643. Crimson Glory / Crimson Glory. 1986. 3.5/5

I can honestly say that I had never heard of Crimson Glory up until about four months ago, when a fellow 80's metal head on a music forum somewhere asked me "have you heard Crimson Glory?" My negative response to this brought the inevitable urgent pushing that I should drop everything I was doing and get out there and get it. While I agreed that I would do so, it took me another couple of months to get around to finding said album.
When I first put it on, my immediate response to myself was "Why have I not heard about this album before now?!" It really is a mystery, because all of the elements that originally drew me to heavy metal are all here.

Had it been that I had discovered this album when it was released, all those years ago, it is quite possible, even probable, that I would be absolutely raving about the amazing positives of Crimson Glory and slapping a big five stars all across it. As it is, for the most part I have only positive things to say about it now.
The vocals and the guitars are the first things that hit you about this album. It is very easy to hear the influence that bands like Judas Priest and Queensrÿche had with Crimson Glory. the early songs such as "Valhalla" and "Dragon Lady" not only have that Queensrÿche melodic guitar sound in them, they are pumped full of not only the Judas Priest twin guitar assault, they have the vocals. Crimson Glory lead singer, Midnight (yes, that's correct, his name is Midnight) goes all out to be almost a Rob Halford clone. He hits notes as high, and as long, as almost no one but Halford could do in that age, and the similarities between them are quite obvious. This is not to suggest they are a clone band, but that influence really comes through in their songs.

I can't help but enjoy this album, and this is where the crux of the argument comes to play. Given the improvement in production, this would sound so much better if it was recorded today. And the problem of discovering an album now that I really should have back in the days of 1986 means it is now being marked against all of the albums I've had since then, but have listened to half a million times, compared to the dozen I have now listened to Crimson Glory. As I stated within here, I really believe if I had had this album for that length of time, it would be getting a extremely positive ratings result. As it is, I like this a lot, but on a comparable scale across all my albums, it falls short of the great ones.

642. Shadows Fall / Fire From the Sky. 2012. 1.5/5

Given that my only other experience with Shadows Fall is their 2002 release The War Within, which tickled my fancy enough at the time, I came into this with an open mind, but hope in my heart. I had initially walked into The War Within by mistake, and had found it to be a better than average release at a time when I had been looking for new material. Despite that, I had never gotten around to listening to anything since then before now.
I laughed when I read a fellow “Rate Your Music” user ask the question “Wait… is this Metallica?”, because on the opening two songs, there are a number of things that are reminiscent of the latter days of the veteran metal giants. To an extent it is uncanny, but there is no surprise that bands out there are using some of their influences in their own music.

At this point, though, I am able to say that this album is, rather harshly, a failure. I'm not sure I am able to pin point exactly where and how this fails to find the mark. The vocals just don't seem to bring across any sense of intensity or emotion. Fast drums and heavy guitar riffs mean nothing if they aren't arranged into exacting tones. Does this band, and this album, want to be thrash or metalcore or turn towards a mainstream metal sound? It seems a little confusing here as to their intent. More than anything else, despite their interesting arrangement of their heavier riffs, they combine it with their clear, song-halting explorations at awkward moments.
Given the length of time since my last visitation with the band, perhaps I was expecting too much. What I received instead was something of a disappointment. It starts off okay with "The Unknown", "Divide and Conquer" and "Weight of the World", which are reasonable songs if a little off-putting. The afore-mentioned similarities to Metallica are only enhanced by the missing power element in the songs. What follows unfortunately does not dismiss these feelings of abandonment, with a couple of critical elements missing from this entire recording.

Not having had an intimate relationship with the band's material in the past I am probably not qualified to give an absolute trashing of their latest release. Suffice to say that the result will stop me from actively pursuing any of their other material for the time being, because if it is all similar to this I feel I would be wasting my time.

641. Soulfly / Enslaved. 2012. 3/5

It's been a long time since Max and his first band took the world by storm with their new take on heavy metal, and made people stand up and take notice. When he eventually left that band and formed Soulfly, he put out a debut album that hinted of good thiings to come.
Since that time... well... it hasn't been bad, but it has been like a conveyor belt, each album dishing out much the same product with little change or inspiration. And as I have said on countless occasions, that is not always a bad thing, and for big fans of the band they will no doubt love every moment of this.

For me - well, Soulfly is a band I can listen to and respect their work, but I am not a fanatic. Like so many bands for whom Sepultura and then Soulfly have blazed a path - bands like Lamb of God, Trivium and Arch Enemy - unless the material is outstandingly good, it can get either very similar and pointless or just plain boring.
And this isn't bad, not by a long shot. It jumps off at a cracking pace with the intro "Resistance" leading straight into "World Scum", which is then followed by my two favourote tracks "Intervention" and "Gladiator" which are led by blinding drums and super solo guitar work. "Legions" brings forth more of the same. I seriously am awestruck by some of the rolls by David Kinkade on this song. Just blinding. The rhythm riff through the song is also a pearler.
My main discourse with the back end of the album is that I think the songs get a bit long, and as result lose a bit of the impact the the start of the album delivers.

All in all, this is another solid release from the Soulfly icon, and while it may not break any new barriers it certainly keeps the band and its leader at the forefront of this style of heavy metal.

640. Lacuna Coil / Dark Adrenaline. 2012. 2/5

Well, it's been a long time coming, but I have finally gotten around to checking out a Lacuna Coil album. I could (and maybe should) have checked out an earlier release of theirs to ease my way in, but when the opportunity came along to grab their new album I decided to take it. I had heard fair reports on their music, and was absolutely taken by Cristina Scabbia's guest vocal on Megadeth's "A Tout le Monde (Set Me Free)". Thus the time had arrived.

The album is catchy from the start, in a hard rock alternative kind, certainly not a metal kind of way. there are obvious similarities to draw between Lacuna Coil and Evanescence in their sound. "Trip the Darkness" and "Against You" kickstart the album at the right pace, while "Kill the Light" is another rocking song. I think the main thing these songs are missing is a bit of grunt, a real kick in the guitars, drums and vocals to really bring the maximum out of them. They're good rock songs, but they need a metal injection to increase their work load.
"Give Me Something More" is lacking something more, while "Upsidedown" has too much of Andrea on vocal in his monotonal chords. "End of Time" is the power ballad every band feels obliged to include on every album, while "I Don't Believe in Tomorrow" has the band trying to do a weak impression of a Therapy? inspired song - or so it sounds to my ears. It doesn't come off at all.
"Intoxicated" returns the album to a better standard, and this is supported by "The Army Inside", both a little faster paced with better riff work, and more of Cristina on vocals. The reworked R.E.M. cover "Losing My Religion" doesn't really work for me, but in reality it was a brave song to try and cover. "Fire" follows the improvement of the last few songs on the album, while "My Spirit" tries to be a bit too moody and soulful, and really just drags out the conclusion of the piece.

The one thing I can absolutely discern is that this band is a 70 to 80% better sounding band when Cristina is on vocals rather than when Andrea takes over. The duelling vocals style of the band is not one that I adverse to, but the exacting differences in their vocal approach and pitch is what really irritates me. It's not as if it is really terrible, but it is simply that the songs sound better and more in the correct pitch when Cristina is singing.

This isn't all bad, and does show potential in places. But in the end, it will probably not progress any further in my collection than something that can act as background music while I'm working.

639. Devin Townsend Project / Ghost. 2011. 0.5/5

About ten years ago my wife went out and bought a double CD called Open Space: The Classic Chillout Album, which was exactly as the title suggested. It contains about 40 songs that all sound exactly the same, in supposedly calming nature which is meant to be enjoyed in a relaxed, quiet atmosphere to help the listener to 'chill out'. Quite honestly, it is up there with some of the worst albums it has ever been my misfortune to have to listen to. It is possibly even more vile than those champions of crap, Echobrain and Lulu.

The reason I bring this up is because when I first put on Ghost I thought I had inadvertently put on Open Space: The Classic Chillout Album by mistake.

Ghost is an exercise by Devin Townsend to complete a four album stint which apparently showcases the four parts of his personality or some such crap. So do you describe this album as his soft and sensitive side, or his boring as shit, crap, lobotomised side? How harsh in judgement can you be? Quite clearly, this album is not to my taste in music, and despite the fact that it is a part of a quadrilogy of set styles, should I be bagging it? Well... yes, I can. Because if Iron Maiden came out and did this album, I would be roasting them. If Metallica came out and did this album, well, I guess we'd all shrug our shoulders and just expect it.

There is no question that the quality of the playing and production is top notch. That has never been in question in Devin's work. But I can't swallow this bile. Obviously there are any number of people who will enjoy this album, many of them who would have nothing to do with Devin's other work. If you are into new age or ambient music, this may in fact be your Abbey Road. But as a conclusion to his Project, it is even more disconcerting than what has come before it.

