali and Stet Howland. And 30 years ago, it was released, to await the verdict of the listening public.

Just because an album is a concept album, it doesn’t mean you have to know the story or follow the story to enjoy the songs and music, and that very much fits here as well. This being a rock opera though, it does have spoken pieces between songs that flesh out the story, but they don’t detract from the album if you aren’t interested in them. Once again though, in a similar way to “The Headless Children”, the album contains a variety of style of tracks, in this case however to help tell the story rather than be something that changes up the album. The heavier and faster tracks dominate the first half of the album as Jonathan leaves his home, finds his way in the music world and the trappings that are a part of it. In the second half of the album, when he begins to reflect on his choices that road they have led him down we have the more melancholy of the tracks, reflecting the pain and anguish he is feeling as a result.
The opening and closing tracks have all the hallmarks of the rock opera, and each does its job in opening and closing the circle of the story. “The Titanic Overture” is exactly that, opening the show and setting the scene with the overture instrumental it is. This, along with the following three songs, are a brilliant opening to the album. “The Invisible Boy”, “Arena of Pleasure” and “Chainsaw Charlie (Murders in the New Morgue)” are fantastic tracks, combining everything that is so good about W.A.S.P. while fitting the timespace as it is needed. Bob Kulick’s guitaring is superb, really hitting every nuance, great soloing and still being able to express the emotion of the track as it fits the developing story. Great stuff. The drumming of Stet Howland in particular is impressive. His double kick rifling through these songs gives it an added dimension. And Blackie’s vocals are superb, instilling the harmony and chorus pieces where they are needed, and expressing the characters different feelings to piece together the players in the drama. When you add “Doctor Rockter” and “I Am One” to this, you have five exceptional fast paced heavy metal tracks that are a tribute to the band’s great legacy.
Then you have the slower paced, more melancholy tracks that tell that side of the tale, including “The Gypsy Meets the Boy”, “The Idol” and “Hold on to My Heart”. In any other setting on any other album these would be the kind of songs that I would most probably be bagging out, but here, as a part of the tapestry that is the story of “The Crimson Idol”, they are a necessary evil, and emotionally are as important to the story and album as those first four songs are. Singularly, on their own, do they hold up? My answer is yes, but I have listened to this album a LOT over the last thirty years, and as such have a lot of love ties up in the album, which makes it hard for me to be constructively critical of them. They all sound great. If I heard them away from the context of the album, having never heard them before, I may well find ways of deriding them, but not because they are poor or crap, but because... I don’t often like ballads. Anyway... the closing track that closed the circle and the story is the 10 minute conclusion of “The Great Misconceptions of Me”, where the final scene plays out. It builds terrifically from the reflective to the crescendo to follow the finale of the show and album, and it is a fitting way for the album to come to an end.
Like I said earlier, it isn’t necessary to have digested the story being told to enjoy the album, but because of the enjoyment of the album, the story reveals itself to you anyway as you listen to the album. Jonathan, his brother, his father, his manager Alex Rodman, the record executive ‘Chainsaw’ Charlie, the drug dealer Doctor Rockter... all of them become known to you through the fabric of the songs. So whether you care about the story or not, sooner or later you’ll know it anyway.

I don’t recall the day I bought this album, but it must have been pretty close to the day of its release, because I do recall six weeks later going to see Sepultura in concert and having this blaring in the car and singing it at the top of my voice on the way to the gig. It grabbed me from the start, in a way few albums in my life have. It was, perhaps not surprisingly, the same way I felt the first time I listened to Queensryche’s “Operation: Mindcrime”. I don’t know why. It isn’t as though the story for me is or was a hugely intricate piece of either album, at least not in the beginning. But those opening four tracks are just immense, almost mid blowing when you first put the album on your stereo and crank it up. I had doubts about the new album because Chris Holmes had gone, but I needn’t have been worried in that respect, as Bob Kulick is superb here, as he always was on whatever project he played on. This album became somewhat of an obsession for me, and it was still on my active playlist 18 months later. There was always the lingering hope that W.A.S.P. would tour Australia and gives us a taste of this an all of their albums, but that wasn't to be in those days where we were seen as a backwater too far to travel to. It wasn’t until 16 years later in 2008 that the band finally made it to Australia, on the 15th anniversary tour of this album, on which they played this in its entirety and then an encore of five other ‘classic’ tracks. I travelled to Sydney on my own to watch the spectacle, one that I drove home from in disappointment. OK, so it was not a concert as such, it was a half-arsed rock opera, with the movie they had filmed to be a part of the production going on behind the band as they played. But there was so much pre-recorded vocals and backing tracks that there were periods when you couldn’t tell whether it was the band playing or whether it was just the backing tracks. At times when Blackie was heard singing, he was facing the drummer. I admired the fact they tried to make it like the rock opera it was, but it seemed a cheapened version of it. I’d have preferred to just have the band play and nothing else. And that was the catch. To spend the big money on making it a true rock opera production, or to just perform as the band. They went somewhere in the middle and didn’t pull it off. In my opinion.

