1113. Rainbow / Rising. 1976. 5/5

Back in those long-ago days of high school when I was first discovering the so-called dark arts of heavy metal music, the mixture of bands that were sampled during that time ranged from mainstream to hard rock to metal. Players switched bands, which brought about more music to be searched for to listen to. One particular friend had a penchant for the guitaring of Ritchie Blackmore – and why not, he is a legend – and one day brought to school the album Rising by a band called Rainbow. It was not the first material I had heard with Ronnie James Dio on vocals, but it was probably the first time I actually realised just what a powerhouse he was. And in no way was I ready for the change in style of music that came here from what had been Ritchie Blackmore’s forte in Deep Purple. What I found was the start of a new chapter in my love of music.

This has been considered a great album pretty much since its release, a defining album, an album that is influential to so much that followed. All of this is true, but there is always a question over the relative ‘greatness’ of all of the songs on an album, and whether that brings down where the album ranks amongst the greats of any genre or era. That is also true here, as of the six songs that comprise Rising I would consider three to be at the top of the tree, one to be a high standard, and two that are above average but without the qualities of those ranked higher. Thus, the rating of this album for some is a stretch.
The two songs in question for me are “Run with the Wolf” and “Do You Close Your Eyes”. The use of the term ‘filler’ is too harsh for these songs, as aside from the fact that it is difficult to have filler on a six-song album, they both also have their charm. Perhaps the lyrics aren’t what you generally expect from Dio, indeed one could say that they are unexpected given his output from this point on. “Run with the Wolf” does deal with the supernatural and has its flight through this, whereas “Do You Close Your Eyes” falls a bit too close to pop lyrics which is an unexpected left turn considering the opening salvo. Certainly, to me this is the case with “Do You Close Your Eyes”, but was this the Ritchie Blackmore influence, looking for that track that would get radio airplay? Once Dio moved on from Rainbow there was a much great effort to make the band radio friendly, and these are the kinds of lyrics that Joe Lynn Turner was happy to go with in his tenure with the band. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. It’s a jaunty enough track but it just doesn’t have the claws of the other songs that trigger those emotional ties.
“Starstruck” too is an upbeat hard to heavy song, and one that gets the mood moving. The chorus is a crowd pleaser and the overall vibe of the song has always given the middle of the album a kickstart. No doubt there are those out there that rate this as highly as the gold tracks of the album. I don’t think it quite reaches that level but I still enjoy the song.
The other half of this album is pure joy. The album opener “Tarot Woman” is one of my favourite songs of all time, and has everything you could ever want from a high voltage song. The beautiful 90 second opening synth prelude from Tony Carey sets the tone up beautifully, wreaking the emotive beginning into the Ritchie’s guitar and Cozy Powell’s drums and underscored by Jimmy Bain’s bass line, crashing into the powerhouse of the song as Ronnie lets loose with his amazing vocals. It also showcases Ritchie’s amazing soloing on guitar, which here is perfectly supported by the keyboards before Dio’s vocals soar for the concluding verse and chorus, and the song then fades out to Carey’s keyboard solo. Still brilliant all these years later.
Most count “Stargazer” as the star attraction of the album, and while I lean to the opening track in this regard that doesn’t make this any less brilliant. It is again full of everything that makes this incarnation of the band its finest. The opening drum solo from Cozy is just awesome, creating the perfect entrance to Ritchie’s guitar riff to start the song. Dio’s brilliant lyrics that are then perfectly performed in telling the story are superb, and then the middle stanza including Ritchie’s best guitar work again make this a perfect work of art. Then we are treated to the joy of “A Light in the Black”, the fastest song on the album where the band again blend superbly. The joyful solo break in the middle of the song is surrounded by Dio’s hard soaring vocals pushing the song to its limits. It is the perfect way to conclude the album with two eight-minute-plus songs that hold your attention all the way to the end.
The performances here by the three major contributors – Dio, Blackmore and Powell – are extraordinary. That is not to ignore the contribution of either Carey or Bain, but these three went on to record the follow up Long Live Rock 'n' Roll which somewhat amazingly outstrips this album. But their perfection in their art – vocals, guitar and drums – on this album is brilliant. Cozy’s hard-hitting drumming is perfect on these songs, Ritchie’s guitar is a shining light and Ronnie’s vocals both here and on the following album are probably his most pure and electrifying of any other project he was involved in. If only Ritchie had not felt compelled to find commercial success, who knows what this trio could have produced.

Whether or not you consider this one of the great ‘heavy metal’ albums of all time, there is little doubt that the influence of Rising on future generations of musicians and bands is enormous. It showed once and for all that Ritchie Blackmore had more to his repertoire than what he did in Deep Purple, and it rose Ronnie James Dio to a prominence that he never fell from again. “Tarot Woman”, “Stargazer” and “A Light in the Black” set the band and its members on to greater glory. The album and its songs sound as great today as they must have when they were first released. To me, it is a triumph and still a joy to put on at any time.

Best songs: “Tarot Woman”, “Starstruck”, “Stargazer”, “A Light in the Black”.

Rating: “Her love is like a knife, she’ll carve away your life”. 5/5

1112. Anthrax / State of Euphoria. 1988. 4/5

It’s hard to believe as I think back now that I missed Anthrax during my high school years. There were the couple of music videos that floated around – the one for “Madhouse” from Spreading the Disease being the most memorable one – but as for actually coming around and getting into the band, well that just didn’t happen until later on. Indeed, it wasn’t until I walked into Kiama Sight & Sound one day and saw this shiny album cover staring at me from the “A” rack that I finally purchased an Anthrax album, and I haven’t looked back since.

For me, of those first five albums that encompassed the decade of the 1980’s to 1990, this is the one that I still have confusion over how much I enjoy it as a whole. The debut was rough and mottled with its own charms but certainly not of legendary performance. Each of the other three albums to me are perfectly formed, filled to the brim with strong tracks and songs that are still just as brilliant today as they were when those albums were released. But there’s something about the songs on State of Euphoria that don’t always feel that same way, and it is this reason that I think it is a little maligned in comparison to those other 80’s giant Anthrax albums.
Why is this the case? Personally I think the band got a little bit ‘funky’ with their sound on this album, and it ended up being somewhere between their original thrash metal sound, the hip hop hard core sound that came with their single I'm the Man that came out around the same time, and the more mature metal sound that came with the following album Persistence of Time. While the thrash elements are still here for all to hear, the subtle change in song structure and the similarity in which some songs follow the same pattern does feel as though it comes back to haunt this album to a degree.
Listening to the album with a critical ear, there is a case to be made that many of the songs are too similar in structure and sound. That may tend to over-simplify the argument, but it is what comes across to me. Whereas the other albums mentioned here all have songs that have their own qualities and that stand on their own, there is a case to be made that the songs on State of Euphoria just roll into one another and share too much time together. I can sing the choruses of a number of the songs over other songs on the album and it all fits in to place too neatly. Is this a reason why some people find it too difficult to get into the album? Perhaps.
Having said all of that, I still love this album and I love the songs on it. That certainly comes partly from having had this album for so many years and from having listened to it so much in those late teenage years when everything becomes a part of your psyche forever. There are few better album opening tracks than “Be All, End All” which is a sign of their growing maturity as a band. The cover of Trust’s fantastic “Antisocial” is brilliant roof raiser, still as powerful today as it was when they first played it. “Finale” is a great closing track, completing the album in style. Even those songs that could be accused of being similar still have great powerful chanting lines in the best traditions of Anthrax, lines like “Now it’s dark but I can see, don’t you fuckin’ look at me!” (“Now It’s Dark”), and “You know me and I can be, a very, very vicious critic” (“Misery Loves Company”), and “Invisible could be my name, your excuses are so lame” (“Who Cares Wins”) just to name a few. And this is the main crux of any argument – for me, I love these songs and this album through weight of having grown up with it and listening to it a thousand times or more. And that’s what will colour any review of any album.

The hardline bottom line to State of Euphoria is that is doesn’t quite stack up against those other three giants that the band was able to produce during this first stage of their career, and that’s okay because those are three pretty brilliant albums. But this isn’t that far behind, and anytime I put it on I am still enamoured by its corroded ferocity and tongue firmly in cheek dark tones. I don’t know how I would react to this album if I was coming into it now, some 31 years after it was released. No doubt a lot differently than I did when I did first get it. Whereas Anthrax has other albums that are immediately lovable and relatable, State of Euphoria probably needs a little bit more time to find out how to love it.

