1126. Michael Schenker Group / Immortal. 2021. 3/5

If any of you have followed the career of one of the finest axemen ever, the great Michael Schenker, then you’ll know he has rarely stood still over the past fifty years. Starting off with his brother Rudolph in the band Scorpions, through to British legends UFO, and then onto the several projects that bear his own name, Schenker has been releasing music and touring many places in the world – not Australia unfortunately – consistently since he first graced the stages of the world as a teenage guitar prodigy. And while the genre of the music he plays on has tended to gravitate between heavy metal to soft rock, the one saving grace is almost always Schenker’s guitar playing and the riffs and solos he produces that punctuate everything he puts his fingers on. Having spent thirty years in various forms of The Michael Schenker Group and the McAuley Schenker Group, in recent years he has done a supergroup type deal with the Michael Schenker Fest, and those album releases with a multitude of vocalists and other band members have been excellent. Then as Covid-19 gripped the world, as with so many other artists Schenker was forced to change his initial plans, and instead find another project to pass his time. And what came to fruition instead was this album that he brought out once again under the moniker of The Michael Schenker Group, celebrating his 50 years in the music business. Titled Immortal, it is an extension of what he has been doing over the last several years, but it is also a celebration and a chance to not only look back in a way but to mark the anniversary with a release that stands on its own.

Michael Schenker has again utilised several bodies to not only help record the music, but to contribute to the vocals on the songs, something he has made a habit of over the last decade or so. Perhaps it is his method so that he can have several styles of songs on the same album and not be tied to the way one vocalist may interpret it, or maybe he just enjoys having his different style of songs sung by singers who do the most justice to them. Whatever the reason behind it, there are different levels of songs here for fans of the band to listen to, and while there is something here for everyone, it is likely that as a whole package it won’t appeal to everyone’s tastes.

The faster and heavier songs utilise the brutal and electrifying vocal chords of Ralf Scheepers, lead singer of Primal Fear and renowned for his amazing singing style. Scheepers is electrifying alongside the double kick and guitar licks that dominate the songs that he is a part of, “Drilled to Kill” and “Devil’s Daughter”. These are for me the best two songs on the album, partly because of Ralf’s involvement but because they are the fastest songs on the album. Then you have the much more AOR feel that legendary vocalist Joe Lynn Turner brings to his contributions on “Don’t Die on Me Now” and “Sangria Morte”. “Sangria Morte” in particular is a song that is difficult to get your head around. While “Don’t Die on Me Now” is a song you can almost believe could be performed by Rainbow, “Sangria Morte” has a completely different sound and feel to it, and is one that takes some listening to in order to get the most out of it.
As for the remainder (but one) of the songs on the album, they are voiced by Ronnie Romero and Michael Voss. Having already mentioned the Rainbow influence with Joe Lynn Turner’s vocals here, it may come as no surprise to you that Romero has been singing in the reformed touring band of Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, and you can hear how he got that gig on his tracks here. On the other hand, Voss has been handed the reigns of the slower tempo and melody songs, the ones that for no other reason than personal taste, I can quite happily skip over. They aren’t bad songs, but for me they are just a tad boring. Schenker finds a way to sneak a couple of these kinds of songs onto almost all of his albums, and for me those albums would be better off without them. But given they always appear you know that Schenker himself must be a fan of them.

The album concludes with a terrific rendition on “In Search of the Peace of Mind”, apparently the first song that Michael Schenker ever wrote – at the kitchen table of his family home when he was 15 years old - and which appeared on the very first Scorpions album “Lonesome Crow” back in 1972. It features vocal contributions from Gary Barden, Robin McAuley and Doogie White, all former lead vocalists for Michael Schenker groups, and also has a new solo written by Schenker for the occasion. It adds to the nostalgia of the occasion of celebrating his 50 years in the industry, and is a nice counterpoint to where it all began for him and where he finds himself now.