342. Symphony X / The Damnation Game. 1995. 4/5.

Like a cross between Yngwie Malmsteen and Dream Theater, Symphony X’s second album The Damnation Game is the epitomy of what progressive metal was all about in the 1990’s.
This album was the portent of what was to come. It combines all of those elements that make the genre what it is.

It’s interesting to note that having already heard the full catalogue of Symphony X albums, how their style changes as they move along. Here they combine great songs and riffs with the technical intertwining of guitars and keyboards and drums that sometimes gets in the way of the passage of the song. The influence of both Yngwie and Dream Thaeter is obvious, especially in the early phases of the album.

In its entirety, this is a terrific album. Taken piece by piece, it does have moments where you lose interest. As much as I love “The Edge Of Forever”, it really does go on about two minutes too long. A little bit of verbal diarrhea to be sure, but still good.

Faves for me include “The Damnation Game”, “The Edge Of Forever” and “A Winters Dream”.

Rating: Well worth a listen, but better was to come. 4/5.

341. Trivium / The Crusade. 2006. 3/5.

You wouldn’t know that this was the same band that released Ascendancy. The whole feel of the album is different, capped off of course by the vocals, which are now more clear than anything else. Looking for a different market? Or just attending the James Hetfield School Of Vocals? There is a definite Hetfield feel about some of the vocals, especially the first half of “Detonation”. Whether this was deliberate, or is just a part of the general morphing of the band as a whole I don’t know.

That’s not to say that some of the songs don’t still rock. “Entrance of the Conflagration” is easily the best song on the album, fueled by great drums and guitars. Funnily enough, if all the songs here were in the same vein, I think The Crusade would be being praised by a lot more people. As it stands, there are just too many songs that aren’t strong enough, and where the vocals especially are too weak to hold your attention through too many listens.

While it may not be their strongest effort, there is still a lot to like. I think there is still a lot for this band to achieve. In more ways than one, their next album may be the most telling release of all.

Faves for me include “Entrance of the Conflagration”, “Anthem (We Are The Fire)” and “The Crusade”

Rating: Not what I expected, but still listenable enough. 3/5.

340. The Police / Crimewatch [Bootleg]. 1980. 4.5/5

This is an A-quality soundboard recording bootleg, which is a great insight into the sound and manner of a great band when they were working their way up to super-stardom.
Containing most of their great songs from the era, Crimewatch not only shares with us the intimacy that The Police shared with their fans and audience, it also gives us wonderful live peformances of great songs before they were overformatted, and turned into ponderous freestyle jazz versions, which these days start to send their audiences to sleep. There is nothing wrong with playing extended versions of their songs - they do so right here on a couple of them - but they need to be done right. Here, they are. On their recent Reunion world tour, they were not.

Favourites for me here include "Next To You", "So Lonely", "Driven To Tears", "Message In A Bottle", "Roxanne" and "Can't Stand Losing You".

Rating: For the fan, this is a must get. 4.5/5

339. Australian Crawl / Crawl File. 1994. 4/5

The definitive best-of collection from one of Australian rocks best acts of the early to mid 1980's. Australian Crawl had a number of hits on the singles charts, and were quite popular at the time. Strangely enough, their music probably became more popular after the group had split up, still getting good airplay on the rock radio stations around the country.