638. Devin Townsend Project / Deconstruction. 2011. 1.5/5

It was only at a friend's insistence that I “must listen to his new albums” that I decided to revisit Devin Townsend and his work. It has been some time since I had listened to Strapping Young Lad's Alien album, which had both intrigued and bored me at the same time. In short, his style of manic mayhem does not sit in my sphere of music listening enjoyment. However, having had the albums forced into my hands and told to report back with “how much you loved them”, I decided to delve into its mystique.

As with most of his stuff, this is really out there. It is the kind of music that I can imagine some parents listening to for about thirty seconds and then calling up for the priest to perform an exorcism. It truly is a wall of sound, punctuated by periods of morose acoustic musings. Some of these songs (“Juular” in particular, and half of “The Mighty Masturbator”) almost sound like he’s trying to write a carnival song - albeit an extreme type of carnival song. There’s a bit of everything here, and while that will no doubt please his followers, it really just confuses me.

I appreciate Devin’s undoubted talents, all the way back to his version of Judas Priest’s “Sinner” on A Tribute to Judas Priest: Legends of Metal tribute album. But his own music and style just doesn’t sit with me at all. Deconstruction to me is a little like sitting in the dentist’s chair – the soft mood music is the edginess before it all starts, and the frantic wave of noise is the dentist’s drill as it hacks into your molars. I can absolutely see why fans of Devin Townsend would love this, because it is much like his other material. To be honest, I will at some stage have to check out the first two albums in this four piece set just to satisfy my curiosity, but I no longer need to dwell on this album, nor its successor Ghost.

637. Queensrÿche / Halfway Jam 28-7-2012 [Bootleg]. 2012. 4/5

After all of the bickering, after all of the bad blood, after all of the court injunctions over who owned the rights to names and music and so forth... finally, it came back to the music. This bootleg album records the first official performance of Queensrÿche with new singer Todd La Torre, and for that alone it is an historical and significant recording.

The setlist is pretty much confined to all of their album up to 1991's Empire, songs that the band portion of Queensrÿche had claimed that Geoff Tate had no interest in ever revisiting. Whether that is accurate or not, the performance of these classic tracks gives La Torre a perfect opportunity to show off his wares to his new band's fan base. What it proves is that he has a pretty fair set of pipes, and his vocals are not unlike his predecessor, which while it may be limiting in some ways probably doesn't hurt him in this instance.

This is a particularly good audience bootleg of a B+ standard. While the vocals may be a little down in the mix, it still is good enough to appreciate both La Torre's vocals along with the performance of the band itself, and both are excellent. La Torre in particular makes very few key errors, and as a live performance it is excellent.
In the long run, it is great to hear Queensryche as a band can still play. Their most important duty from ll of the turbulence of the last few months will be to prove that they can indeed live up to their end of the bargain, and go back to writing material like what they have played on this bootleg. It has been the fans' biggest bugbear in the last 15 years. Now that the band itself believes they have identified what the problem was, they have to prove they are as good as their word.

The playlist here is as follows:

01 Intro (1:23)
02 Queen Of The Reich (4:18)
03 Speak (4:23)
04 Neue Regel (4:48)
05 Walk In The Shadows (3:39)
06 En Force (5:19)
07 I Don't Believe In Love (4:42)
08 Child Of Fire (5:56)
09 The Whisper (3:54)
10 Warning (4:52)
11 Spreading The Disease (4:28)
12 The Needle Lies (3:29)
13 Prophecy (4:06)
14 Take Hold Of The Flame (4:56)
15 My Empty Room (1:48)
16 Eyes Of A Stranger (6:44)
17 Empire (5:34)
18 Encore Break (2:58)
19 Wrathchild [Iron Maiden cover] (3:09)
20 Jet City Woman (5:51)
21 Roads To Madness (10:35)

Download link can be found here : http://turbobit.net/j72id6nsxsb4.html

636. Sixx:A.M. / This Is Gonna Hurt. 2011. 2/5.

Another Nikki Sixx side project that shows potential without really ever getting into gear. I was intrigued with his previous effort, Brides of Destruction, and got well and truly burned by it. I wasn't sure what to expect on this occasion.

I honestly cannot put my finger on what it is that stops me from completely liking this release. Is it the fact that it is almost in the vein of commercial hard rock such as the abhorred Nickelback? Is it that James Michael's vocals are just a little too much like they are honey coated, and perhaps closing in to be similar to the vocals in the abhorred Nickelback and also to Myles Kennedy? Is it just that the style of music is not to my preferred heavy metal taste? Is it that this is yet another release that has prgrammed drum tracks rather than the real thing being played? You can take all of those answers and you still wouldn't be quite correct, but you'd be closer to the outcome.

The opener "This Is Gonna Hurt" is catchy, and it is the song that encouraged me to give the album a chance. The follow up songs "Lies of the Beautiful People" and "Are You With Me" also have their moments. "Live Forever" is where things start to head in the wrong direction. It has a very commercialised rock feel to the song both vocally and musically, and it does not sit right with me. Worse is to follow on "Sure Feels Right", the rock ballad that is directed at people who have musical taste a full 180 degrees apart from me. Cliched rubbish. "Deadlihood" is in much the same fashion as "Live Forever" as a very average type of hard rock song. "Smile" is the next ballad on the album (not even a power ballad or a rock ballad. It's just a ballad). Woeful.

Well, I guess you are starting to get the idea. It's not as if I thought i was going to get a superstar album, something that was going to blow me away with raw power and aggression. What we have is actually a fairly slickly written, recorded and produced hard rock album that is competently played and sung. And no doubt there is an audience out there that will lap it up. But the combination of standardised rock and ballad compositions really does little for me in the long run. It is missing a couple of vital ingredients that could make it someting worth talking about. In the end, apart from a couple of entries, it is rather run of the mill.

635. Fear Factory / The Industrialist. 2012. 3/5

The return of Fear Factory with their eighth release was always going to be an interesting time. With Burton and Dino still reunited, but without any other semblance of band members, how was the writing and recording process going to go, and could it continue the revival of the Fear Factory brand?
I couldn't help but like this from the very start. Dino and Burton haven't strayed far from the tried and true Fear factory handbook, with heavy screaming vocals surrounded by the standard guitar riffs and double kick, double time drums. "The Industrial", "Recharger" and "New Messiah" are all solid tracks.

After two or three songs though, you just feel that the drums are almost mechanical, with a similarity of all of the rolls and fills througout most of the songs. It came as no surprise then to finally discover that the band (Dino and Burton) had actually programmed the drums on the album. Sure it might sound good for the most part, but it is a little disappointing. Perhaps they felt they had to bow to using a machine to get the most out of what they wanted for the album, but does that mean you resort to the same machine when you tour? Do they become basically a karaoke band, with just vocals and guitar standing in front of machinery on stage providing the rhythm section? Some love of the album is therefore lost because not only does it sound mechanised (no pun intended on the name of previous album), it actually is. Maybe they felt it was to much effort to find a drummer to produce what they wanted, but the result is that it now just feels too produced.
Even given this, I think it is a step up from Mechanize again. It most certainly has nothing new involved. Burton and Dino have gone back to grabbing the essence of what made Fear Factory the band they are, and drip fed it into the writing process to produce another solid effort.

"God Eater" is a different tempo from the opening tracks that grows on you after a few listens. "Depraved Mind Murder" and "Virus of Faith" restores the pace and vibrancy of the album, kicking along at a rate of knots. It is only when Burton's clear vocals come in that the songs seem to lose some of their gloss, it just feels as though it softens the output of these songs when that occurs.
"Difference Engine" starts off as true Fear Factory metal gold, hard guitars and vocals growling with intent. Great stuff. "Dissemble" is just as good, punching out the heavy guitar and vocals almost to the completion of the song.

But what is with the eleven minutes of rubbish that closes the album? OK, it's a concept album, and the last two songs, "Religion Is Flawed Because Man Is Flawed" and "Human Augmentation" is telling the closure of the tale. But nothing actually HAPPENS! What on earth is the point of doing that if the songs aren't't actually songs, it is eleven minutes of metallic industrial silence? They have effectively written a song that has been placed on an album that no one will EVER listen to again after their first playing. Good enough idea, but just far too long and unnecessary in the full scheme of an album to deal with again.

So there it is. Nothing new, different, ground breaking or sensational from the band. Fans will find enough here to keep them satisfied, while there is also enough here for the novice Fear factory listener to think it might be worthwhile checking out their back catalogue.

634. Tim "Ripper" Owens / Play My Game. 2009. 2.5/5

After a career to this point that consisted of singing in about half a dozen bands, including giants Judas Priest and Iced Earth and Yngwie Malmsteen, this is Ripper's first solo release. As he was also the major contributer to writing all of the songs, it is also an interesting insight into how his vision of his music is sighted.