On listening to this a few dozen times, there is a lot to enjoy on this album, and Schenker’s ability to draw from so many rock and metal influences over the years has allowed him to remain relevant in an era where similarity can be a curse. What is important is that the songs contain a drive and emotion, that the vocalist, whoever it is, is helping that drive and emotion, and that Schenker himself has his moment on each song to shine, otherwise why are you turning up in the first place? For me it makes songs such as “After the Rain” such a disappointment because they offer none of this, and seem to be here just for the hope that a ballad will draw some fans back again and again. And this is the complete opposite reason why anyone will come to a Schenker-titled album. We are coming for his guitar, to hear his riffing and soloing and enjoying it for the legend that his is. And yet, so often in the past, in on some of the songs here, he is ignorant of that and continues to try and sell up some tripe that is no more than filler material.

The good news here is that on most tracks Michael Schenker dominates, and he is in fine form. He even occasionally duels with the keyboards in a nod to the old Blackmore/Lord days of Deep Purple which is also lots of fun. For those that like me want more guitar from Schenker, the best songs here include “Devil’s Daughter”, “Knight of the Dead”, “Sail the Darkness”, “Come on Over”, and the opening track “Drilled to Kill”.

1125. Alice Cooper / Detroit Stories. 2021. 3.5/5

It was probably time for 73 year old Detroit native Alice Cooper, formerly Vincent Furnier, to start slowing down a little when it came to writing and recording new albums. He had been amazingly productive when it came to this over the years, with new albums coming out sometimes before you had even had a chance to fully digest the previous one. However, slow down he has, and since 2010 Alice has brought out just three new studio releases, 2011’s Welcome 2 My Nightmare, 2017’s Paranormal, and now this year’s Detroit Stories. It marks Alice’s 21st studio album as a solo artist and add to those the seven albums that he did with The Alice Cooper Band before he went out on his own, that is a lot of material to write and record over 50+ year career – and that’s not to mention the live albums or the material done with other acts either!
The album is written about Alice’s origins, and especially the origins of the hard rock music scene of Detroit when he was growing up, and when he came back with The Alice Cooper Band. Here, Alice and his co-writers tried to incorporate those memories of the Detroit music scene into the songs and into every part of the album as a whole. Not only incorporate those sounds into this album, but he also used musicians of that similar ilk, and indeed used songs from Detroit bands of that era, performing his own cover versions of those songs to further intone his Detroit Stories. Alice was making a real attempt to return to the roots of rock and roll, mixing a lot of blues, jazz and soul along with the hard rock and humour that Alice has always been renowned for.
There is a cast of thousands helping out to perform on this album, and in a lot of ways it is an old time Detroit reunion given the people involved. Producer and co-writer Bob Ezrin is back, the man who helmed the desk for most of those Alice Cooper band albums in the early 70’s as well Alice’s first solo pieces, and his recent albums as well. His influence is noteworthy here again. In amongst the tracks that he and Alice co-wrote with other people, there are four cover songs here from other bands tied up in the history of Detroit hard rock. The opening track is a cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Rock and Roll”, though the lyrics that paint a picture of New York are morphed here to reflect Detroit instead. The cover of Outrageous Cherry’s “Our Love Will Change the World” has a more Alice-defined rock sound than the original. The cover of MC5’s “Sister Anne” is very much played in an Alice Cooper way, so much so you could believe it really was one of his songs, and the album concludes with a cover of Bob Segar’s “East Side Story”. All have been included to flavour the history that Alice has tried to purvey with this album, to look back at the music that in some ways made him the artist he is today.

Once again there is the return of the surviving members of the original Alice Cooper Band to not only help out in the writing of several tracks, but indeed to perform on two of them. Drummer Neal Smith co-wrote “Social Debris”, and bass guitarist Dennis Dunaway co-wrote “Drunk and in Love” and “I Hate You”, and both of these two and guitarist Michael Bruce joined Alice to record “Social Debris” and “I Hate You”. It has been a nice part of the last three albums to have that history recognised and have these guys come together to still be a part of something special. Others who are prominent in the recording of the album include MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, Grand Funk Railroad’s singer and guitarist Mark Farner, and legendary guitarist Joe Bonamassa.