Best songs: “Be All, End All”, “Antisocial”, “Now It’s Dark”, “Misery Loves Company”, “Finale”.

Rating: “Stand up, you know what it means, wake up, time to live your dreams”. 4/5

1111. Dream Theater / Distance Over Time. 2019. 4.5/5

While many would disagree with me, my love of Dream Theater has run along two quite distinctive sections. Apart from one or two exceptions I love the era up to and including Train of Thought. These are the albums that I discovered in a short space of time and devoured them. Since then, I have found the albums a bit hit and miss in regards to my love of the music despite the still high level of musicianship. I still look forward to each album being released hoping for something that will reignite that true love of what the band can do. I think I’ve found that with Distance Over Time.

There are certainly two ways to take this album, and I guess in the long run I can only go with the way I have listened to it. From the very first time I put the CD on my stereo I was hooked. It had songs that were just songs, not pieces of a larger conglomerate of story interspersed with talky moments and interconnecting interludes. I could put this album on and just get ten songs coming at me that I either loved or didn’t - and loved them I did. Is it an attempt to reconnect with those fans who, like me, loved those albums from a different age? If indeed this was part of their package this time around, they succeeded with me from the outset.
While The Astonishing was a production and for me often a struggle to get through the whole double album in one sitting, Distance Over Time is a wonderful collection of the duelling keyboards of Jordan Rudess and the guitar of John Petrucci, the amazing bass lines of John Myung, the metronomic drumming of Mike Mangini and the silky vocals of James LaBrie. The combination here of the heavier guitar sound in many songs and the soaring vocalising of LaBrie is perhaps the winning direction. It differentiates itself from other recent releases by doing so. I love each member’s contribution to this album again. Mangini may not be Mike Portnoy but he does his job well. Petrucci’s guitaring is superb and continues to defy belief in sections. So too Johnny Myung’s bass playing, which is still so integral to Dream Theater’s sound.
Does it hold up though? Well, it has been a month now since its release and I still have it on my daily playlist, and that probably says that it has held up well. Having said that, I am not as ecstatic about it now as I was for the first couple of weeks. As the songs have become more familiar, I have found myself picking up on the similarities to other Dream Theater songs, just riff progressions or keyboard fills or even rhythm pieces that blend into other parts of the catalogue. That’s not meant to be a criticism as such, just that as with some other Dream Theater productions, some of it becomes a bit samey as the album progresses, and it is noticeable where the break out pieces that grab your attention more fully are placed on the album.
What will strike most old school fans is that the whole vibe of the album is more favourably directed towards the way those great early albums were written. None of the songs are as deliberately complicated or have 72 time changes every minute of every song however. In that way there is a more manageable way that they songs have been written to suit the course that sets this album apart from recent releases. What these songs do have are the perfect combination of having each member have their moment within each song. There are still those brilliant solo breaks where the musicians have their way and enhance the track, while when the vocals come in it is left to LaBrie to carry the song with his wonderful voice. No one person dominates on this album, every member contributes equally to each song, and this is what creates the best Dream Theater material.

I haven’t felt this way about a Dream Theater album since Train of Thought, and perhaps that comes from both albums having been focused on being heavier albums that the band’s usual output. It’s not all smash and bash, it is still Dream Theater doing what they do best, and revitalising that prog sound that they were such a big part of emphasising during the 1990’s. If you have quietly moved away from the band in recent years, then this would be a good album to come back into. It is a return to form.

Best songs: “Untethered Angel”, “Paralyzed”, “S2N”, “At Wit’s End”, “Pale Blue Dot”, “Viper King”

Rating:  “The world keeps turning as we latch on to the wheel”.  4.5/5

1110. Blaze Bayley / Live in France. 2019. 4/5

Having completed his Infinite Entanglement trilogy with the release of The Redemption of William Black: Infinite Entanglement Part III I guess it was only fitting that Blaze Bayley and his band released a live album to showcase the work they have been doing over those three albums, and how those songs would hold up in a live environment. As a result we have Blaze belting out two discs worth of songs on this release Live in France.

I was certainly hesitant going into this album, not only for what I was going to hear but how it would be presented. Blaze has shown he loves playing live, and he carries just about everything he does well on stage, and his band has been pieced together for some time. I enjoyed the fact that the song list more or less covered the extent of the three albums that make up the trilogy as it fit with Blaze’s two previous live album releases, the first covering his first two solo albums and the second covering the albums in-between times. But this also concerned me because I wouldn’t get to hear those great songs from the first half of his solo career, the ones that had been so impressive to me at the time. I can always go back to those other live albums for that, but the fear for me was that if this album didn’t stand up it would be a relic if all it contained was songs from those three albums. Fortunately, I needn't have worried as despite the lack of older material this album is a beauty.
As mentioned, there are no less than six songs from Infinite Entanglement, four from Endure and Survive (Infinite Entanglement Part II) and five from The Redemption of William Black: Infinite Entanglement Part III. That’s fifteen of the total twenty tracks on the album from the Infinite Entanglement trilogy, and for the majority they sound better live than on the album. That in itself is not unusual as Blaze tends to be a dynamo on stage and brings out the best in everything he performs. The band sounds great and Blaze’s vocals are supreme. Of the other five songs, four are from his Iron Maiden days. The always brilliant “Futureal” is cracking once again, and comes in brilliantly after the opening of “Redeemer” segues beautifully into “Are You Here”. The always surprisingly good “Virus” closes out the first disc of this double set, while there is an absolutely scintillating version of “Man on the Edge” which almost steals the album by itself. The only downside is the choosing of “The Angel and the Gambler” as his fourth Maiden track. It really is one of the most average songs Maiden has ever done, and Blaze wasn’t even a co-writer of the song! There are so many other better songs he could have chosen to do, and this is a shame. Rounding this out is the title track from his first solo album, “Silicon Messiah” which always sounds great, but oh for just a few more tracks like “Ghost in the Machine”, “Kill and Destroy”, “Ten Seconds” and “The Man Who Would Not Die”. Next time perhaps.

Fans of Blaze Bayley will find this to be an excellent addition to their collection. In giving all of his trilogy songs a live atmosphere to be found in, Blaze has satisfactorily concluded this part of his career. What he moves onto now is anyone’s guess, though no doubt an extended tour with his Iron Maiden material (given his tenure in that band ended precisely 20 years ago this year) is likely. Those that have not heard any of Blaze’s solo material will still find this worthy of listening, but should then move back to his first few solo albums to discover his best stuff. As a live recording of this portion of his musical career, this does a more than adequate job.

Best songs: “Reedemer”, “Futureal”, “Are You Here”, “Man on the Edge”, “Endure and Survive”.

Rating:  “Do you think you deserve all the freedom you have?”  4/5

1109. Skid Row / Subhuman Race. 1995. 3/5

It’s amazing how many metal bands released albums in or around the year 1990 to high acclaim and praise, and then didn’t release another until 1994 or 1995 with an almost completely revamped sound and to wide panning from critics and fans alike. I could name a dozen off the top of my head who went from chart topping heroes to a career-threatening low in that space of time. One of those was Skid Row who for me looked to be on a never ending career ascendancy back in 1992, only to release Subhuman Race and as a result plummet to the depths of a place they have not seemed to return from.

To be honest, I could write a carbon copy of my review for Mötley Crüe’s self titled album from 1994 here, because the story of both bands is pretty much word for word. Two bands with previous albums that were at the top of the tree, Dr. Feelgood for Mötley Crüe and Slave to the Grind for Skid Row. Huge tours following these albums had their popularity at an all time high. A long break between their next albums (for varying reasons) also incorporated a huge change in the music scene with grunge becoming hugely popular and thus influencing the direction that all music, but especially metal, was then recorded. The result was a change in style that so disillusioned fans that these bands found themselves fighting battles on all fronts, and barely winning any of them. Oh, and not to mention that the producer of both of these albums was Bob Rock who along with influencing the sound of these two albums was also helming Metallica’s charge to alt-rock on Load and Reload.
Is this too long a bow to pull? I don’t think so. Though Mötley Crüe had forsaken Vince Neil for John Corabi which at least gave them a semblance of reason for the change in musical direction, Skid Row could only use the excuse that the tensions in the band were already pulling them apart. Could it be that they were still trying to find their identity in the music market? Their debut had been a pure hair metal release, while their sophomore album was morphing closer to heavy metal. Here it has been suggested that they wrote and performed a heavier version of that. If they have made a progression, it isn’t to that.
As to the album itself, are there many redeeming features? What amuses me is when people say, as suggested above, that this is the heaviest album Skid Row had released to this point. C’mon, really? Just because you slow down the tempo a little and drop the gauge a tad to make it sound as though it’s a heavier sound doesn’t make it a heavier album. And what really ties it back to the time is the similar rhythm running through every song. The tempo of the album barely changes, such that you could pretty much put a drum machine on and a bass rhythm just hollowing up and down the fretboard in time and that would suffice for the whole album. Which to me is the point. This album sounds like it is an attempt to compromise between what the band had done in the past, and where the music scene was heading to following the remnants of the grunge era. By doing so it is neither one or the other, and for me it suffers because of it.
There are some good songs here, but none that you are ever going to label as great. “Bonehead” is as close to the old Skid Row as you are going to come, though it really needed the Seb Bach screaming vocal over the top within the song to really bring the best out of it. Strangely enough he then does this on “Beat Yourself Blind” and it just sounds forced. “My Enemy” and “Firesign” are fine after you have listened to them about twenty times. “Remains to be Seen” has its moments. “Subhuman Race” finds much of the old vibe for a brief moment in time and produces the best song of the album.