For me, from the very beginning, these songs are just far too slow in tempo, and they appear to be that way in order to showcase the strength of Ripper's voice than to actually write a good song. "Starting Over" should be a belter as it has the right bones, but the fire just doesn't take as the song drifts along without catching. In "Believe" Ripper seems to be trying too hard to be passionate where there is no passion in the song. It just ends up stretching a boring song to lengths unnecessary, without any hooks. "The Cover Up" is poorly put together. Once again the song melody is just all wrong, especially when Ripper now decides it is time to hit his higher range when really the song dictates that he should be down lower with the heavier type vocal range. And what is with the lyrics? Wow. Jeff Loomis does save the song a little, but there isn't much help there. "Is It Me" and "No Good Goodbyes" sound like they want to be a cross between Alice in Chains and Judas Priest without being able to pull off the sense of power and angst that such a combination would produce. They both have flaws but are listenable.

"The World is Blind" is another in a bland, boring song arrangement. Ripper tries to do the mournful, ballad type of vocals over music that does nothing, and gets closer to sending you to sleep with its repetition than feeling any emotion. Very average, especially considering artists as talented as Doug Aldrich, Billy Sheehan and Simon Wright play on the song.
"To Live Again" gets closer to what you would expect, a punchier song with Michael Wilton and Dave Ellefson contributing heavily in the mix. Junior's bassline is the best part of the song. But there is still a mystifying lull in the middle of the song that just sucks the guts out of it, with Ripper slowing up the pace again by trying to over-emote in his vocals, and in the long run ties it to the rest of the tunes on this album. The same goes with "The Light", the song just doesn't get out of first gear and give itself a chance. We get the full complement of Ripper's range here, somewhat layered over each other, but it just lacks strength.
"Play My Game" is probably one of the better songs on the album, but it too suffers from having any progress the song had made stopped dead in its tracks by the middle of the song, which rips the heart out some great guitar work which tries to get the song going before Ripper starts chanting in slow motion.

"Death Race" is how this album SHOULD have sounded. A great guitar riff starts off the song in the right fashion, and Ripper gets going with his best work, not only singing some worthwhile lyrics, but testing his range without feeling as though he is trying too hard. This is all complemented by great guitar solos in the middle of the song, and Ripper wins on this occasion. This is by far the best song on the album, and if only this had been the basis for how the whole album was written, we would all have been far more impressed and happy.
Unfortunately, the lesson has not been completely learned, as with "The Shadows Are Alive" the band try to put together a memorable closer which doesn't come off as they would have liked, despite some nice guitar work towards the end of the song. Why they had to make the song so slow in taking off is beyond me, because the end does start to come together. Make the whole song with the intensity of the second half of the song and it would have been so much better.

Play My Game really is a disappointment. It could have been a real talking point, an effort that showcased exactly what Ripper can do in a fast heavy environment. Instead, for the most part it plods along without a great deal of life. Is he destined to go through his career as a 'singer for hire' lead vocalist without really establishing himself as an artist of repute? It's possible, and there's no great shame in that, but you would just like to see someone who has a voice like Ripper really put out some killer albums and get the respect and plaudits he deserves.

633. Helloween / Master of the Rings. 1994. 4.5/5

After the critically panned and sales failure (although they got my money) of the quite dreadful Chameleon, Helloween had a lot of work to do to regain the faith of their fans and the heavy metal community as a whole. The complete change of direction of that album caused fans (particularly me) a lot of heartache, and one could only wonder if they could ever return to the heady position they had once held.
The victims of the fall out were lead singer Michael Kiske (who in the years since his departure has been lumbered with much of the blame for the direction that Chameleon took) and drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg, who tragically took his own life a year later. In their place came in former Pink Cream 69 lead vocalist Andi Deris, and former Gamma Ray drummer Uli Kusch.

The instrumental intro of "Irritation" kicks off the album, before the raucous beginning of "Sole Survivor" signs with intent the revival of Helloween from the outset. The superb tub thumping from Kusch and a heavy guitar riff blasts the album immediately into the right direction. Andi Deris announces his arrival in emphatic fashion, his vocals punching through with passion, and the album is off to a great start. "Where the Rain Grows" is a great follow up, again played at a great pace, and the real "happy" guitars that made Helloween what they were in the late 1980's. You get that old uplifting feeling from these early tunes, a quality that had gone missing on recent releases.
"Why?" comes out as a rather scathing lyrically based song, questioning why it is that if an omnipotent being exists, why does it not stop all of the harm that is occurring in the world. As Andi Deris' first stand alone composition for his new band, it makes quite a statement. The same is true of "Mr Ego (Take Me Down)", another lyrically hard hitting song that is backed up by great music, though on a less vibrant note. At over seven minutes it is progressive not only in style but in length, and perhaps it overstays its welcome a little. What really comes through on these songs is that not only has the band begun to rediscover some of their early mojo, they still have the ability to make a statement without ramming it down your throat.
"Perfect Gentleman" is not only the most surprising song on Master of the Rings, it is also quite possibly the best. It mixes heavy guitar with light keyboards, genuine enthusiasm with pointed lyrics, and sung in the blinded belief of the honest opinion. The performance of Andi Deris, playing the part of the 'genuine man' is marvellous and makes the song a gem because of it. You can only imagine that this was a biography of someone the authors of the song knew.

Even given the highest quality that the first half of this album provides, the terrific songs keep coming into the second half. "The Game is On", "Secret Alibi" and "Take Me Home" are all good songs that don't quite reach the heights of those earlier, but are more than just average songs.
As an avowed abhorrer of power ballads on any metal album, it comes as much of a shock to me than anyone else that I love "In the Middle of a Heartbeat", as big a power ballad as you could ever hope to hear. And yet, it is performed so well, and sung with such passion that you cannot help but like it. On an album full of surprises, this was a pleasant one.
The album concludes with "Still We Go", an almost biographical song that comments on the rise, and fall, and (hopeful) rise again of the band. Roland Grapow excels in these kind of songs, and here he is at his best. Great stuff.

My edition of this album came with a bonus CD, that not only contains Roland's own "Grapowski's Malmsuite 1001" as a tribute to his hero Yngwie Malmsteen, but other excellent B-side material "Can't Fight Your Desire", "Star Invasion" and "Silicon Dreams". It also has cover songs such as "I Stole Your Love" by Kiss, "Cold Sweat" by Thin Lizzy and "Closer to Home" by Grand Funk Railroad. All of these songs appear on the singles released form the album.

The style of Master of the Rings is caught somewhere between an out-and-out power metal release and a progressive rock element, with an assortment of songs that on the whole, combine to make a terrific album. Needless to say it is a vast improvement on its predecessor, and though many of the songs have great riffs and terrific drumwork as well as Deris’ awesome vocals, it is different again from anything the band has produced before. It is however a stepping stone, and one on which they make significant progress on as they move forward over the next three albums.

632. AC/DC / Who Made Who. 1986. 4.5/5

In the main, this album serves as the soundtrack to the Stephen King penned movie Maximum Overdrive, a moderately enjoyable film with big trucks that gain their own conscious state. As a collection of songs, both newly recorded and a smattering of good 'uns from their back catalogue, this becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

The headline song is the title track, "Who Made Who" which became a huge anthem through the late 80's. It's popularity and importance to the AC/DC catalogue is obvious, and more than makes this compilation on its own.
There are two other new songs on this release, and both are instrumentals, "D.T." and "Chase the Ace". Both are great additions as well (with "D.T." becoming a favourite to play for the band I was in during my early twenties).
The remainder of the album is packed with great songs from their other albums. I like it because this is not a greatest hits collection, it is a soundtrack collection, so rather than getting the most popular songs of the band, you get a mix of songs that provided a background during the movie.
The obvious are included - "You Shook Me All Night Long" and "Hells Bells" from the Back in Black album boom along nicely, and fall into this category. There are the great "Sink the Pink" and "Shake Your Foundations" from the underrated Fly on the Wall album, the understated "Ride On" (the only contribution from Bon Scott here) from the Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap album, and the awesome "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)" from the album of the same name that closes out the album.

This is not a greatest hits album, but it is a great collection of some terrific AC/DC songs, not all of which are often considered when it comes to putting together a 'best-of' list, that is more than worthwhile owning.

631. Fates Warning / A Pleasant Shade of Gray. 1997. 2.5/5

Is it a brave move or a strange move or just a progressive move to decide that you will not only record a concept album, but for all intents and purposes make it just one song, in a number of acts? This is pretty much what Fates Warning have done here on A Pleasant Shade of Gray. The album is basically one 55 minute song, in twelve parts without a title. It is so designed that it is really not an option to throw on the CD and just choose one 'song' to play, because it would seem out of place.
The concept album is not a rare beast in the progressive rock and metal genre. In fact, it is almost a prerequisite. the fact that it had taken Fates Warning so long to release one could be seen to be out of place.