Alice Cooper often has a theme or indeed a story behind every album he records, and that works really well here again. By looking back and trying to make a record that not only pays tribute to the music that shaped his career fifty years ago, he has also tried to keep it relevant to the music lovers of today without losing its own uniqueness that has Alice Cooper stamped all over it. How he has managed to do this, as well as utilise all of the musicians he has gathered together here, in the middle of a pandemic, is quite amazing. And yes, once again the songs that Alice seems to do best, those ones where he pokes fun at things without changing stride and yet still being able to keep it in a serious mode is amazing.

The great thing about Alice is that every album he releases, you can put on and listen to it from start to finish without any qualms, because it is Alice Cooper. Sometimes it is for the music and the musicians, and sometimes it is just for the stories Alice is telling through his lyrics. Above all, how can you not just enjoy listening to Alice sing? It is almost comforting putting on his albums, just to listen to his dulcet tones coming through the speakers.
What Alice is a genius at is being able to adapt his music not only to the genre rock is following at the time, but still being able to make it so that it doesn’t lose its ‘Alice Cooper’ feeling. What do I mean by that? Well, simply that an Alice Cooper album is always an Alice Cooper album, but they are still different in adapting to the style of the time. Listen to Killer or Welcome to My Nightmare or Constrictor or Trash or Dirty Diamonds or Brutal Planet or this album. Every single one of them is different in musical style based on the era it was written and recorded, and yet each album is still essentially Alice Cooper. He has been a chameleon and a genius in order to be able to do this for 50+ years. Anyone who enjoys Alice Cooper’s music will be able to put on any one of those albums and enjoy it for what it is, because their essence never changes even if the style of music does.

Is this a great album? I wouldn’t say so, but terming any album “great” in the current day always feels a bit wrong. If you like Alice Cooper in every era, then you will enjoy this album. I don’t know how long you will listen to it before you move on to something else, or how often you will pull it off the shelf to listen to in preference to any of the other 27 Alice Cooper albums in the future, but for what it is, in the year we are living, it has all the usual Alice Cooper goodness about it.

1124. Accept / Too Mean to Die. 2021. 3.5/5

Accept feels like they have been around forever, but there are two distinct eras to the band. After sitting in a self-imposed retirement for almost 14 years after the band had gone on to separate projects, original band members guitarist Wolf Hoffmann and bass guitarist Peter Baltes got together and found they still had music to write together. With original vocalist Udo Dirkschneider not interested in a return to the band, former vocalist for T.T. Quick Mark Tornillo was recruited to take his place, and the album Blood of the Nations was released, and became was a barnstorming moment, and though many critics felt that after such a lengthy absence and without Dirkschneider that the band should have let good enough be enough and not resurrect the name of Accept, they were shown to be wrong.Three more albums have followed since then, each of them excellent in their own way, and now their fifth studio release since their renaissance has been released, titled Too Mean to Die. It hasn’t been without loss however, with both guitarist Herman Frank and drummer Stefan Schwarzmann leaving the band prior to “The Rise of Chaos” album, and then long time bass guitarist Peter Baltes moving on after that tour. It left Wolf Hoffmann as the last of the original band, but onwards they moved forward. Indeed, Accept has been a strange beast, and as popular as their albums from the 1980’s had been, since their return in 2010 they actually appear to have gotten heavier, shaking off their tag of being an AC/DC type clone in the big selling days. In many ways this has been through the addition of American Tornillo on vocals and as a songwriter, as his background appeared to energize the group and their song output.
Martin Motnik, former bass guitarist for Uli Jon Roth, joined the band for the new album, and alongside newer members Uwe Lewis and Christopher Williams came a third guitarist in Philip Shouse, and even though it may not be the Accept band that everyone remembers from all oof those years ago, it is an Accept that has found a way to produce hard electrifying music.