To conclude, this is just an average album from a band that up until this point had excited me thoroughly. Like a lot of albums from metal bands I loved from the 70’s and 80’s that were released through the 1990’s this one is too off-track to get a lot of enjoyment from. The divorce with Sebastian Bach after the tour left both without their main vehicle to go forward and it feels like they have both been looking for it since.

Best songs: “Bonehead”, “Subhuman Race”, “Remains to be Seen”

Rating:  “Brothers hear my story, but don't you take no pity out on me”.  3/5

1108. Queensrÿche / The Verdict. 2019. 4.5/5

Most of the world’s Queensrÿche fans have been waiting patiently for the walls to come down, for pigs to fly, and for the band to deliver us an album that isn’t a carbon copy of their great albums from the 1980’s and early 1990’s, but contains that passion, contains that intensity and replicates the brilliance that the band showed in those great days. No one wanted another Operation: Mindcrime (which we got a poor man’s copy of back in 2005), but what we wanted was another album that had the same energy and drive that we could put on and love all over again. So here we are in 2019, seven years after the great split between the band and their lead singer, and almost thirty years after their last true great album, and we have finally reached the day that that album has arrived in the form of The Verdict.

In many ways this is the polished completion of the two albums released since the introduction of Todd La Torre to the band. While both Queensrÿche and Condition Hüman had good moments and several songs that had promise, it felt as though they both fell short in some way of finding the right ground. While The Verdict is by no means a perfect album it does sound as though many of those loose strings have been attached and brought this back closer to a well-rounded project.
In bringing back a sound closer to their glory days than they have been at any time in the past 25 years there is sure to be some division over what they have brought to the table. Is it reminiscing on what once was, and thus backing their old ground base of support to rush back to the fold, or is it living in the past and not looking to produce an album that looks forward rather than back? To me it doesn’t matter. I think Queensrÿche fans have been waiting for an album that reignites their great love of the band, rather than ones that gain tacit support and keep the fandom trickling along rather than booming in spirit and joy, and this is the closest we have come to a whole package in doing that since those early days of the 1990’s.
You cannot help but marvel over the similarity in voice between La Torre and Geoff Tate, and while it is different enough that you know they are two different singers it still produced enough melancholy that you are reminded of those early Queensrÿche albums.
It’s the power of the tracks that makes this more than what has come in recent years. Everything is out the front of the mix, and it is interesting how much a central piece the drums are, given it is not Scott Rockenfield on the kit this time around by Todd La Torre doing double duty by playing drums as well. There is no loss in the finesse department either, La Torre can really play the damn things, and the drum sound elicited here along with the deep rumbling bass track laid down by Eddie Jackson is just fantastic. Add to this the twin guitars of Michael Wilton and the somewhat underrated Parker Lundgren, who both sound like they are freeing their arms and letting loose with more abandon than has been the case over the years, and you have an album full of songs that are a joy to listen to.
The album opens as a rousing reception, starting off wonderfully with “Blood of the Levant”, which combines the best of Todd’s vocal range and pleasingly the faster pace and hard-hitting drums that were hallmarks of the great Queensrÿche songs. “Man the Machine” and “Light-years” are also both glorious renditions in this way. Like all of the great Queensrÿche albums there is a mix in the emotional state of songs throughout, but unlike during the ‘dark years’ the album is not dominated by a morbid atmosphere or a slow drawn out series of songs. The mix here works perfectly, but most importantly the power behind the tracks never diminishes which keeps it in your face all the way through. Well...
The major sticking point here for me is the closing track “Portrait”, which is the one track that halts this being elevated into the realms of recent great albums from dinosaur metal bands. I will never understand why bands have to end an album with the slower, ‘thought provoking’ type of song when so much great material has come before it. This is no “Anybody Listening” from Empire, this is a really dreary kind of conclusion to an album that had set so many benchmarks before it. Whoever decided on this track being on the album and indeed closing it out made a huge error in judgement.

Ignoring this, The Verdict is an absolute winner in the same way that Judas Priest’s Firepower was a winner last year on its release. Here we have a band that has taken the roots of what gave them their most success as a band, and used those elements to produce an album that doesn’t replicate those earlier albums but molds it in a way that it has a presence in the modern day and has recaptured the best that the band can do. No matter what Queensrÿche go onto do after this, they can be proud of what they have put down here, once and for all proving they are a band that still has what it takes.

Best songs: “Blood of the Levant”, “Man the Machine”, “Light-years”, “Propaganda Fashion”, “Bent”.

Rating:  “Why do we face the same thing if change is a constant?”   4.5/5

1107. W.A.S.P. / The Last Command. 1985. 5/5

Their debut album is right up there with one of my favourites of all time, and when I was really becoming obsessed with the band at the end of high school and into university, it was that album and this one that I had on high rotation. The release of The Headless Children pushed this into the stratosphere but until that time these first two albums were what took up a lot of my listening hours. And while on the surface it is easy to say that W.A.S.P. has better albums out there than The Last Command that would be to ignore the time when it was released and how it fit into the metal scene as it was at the time.

I absolutely loved this album when I first got it, and for a while rated it as better than the debut album such was the constant rotation I gave it. Eventually I came to realise that the genuine anthemic qualities of the previous album on songs such as “I Wanna Be Somebody”, “Hellion”, “On Your Knees” and “L.O.V.E Machine” outrank those on this album, but if you judge the songs on consistency over both albums then The Last Command could possibly still win by a nose.

You aren’t coming into these early W.A.S.P. albums for the lyrics, though Blackie eventually became more intense when it came to this part of the artform. The lyrics all through are fun and still fun to sing even for those of us now well entrenched in middle age. The chanting choruses that encourage you to sing along are the winners here, especially when tooling around town in the car. None of it is highbrow stuff but as a teenager it was all fun and games.
“Wild Child” is the out-and-out hit of the album, and opens it up in style. More melodic than headbusting it still carries itself well after all these years. It could have signalled a much different direction for the album as a whole if the lads had carried on in the same vein, but the follow up of “Ballcrusher”, “Fistful of Diamonds” and “Jack Action” all restore the general vibe of loud and violent themes and music to the fore.
“Widowmaker” is one of the best on the album, mostly because it is still a heavy song but has a different atmosphere from the other tracks. It is not melodic musically like “Wild Child” but has a chorus of melody vocal lines throughout that introduce a variation in theme on the album, much like “Sleeping in the Fire” did on the first album. As the change up song on the album it is particularly effective. “Cried in the Night” tries to do a similar thing but although it is still a great song it isn’t as effective as “Widowmaker” is in this instance.
“Blind in Texas” was one of the singles from the album, and is very much the quintessential W.A.S.P. track form this era. Belligerent, loud and lyrically simple and to the point, this drunken anthem leaves nothing to the imagination. It’s hard and heavy with a great guitar riff and is everything that W.A.S.P stood for in the mid-1980's.
The title track “The Last Command” stood for me as my own anthem for a number of years during this time, the at-times angry and confused teenager trying to find his place in the world, and happy to use this song as my flagbearer. Even today I can put it on and remember how I felt when I would play this over and over again, and how it lifted me up, in the same way as “Department of Youth” and “Youth Gone Wild” used to. “Running Wild in the Streets” used to speak to my youth at the time as well and is still a favourite, while the album closer “Sex Drive” is again so typical of the W.A.S.P standard that even though it might sound laughable almost 35 years later it is still one I can – and do – sing all the words to.