So how do you approach this album? In my mind, after several listens, you have to be in the right mood, and you have to let it play from start to finish without interruption. It is, after all, just one song. Overall this is quite a mellowing album, there really isn't a lot of metal about it. It has all the complicated guitar and drum pieces that you expect from this band, and certainly the complex time changes that dominate an album of this genre. But it never reaches any thumping proportions. It almost slides along like a waterfall cascading into a stream. And this is where I feel you have to be in the right place to actually put this on. If you want to slump quietly into your favourite armchair, perhaps with a book, away from the world, this album can be very rewarding. It's a reflective kind of album. If you are looking to put something on to get the blood pumping, then this certainly isn't it.

Like many people, it took me a little while to 'get' this album, to find its place and to appreciate it for what it is. And once I had reached that place, I did find it rewarding in its own way. It's not going to please everyone, and it isn't for those that are looking for a metal album. Would I possibly call it 'easy listening' progressive rock? Perhaps. But the musicianship is faultless, and the vocals are spot on. Even so, it won't be for everyone, and the lengthy passages of light instrumentals may well turn off many followers.

630. Ozzy Osbourne / Just Say Ozzy. 1990. 4/5

Ozzy's previous studio album, No Rest For the Wicked had introduced his new guitarist with his own unique style and sound, Zakk Wylde. On the tour that followed the band was joined by Ozzy's former Black Sabbath bandmate, Geezer Butler, on bass, while the wonderful Randy Castillo retained his position on the drumstool. With such a barnstorming foursome, the live shows on the tour were out of this world, with all of the songs having both Geezer and Zakk putting their own special touches on them. As a moment in time, it was perfect that these live performances be captured and recorded.

Here then is the result, the EP Just Say Ozzy.Many critics believe it is too short, and that a full live set should have been released. That is possibly true, but coming so close on the heels of the Randy Rhoads Tribute live release, it was perhaps seen as too much too soon. This would be rectified a few years later with the Live & Loud album.
My opinion is that this was just perfect at the time. As an EP, it still runs at thirty minutes, which in the days when normal vinyl LP's would run at around 45 to 50 minutes was pretty good. It contains three songs from the No Rest For the Wicked album, the excellent "Miracle Man", the surprising "Bloodbath in Paradise", and the floor leveling "Tattooed Dancer", where Zakk Wylde just smokes. There is also a great version of "Shot in the Dark" from The Ultimate Sin album. Topping off the album, no doubt inspired by Geezer's presence on tour, the band play two Black Sabbath classics, "Sweet Leaf" and "War Pigs". Awesome stuff.

On its release this was an excellent lay over between albums, and showed that Zakk Wylde could perform live the way he had recorded in the studio, and that Geezer Butler was still an absolute legend. As a piece of history, it still holds its place.

629. Scorpions / Comeblack. 2011. 3/5

With the news a couple of years ago that Scorpions were going to release their final album, and then follow that up with their final tour, there was expectation and weariness. Sting in the Tail came and went, another average release with that good ol' Scorpions sound. And then this arrives on the doorstep, and the initial thoughts are, 'mid-tour filler?' Well, the answer is, for the most part, yes.
Scorpions have had any number of greatest hits albums. I think I have five or six of them myself. How many generations of listeners do you have to try and lure in with yet another compilation, when in all likelihood you've dragged in all the fans you can muster?

The lure of Comeblack is the twofold set-up of the album. The first half contains several of the band's most popular hits, re-recorded in the current day and given a spit polish with a modern edge. And it is a veritable best of - "Rhythm of Love", "No One Like You", "The Zoo", "Rock You Like A Hurricane", "Blackout", "Wind of Change" and "Still Loving You". These are the songs that made Scorpions the band they are. They all sound great. But we've heard it all before. Could this not have been an opportunity, given that this is supposedly the swansong for the band, to drag up some rarities, some gems that aren't as well known, and up date them well and give them some exposure to fans who may well not know they even existed? Did it really need yet another shot at "Rock You Like A Hurricane" to get people to buy this album? It's great to listen to, but I think it was an opportunity lost.

The second half of the album are cover  versions of songs that the band enjoy or drew inspiration from. It is an eclectic mix. The Gloria Jones song (though made much more famous by Soft Cell's version in the early 80's) "Tainted Love" is given a funky do-over, and is probably the best version of the secondary part of the album. T.Rex's well known and well covered "Children of the Revolution" is another standout. The other artists to be honored here are The Beatles' with "Across the Universe", Small Faces' "Tin Soldier", The Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night" and The Rolling Stones' "Ruby Tuesday", and all of these versions have a bit of the Scorpions sound injected into them.

While the album is done well, performed well, and produced well, it's a novelty. The Scorpions songs will always be better in their original album environment, because that's what we remember them as. The cover songs are like all bands who do cover albums - these versions sound OK for a few listens, but if the songs are any good, you will always drift back to the original versions because of that. Worth a listen, but in the end it's a stocking filler.

628. Testament / The Legacy. 1987. 4.5/5

Plenty will argue about what are the best debut albums of bands ever released. There will be widely differing opinions, and many will point to their favourite band as having supplied the answer to the question. If asked, high on my list would be The Legacy, as it ticks just about every box possible in delivering a wonderful album.

"Over the Hill" is just an awesome opening song, a real smash-you-in-the-face welcoming. "We are Testament, now take this!" This is what thrash metal was all about, heavy blazing guitars, great drum work and a driving forceful vocalist. "The Haunting" continues in this trend. Guitarists Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson, who wrote almost all of the music for this album, are in great form, keeping these songs at maximum tempo. I love "Burnt Offerings", which is the song that follows, but its one flaw is that it does feel sometimes that it is just oe riff being played for five minutes straight. Not necessarily a bad thing, but compared to the rest of the album it is a little unusual. "Raging Waters" has the speed of the other songs, but is... how should I put this... a little 'lighter in substance' than the others. If you had only listened this far into the album, you may well think that Testament were a bit 'samey'. This is relieved by "C.O.T.L.O.D." (Curse of the Legions of Death), which restores the real Testament legacy (no pun intended) to the forefront.

"First Strike is Deadly' is still a brilliant song, one of Testament's best ever. It careers along at headbanging pace, with Chuck Billy's vocals menacing over some brilliant guitar work, especially in the solo break where true Iron Maiden-esque great harmony guitars prove that these guys are not just a one trick pony. "Do or Die" ups the pace even more, complemented by another brilliant solo break. "Alone in the Dark" follows up and does exactly the same, thrashing along with all elements pefectly in alignment. But then comes "Apocalyptic City", the riff-lined, bass-thumping, drum-induced closer to the album, that ramps it all up to eleven. There's no time to rest. You start moshing from the start, and there is no respite. It is a crime to finish the album on this song, as it leaves you so amped up that you just need to start it again from the start. Brilliant stuff.

All the great elements of the thrash genre are here - super duelling and co-operative guitarists going at it hell for leather, with a great bass and drum rhythm section perfectly in sync with their partners, while Billy's vocals at times monster through the speakers at you. Peterson and Skolnick can rightly be compared to Hannerman and King, and Hetfield and Hammett on this album. They are just superb. If you are a confessed headbanger, you already own this album. If you are wondering what the deal is with thrash metal, then beginning with this album wouldn't be such a bad idea.

627. Symphony X / Symphony X. 1994. 3/5

Symphony X's debut came at a time when grunge was already fading away in the memory, and complex guitar and keyboard composing bands were again rising in estimation of the music listening world populi. As soon as you put on the album there are the unmistakable influences of bands such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Dream Theater and Michael Schenker Group, not only musically but even vocally. Rod Tylor's vocals are very similar in pitch to the half a dozen vocalists that Yngwie has used through his career. Michael Romeo's guitaring and Michael Pinnella's keyboards are also heavily influenced by these bands.

The opening intro of "Into the Dementia" leads into "The Raging Season", mixing together all of the elements of progressive metal and it was known at the time, synth and keyboards, a faster guitar riff overlaid with very Brian May-eque solo chords, and power metal vocal effects. This song isn't sure if it is going to be a fast riff-fest or a power ballad, and so it combines both. "Premonition" is led by Pinnella's keys and synths, and though it drifts towards power metal ballad it doesn't quite make it, leaving it also languishing between genres and not able to distinguish itself. "Masquerade" is almost a 80's pop rock direction, and apart from the solo (which really doesn't fit the rest of the pattern of the song) the guitar is buried by the keyboards.
"Absinthe and Rue" starts off with the very progressive nature of heavy guitar riff and prominent atmospheric keyboards, along with the double kick driving the song along, and although it is a good song, you feel as though something is missing.
There is no pretence on "Shades of Gray" however, it is a power ballad without a shadow of a doubt. I can see why some fans would enjoy it, but to me it just bogs the album down at an inopportune time. 