Best here include "Beautiful People", "Errol", "Indisposed", "Downhearted", "Reckless (Don't Be So)" and "The Boys Light Up".

Rating: A good collection from a good solid group. 4/5

338. MD.45 / The Craving. 1996. 3/5

When this was originally released way back when, it had Lee Ving on vocals, and to be quite honest it was this version of the album I was looking for when I was tracking it down. Unfortunately it has been extremely difficult to find. Thus, I have only the remastered version, which has Dave Mustaine redoing the vocals. In a way this was disappointing. It pretty much is now a Megadeth album, rather than a side project album as I was hoping to hear.
Anyway, enough of that.

What we have here is an album that is quite diverse from what Mustaine was doing with Megadeth, as you should expect being a side-project. Some of it is quite effective, while some of it falls rather flat. You can’t go into this looking for a Megadeth album or you will be sorely disappointed. In the end, you may be anyway. This is a different style of music, and perhaps works better with the original vocalist – one day I hope to find out.
As it is, this is an interesting experiment. In some ways you can see the beginnings of what became Megadeth’s Risk album here. Many will find that a chilling thought.

Best for me include “Day The Music Died”, “Designer Behaviour” and “The Creed”.

Rating: The original effort may have been more alluding. 3/5.

337. Pantera / Cowboys From Hell. 1990. 3.5/5

I’ve never been a huge Pantera fan. This probably comes from not having been exposed to them when they were emerging than anything untoward in their style. Because of this I tend to be a bit more critical of their music than I may otherwise have been.
Cowboys From Hell is probably the band's final transitional stage from hair metal band with little to go for them, into a metal band of some substance. On this album they have begun to discover the style that not only suits them but brought them their fan base.

"Cowboys From Hell" almost sounds like a Skid Row song, and while it is a good song, it is more of their earlier style than the one they are striving for. "Primal Concrete Sledge" and "Psycho Holiday" do nothing alleviate this nor advance the album in ones thoughts.
Songs like "Heresy" are where this album really cooks. This is in the style of thrash greats like early Exodus and Mortal Sin. It has a great riff all the way through and the drumming is superb. Realistically, this is the direction Pantera had to go, to get away from those early hair metal disaasters. this is followed by the groovy "Cemetery Gates", which works on some levels and not others. When it moves along at pace, with Dimebag's guitar and Anselmo trying to sing with a bit of grunt, it does work. But the song is so two-paced in this regard you just can't get into it. Potential wasted.
"Domination" is perhaps the best song on the album, combining great drumming with a rollicking riff and solo, and vocals that are now showing power and anthemic qualities. This is followed by "Shattered" which continues the good of the album, although Anselmo trying to do a Rob Halford on vocals is a little amusing. Vinnie Paul's drumwork is outstanding though. Similar comments for "Clash With Reality", on which I think Anselmo is at his best.
"Medicine Man", "Message in Blood" and "The Sleep" don't quite meet this standard. Anselmo changes up his vocals again, and not for the better. There is nothing special here, nothing outstanding, and perhaps one or even two of them could have been left off. More is not necessarily better.
The closer "The Art of Shredding" restores some order, as Dimebag showcases his wares in a fitting finale to Pantera's best album to this point of their career.

The summary here is that half the album is outstanding stuff, with great metal songs and superb work by everyone in the band. The other half needed some work, or some revising or reworking. It doesn't quite hold up all the way through. The guts of the album is its strength, while the two ends probably let it down.
Vinnie Paul on drums and Rex Brown on bass are terrific, forming a great rhythm section. Dimebag's guitaring in places is just blistering and worth every cent it cost to buy this album. Phil Anselmo gives a mixed performance, but again, when he's giving it some, such as on "Domination" and "Clash With Reality" he is at the top of his game.
Fix those opening three songs, and the three close to the end of the album. Then this really could have been a classic.

336. Deep Purple / Concerto for Group and Orchestra. 1969. 2.5/5

Not a bad idea, I guess, and especially with John Lord's influence. In the long run though, it is a classical piece that, if you put on and listen to expecting Deep Purple, you will be disappointed. Which I am whenever it gets dragged out and has the dust blown off it.

Rating: Not to my style as such. 2.5/5