In many ways, Too Mean to Die is a result of the old saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Although the band lost a third of its song writing team with the departure of Baltes, Hoffmann and Tornillo along with Hoffmann’s wife and band manager Deaffy continue on in hard hitting fashion. And while the music still holds that same flavour that Accept has had throughout its existence, it does have a heavier feel about it. Back in the 1980’s on those early albums, it was more of a hard rock feel, but now well into the new century and in the second era of Accept things have progressed. Blazing guitars, plenty of hard hitting and double time drums, and vocals that aren’t that far removed from what Udo provided back in the day. Not only is the song writing terrific, the lyrics are excellent, harping on issues such as addiction to phones and social media, social media influencers, fearmongering by the media, and of course the pandemic that stretches around us. The addition of a third guitarist to the recording band does add to the great sound produced, and in some songs brings out further highlights so differently from the days when Wolf Hoffmann was holding the fort alone.
Even if you haven’t heard any Accept albums before – and really, if you haven’t, you must be living on another planet – you will find plenty to like here. Starting off with the excellent “Zombie Apocalypse” and the title track “Too Mean to Die” the album comes at you with a kick from the beginning. The band still shows its versatility throughout, mixing the straight up metal heaviness of “Sucks to be You” and “Symphony of Pain” and “Not My Problem” with the middle of the road hard rock tidings of songs like “The Undertaker”, and even the (somewhat unfortunate) standard power ballad that European bands still feel they need to poke us with in “The Best is Yet to Come”. I can guarantee you that I would still rather more songs like the former three than like the power ballad. I’m sure they appeal to some of you out there, but honestly if you take out “The Best is Yet to Come” and add in another track similar to “Sucks to be You”, this becomes a ball tearer of an album rather than just another very good entry into the Accept discography.

I don’t mind admitting that I was surprised by how good Accept’s comeback album was back in 2010. Accept’s classic albums have some great songs on them, but they are most definitely tied to the era they were recorded. They are generally hard rock, in an AC/DC fashion that in some ways held them back on their first albums. But their albums over the last decade have been a revelation, finding that extra grunt and excitement and kick that has given them more life than anyone could have expected. And while band leader Wolf Hoffmann must take a lot of the credit for that, Mark Tornillo and his vocals have been a revelation, and continue to be here on Too Mean to Die. No one expected the band to succeed without Udo Dirkschneider on vocals, and yet they have done more than that, they have thrived and gone to another level, and that is something rare in the music industry.
This album continues the band’s upward trend, and given the problems faced by the music industry since the beginning of 2020 this is quite a feat. Having given this album a good workout over the last couple of months I would love to get the chance to hear some of these songs live, because I think that is where they would get to the next level, in that live environment.

1123. Dee Snider / Leave a Scar. 2021. 3/5

Everyone knows Dee Snider... well, that’s probably not necessarily true. But everyone knows Twisted Sister, and if you know Twisted Sister, then you know the big lead singer with make-up and long blond hair as the lead singer, and that is Dee Snider, in his most famous role. But Twisted Sister has been and gone for some years now, and Dee has been out there changing up the course of his life.In the years following Twisted Sister, Dee has done television shows both in guest roles and acting roles, including his family’s own reality show, “Growing Up Twisted”. And he has still been in and around the music industry, appearing live on stage and on other projects, including “Dee Does Broadway”, which as you can imagine was a bit of a stretch. None of those albums made a huge impact, and so it wasn’t until three years ago when Jamey Jasta from Hatebreed came along and suggested putting together a metal album for the current day that things began to come back into focus. That album, For the Love of Metal, was written by Jasta along with his bandmates from Kingdom of Sorrow, Charlie and Nick Bellmore who also performed all the guitars and drums, and included guest performances from other vocalists such as Howard Jones and Alissa White-Gluz. Dee was more or less just the ‘hired gun’ as vocalist, but the album was a success, and it brought Dee back into prominence in the metal community which more than anything else was something he had wanted to achieve.