"Taunting the Notorious" tries to restore the balance, coming back in faster and heavier, while Tylor certainly tries to put some oomph in the vocals. "Rapture or Pain" has a good feel to it as well. "Thorns of Sorrow" could have almost been pulled off an Yngwie Malmsteen album, though it is is the keyboards here that dominate rather than the blazing guitar riff.
"A Lesson Before Dying" combines every essence of progressive metal. We have the dominating keys, we have the ninety seven changes in tempo and song parts, we have the bass given its chance to harmonise, we have the soaring vocals, and eventually the flailing of guitar. In the end, it feels as though five different songs have been mashed together to form one twelve minute monster, and really, none of it works well.While Tylor's vocals are good on this album, they just seem a bit thin to carry everything that is going on around them, and when they really need to carry some power, such as in "Absinthe and Rue", they just don't quite come up to the mark. It's nothing against him - I wish I could sing like him - but his replacement from the next album onwards, Russell Allen, really does have that presence.
 
As the opening salvo from this band, it is a bit of a double edged sword. You can hear some good things happening, but in the long run it feels as though the band are just trying too hard to make an immediate impression and impact. It has its moments, but the best is most definitely yet to come.

626. Queensrÿche / American Soldier. 2009. 1/5

Given the improved success of their obvious attention-grabbing previous album, the sequel named Operation: Mindcrime II the writing core of the Queensrÿche band obviously decided that they were on a roll, and that the next step was... another concept album. Because lightning always strikes twice, or three times. No... wait...

Anyway, this is the direction they went in. That's fine. Nothing wrong with having a theme or story running through an album. More important of course is that the creative process is in place, and that the lyrics are sustainable, and that the music itself is enjoyable to the fans. In pretty much every one of these facets, this album falls apart, and badly. There is nothing particularly wrong with the concept, that being focused on the events of war in general, but American Soldier is a flawed concept in all areas of song writing. The songs all struggle their way through at a melancholy, even funereal pace. Lyrically it just seems to repeat itself over and over. Songs are permeated with the interviews of actual soldiers, which is fine if you want to listen to actual soldiers giving their own stories. Honestly, in a song-listening mood, they are just a hinderance. Or in most cases this would be true, but when you have the unimaginative instrumental creations that you have here it doesn't really detract that much. Why would you create such boring, banal music which creates no enthusiasm for the listener? As I said, it is all and fine to set out a story within the framework of an album, but if the music does not inspire or enthuse or ROCK the listener, then how can you possibly hope to retain your fan base?!

The music here is definitely leaning towards a grunge element. In many places it sounds like Soundgarden or Nirvana or Alice in Chains - but without their killer hooks and sponteneity. This just plods along from song to song, barely discernable from one to the next, and not really giving you any real motivation to even try and make the effort to find out. Where are the brilliant duelling guitars that punctuated Queensryche's earlier work? Where is the scintillating drumwork that drove the songs, not just kept a solemn beat in the background? They may as well have had a drum machine in the background for all the use they get out of Scott Rockenfield. Why is this happening? What has caused this enormous change in focus direction with this band's music? There is simply nothing here to get enthused about musically or lyrically.

I revisited this because of the recent break-up within the Queensryche band, and the rhetoric that is going back and forth as to whom was responisble for the direction of the music in the band and who was writing what. No matter what the outcome, it is obvious that this album at least was driven forward by Geoff Tate and his co-writers, who are not a part of the band.
In the long run, this album is just a major disappointment and completely out of synch with the best music that this band has written and performed at its peak. There is no doubt that Tate's voice is still just wonderful, and that the msuicianship is crisp and clear. The songwriting is just of such a boring and uninspiring standard that it is difficult to believe this is the product of the Queensryche brand. Something needs to change if they are to rediscover their mojo, or they will be left to wallow in mediocrity forever.

625. Edguy / Age of the Joker. 2011. 1/5

With Tobias Sammet bouncing between engagements with Edguy, and with the success of the expansionistic episodes of Avantasia's The Wicked Symphony and  Angel of Babylon as well as the live tour and album that followed, it was always going to be interesting to see what he had left in the tank inspiration-wise for his number one act. Not only whether it could live up to what Edguy had done in the past, but whether it could pull itself out of the massive shadow that the multi-starred Avantasia was casting.

What they were thinking when they put "Robin Hood" as the lead-off song here though, I have no idea. This was also the single lifted from the album (albeit a radio friendly 4 minute version), but at over eight minutes in length it is about five minutes too long. It could have had the chaff sifted out and shortened significantly to make it a more appealing song. This song also enhances the opinion that the band has left behind the power metal of wonderful albums like Mandrake and Hellfire Club and progressed closer towards a rock direction.
"Nobody's Hero" is like a throwaway song, something written as a B-side of a single, not the second song of a major album. "Rock of Cashel" sounds like it is trying to be a Blind Guardian song, without the pace and power of a Blind Guardian song. It is quite bland and uninteresting while bringing in the mandolins to try and create an old medievil fair sound. Not good. 
More is to come. The steel guitars come out in "Pandora's Box", which, seriously, should never appear in a song by a power metal band. It just isn't right at all, and while experimentation is fine, surely not in this way. A power metal ballad featuring steel and slide guitars makes this a dreadfully awful track with no redeeming features.
"Breathe" tries to come back to something close to Edguy's classic speed and power metal roots, before the almost gagworthy soft rock ballad "Two Out of Seven" drags the album back into the sickly mire of mediocrity. Is this all Tobi has left? It is repulsive.
"Faces in the Darkness" tries hard to restore some semblance of order but is still too close to the previous song to really enjoy. Finally, "The Arcane Guild" comes, bringing a pacey guitar riff and vocals that more closely resemble the Edguy of old. This is the pick of the album by a country mile.
Of course, it was too good to last, and "Fire on the Downline", despite great vocals from Tobi, is just another power rock ballad with little substance or heart, as if the guitar section of the band had been completely forgotten about.
"Behind the Gates to Midnight World" isn't a completely lost cause, and it does have its moments, though it isn't able to hold onto its momentum all the way through. However, all this is offset by the lacklustre and weak effort of "Every Night Without You". The closing song on the album is a close fought tussle of worst ever Edguy song. This is pretty much like a really awful Bryan Adams ballad, except that the Bryan Adams ballad would be better than this piece of shite. Truly, truly awful uninspiring crap.

I was so looking forward to this album when it was released, and have rarely been as let down by an album as I was by Age of the Joker. As a power metal band from the continent, Edguy has been one of the leaders in the first half of the previous decade. In recent times they have slipped a little, and whether that can be attributed to the amount of time their leader has spent with his 'side project', and that his creative juices have been used more thoroughly on Avantasia than Edguy is perhaps up in the air. Whatever the reason, this isn't what I was looking for nor hoping for from a band who I have a lot of time and respect for.

624. Dream Theater / A Dramatic Turn of Events. 2011. 3/5

The lead-up to this album being written, recorded and released was overshadowed by the circumstances regarding drummer Mike Portnoy quitting the band he had helped to form. The months spent producing the album had stories passing back and forth over what had happened and why. In the long run, despite his obvious importance to most parts of the Dream Theater machine, it was going to be interesting to see what the band would produce given that his sway had now left the process.

I think every Dream Theater album is beginning to morph into each other, such is the similar nature of the song structure and sound of the songs on them all. The opening track "On the Backs of Angels" is a good song, but it's in the same element as most of their opening songs. James La Brie even seems to be singing in the same pitch location. What are they doing, just bringing out the same mold each time and casting the same elements? That's not quite accurate of course, but in many ways it's a lot closer to the truth. "Build Me Up, Break Me Down" and "Lost Not Forgotten" are also atypical Dream Theater movements, combining the melding of keyboards and guitar whilst the bass holds the song together underneath these elements.
From here on in though, it becomes really hard work. I know Dream Theater have made an art form of 10 minute plus compositions, but truly, unless you have enough in them to retain the interest, you begin to look for the 'skip' button. On past albums they have done it in magnificent fashion on any number of songs - "A Change of Seasons", "The Glass Prison" and pretty much the entire Train of Thought album - but here I confess it just seems like the songs drag on forever, and begin to blend from one to the next. "Bridges in the Sky", "Outcry" and "Breaking All Illusions" are only broken up by dis-interesting ballad "Far From Heaven", before finishing with the less than inspiring "Beneath the Surface".

