Wow... is this The Eagles for the 2010's?!
What in the hell have we got here? Because from the opening bars of the
opening track "Because We Can", this is a very uninspiring and bland as
cardboard effort.
Bon Jovi can take a convoy-load of credits from their albums such as Slippery When Wet and New Jersey and even Keep the Faith.
Those albums got them fans for life when they were released, they were
that special.
But they were real hard rock albums, the kind that got
your blood pumping (still do actually). There is none of that left here.
It has all been scrubbed clean with a metal wire brush, and all we have
left is a very pop, ballad-like, almost country collection of songs
that may not be dripping in sugar like the stuff that Def Leppard
currently call music, but they aren't really that far off. The steel and acoustic
guitars are in prominance here, and the drums just plod along to give
Jon something to keep his lyrics timed by. There is no up-tempo tunes at all. In fact, the meandering pace of the album almost seems to stretch through every song, making this the longest ballad ever recorded. Where the hell has the Richie Sambora shredding gone? There is precious little of that to be heard here.
This
is the kind of stuff that the 'easy listening' radio stations play. You
know those stations, they are the ones that if you happen to come across
them when you are tuning the radio in the car, you press SEEK as
quickly as possible to get away from them!
OK, so a band and its
members do not have to continue in the same vein or style for their
entire careers, especially if they have enough money that they don't
have to sell albums to make a living. And they are not the only band in
the word to move away from the style and genre of music that made them
famous. But even given their recent efforts, this is a real departure
for the band. If not for Jon's vocals, this album would really be
unrecognisable as a Bon Jovi album to me.
Having said all that, I
guess there is little doubt that all of the... shall we say... mature...
women of the world will be taken in by this, and conitue to fawn over
the lead vocalist as they always have. Those that first discovered him
in their teens and twenties are now in their forties and fifties, and
this will most probably be right up their alley.
For me though... What About Now?... no more thank you...
After all of this time I still get excited
about a new Helloween album, and mainly because they have rarely let me
down when it comes to the finished product. (No, do NOT mention Pink Bubbles Go Ape or Chameleon!). The band promoted it as an extension of their previous album 7 Sinners but with less doom and more positive overall.
What
I noticed most in my first couple of listens was that the keyboards are
toned down compared to their previous release - they are still there,
but just not as prominent - and that this tends more towards heavy metal
than the power metal style.
The album kicks off with the single
"Nabataea", continuing the band's tradition of the lengthy album opener
to drag you in. The blinding speed of the anthemic "World of War" is
reminiscent of any of a number of the best speed metal songs that have
been written and performed by Helloween, and really gets the album
moving. "Live Now!", while not a bad song, doesn't quite seem to gell
with the two opening songs. You tend to bop along with the song rather
than bang along with it, if you get my meaning. "Far From the Stars"
almost tends to mix pieces of Pink Bubbles Go Ape and Rabbit Don't Come Easy
which is no mean feat, but all ends well. "Burning Sun" returns the
album to its glory, a great song in all respects, and this is followed
by the piano-driven "Waiting for the Thunder", which almost steals the
show as one of the best songs on the album. While not losing its
identity with the album, it has a great mood and feel that really pushes
home the point that this band can do just about anything.
And
then, smack bang in the middle of a rocking album comes "Hold Me in Your
Arms", the power ballad that not only halts the whole momentum that has
been built up by the first half a dozen songs, it just changes the
whole listening mood. I'm not suggesting the song is done badly, its
just that I can't see the point in moving this rapidly between fast
paced action and sit down quietly ballads. This song is a floor-cleaner
at the local disco, the song that empties everyone back to their seats.
It is certainly no "In the Middle of a Heartbeat".
Following the
short and also slightly misplaced "Wanna Be God (Dedicated to Freddie
Mercury)", where the lads seem to be doing a Helloween-ish version of
"We Will Rock You", the album returns to fourth gear with the title
track, "Straight Out of Hell", a classic Helloween happy-guitar song
that still has the strength and metal behind it. This is followed by the
aptly named "Asshole", a title that immediately can bring together a
number of emotions. I mean, how do you approach a song with a title and
lyrics like this and do it well without losing credibility? The
possibility was there that this song could just become a parody of
itself, and even affect the whole album to its detriment if it didn't
work. Thankfully that isn't the case. The song is strong enough
musically in the first place, and then lyrically it all falls into
place, with Andi's marvellously emphatic vocals sealing the song such
that it actually ends up lifting the album into a more powerful status.