Looking at this album in 2019 – a year that I could not even conceive of when I first bought this album – it has certain flaws that are easy to hear and point out. One even wonders how many of these songs Blackie would now deem to play live in concert given his born again Christian status (answer – very very few). It is an album of its time, filled with sexual and violent innuendo that was frowned upon at the time, and would probably just be tut-tutted now by parents for its childishness than its themes. But beyond all of that, when I put it on my stereo and turn the volume up to eleven, this is still for me a brilliant album. I probably don’t love it as much as I did back in my youth, but it still helps me remember how I felt about the album back then. W.A.S.P. was a juggernaut, and this line up of Blackie Lawless, Chris Holmes, Steve Riley and Randy Piper is arguably their greatest. Maybe kids coming into it today would not find as much in it to enjoy, but with so much emotional baggage tied up in it for me it is one I will always love.

Best songs: “Wild Child”, “Widowmaker”, “Blind in Texas”, “The Last Command”, “Jack Action”.

Rating:  “Hear the call we are the Last Command”.  5/5

1106. Beast in Black / Berserker. 2017. 3/5

Power metal has never been more pop metal than what Battle Beast has released since their inception, and while too much of a good thing can be too much, it has been a solid career for that band in that genre. As such, the departure of Anton Kabanen from Battle Beast over that old chestnut of ‘musical direction’ is an interesting one, as the subsequent albums released by both don’t really reveal too much difference, because they both still have the same musical quality as those original Battle Beast albums. What it does reveal is that Anton has a singular style of music running through his head, and it continues on that path here on his new band’s debut release Berserker.

So, there’s no real surprise that this sounds like a Battle Beast album, and it is all the better for it. It starts off with a bang, showing off all of those qualities that those who enjoy his previous band were in it for. It is fast paced with that pop tinge, great drums dictating the flow, solid base rhythms undertowing each song, hard guitar riffs and soling mixed in with the inevitable synths and keyboards, and soaring vocals that keep their anthemic qualities throughout.
More than anything else, it’s fun! The music is heavily borrowing from the 1980’s new wave pop genre, with foot-tapping and head-nodding uplifting tracks that would fit in perfectly in a retro dance club. In fact some of the songs would hardly skip a beat if they were thrown on in just such clubs. It’s the synths and keyboards that give it this era-defining quality and while that won’t suit all people’s tastes it does separate Beats in Black’s debut from other power metal albums that are being released. On some tracks it gets a bit much - “Crazy, Mad, Insane” for one just goes too far in that direction with its almost techno-like influences, moving too far beyond the blurred line to enjoy as a metal song and not just a retro track. This has all the sampling and other tricks of the trade from the worst pop songs of the 1980’s and kills off most of the enjoyment for me at least – I don’t mind 80’s pop as I grew up in that era, but it doesn’t make the bad stuff any more likeable. “Ghost in the Rain”, the closing track on the album, is another piece of deadwood, draining all of the energy from the album in a limp and disappointing finish to an album that deserved a better fate this this.
Within this framework are some really fun and energetic songs. The title song “Berzerker” opens the album up nicely, and is followed by “Blind and Frozen” and “Blood of a Lion” where vocalist Yannis Papadopoulos really fires up and shows off his pipes, and a real metal riff blazes throughout. “Born Again” does the same, while “Zodd the Immortal” brings a nice tangent to these tracks with a deeper vocal and a change in riffage along the way.

Is this the greatest form of metal music? No, that’s not what I’m able to say. Is it enjoyable and a mood changer when you put it on? My word yes, it certainly is. There are some really good songs here and then there are others that just vary too much to hold the interest all the way through. The first half of the album is high quality in my opinion, but it doesn’t finish off with the same flourish.

Best songs: “Blind and Frozen” “Blood of a Lion”, “Born Again”, “Zodd the Immortal”.

Rating:  “I will wait for tomorrow, that may never come.”   3/5

1105. Last in Line / II. 2019. 3.5/5

For a band that started out a few years ago as a reunion of sorts of the original Dio band, sans their iconic lead singer, to play the songs of that Dio era for a few gigs, this has progressed into an interesting and impressive combination. There has been some shuffling in personnel, but this has become more than just a side project for those involved. The band has grown solid together, and following the release of their debut album Heavy Crown full of original music, it was actually gratifying to hear that we would be treated to a second round and would get a follow up album. And that is what we have here in II.

For those that are wondering – no, this does not sound like those early Dio albums, nor does it sound like any Dio music. Well, actually, there is one exception to that. The song “Sword from the Stone” sounds a lot like the Dio song “Blood from a Stone” off the Strange Highways album in both tempo and vocal character, but only Vinny Appice had anything to do with that 1994 album, and without doubt this is more a coincidence than anything else.
“Blackout the Sun” is a slow beginning, going for the old fashioned (new return?) slow hard beginning – and mirrors some 1990’s Soundgarden in the music and vocals. This could also be said of “Give up the Ghost” and quite possibly “The Unknown”. Peculiar to say the least. “Landslide” has a better tempo throughout until we reach the chorus, but that can be forgiven. Vivian’s solo is a delight however. “Gods and Tyrants” is another song where the tempo is rather tepid until we get to Viv’s guitar solo, where it then gets up to where all of these songs should be sitting. His solo again on this song is just terrific. Herein lies the tale of this album.

I enjoyed the first album. It has some terrific songs on it, mixed with some that don’t work as well. I absolutely came into this album with the hope and desire that we would hear more speed in the tempo of the songs, in the way that the early Dio material had. I didn’t expect it, but I hoped for it, mainly because I knew the four members of the band could do it, and it would stretch them back to a time when they played that kind of stuff on a regular basis.
What we have instead is four very powerful performances. Andrew Freeman’s vocals are fantastic, strong and full of energy, a terrific combination throughout. He is truly wonderful and there is no doubting his quality. Phil Soussan’s bass and Vinny Appice’s drums form the solid base that holds the songs together. Both are veterans and professionals with a rugged and immovable style that dominates the structure of most of the songs. The sound of both on this album is enormous, there is nothing being hidden, they are all up in the mix which provides a huge sound.
If I’m going to be hyper-critical of this, then in many ways what creates the slight ambivalence I feel for this album comes down to Vinny’s drumming. It could very well be the way he has been asked to play these songs (something he had from Dio on many occasions from all accounts), but his staid, staccato style of drumming does tend to emphasise the slower tempo of the songs, and this makes some of the tracks harder to enjoy. That’s an easy thing to say when you are a fan of faster songs and albums like I am, but I do believe in this case it just drags back the album overall. If that’s a writer's call, then the band has obviously gone down this route and they are all in this boat.
But really, why the change of tempo even within songs themselves? “False Flag” is the absolute standout on this album, and I’m not afraid to say that if they had written songs like this for the entire album it would have become a modern-day classic. Freeman’s vocals soar in the way that showcases his greatest attributes, and Viv’s guitar riffs are brilliant, and his solo is a gem. But even here they muck around with the change within the song that just gets to me. I just want them to let go off the reins and let this song (and others) have its head and career off it the distance. For me II lacks that punch that would make it a stellar release. I have no doubt others will find it perfect for their tastes for the reasons I have trouble with it.

We all came to this band for one reason only. Vivian Campbell. He is the one that we all follow, in the hope that we get just a little glimpse of the guitarist we all fell in love with back in 1983. There is little doubt that this album contains his finest work since he left Dio. That is not to have a go at the way he plays in Def Leppard, Riverdogs and other projects. It is just that here we really hear how he can play without the confinements those other bands may have on his guitaring style. Every single solo on this album is brilliant, without fail. If you could just cut out the rest of this album and have Viv’s solos back to back, it is a five-star album. There are other brilliant riffs on the album, and there are a majority of songs here that are great – but it is Viv’s guitar work that is the top-notch highlight over everything here.

When all is said and done I may appear to be putting down this whole album, and that’s not the truth. It’s not all my style of hard rock or metal, and that frustrates me a little. Everything I hear on the album is fantastic, all I want is a faster pace of song to really get into, rather than the slightly clunky tempo most of these songs sit at. That being said, I am still listening to the album five times a day and have no thoughts of replacing it anytime soon, so it can’t be all bad, can it?