I've no doubt that the hard core Dream Theater fans will again consider this album to be a triumph and praise its claims to the heavens. Personally I have struggled to be completely enthused about a Dream Theater album since in the imperial Train of Thought. While the musicianship continues to be of the highest class, the songs to me just aren't holding my interest throughout. Comparing this to fellow progressive metal outfit Symphony X's last two album's, Paradise Lost and Iconoclast they just aren't in the same street. I'm not proclaiming that the end is nigh for Dream Theater, but I know where my preferences have switched to in recent years, and I'm not sure whether they can be retrieved from that direction. This is not a bad album by any means, but it just isn't a super one that you expect from this band.

623. John Mellencamp / Scarecrow. 1985. 2.5/5

The fact that I own this album at all is perhaps a miracle, and certainly testament to the power of the music that crowded the radio airwaves in my high school years. In that mid-1980's period there was four albums that dominated the landscape for those of us in high school - Dire Strait's Brothers in Arms, Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A, Bryan Adams' Reckless, and John Cougar Mellencamp's Scarecrow. No one who was in school during those years could deny that they did not know these albums, or the songs they produced. Whether you liked them or not, everyone still knows the words and tunes to all of them. And while in many cases it is the obscure unknown songs on an album that can end up being the best and favourite tracks, here it is the singles released from the album that are the obvious stand-outs.

The album starts off with "Rain on the Scarecrow". a song whose underlying guitar bridge I have always liked, providing the basis for the song's framework. It is an understated yet dramatic beginning, unusual for most opening songs. The short and sweet "Grandma's Theme" follows, featuring Mellencamp's grandmother, before moving swiftly into another of the album's singles hits, "Small Town". This is another mid tempo song dominated by the country style guitar and Mellencamp's moody vocals. "Minutes to Memories" continues in this vein, leading into another of the popular singles releases "Lonely Ol' Night".
Following the singles laden first half of the album, the second half is... well... not quite a wasteland, but it is a barren landscape. While Mellencamp's most popular and well-known songs are at best country rock at a solid tempo, there seems less inspiration, less drive, less urgency on these tracks. OK, they are boring. There isn't much there to keep those that aren't a hard core fan interested.
The final song on the album, "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." has almost always annoyed me, but not because of the track itself, which is the most upbeat on the whole album. The reason it always twisted my nerves in high school was because all of these teeny bopping kids would jump around singing the song with glee, shouting the chorus at the top of their voices. Yeah - but we live in AUSTRALIA not the USA! Why would that annoy me so much? Because I was 15 and believed they should change the lyrics to "R.O.C.K. in Oz-tray-li-ya!" It didn't matter that I knew what the song was about and why it was titled and chorused so, it was still annoying. Great to be an opinionated teenager. LOL.

I haven't heard a lot of stuff from Mellencamp apart from this album - sure, there are the other singles out there that everyone knows, but as to listening to his other albums, well I've had other priorities. Country rock, of which category his music falls into, is not really my scene. As I said at the start, I own this and know this because of its prominence during my high school years. Certainly I still don't mind a lot of it and appreciate it for what it is, but I've never had any inclination to move beyond it and listen to any of his other work.

622. Black Sabbath / Master of Reality. 1971. 4.5/5

It's a tough call to try and back up for your third album, especially when those first two albums are your seminal eponymous debut album, and the soon-to-be-legendary second album. In the case of Black Sabbath, the pioneers of the new music genre 'heavy metal', they were only just warming up.
Both guitars on this album are tuned down, the story being that it made it easier for Tony Iommi to play his guitar, given the accident he had suffered some years earlier to the fingers on his right hand. With Geezer Butler tuning his bass guitar down to suit, it adds to the renewed sense of doom and foreboding in the music on this album.

Hacking coughing starts off the album, before bursting into the mud buzzing anthem of "Sweet Leaf". The strength of the song is in its three major parts - the head bouncing primary riff on which the vocals are laid, the  thematic bridging riff between verses, and the harried and violent solo riff where all three musicians are basically doing their own solo break and mashing them together. Great stuff.
"After Forever", if you pay attention to the lyrics, almost comes across as Sabbath's attempt to deflect from the assertion that they are a satanic band. this would be to the detriment of lyricist Butler, whose religious upbringing hold sway here. No matter in the long run, the song itself is terrific with another assortment of great riffs (NB Biohazard's cover version on Nativity in Black: A Tribute to Black Sabbath is awesome).
Following Iommi's instrumental "Embryo" comes one of the band's all time classics, "Children of the Grave". The magnificent rumbling build-up before exploding into its heavy thumping riff is still one of the best beginnings to a song ever written. Lyrically it is still as hard hitting as it was when it was recorded, and Ozzy gives a stunning vocal performance.
Another Iommi instrumental called "Orchid" opens up the second half of the album, before "Lord of this World" storms in, featuring more great work from Geezer and Bill Ward. It is amazing that these two can pretty much play their own solo pieces, and weave it into the framework of the songs without it sounding like they are all out of time or all over the place.
The one weak moment of the album follows this. "Solitude" incorporates both flute and piano, as well as a different vocal performance by Ozzy, allowing him to show his versatility as well. All this is fine, but the song itself stretches to five minutes, and it really takes the sting out of the album. If it had been reeled back into about three minutes maximum, well, the impact may not have been so great. It's great to hear Black Sabbath able to do these kind of songs, but not so long and not within this framework.
Saving the end of the album is the legendary "Into the Void", which comes back to remind everyone of where this band is really heading, driven along with Iommi and Geezer's bloodletting riff work over Ward's unrelenting drumming and under Ozzy's rising vocals.

Master of Reality continues the progression of Black Sabbath, from small time local band to world domination. Five classic and legendary songs feature here, and though they are done well it is only the slower instrumental pieces that bring the rating down from out of the ceiling.

621. Iced Earth / Something Wicked This Way Comes. 1998. 3/5

For an album that many believe is the best in the Iced Earth discography, to me it just seems a little two-paced to have that mantle laid upon it.

"Burning Times" is a good opening song, though I must admit it sounds much better live on the Alive in Athens album. Ditto for the second song, "Melancholy (Holy Martyr)" which benefits in a live setting from being faster and more aggressive than it is here.
"Disciples of the Lie" starts off the way an Iced Earth song should, at a cracking pace with the flailing drums and guitars, and Barlow reaching his range with his vocals, but even then in the middle of the song we have the keyboards that become the prominant part of the song - and why? Just get on with it already! Even more mystifying, we then head into "Watching Over Me", a power ballad with acoustic guitars and soft vocals mixed with hints of powered up guitar. As power ballads go it isn't the worst, but it just halts the progress of the album again, and we're only up to song four. It makes it almost impossible to get into the mood of the album because it is in constant flux.
Back into the action, as "Stand Alone" crashes the party and brings us back into the true Iced Earth makeup. Short, sharp and to the point, "Stand Alone" reasserts the album in the right direction. But then, by god, let's chuck in another slow starter with moody vocals and acoustic guitar. "Consequences" is that song, and by now, you have to suspect that this was a delibertae arrangement for the album, because you surely could have this set up by accident. Which then begs the question - WHY did they do it this way?! It must work on some fans level I guess, but all it does is piss me off because there is absolutely no consistency. You get up and jump around and sing at the top of your voice for one song, and the next you are slumped back down in the armschair waiting for something to happen. Anyway...
Yep, you guessed it. "My Own Savior" returns the tempo to that faster double-kick driven guitar sound, before "Reaping Stone" draws on a later Sabbath tempo before picking up towards the end of the song.
"1776" is an instrumental interlude which (bugger me!) moves politely into a(nother) power ballad in "Blessed Are You". Honestly, how is this good balance in an album? (except for the fact that it's one fast, one slow, that is).

The album is closed out by the Something Wicked Trilogy, "Prophecy", "Birth of the Wicked" and "The Coming Curse". "Prophecy" makes a slow start before hitting its form halfway through. "Birth of the Wicked" is a good track, while following the somewhat inexplicable piano beginning for about a minute of "The Coming Curse", it also kicks into gear and delivers the goods.

This is quite a mystifying album. I fail to understand how it was put together in such a fashion. To the listener it just doesn't allow you to get a straight vibe of the album, so changeable is the format. When it is on song, with tracks such as "Burning Times", "Stand Alone", "My Own Savior" and the most part of the trilogy, this is a terrific album. In the other places, bogged down as they are like potholes on a freeway, it stops all cohesion. While the good material is good, the slow material holds the album right back in my opinion.

620. Lou Reed & Metallica / Lulu. 2011. 0.5/5

I cannot say that there was any moment - from the first rumours until its ultimate release and my initial listenings - that I thought that this was going to be very good, or that it was a good idea. However, the great thing about being hugely successful icons of the music industry (as both parties here undoubtedly are) and not necessarily having to do things for the money anymore, is that you can do practically anything you suddenly have a fetish for without any qualms or problems. To me, this fits in perfectly here for both Metallica and Lou Reed.
So you can't go in expecting it to be a Lou Reed album, and you can't go in expecting it to be a Metallica album. Well, what the hell can you expect?!

