753. Alcatrazz / No Parole From Rock 'n' Roll. 1983. 3/5

Graham Bonnet had had a long and varied career by the time this project arrived. Apart from various solo ventures and some time with the band The Marbles, he had had high profile terms as lead vocalist with Rainbow on their “Down to Earth” album and tour, followed by singing on the Michael Schenker Group album “Assault Attack”, both of which for various reasons lasted for only that single album for each term. This has always been unfortunate as both “Down to Earth” and “Assault Attack” are brilliant albums.
The band's initial line-up consisted of Bonnet, young Swedish up-and-coming guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, who had recently left the American metal band Steeler, Gary Shea and Jimmy Waldo from New England and Clive Burr of Iron Maiden fame. Burr was reportedly only in the band for a week, and left upon discovering the band was going to be based in the United States, as opposed to his native England. Burr was soon replaced by former Iron Butterfly drummer Jan Uvena, who had just left Alice Cooper's backing band. Shea dubbed the group "Alcatrazz". For the first album, the bulk of the material was written by Bonnet and Malmsteen, with Waldo contributing to several tracks. The choice to recruit Malmsteen was one that was seen to be of enormous benefit to the new project. Having left Steeler in order to increase his own profile, he teamed up here with proven professionals who had been in the industry for over a decade.
In the long run, this probably should be a more widely known album. All the elements are here to produce a really strong and heavy album. What it does end up is stuck in the middle of where it wanted to be and where it should have been. It wanted to be a radio friendly hit album, but enough of the songs are too hard rock to deliver that, and certainly the electrifying guitar of Yngwie Malmsteen took it beyond that market. However, it also didn't go far enough into the harder side of the music to set it alongside other bands that were beginning to break at this time.

As already mentioned, “No Parole From Rock 'n' Roll” comes across as a radio-friendly written album, one where there is a commercial element within the sky high vocals and riffing guitar, though it was not to break for the band in that way. Nor did the video for the first single "Islands in the Sun" garner huge attention, though for a while it was played often on MTV and other music video related channels. The album tends to rely very heavily on the keyboard sound that was dominant in the 1980's hard rock, but in an unobtrusive way that perhaps required either more involvement or back to very little at all, mixed with the unique guitar sound Yngwie was bringing to the table. Yngwie's solo pieces are still brilliant to listen to today. Take any of those solos and riff breaks in any of the songs and you could place them on his “Rising Force” album, and it would not lose a beat.
Upon this was layered Bonnet's singing, for the most part set to the highest vocal register, which worked well on some songs and not so well on others. What does seem to be missing from the vocals is the hard full audience thumping power that is evident in the songs from the two albums mentioned above. Bonnet's vocals on, for instance, Rainbow's "Eyes of the World" and M.S.G's "Desert Song" really thump through the speakers into your chest. Here they tend to try to be reaching levels for which he cannot project that kind of power. Still great vocals, but different from the recent bands of his past. An interesting way to go about it.
"Kree Nakoori" is certainly not one of those. It is a great rumbling song, dominated by Bonnet's crooning vocals and Yngwie's brilliant guitar break that punctuates itself throughout the song. There is no pretence at playing it safe here, but the song probably extends longer than it needed to. To be honest it is only on occasions I notice this, so it can’t be too bad. This is then followed by the instrumental "Incubus" which again is dominated by Yngwie's guitar. Terrific stuff. "General Hospital" and "Hiroshima Mon Amour" are up there as some of the best songs on the album. "Too Young to Die, Too Drunk to Live" and "Jet to Jet" have a very Rainbow theme to them, with the keyboards heavily prevalent in a manner that is reminiscent of that band. Yngwie almost channels Ritchie Blackmore on guitar during both of these songs. “Jet to Jet” is where Yngwie’s ridiculous guitaring first makes its presence felt, the solo in the middle pure Malmsteen for anyone who has been a fan of his in his solo career.
"Big Foot" is a slower paced and less richter scaled vocally, with Yngwie again treating us to a terrific lead break. Stylistically it does change up the character of the album, which some will perhaps enjoy, rather than where I feel it changes the character in a brick wall kind of way. "Starcarr Lane" is memorable for the solo, but the vocals just seem a bit too out of character with the song, going from a normal register to a high level register between lines of lyrics. It is very much on the ‘let’s make a single’ variant of song much like “Islands in the Sun” is, and while it is inherently enjoyable there is the feeling that perhaps it could have been more than it is. Apart from the solo, because Yngwie against rips it to pieces in that regard. The closing song “Suffer Me” is written as the epic to close out the album, the one that makes it mark so that you come back again and again. It is not a power ballad as such but sits in that realm, and I know there are those out there who love them, but I am not. Yngwie’s solo channels the greatest parts of that during his solo which is fantastic, but the whole mood of the track doesn’t appeal to me. It is all a matter of taste in the long run, isn’t it.

I came across Alcatrazz at the end of the 1980’s, an obvious band to chase given the two main personnel that I had already enjoyed in other bands. And while it is fair to say that both of their contributions here are excellent, perhaps the album dated so quickly that it was something I didn’t pay enough attention to at that time. The elements for a terrific album are all here, but the songs just don’t have enough bite to be spectacular and break the mould. What you have instead is an album that is tied to the era it came from because of its production and writing, which will be enjoyable to those who listen to that style of music, but which will possibly turn off younger and older people than that era for exactly the same reasons. And it is to me in short doses, but I do eventually look for something with more energy and power coming out of the speakers.
Graham Bonnett’s vocals are absolutely amazing on this album. He had done some sterling work in the past, especially on those albums already mentioned earlier in this podcast episode, but they are amazing here. He hits notes that are reserved for some of the greats like Glenn Hughes on this album. His performance throughout the album is superb, and is right alongside the best of his career performances.
This album, and band, is really set up to be a showcase of the talents of Bonnet and Malmsteen, and the supporting cast don’t do a lot flashy, perhaps in order to not get in the way of the star attractions. The keyboards from Waldo are solid, and certainly nothing like what Malmsteen has on his solo work where he would often trade solos. What is played here is quite that quality, but it is likely that there was a purpose for that, especially given the egos involved. Because Yngwie as always is spectacular here, and it is his guitaring that pricks the ears up whenever I play this album. And so it should, because this album was his last port of call before he left the band and set up his own solo project, and then released the amazing “Rising Force” album that began his path to stardom and the amazing albums he has recorded since. Alcatrazz moved on, and had to put up with a less spectacular guitarist to take his place for their next album… Steve Vai. But that is a story for another episode.