Best songs: “False Flag”, “Electrified”, “Landslide”, “Year of the Gun”

Rating:  “Break our backs, break our hearts, but you're never gonna break me.”  3.5/5

1104. Powerwolf / Metallum Nostrum. 2019. 4.5/5

From all accounts, this album was actually released as a bonus disc on the Japanese release of the Blessed & Possessed album back in 2015. While that must have been gold for the Japan fans, it’s also nice that it is getting a full release for the rest of the world to enjoy as well. Given that this is an album of cover version of Powerwolf’s favourite artists, it also acts as a window to the band’s influences in their music over the past fifteen years, and how that has helped shape their own music over that period.

Unlike the two Northern Kings albums I have reviewed recently which concentrated on redoing 1980’s pop songs, this tribute album is to songs and bands that have obviously heavily influenced the music that Powerwolf produce themselves. The song list is impressive and shows me that the members of the band grew up with much the bands that I loved at that era (though I would be about a decade older than these guys I would suggest). That to me is interesting because the base of their own sound absolutely comes from the 1980’s metal rather than the 1990’s or beyond, and that is where most of the songs reside.
Not only are all of the songs chosen here brilliant and, for the most part, also personal favourites of mine, the versions that Powerwolf have performed are carefully created and in no way denigrate the original versions. There is no attempt to fiddle with the perfection of the original tracks, instead they are given the tweaks that give them the Powerwolf metal sound as they should sound in the modern-day environment.
The album is bookended by two tracks from Judas Priest’s Painkiller – starting off with “A Touch of Evil” and concluding with “Night Crawler”. Both are terrific, maintaining the pace and intensity of the tracks while still adding that Powerwolf influence, especially vocally where they sound great. There is an absolutely cracking version of Running Wild’s “Conquistadores”, which for me betters the original by some margin, highlighted by Attila’s Dorn’s vocals. I don’t know the Chroming Rose song “Power and Glory”, but I do know I like this version so I should certainly track it down in the future if only to be able to compare it to this. Also, it is interesting to note the obvious vocal related differences in this cover of Amon Amarth’s “Gods of War Arise”, and is another great job done by the band as a whole. I am also impressed with Powerwolf’s work on Savatage’s “Edge of Thorns”, which retains all of the angst and emption of the original and is a fitting tribute to Criss Oliva’s memory.
If there is any doubt about the ability of the members of this band on their instruments, then the remainder fo the album should put that to rest. Not only have they chosen brilliant songs to pay tribute to but they have done a magnificent job in covering them. There aren’t too many bands who could pull off such loving and accurate representations of songs such as Gary Moore’s “Out on the Fields”, Ozzy Osbourne’s “Shot in the Dark”, Black Sabbath’s “Headless Cross” and Iron Maiden’s “The Evil That Men Do”, but that is exactly what you get here. “Shot in the Dark” and “Headless Cross” especially for me are just brilliant. Like the other songs they don’t step too far from the template, but they still give it their own voice, and I really enjoy that of this album.

My age-old philosophy on tribute albums, I believe, still applies here – that no matter how good the versions of those songs that are performed here are, eventually you will drift back to the originals because they will always be the best. Still, several weeks after first listening to this album it is still in my rotation, and I am enjoying it as much as ever. Anyone who knows these songs and enjoys them should check it out, just to see what fans like you who are also pretty handy musicians play them like.

Best songs: “Touch of Evil”, “Conquistadores”, “Shot in the Dark”, “Headless Cross”.

Rating:  “All men are equal till the victory is won.”   4.5/5

1103. Avantasia / Moonglow. 2019. 4/5

Avantasia started off as a pet project that had a wonderful concept – a metal opera – and when the initial stretch of two albums was completed it was appetite sating. When the next trilogy came through it also was exciting. Two further albums have since surfaced and have been well received. Following the album and tour for Ghostlights Tobias Sammat expressed he was tired and would need to do something different for a time. Some thought it would be a solo album, I hoped for a return to form with Edguy. Instead, surprise surprise, what eventuated... was another Avantasia album. Not that I’m complaining, it just seemed a little too predictable to stay with the supergroup concept than to return to the band he began with.

Tobi isn’t reinventing the wheel here. He is using a well-worn formula that has worked for him and his cohorts over the past three or four Avantasia albums. Listening to Moonglow you will come across plenty of sections of songs or chorus lines or vocal melodies that will remind you of several songs from the Avantasia catalogue. That’s probably always going to be an end result of this kind of project and with plenty of similar people being involved throughout. I have only been listening to it for the past week since its release and can already pick out the similarities. This is nit-picking of a type as none of it matters if you enjoy the songs and album as a whole.
Try it for yourself. Apart from Tobi’s sweet high range throughout each song of the album, you can pick out the usual suspects. Ronnie Atkins and his soft but strong vocals range, Eric Martin still crooning like it is the early 1990’s, Bob Catley piercing through the speakers every time he has his piece and Jorn Lande’s honeyed booming vocal chords dominating front and centre in each song he is a part of. It is the familiarity of these vocalists within the project that makes Avantasia what it is, and not just a different sounding album with every release. Their consistent contributions add that stability to the group and allow the newcomers who arrive on each album a chance to make their own contribution without having their toes stepped on.
The addition of Candice Night is a winner, and the harmonies between she and Tobi on the title track “Moonglow” are worth the admission price alone. It’s a shame she isn’t given a part in one of the heavier song to really give her something different to work with. The small part that Kreator vocalist Mille Petrozza adds to “Book of Shallows” is also terrific.
The introduction of Hansi Kursch to the mix is an inspired one. His unique vocals go a long way to not only giving the songs he is involved in a point of difference from the others on the album but will also be the watermark down the track when Moonglow is compared to the other Avantasia albums. “Book of Shallows” and “The Raven Child” are lifted by his presence alone.
I don’t much like songs like “Invincible” which is very much of the ballad variety, but what does mark this as special is the vocal performance by Geoff Tate, who makes this his own. Sadly this is the route Geoff has taken his own music over recent years, but he does a terrific job with this song and makes it better than it would have been. The much heavier and faster paced “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn” has him join the whole ensemble of well-versed Avantasia vocalists, and he shines here as well which is gratifying to hear.
As ever, Michael Kiske’s appearance and performance is one of the starring efforts of an Avantasia album. His amazing vocals lift every song he is a part of, and this is once again the case with “Requiem for a Dream”. The song itself is upbeat and lively, filled with the double kick and racy guitar riff that are the best elements of the best Avantasia songs, and yet Kiske’s vocals kick it up a further notch. His high pitched perfect notes, well supported by Tobi, make this probably the best song on the album for me. It’s interesting that Kiske’s contribution was left to the end of the album, no doubt his involvement with the reformed Helloween cut down his ability to contribute more heavily this time around.
The music itself is once again a revelation even if in places it does sound a bit formula driven, that a drum beat and bass riff is found and is drawn out to the ends required. Long time collaborator Sascha Paeth again contributes all the guitars on the album and Edguy drummer Felix Bohnke again does double duty here, while Tobi holds the bass guitar once again.

I’ve always looked forward to each Avantasia release and have enjoyed them all. This time around it was more exciting given they are finally touring Australia and I will see them live on this tour. It means I will be listening to this album a lot more over the coming months as I prepare myself for what is to come. And while this isn’t their most outstanding effort it still ticks most of the boxes for anyone who enjoys this genre of the artform. And that’s the key to this album. Someone coming in having not experienced the previous albums is at a disadvantage because the way you listen to the vocals on this album is directly tied to what has come before. You can listen to this and enjoy your favourite vocalists for their contribution, but it is the combination of all as a part of their characters in the story that makes this the full experience rather than just an album full of songs. It’s a small concession, but I do think fans of the Avantasia experience will get more from this than a first timer coming in at this stage of the game.

Best songs: “The Raven Child”, “Requiem for a Dream”, “Book of Shallows”, “Moonglow”

Rating:  “Everything you've come to dream is gonna turn out real.”   4/5

1102. Northern Kings / Rethroned. 2008. 3.5/5

You never know... lightning might strike twice. Following the reasonable success of their first album together, the super-group conglomerate of Northern Kings obviously decided that it was worth a crack, and came together once again to record another album full of cover versions of songs from the past. It was a bold move, one that was always fraught with the danger that too much of a good thing would end up being the opposite. In the end, this was probably closer to the truth than the opening sentence of this review.