In the end, it is a motley of farcical spoken ranting, repetitive monotonous and grainy instrumental backing music that bores you almost to a coma in passages, and uncomfortable leaderless song compositions. It's hard to get enthused about something that is about as exciting as watching paint dry. The songs, in most cases, are just sooooooooo long for no reward. The song structures appear to just be make them as long as possible without actually doing anything interesting either musically or vocally. The final two songs alone stretch for almost 31 minutes. Are you kidding me? Why was it thought this was necessary? Was there no one in the studio who thought to say "hey guys... a little long here"? Honestly, two CDs totalling almost 90 minutes is just further proof that this was a love fest for both parties, doing what they felt like without a strong producer there to try and wind the egos back to reality. Maybe - MAYBE - if this had been edited down in to a CD album lasting maybe 50 minutes to an hour... no, even that wouldn't have saved it.

Start off with four minutes of James chanting "Small town giiiirrrll" while other endless words are spoken by Reed ("Brandenburg Gate"). Then there's the four minutes of the same riff while interchanging Reed's poetry and James half-arsed 'chorus' before a quick solo break ("The View"). Then there is seven and a half minutes of noise, UNPLEASANT squealing noise, broken up by a little bit of decent work from Lars, but generally just awful ("Pumping Blood").
"Mistress Dread" starts out promisingly, but then you realise that it is just the same guitar/drum riff for five freaking minutes, with Reed droning on over the top of it, then a slight change for the remaining two minutes of the song. Ditto "Iced Honey", a reasonable hard rock riff that doesn't change for four and a half minutes. "Cheat On Me", eleven and a half minutes of rubbish. "Frustration" (plenty of that by this time, I can assure you) has the closest thing to a decent riff so far on the album - it sounds incredibly like a Black Sabbath riff - but it is wasted here in this song and arrangement. "Little Dog" sounds like something grunge bands use as their "hidden track" at the end of a CD. In other words eight minutes of crap.
And yet, after all of that, it is not ALL bad. There are small pockets of time here when your ears prick up, and you think "wow... there's great riff" or "hey, I like that fill", mostly probably within the songs "Frustration" and "Dragon". It's just that they come so infrequently and are drowned out by so much average rubbish that they cannot lift the entire album from out of the mire of mediocrity. "Junior Dad" at almost twenty minutes is just an album killer - seriously, anyone who mades it this far is really going to have trouble getting through this monster shocker.

In the long run, Lou Reed and Metallica did this project for themselves, and no doubt enjoyed themselves doing it and creating it. I'm sure they would have preferred that it was universally loved rather than panned, but that hasn't - and can't be - the case. I can't speak for Lou Reed fans, but for Metallica fans, it is something best not spoken about.

619. Whitesnake / Live at Donington 1990. 2011. 4/5

The long-overdue release of this Donington headlining performance has always seemed a little strange to me, given that most of us (myself included) have possessed an A-quality bootleg of the concert for over a decade. Why then do you wait until just a couple of months after you have released a new solo album (the rank average Forevermore) to also throw this into the mix as well? Is it to remind the old fans that they are still around, and by the way we have a new album out as well? I don't know, but the marketing side of things seemed a little unusual.

So here in all of its glory is Whitesnake live in 1990 on the Slip of the Tongue tour, with David Coverdale surrounded by a fair armoury of Steve Vai, Adrian Vandenberg, Rudy Sarzo and Tommy Aldridge. Like many live performances of the age, it was a mixed bag. Coverdale's vocals in a live setting often seem to be a little out, whether it is just that he can't do live what he does in the studio (and he's not the only vocalist in that boat) or that it just doesn't come across great in the recording, but at times in some tracks he appears to be struggling. No big drama, that's live music. The song list is a mix of new and old, of fast and slow, and because of this the album runs hot and cold.
The album starts off with a bang, with "Slip of the Tongue" exploding out of the speakers, followed by "Slide It In" and the powerful "Judgement Day". No argument here, we're moving along well. "Slow An' Easy" slows the tempo down a little, before the gangbusters "Kittens Got Claws" raises the bar once again.

From here though, we move into the middle of the album, where everything gets a little awkward. When you are at a live show, watching the band perform and jumping around, there can be seen to be a little bit of sense in the 'solo break'. It gives the other band member s a break and, in my case at least, an opportunity for the crowd to grab a beer or a smoke before hostilities recommence. However, on a live album that you are listening to in the comfort of your home or in the car, solo breaks are unnecessary and above all else - boring!
So here it is that amongst some of Whitesnake's biggest songs - "Cheap An' Nasty", "Crying in the Rain" and "Fool For Your Loving" - we are subjected to Vandenberg's solo break, then Aldridge's solo break, and then Vai's solo break. Great for people at the show. Almost completely futile for those of us who just want to listen to the songs.
"Here I Go Again" and the super "Bad Boys" close out the bulk of the show, before the very average "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City" and the overblown "Still of the Night" complete the album if not overwhelmingly, then perhaps less than excitedly.

This is an excellent recoding of a moment in history, when Whitesnake were at their theoretical peak in regards to commercial success. Despite the reticence I have displayed here, this is still worth grabbing and listening to, unless you have that bootleg of the gig tucked away somewhere. If you do, then its quality is just as good as this, so save your dollars.

618. Slayer / Show No Mercy. 1983. 4/5.

From humble beginnings, and playing covers of the bands that were their influence at the time - Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Venom and Mercyful Fate - came the debut album from one of the most influential thrash metal bands of all time, Show No Mercy. And while the production of the album leaves a lot to be desired, almost all of the debut albums from those now deemed as giants suffered from the same problems, through a lack of money and influence. All of that changed in time, but it gives the whole album an air of authenticity, that even the great bands start from scratch.

Inauspicious or not, all of the ingredients that create the Slayer giant are already here. The songwriting and guitaring duo of Hanneman and King show off their wares, Dave Lombardo's drums don't stop for a breath, and Tom Araya's storming bass and vocals stand at the forefront of each song. You can still hear the band's influences on this first album. The songs are not as heavy, fast or blistering as they become later on. You can pick up some similarities with Metallica's Kill'Em All and Megadeth's Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!. Not only that, most of the album has a Judas Priest/Iron Maiden feel about it, a much more mainstream heavy metal sound than the thrash hardcore sound that was to come.

The album kicks off with the excellent "Fear Has No Boundaries", followed by the staple satanic song "The Anitchrist", which moves into the classic "Die By The Sword", still a great song in the modern age. "Fight 'Til Death" continues the blitzkrieg of the senses.
The Mercyful Fate influence really shows through on tracks like "Metal Storm / Face the Slayer" and "Black Magic". Great songs dictated by fast pounding drums and typical leads from Hanneman and King. Awesome stuff. "Tormentor" is dominated by the lead breaks of these two great guitarists, lifting an otherwise fairly average song to greater heights. Lombardo takes centre stage in "The Final Command", his drums rifling throughout the song at an incredible rate without losing their crispness, before those guitars again come to the fore with Iron Maiden-like harmonies.
"Crionics" again almost tries to be an Iron Maiden song in both structure and melody. While it is not what most Slayer fans will recognise from their catalogue, it is still quite an interesting song to listen to again. Put it on, and tell me you can't hear Maiden's "Hallowed Be Thy Name" as you listen to the guitars. Great stuff. The album is closed out by the title track "Show No Mercy", closer to a Metallica type tempo to this one.

While the style of the album may be unlike what came further up the line, it is great to hear even today. The fact that Slayer built their own sound out of their own influences is testament to their greatness. It doesn't matter what you hear when you listen to this album, the important thing is that it is a terrific Slayer album, and onc that seems to be maligned for the wrong reasons. I still think it is brilliant.

617. Rainbow / Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. 1975. 4/5

Having grown disillusioned with the direction (and I imagine his declining role of power) that Deep Purple was taking, guitarist extraordinaire Ritchie Blackmore decided to put out a solo single. For the job of helping to record it, he aimed to recruit the majority of the band that had acted as Deep Purple's support act in recent times, Elf. In turn, the decision by Blackmore to record a solo single soon changed. Instead, he quit Deep Purple, and decided to record an entire album with his new musical acquaintances, forming a new band called Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (which was soon shortened to the now-known Rainbow).