Coming into this new album, Dee had decided that he wanted to be a part of the writing process again, which is great to see given the success he has had with that during his long career. It also gave him the opportunity to continue to build the new-metal-with-old-metal sound that the previous album had begun. And with the same crew together to record the album, and a pandemic of time to spend the time wisely, Dee Snider has come up with an album that, if nothing else, has the right sound about it to connect with fans old and new.
From the very beginning, you can see that the main reason Dee wanted to be involved in the writing process again, and especially the lyrics, is that he had a fair bit on his mind and he wanted to get it off his chest. Snider has never been backward in coming forward when it comes to his opinions on anything and everything. Indeed he was quoted in interviews about this album as saying “I knew I not only had to get back into the studio, but for the first time since the ’90s, I needed to be a part of the writing process. ‘Leave a Scar’ is filled with messages to and for the silent voices in the world who need someone to speak out on their behalf.” That sentiment is captured from the beginning of the album with his lyric “While my mind is still screaming, I can’t stop” and “You will never feel the same, until we rock again”.
From the outset the album finds the right tempo and balance between aggression and anthem. Dee of course is no stranger to being involved in an anthemic tune, and that is utilised here well, along with fast paced and raucous guitars and drums driving along. There is little left to the imagination in songs named “I Gotta Rock (Again)” and “All or Nothing More” and “Down But Never Out”. For a guy who is now aged in his mid-60's, there is an impressiveness in his vocals on this album, and his subject matter is taken and composed on the positive side of the ledger, looking to inspire and rise the spirits rather than take any morbidity within. Even with “Before I Go” where he sings “your fate depends on who you save” he keeps looking for the light.
There are lots of different subjects covered here, and no doubt the downtime during the 2020 covid pandemic has given him plenty of time for reflection, and a desire to use that in his music. The best songs here are the ones with the drive of the drums and the heavy riffs with Dee chanting hard at the microphone, but even when the band changes things up a bit, such as on songs like “Silent Battles” and the closing track “Stand” they still work. There is even a guest vocal from Cannibal Corpse front man Corpsegrinder on the song “Time to Choose”, which is an interesting confluence of vocal styles. There are times during the album that the same can feel a bit samey, a bit too similar in the backgrounds rhythm, and that they may blend too easily into each other. That may bother some people but it’s more a reflection of preference. I am still confused as to why artists at times choose to close out an album with a power ballad as Dee has done here with “Stand”. With all of the heavy material that has come before it, this does finish the album in a strange way.

I came into this album on the back of that previous release For the Love of Metal. Dee had toured Australia on that album, indeed recorded some of the tour for a live release and was a gig that I had wanted to get to but for other reasons was unable to attend. There had been things I had enjoyed on that album, and I was interested to hear if this was any different. What I found was an album that I must admit I found much more comfortable, simply because it felt as though it was Dee’s words I was hearing here this time, that it was a personal reflection on the world, rather than just him delivering someone else’s speech. And I think that was important in the context of someone like Dee Snider, because he is looked up to in the music world for what he has done in the past and for what he has stood for since, and I think you need to know that it is his words you are listening to him sing and not those of someone else. There is nothing ground-breaking here, nothing that will have you digging deep for superlatives when it comes to describing the album and what you think about it. Much as I am doing here. It is a good solid album, one where the songs are perhaps a little formulaic, and where at time you may think they have just rolled off a production line. But there are moments where something hits you and you realise that there is something just a little special about hearing this man back behind the microphone. Dee Snider is a legend of the industry, and should the word recover just enough to allow him the chance to get out there and play these songs in a live setting with a big crowd, I think we will see the best of what has been written at that time. Because if one thing is true, Dee Snider is a phenomenon on the stage, and that is where he is at his best.