Rethroned brings together another eleven songs of mixed heritage to have new life breathed into them by this stellar array of vocalists and their supporting band. For me though, while I enjoyed the first album immensely, this time around I was not as enamoured. This has nothing to do with the musicianship or talents of the vocalists on show, indeed it has almost everything to do with the songs that were chosen to be covered. Whereas I knew and liked almost all of the songs on Reborn, here I knew about half the songs but didn’t necessarily enjoy the ones I knew. That made listening to this album a much more difficult process.
Four of the songs I was unaware of at all. I have of course heard the “Training Montage” before in the scene from Rocky IV where Stallone is getting ready to fight Ivan Drago, but I wouldn’t have recognised it in a million years. Being an instrumental it gave the band itself their time to shine to start the album off. “Strangelove” by Depeche Mode I don’t think I have ever heard, but the version here is listenable enough. “Killer” by Adamski and Seal I have no knowledge of at all, while "Róisín Dubh (Black Rose): A Rock Legend" by Thin Lizzy I must have heard before, especially as it was the one album Gary Moore played on, but I simply don’t recall it at all. First rule of listening to a covers album is knowing all the songs recorded on it. Fail.
Five of the remaining seven songs are hit and miss, depending on your individual taste. Bon Jovi’s “Wanted: Dead or Alive” is a difficult song to cover well at the best of times, let alone by converting it to a faster tempo and trying to inject as much ‘power metal’ into it as you can. The vocal line itself is a tough one to carry off. I’m not sure it really works here. Seal’s “Kiss from a Rose” from Batman Forever is another which is hard to do justice to, but on this occasion, I think they’ve done it. By remaining more faithful to the original, expressing the emotion in the vocal lines where it comes and using the energy from the song to make an up vibe and faster tempo track, I think they’ve produced a great version. It helps that all four vocalists were involved in the track as it certainly increases the power and melody of the vocals. Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” which was popularised by Sinead O’Connor, has not been a long-held favourite of mine, and the version here is serviceable. Much the same could be said of the cover of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”. Given the reverence it is held in it was an interesting choice to do here, but I have to say they did a good job of it without taking away from the original. On the other hand, there is very little reverence held for Kylie Minogue’s “I Should Be So Lucky” given its life as the poppiest of pop songs, so the dual attack of this cover version, which begins as a slow, low and deep rendition for most of the track before breaking out in the last third to a fast paced scream gives this the perfect way of honouring this song that everyone knows but no one can actually admit that they like or liked.
The two remaining songs are my favourites. Duran Duran’s “A View to a Kill” from the James Bond movie of the same name is excellent, again helped by having all four vocalists involved in the harmonies throughout. I don’t think it betters the original (though I have a soft spot for all of Duran Duran’s music) but it does mirror the emotion and power of their version. Then there is A-ha's “Take on Me”, which the Northern Kings nail here in a symphonic masterpiece of vocal harmonies that perfectly enhance the vocals from the original version. This is a beauty, the kind of cover version of a song that shows off the qualities of both the original and the remake.

I don’t think this matches the previous album, but that is more for the songs chosen than the quality of the musicianship and vocals. Each song here sounds fantastic and the singing is fabulous. This was the second and last release from this supergroup, and perhaps their creative flow together had been sated by the two releases. No matter what the reason, I for one am glad they made the effort.

Best songs: “Take on Me”, “A View to a Kill”, “Kiss from a Rose”.

Rating:  “Until we dance into the fire.”  3.5/5

1101. Judas Priest / Nostradamus. 2008. 3/5

I’m sure there were others like me out there that felt some disappointment in the offering produced by the reformed Judas Priest as their comeback album, Angel of Retribution. Over-excitement was definitely a factor in that. So, when the band announced they were going into the studio to record their follow up there was cause for further tingling of the senses. Surely this time they would not only find a way to hold true to the Judas Priest metal ideals, but would also eliminate those slight anomalies that were on the previous album and produce another masterpiece. It turns out that I ended up feeling slightly let down once again.

“Ambitious” is probably the word that best describes the whole Nostradamus concept from start to finish. From the time it was announced that the next album would be a concept album based on the life of the seer, a musical symphony or rock opera as such, and that it would span two discs, it felt like it was not only going to be overblown but also very un-Judas Priest-like. Certainly not what I considered the band and its music to be like. Even so, I reserved judgement until the album had arrived and I had put it on to listen to for the first time.
Did I have problems with it when it was released? Yes. Do I still have problems with it now? Yes. This is a complex album and one that is almost beyond just being able to put it on and listen to for pleasure. It isn’t like taking out Defenders of the Faith or Painkiller and knowing the songs and headbanging along in glee. This, like an opera, is an entire musical piece, one that is difficult to pick pieces out at random and just enjoy those tracks because in essence they all have to fit together. For me this is the most difficult part of the album. Even with Queensryche’s brilliant concept album Operation: Mindcrime you can enjoy the songs on their own as well as part of the whole album. Here on Nostradamus I find that almost impossible. And in essence that seems to be because the songs themselves as individual components just aren’t great, or inspiring, or energetic.
More than anything, it is just looooooooooong. Because of the fluctuations between the style of songs as each tries to tell another part of the story, and with the short instrumental interludes between songs that are used to connect these parts of the story, it feels as though it stretches out eternally. At almost 103 minutes in total, it is a long time to commit to get through from start to finish, especially when there are tracks that just don’t appeal my general music taste.
The opening of “Prophecy” and “Revelations” is enjoyable enough, mixed in as it is with the synths and keyboards and the symphonic sound that is incorporated throughout. The closing song of the first disc “Persecution” is probably the best song on the album because it sounds like the Priest songs that I love. “Alone” is different from that but in the course of the album is another I don’t mind, along with “War”. “Nostradamus” flows with an energetic burst towards the end of the second disc. To be honest, for me that is as much enthusiasm as I can raise for the individual tracks here, and even that is a stretch.

Is it a flawed masterpiece? I’m not sure. Certainly, the concept and the way it was written and recorded highlights that a lot of thought and work went in to this album, and the band had to know beforehand that because it was unlike anything they had ever done before that it was going to be a hard sell to the fans. As musicians and artists this must have been something they felt very strongly about recording, and I admire the fact that they went outside of their pigeon hole to produce it. I have spent the past couple of weeks reacquainting myself with it for this review and I believe that I appreciate it more now for what it is than I did when it was released. Actually, I’m sure of that. However, as an album to put on for the afternoon to listen to while having a couple of beers, this definitely isn’t the one you are going to grab off the shelves.

Best songs: “Prophecy”, “Revelations”, “Persecution”.

Rating:  “They will not eradicate me, break my will or suffocate me.”  3/5

1100. Northern Kings / Reborn. 2007. 4/5

The Christmas holiday period in Australia always finds me looking back in time with rose coloured glasses on, back to my high school days and the music that dominated that time, both metal and pop music. So when you come across an album that fuses the two together, making metal anthems out of 1980’s pop songs, it is something that is hard to ignore. Thus over the past couple of months I have discovered Northern Kings and their two cover albums, starting with this one entitled Reborn.

Not sure why an album like this has to be released? Well, the answer is why not? This is a one-off super-group type of situation, with the four vocalists - Jarkko Ahola, Marco Hietala, Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto and Tony Kakko - from various Finland metal groups coming together to bash these tunes out. And for anyone like me who not only remembers all of these songs when they were released but also prefers heavier music, this is an enjoyable exercise.
Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” has probably always been a song that could lend itself to a reimagining, and this is one of the better cover versions here purely because it has been speeded up and given a raucous middle section dominated by the duelling guitar and keyboard solo along with the double kick. One of the kings of the AOR movement is given a perfect power metal overhaul here and sounds fantastic.
The version of Tina Turner’s “We Don’t Need Another Hero” from the movie Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome is perhaps the standout and certainly my favourite in this collection. It doubles down on the emotion of the original track and doesn’t move too far from the structure except to beef up the power and energy throughout. It is still impossible not to sing along at the top of your voice through the chorus, and the four voices together (the only track where all four are involved together) give this a fitting treatment.
Mr. Mister’s “Broken Wings” also sounds great, thanks to Tony Kakko who does a great job on the vocals for this track. On the other hand, Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell” has gone in a different direction, going for the slower and lower approach which is the opposite of the vibrancy of the original. I appreciate that they needed to change this version to do something original with it, and I do think that it is fine in that respect. I just love the anger and fire of the original too much. I’d have loved to have heard a real power metal up-the-ante version of this. David Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes” is giving a fitting tribute which still giving it a varied sound which gives it its originality. To be honest I think Northern Kings version of “Fallen on Hard Times” is better than Jethro Tull’s original, giving it a life that Tull never did. It’s a great track and makes me listen to it in a different way now.
Another high energy track given a slower and more introspective version is Cutting Crew’s “I Just Died in Your Arms”, which to me deserved a real speed metal version instead. Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” sticks closely to the original piece, which is a good thing because it would be an easy song to make sound bad if you are not careful. This rendition is faithful and retains the vibe of the original. This is completely different from the version of Electric Light Orchestra’s “Don’t Bring Me Down” which is given a complete makeover and given the speed and vibrancy that power metal invokes. It is pretty much a completely different song with the same lyrics such is the change in the output. It takes a bit of getting used to if you know the original song well, which most people of my generation will. In the case of the Phil Collins hit “In the Air Tonight” the band again plays a more energetic version of the track without steering too far from the structure of the song, thus giving it a power metal feel without cracking the song for the purists.
There have been a couple of excellent and interesting cover versions of Radiohead’s “Creep”, though I wouldn’t number this among them. They have gone for a heavier slower version rather than go in the other direction, and to my thinking it would have been more interesting to hear that tested out instead.
A close second to song of the album is the souped up, double time version of Lionel Richie’s “Hello”, which is perfectly performed on vocals by Jarkko Ahola. Once again the emotion of the track is enhanced, while also giving the music an edge and a drive that the original does not have. Excellent. The album concludes with “Brothers in Arms” from Dire Straits which holds itself much to the same tempo as Mark Knopfler’s version which perhaps hinders the end of setlist because of it.