This album, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, was the start of a lot of things that proved to be the betterment of the heavy music genre. Firstly, it was the revitalisation of Blackmore's career, kickstarting his enthusiasm and disposing of his stagnancy, which not only went on to produce a magnificent Rainbow discography, but eventually provided the impetus for the second coming of the band that he had just quit. Secondly, it was the real beginning, after almost twenty years in the industry, of the defining years of one of the greatest ever vocalists, Ronnie James Dio. With Blackmore's influence, Dio finally found his niche and began to write and perform the songs that he was meant to sing. Finally, a band emerged, in the main because of Blackmore and Dio, that went on to influence generations of musicians who came after them, and the music that they subsequently created.

All that being said, this isn't the perfect album, caught as it is somewhere between the old and the new. It kicks off with the legendary "Man on the Silver Mountain", still one of the best known riffs in the metal age. It is still a classic even today, kept alive for so long by always being in Dio's solo tours.
"Self Portrait" is an average song, with nothing memorable but not out of place. This is followed by "Black Sheep of the Family", the Quartermass cover that Blackmore had wanted to record with Deep Purple (he was voted down) and had then decided to record as his solo single. One still wonders what fascinated Blackmore so much about this song. Dio's vocal is as brilliant as always, but it just isn't really in the style of the rest of the album. It's enjoyable enough, but the rockabilly style doesn't really fit.
The amazing "Catch the Rainbow" follows, and proves that you can do a slower, melodic tune and still retain the integrity of the band. Dio's vocals soar here in a brilliant showcasing of his amazing range, while Blackmore's guitaring appears understated on the surface, but actually drives the emotional strings of the song. Pure genius.

"Snake Charmer" almost sounds like it was meant for Deep Purple, with the bassline running through the song reminiscent of something that Roger Glover may have played. It also has a concerted guitar solo without the keyboard backing. "The Temple of the King" is the second of the great slow melodic songs on this album, with Blackmore experimenting with strings throughout the song, and Dio's vocals driving it along in sheer beauty. Even in quieter songs, the power of Dio's voice is remarkable
"If You Don't Like Rock n Roll" is almost pure Elf, those rockabilly keys really showing where this song was anchored. It probably isn't a good fit here either, but it is all a part of the transition process that was happening.

"Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" is another classic, originally written to be the B-side to "Black Sheep in the Family". Again it is the Blackmore and Dio combination that make this a wonderful song.
The album closes out with an instrumental-only version of The Yardbirds "Still I'm Sad", which is a strange decision, given that they possessed Ronnie James Dio in the band. Why not utilise him? When they played it live, Dio always sang it, and it sounds awesome. This version is good, but Dio singing it would have made it much better.

Overall, this is a terrific opening for the band, and having shaken off the dust of this first album, Dio and Blackmore then went on to produce two of the best albums of all time before their partnership concluded.

616. Motörhead / Overkill. 1979. 4.5/5

Following on from their eponymously titled debut, which showed some promise without being completely memorable, Motörhead get their stuff together for their second album, with the pieces beginning to fall into place. Unashamedly a hybrid of hard rock and punk styles that fit together to make this a heavier album, the band now define the style that has gone on to serve them for over 30 years.

Overkill brings to the front the unique Lemmy vocals along with his rifling bass work, the searing drumwork of "Philthy" Taylor as well as the super guitaring of "Fast" Eddie Clarke. Starting off with the classic self-titled opener, "Overkill" sets up the album perfectly, letting the listener know from the start that this is a whole new ball game when it comes to this band. "Overkill" is everything that makes Motörhead who they are. One of their classics. This is followed by the live staple "Stay Clean", and we settle in for the bulk of the album. "(I Won't) Pay Your Price" and "I'll Be Your Sister" are basic in concept, but are the solid hard rock songs that Motörhead thrive on. "Capricorn" is almost a 1960's flower power song. You can practically see the band surrounded by flowers and hippies. It's a little strange in this environment.

However, this is immediately rectified by two of their best songs, the hard rocker "No Class" and the legendary "Damage Case". Both showcase the best of what Motörhead bring to their music - a prominant loud simple drum beat, great riffwork and solo from the guitar, and the solid bass line all packed around Lemmy's spitting lyrics. Sensational stuff. "Tear Ya Down" continues this vein of style, harder and faster and again containing a great solo riff from Clarke and riffling bassline from Lemmy.

The closing songs on the album aren't quite up to this trio, but there's no shame in that. "Metropolis" slows the tempo down, and while if you take the song on its own it is great, in my view its mood tends to halt the progress of the album. This slower tempo continues into "Limb From Limb" with similar results and feelings for me, though it speeds up towards its conclusion to ensure the album finishes on an up tempo note.

All in all, Overkill is a classic album, one that all metalheads should own as a matter of course, or at the very least have listened to and sampled in their heavy metal education. No collection really should be without it.

Rating: "Only way to feel the noise is when it's good and loud". 4.5/5

615. The D-Generation / The Satanic Sketches. 1989. 5/5

In the late 1980's, the D-Generation were lured from the ABC to Channel 7 for the hope of commercial success (and probably money), where they did a number of specials for the television network.
This album is basically a collection of their best skits that also translate to being funny with just audio, much in the same way as artists such as Monty Python did during their television run.

For those listening today, for the most part it probably doesn't all translate well. It helps to have grown up with it. But sketches like "The Balltearer" and the world's worst accapela group, The Flying Dickheads, are still great. I still piss myself over "The Balltearer" (utilising the scientifically proven weight loss method of unbearable pain). This also contains the single released at the time, "Five in a Row", which is a pisstake of five Aussie music icons (the artists involved were John Farnham, Jimmy Barnes, Little River Band, Kylie Minogue and James Reyne). Still quite brilliant to this day. 23FM, turn it on, lock it on.

Anyone who knows the D-Generation will love this. Those who do not may not get the humour at all. One for the middle-of-the-road generation.

614. A.S.a.P. / Silver and Gold. 1989. 2.5/5

Don't come looking at this is if you are looking for an Iron Maiden album. In the same way Bruce Dickinson's Tattooed Millionaire is a step away from the style of music Maiden was doing, this is also - except that it is a big giant moon step away from that.
There is a greater use of synths and keyboards here than anything Adrian had tried before, but the songs themselves are more just in a progressive rock kind of theme than anything else. The tunes are catchy enough and as such enjoyable. To be completely honest, I enjoy it more now than I did when it was released 23 years ago, mainly because at the time I WAS searching for that Maiden Heavy Metal music with Adrian's great guitaring. What you actually get is completely different.
This album's roots can be found from a number of jams Adrian and Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain did following the Powerslave tour, with ex-band mates of Adrian's from his first band Urchin, Andy Barnett, Dave Colwell and Richard Young, to relieve the 'boredom' of their break from touring and recording. The band wrote some songs for the "project", which when they were performed live at two gigs was recorded and released as the bootleg The Entire Population of Hackney. From these gigs, the song "Reach Out" was used as the B-side to the Iron Maiden Wasted Years single, and "Juanita" and "That Girl" were used as the B-side to the Iron Maiden Stranger in a Strange Land single. More importantly, a band friendship had been reunited, and a song called "Silver and Gold" would be a catalyst.

When Adrian decided to leave Iron Maiden in 1989, he gathered together these former bandmates, and recorded this album, Silver and Gold as his new project , A.S.a.P (Adrian Smith and Project). No doubt the fan enthusiasm with the three songs the 'band' had written that had been released as Iron Maiden B-sides gave them hope that they could replicate it in their own band. Of course, the material written and performed was directed more to the AOR/hard rock side of music than the blazing heavy metal of Smith's former band.

The first three songs on the album, although immediately bringing to the fore the synth/keyboard aspect of the band which sets it apart from the true heavy metal genre, are good hard rock songs, which show off the best of the band. "The Lion", they previously mentioned "Silver and Gold" and "Down the Wire" showcase Adrian's lead vocals in a band setting, and his guitar work is instantly a stand out from partners Barnett and Colwell. These three songs are the best on the album.

"You Could Be a King" is one of the weaker songs on the album, not really offering anything musically and the vocals just don't produce anything to build some strength. Adrian's guitar solo on "After the Storm" is the best part of this song. It is a slippery path. The album from this point descends into a motley of slide guitar, synth programming and rock ballad-type songs that they simply are unable to pull off. The middle of "Kids Gone Astray" and "Fallen Heroes" are almost comical in their strict adherance to bland rock playbook, but without the strength of musicianship or vocals to give them any semblance of credibility.
"Blood on the Ocean" completes the album in a wash of piano and synth keyboards melodrama, almost wishing itself to be a Whitesnake ballad. By the time this song closes out the album, one begins to wonder exactly what is was that made Adrian believe that this was worth leaving Iron Maiden for. Maybe by this time he was wondering that himself.

Even taking in the fact that this album never had any pretence of being a heavy metal album, it does eventually come to disappoint. It has a few moments of clarity, where you can see some good coming into the world, but overall this just doesn't cut it. Fans of all ages - 1989 and 2012 included - will see that the story hasn't really changed much because of this.