877. Michael Schenker's Temple of Rock / Spirit on a Mission. 2015. 2.5/5

Spirit on a Mission is the third album released by Michael Schenker's Temple of Rock, a stable group of old friends that have come together to record and tour and generally enjoy each other's company (or so I assume). No doubt the labelling of the group with Schenker's name attached is to ensure that people who know and respect him and his previous work (i.e. people like me) realise he is still out there doing his thing, and will therefore seek it out. Well once again this method has worked, and another Schenker-related project finds its way to my stereo.

You cannot argue with the quality of the band itself. Former Scorpions members, drummer Herman Rarebell and bass guitarist Francis Buchholz are known quantities, having been plying their trade for 40 years all over the world. Guitarist and keyboardist Wayne Findley has been in various Schenker projects before, while lead singer Doogie White has not only sung with Schenker, but with Blackmore and Malmsteen, so he knows a good guitarist when he sees one. Michael Schenker himself needs no introduction. The group of musicians is second to none. So why is there little excitement in the music they produce here?
Perhaps excitement is the wrong word. There doesn't seem to be a lot of enthusiasm for the task at hand, or any inspiration. That may seem unfair, given the careers most of these gentlemen have had in the music industry, and certainly given the score of brilliant songs and albums that Schenker has co-written and played on. At some point you have to have run out of ideas, and in recent times that waning has appeared to occur.
It's not a complete loss, but doesn't it sound to you like they are just going through the motions on some tracks? "Live and Let Live" opens the album harmlessly, "Communion" is very blues rock based, "Vigilante Man" has good pieces but no range of emotion in either vocals or music. "Rock City" is very tame, a song that in days or yore would have been a lot more raucous and out there, and here is played like a nursery rhyme. "Saviour Machine" sounds like a heavy riff machine, but one with the silencer on to snuffle out that hard rock edge. "Something of the Night" kicks in more like what you are looking for, with Schenker riffing hard and continuing once Doogie comes in. Here's that passion and energy, finally! Certainly the best song on the album by a long shot. While "All Our Yesterdays" remains back in the pack, "Bulletproof" has some promise, but really just becomes nagging, as Doogie's vocals seem to go in a different direction from what the song demands. "Let the Devil Scream" and "Good Times" both seem to me to be at the wrong tempo and intensity, and while I have grown to take them as they are over multiple listens, i can't help but feel with a tweak here and there they would have been much better. The album concludes with "Restless Heart" and "Wicked", which again have the best of intentions without providing that vital ingredient that would have made them memorable rather than just this side of average.
There have been times in his career when you assume Schenker has been looking to crack the radio market, because his trademark guitar riffs and solos were pared back so much that you would wonder whether he was playing on the album at all. In a away this album is a bit like that. The riffs through the verse and chorus parts of each song are generic, not flashy, and certainly not showing any real Schenker trademarks. Sure, in the standard solo sections that come in the middle of the songs, and the fade out at the ends, there comes a little bit of the lead guitar work, but even it doesn't SOUND like Michael Schenker, it pretty much comes across as an every day, lead-guitar-by-numbers kind of stuff. It is completely unfair to judge and compare, but you really want some of the power and originality that came from those 1970's UFO days and the 1980's MSG days. The rhythm section does its job but doesn't create much else. Doogie croons over the top and sounds fine for the most part, but there's nothing passionate about it, no Phil Mogg or Graham Bonnett energy.

This is a very safe album, one that doesn't extend itself too much into experimentation, and to be honest after 50 years in and around the music business who can blame Schenker for that. The fact that he and his band mates are still out there writing and recording new music every couple of years, while a band like Metallica has released two albums of new material in almost two decades, at least gives them plenty of brownie points. If only this album made you feel like banging your head or moving around more, rather than settling back in your comfy arm chair and being lulled off to sleep, it would be more likely to entice me to play it more often in the future.

Rating:  Let the devil scream.  2.5/5.