Like I said at the start, for anyone who grew up in the 1980’s listening to these songs on the radio and who also doesn’t mind hearing them get a fresh coat of paint this a well worth searching out. After a few listens I was hooked, and I can now put this on at any time, in any company, and get a kick from it.

Best songs: “We Don’t Need Another Hero”, “Fallen on Hard Times”, “Sledgehammer”, “Hello”.

Rating:  “All we want is life beyond Thunderdome.”  4/5

1099. Skid Row / Slave to the Grind. 1991. 4.5/5

Back in the deep and distant past when I still had more vinyl than CD’s, I was a big fan of Skid Row’s debut album, and having then seen them on their subsequent world tour I had pondered what their next album would be like. We had been given a sneak preview at their 1990 Sydney gig with the playing of a new song “Get the Fuck Out” (only the second time they’d played it live), which augured well to my ears. When I then came across a pre-release copy of Slave to the Grind while in Bali in 1991 and first played it on my cassette Walkman that afternoon, I can honestly say that I never expected to hear what I heard.

How do you go from the happy-go-lucky feel of Skid Row to the crunching monster that is Slave to the Grind? There was attitude on the debut, but it was the attitude of teenagers taunting adults from a safe distance and then running away laughing. That’s not what is thrown at you on this album. The attitude here is from a confident adult who isn’t afraid to stand their ground and be seen for what they are saying. That attitude on the first album is increased tenfold here on the sophomore effort.
From the first time I put on the album I was transfixed. I had expected something similar to what the band had produced with Skid Row, but I was very much mistaken. The opening scream at the start of “Monkey Business” was just the beginning. But it is that guttural guitar riff and rolling drum beat opening on the title track “Slave to the Grind” that topped it all off and really gets you in. Fast and heavy, and that chunking guitar riff that blows the speakers apart. This was no hair metal band singing about the youth going wild or wanting to remember you, this was a bonafide heavy metal band exploding onto the scene with a presence and heaviness that could not have been predicted.
Some songs may have a similar structure and sound - “Psycho Love” and “Creepshow” I can still confuse before I start singing the lyrics and realise which song it actually is – but the mixture throughout is one of the strengths. The album doesn’t go hard for the duration, nor does it let you stop and wallow in the slower and more reflective moments for long enough to stop the album’s momentum. Every outstanding aspect of the band shines through in the songs and track list as it is set out.

The songs and music written for this album are just brilliant. Heavy riffs perfectly woven by Dave Sabo and Scotti Hill and driven by the hard hitting rhythm of Rob Affuso on drums and the added huge bottom end from Rachel Bolan on bass. Bolan and Sabo were again the main songwriters for the album and their growth over the previous two years is obvious in the songs they have collaborated on.
But the star attraction of the album is still the amazing vocals of Sebastian Bach. He is what makes this album so brilliant, because his versatility and range and ability to stretch from the heaviest vocal track to the highest rock ballad without compromising his harmony and pitch is pure gold. The vocal especially in “Living on a Chain Gang” is just superb. It drives that song to new heights, while the supporting vocals underneath perfectly offset Seb’s tangents. And then his performance in those angry tracks such as “Get the Fuck Out” and “Riot Act” shows great strength and purpose.
Even the hard rock ballads they produce are difficult to dislike, as Seb’s vocals roll like oozing honey out of the speakers at you. This is especially true of “Quicksand Jesus” and “In a Darkened Room”, two songs that I would usually have trouble enjoy but have no qualms about while listening to Seb singing them, while his vocal on the closing track “Wasted Time” is reminiscent of that on “I Remember You” from the first album, but with a greater authority and maturity than that song. Superb.

This should have been the springboard to a massive future for Skid Row as a band. Having come in with a hair metal confidence they had progressed to a real heavy metal attitude with this release, and set themselves up to become as big as they could possibly be. And then it went pear shaped. Whether it was the tension within the band or just the fact that music went through such an enormous upheaval with grunge and then hardcore changing the landscape, Skid Row never again produced anything like this album. For me it was one of the great tragedies of the 1990’s.

Best songs: “Slave to the Grind”, “Get the Fuck Out”, “Livin’ on a Chain Gang”, “Riot Act”.

Rating:  “A hungry politician is the wolf that's at the door.”  4.5/5

1098. Mötley Crüe / Mötley Crüe. 1994. 2.5/5

After the monster that Dr. Feelgood became on its release in 1989, and the subsequent tour that followed, I can confirm that there was a great deal of anticipation on the follow-up album and how it would go in comparison. There was a lot to live up to, not just from that album but from the releases of the previous decade. Whether or not what then occurred leading up to this album being released was predictable or not is hard to gauge, but it is fair to say that by the time Mötley Crüe finally hit the record shelves that it was not anything like I expected it was going to be.

Five years passed between albums, and lead vocalist Vince Neil had departed on somewhat acrimonious terms, requiring a new member to come on board. Enter John Corabi, lead vocalist of The Scream who also plays rhythm guitar. I have never heard any of their music so it is impossible for me to judge what their style may be, but a lot has changed since Dr. Feelgood grabbed the headlines. The sound on Mötley Crüe is tied very much to the times. Grunge had come and had eradicated the hair metal movement, or at least the sound that it had proliferated to the point between 1981 and 1991. Those hair metal bands that had not disappeared had for the most part tried to adapt to the new landscape. This is Mötley Crüe’s answer to that, a stripped back sound with a grungier outlook and a different vocal direction, though that is an obvious one given that it was a different vocalist on board.
Play this back-to-back with any of the previous Mötley Crüe albums and you would swear they are by different bands. It’s not just the vocals. The whole sound is completely different to what has come before. And that takes some getting used to. The best way to approach this album is to listen to it without knowing who the band is, so that you can give it the time it needs without the judgement of the band's past. Easier said than done when you buy the album for the name of the band emblazoned on the front of it. As a result, there is not so much joy and intensity and fun in the music here that had been such a part of their earlier albums.
For me, this is the equivalent of what Metallica did in the same era with the Load and Reload albums, a really definitive decision to slow the music down and incorporate the changing times of the popular alternative movement that had occurred. With the none-too-subtle change in the musical direction of both bands at this time, who should be in charge of twiddling the knobs of those two Metallica albums? Bob Rock. And who was also in charge on Mötley Crüe? Bob Rock. Coincidence? If it is it is a massive one. The slower, crunch guitar rather than the fast paced, squealing guitar and solos is a feature of both of these bands' previous releases. While Metallica’s foursome had been retained though, at least Mötley Crüe’s recruitment of Corabi gave some semblance of originality to the changes that came forth. Five years between albums, and the amount of change that had happened in the music scene during that time, certainly added some reasonability to it.