While
to me the back end of the album doesn't quite match the first half,
there are still good pieces to it. I think "Years" doesn't quite live up
to its predecessors, but both "Make Fire Catch the Fly" and "Church
Breaks Down" are good songs, probably deeper lyrically than the actual
music around them shows them off to be.
There are two bonus tracks,
depending on what format you have purchased, with the rocker "Another
Shot of Life" followed by a second version of "Burning Sun" dubbed the
Hammond version, as a tribute to Jon Lord of Deep Purple, who had passed
away not long before the release of the album.
The fabulous
musicianship of the band is in its element on this album, something that
is their credit given their length of service. Dani Loble's drumwork is
exceptional, pounding through each song at a sometimes exhilarating
rate, and the drum sound they have got on this release is fantastic.
Sascha Gerstner continues to impress, and his duels with veteran Miki
Weikath continue to belt out those happy Helloween guitar tunes that
make the band so identifiable. Marcus Grosskopf still gets the most
amazing bass riffs out of his guitar, wrapping those enormous hands and
fingers into remarkable positions, while Andi Deris has never sounded
better than he does here, his vocals still so powerful no matter what
range he is expected to sing in.
30 years on and Helloween are
still able to produce such a super album as this. Another terrific album
from one of the best bands of all time.
Back in 1990, Vivian Campbell was still my
guitaring hero. Despite his falling out and dismissal from Dio, for
which his contribution was critical and magnificent, and his subsequent
flirtation in the touring band of Whitesnake, he was what I wanted to be
had I ever gotten off my backside and learned to play the guitar.
From
the time he left Dio, I searched in vain for everytime he was mentioned
as having joined another band (Whitesnake was his first stop, no matter
that it was a short one). Then, one day in Australia's "Hot Metal"
magazine, I discovered it. He had formed a band called Riverdogs, and
their debut album was about to be released. So off I trotted to Sydney's
Utopia Records and purchased said album.
With all of the above
in mind, you must now be of the opinion that I am going to be slightly
biased as to the outcome of this album. For the most part this is
certainly true. The first thing to glean from this is that Riverdogs
is not a metal album, but a comfortable hard rock experience. At the
time of its release I was a little disappointed in its content, with the
main reason being that I was very much looking for the heavy side of
music at that time of my life. Obviously, I was looking for a Dio album
with a different singer, and I didn't get that.
Once I got over that
initial disappointment, I did give the album a fair listening, and I
found that it wasn't as bad as my first impressions allowed. Rob
Lamothe's vocals are terrific, and given the passing of 23 years now
since this release I find it amazing that he hasn't gone on to bigger
things. I guess the onset of grunge at this time may have had a little
to do with it.
Viv's guitaring is as great as always. Okay, so there
aren't the unique and blistering solos that he did with Dio, but what he
does here is still above average.
The songs are, for the most
part, driven by Lamothe's vocals and Viv's guitaring. I don't mind
admitting that "Whisper" is one of my all-time favourite 'guilty'
tracks, one I can play at any time and sing along to at the top of my
lungs. I love the feel of "Water From the Moon" as well, it has a great
mood and guitar riff and solo, as well as those dulcet vocals again.
Other songs such as "Rain, Rain" and "Toy Soldiers" and "Spooky" are my
other real favourites from the album.
As I have gotten older, is
it really a surprise that I find myself enjoying this album more?
Probably not. It has an 'easy listening' kind of vibe to it these days,
reminding me of days gone by. In many ways Riverdogs
was, and is, a very underrated album. Could this band have gone places
had Vivian not moved in to take Steve Clark's place in Def Leppard not
long after this album was released? We'll never know, but that doesn't
distract from the fact that there are quite a lot of things that are
right about this album, and it is very worthwhile checking out, if only
for the two main attractions in this band