If you judge this album as an alternative or grunge album you will certainly find some positives within the songs. Perhaps it is heavier than an average alternative album but it is rooted in that genre. Which means that it is difficult to please either or any fans. After the opening tracks of “Power to the Music” and “Uncle Jack”, “Hooligan’s Holiday” starts off okay but drags on far too long without changing tune all the way through. “Misunderstood” too just goes on far too long. I mean, it’s not the kind of song I like in the first place, and the fact that it drags that soft acoustic start out so long, and then does exactly the same thing at the end of the track, doesn’t help my love of it. The attitude in the middle goes some way to offsetting that, but it still is a bit too close to country rock in places for my liking. The comparative shortness of “Loveshine” at least compensates for its lack of excitement. “Poison Apples” and “Hammered” at least allows Mick Mars to break out a decent solo to get the tracks moving. “Smoke the Sky” is probably my favourite track along with these two because of the better tempo.

Corabi has been touring in recent years playing this album in full, in order to give it a fresh audience or chance to see the light. He in fact comes to Australia very soon to do just this, which is part of the reason I have resurrected my copy to listen to again. But here is the twist, because I could rate this album anywhere between 1.5 and 3.5 depending on the mood I’m in on the day. As a Mötley Crüe album such as the ones released in the past, it doesn’t rate well. As a stand-alone album of the era, I can find things I like about it. The problem has always been that as a grunge or alternative album it still lacks a quality that can lift it above the average, and that is still the fact of the matter. No matter which way you try to look at this, it is just an average album.

Best songs: “Smoke the Sky”, “Poison Apples”, “Hammered”.

Rating: “Telling evils of the reefer, but all through time we've smoked the sky”. 2.5/5

1097. The Unity / Rise. 2018. 3.5/5

With Gamma Ray still on hiatus as Kai Hansen participates in the juggernaut that is the Helloween reunion tour, The Unity continued on their way as a group uninterrupted and decided to follow up their debut album with another one in quick time, no doubt as they had been writing songs on the road but also to give them a better choice of material to perform live. Thus we have Rise.

I went in to this album expecting a lot more than I did of the first, mainly because they had now been on the road and come together as a band for twelve months, and now for their sophomore effort I wanted to hear the growth that would have come from that time together. There was always going to be the anticipation of something close to what Gamma Ray has always produced, but more than anything else I wanted something hard and fast and catchy. I got some of that, but maybe not as much as I was hoping for.
The opening tracks do come across as the best on the album, which sets it up to drag the listener in hard at the start. The opening instrumental “Revenge” leads in to the fast and flailing opening track “Last Betrayal”, full of great guitars and high pitched vocals that illuminate the best of the power metal sound. This cascades into the harder edge of “You Got Me Wrong”, full of excellent riffs and layered vocals that hit the right chords. “The Storm” follows this, but it is a fairly average hard rock song that doesn’t provide any real excitement beyond the standard lyrics/chorus/guitar signature. “Road to Nowhere” has a much better sound to it, with the harder edged drums and guitar riff thumping through the song.
The middle of the album keeps the album on an even keel, perhaps promising more than it delivers depending on your own point of view. I enjoy “Welcome Home” which is upbeat and vibrant, with a join-in-chanting chorus that just begs for a live audience to sing along. “All That Is Real” is a change up in style that actually works better than I would have expected. It utilises the emotional value of the spectrum without pulling it into the dark depths of a power ballad, and for me this track is perfectly executed, especially with the keys around the vocals. This is followed by “No Hero” which like “Welcome Home” is another sing-along song - though it probably feels more like that as they released a lyric video for it – and though it doesn’t procreate the genre it is still one of those songs that is catchy and gets in your head.
“The Willow Tree” slows down the pace again, bringing in the emotive vocals without completely digressing into the power ballad area. Though it sounds great, and Henjo’s guitar work is just terrific, the song is not one I can get on board with. “Above Everything” is designed as another crowd involvement number and again is performed well but sits a bit right of centre for me. For my taste these songs are missing something that would make them worth listening to time and again, and it is just the style more than anything else.
“Children of the Light” is much more in my musical frame with a much more enjoyable tempo led by the sterling double kick drumming from Michael Ehre and brilliant soloing from Henjo once again. “Better Day” and “L.I.F.E.” not the closing songs I was looking for, as again like a few songs in the middle they are missing that ingredient that appeals to my taste. Everything just seems a bit flat and lifeless compared to the better tracks on the album.

There can be no argument about the ability of the members of the band and their musicianship. Everything sounds great and is performed perfectly. The songs here cover a broad range of the genre, with the faster and more lively songs such as “Last Betrayal” for me being the star attractions, while the songs that settle in the middle range don’t quite have the kick necessary to drive any enthusiasm.
When I first heard the album I was immediately won over. After thirty or so listens I find that the good songs still resonate with me, but the ones that are not up to that high standard tend to pull the album back as a whole. Jan Manenti has a great set of vocal chords and gives another great performance here, showing similarities to Jorn Lande along the way. Henjo Richter is superb once again on guitar and is well supported by guitar partner Stefan Ellerhorst and Jogi Sweers on bass. Michael Ehre’s drumming is as solid as always.

This is a better-than-average album for those who enjoy this branch of the heavy metal tree. It doesn’t really bring anything new to the table, and it won’t be an outstanding addition to your collection. Despite this, there is more than enough here to enjoy, and in a year where there was not a great deal of outstanding albums released this is one that will be better than most.

Best songs: “Last Betrayal”, “You Got Me Wrong”, “Welcome Home”, “All That is Real”, “Children of the Light”

Rating: “You think you're strong, but I won't give up anymore”. 3.5/5

1096. Lazy Bonez / Kiss of the Night. 2019. 3/5

Until I began searching through the Rate Your Music charts list last week, and came across the very early stages of the best metal albums released in 2019, I had never heard of the band Lazy Bonez nor heard any of their music. Probably not surprising given that they are from Finland which is half a universe away from Australia. However, early posts on the album had given it a few raps that encouraged me to search it out, and with the magic of Spotify in this wonderful digital age I was able to discover Kiss of the Night.

Their music is very non-confrontational. Based on a similar format of other power metal bands with a European heritage, the sound is much like contemporaries like Sonata Arctica, Stratovarius and various projects that Jorn Lande has been involved in. Whereas those bands have since developed their sound into something more unique, what I initially enjoyed about this album is that it doesn’t try to be something it is not, or to try and be overtly ambitious with their music. It is good basic power metal, almost on a hard rock scale as the songs have a good basis of the rhythm of drums and bass holding the song together while the guitars and keyboards play fluently and pleasantly together. On top of this is the excellent vocals of Tommi Salmela who does have an uncanny knack of singing in a similar vein to other vocalists of the genre. Together this package has put together a collection of songs that are very easy to listen to and enjoy.
The album flows wonderfully well from one song to the next. It has a rock emphasis that is different from other power metal albums, the biggest asset for me is the 'almost’ absence of the power ballad that bogs down albums on a major scale. Because every song here has its own solid continuity and doesn’t look to change things up too much throughout the album, it means that there are no dull moments that could slow up the momentum of the track list. I for one believe this is one of the great positives of the album. If you are looking for blistering solos or orchestral keyboards or seventeen time changes within a few bars, then you are in the wrong place. If on the other hand you enjoy your power metal in its simplest form without all of the improvisations and experimentation the you will get a kick out of this.
The opening three songs set the platform for the enjoyment to follow. Opening track “Everlasting” is a good introduction to the album, and is followed by the catchy “Run” which has you joining in singing the lyrics in quick time. The double kick and happy guitars come out on the title track “Kiss of the Night” to give the middle section the boost that power metal albums can give.
After an excellent opening the album settles down into the solid basis of the power rock that I spoke of. Some may feel that it is a bit humdrum given that it doesn’t offer anything outstanding to hang their hat on, and that is possibly a fair comment. Putting on the album to listen to as a background experience makes this very listenable, but to others who are looking to have their socks blown off it may come across as humdrum.
There does come eventually the moment all power metal bands must indulge in – the power balled. “Forever Young” is this album’s version of this horrific part of the genre, and though it is my least favourite part of this album it is tolerable in this instance.

If you have listened to any of the Allen/Lande project albums you will have a sense of deja-vu listening to this album, as there are touches of the format and the vocal style throughout this album – not a copy I rush to add, but just a similarity in song structure and singing pitch. Whether it is a deliberate thing or not I don’t know, but it kept me listening to this album long enough to enjoy it as its own entity rather than comparing its style to other bands. It may not be the best album released this year but it is one that you will be able to reflect on in later months and years and think it was worth finding in the first place.

Best songs: “Everlasting”, “Run”, “Kiss of the Night”, “Tears of Gold”

Rating: “There’s nothing in this world that I can’t do”. 3/5