1147. BLAZE / Tenth Dimension. 2002. 4.5/5

In many ways it is both strange that Blaze Bayley the artist has as low a profile as he does, both now and 20 years ago, and strange that he has such a high profile as he does. His first band Wolfsbane had had some minor success, but when Iron Maiden hired him as the replacement for Bruce Dickinson in 1994 over more high profile candidates such as ex-Helloween vocalist Michael Kiske there was a sense of ‘who is this guy?’ Those two Maiden albums with Blaze as vocalist still generate a mixed reaction from fans. And yet, on leaving the band with the return of Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith, and forming his own band, he was able to syphon off enough of his Maiden persona to get good support gigs, and by the by write and record a pretty damn excellent debut album Silicon Messiah. Following the success of that album and tour, Blaze and the band, guitarists Steve Wray and John Slater, bass guitarist Rob Naylor and drummer Jeff Singer, moved into writing and recording the follow up. Hooking up with acclaimed producer Andy Sneap, Blaze came up with the story idea for what became the concept album. He had done a lot of research into quantum physics and read a number of published articles about the subject, including a link between quantum physics and paranormal phenomena, and most of the ideas he read about related to superstring theory, the idea that inspired the story of the album. It tells the tale of Professor Christopher Blane and his journey to find the tenth dimension and discover its true meaning. It became Tenth Dimension.
So while it has been established that the album has a story and that it is all interconnected, when it comes to music, if the songs themselves don’t reflect the same emotion and energy then none of it matters. Fortunately, the band has produced not only some excellent songs here they have created an atmosphere that enhances. The opening instrumental of “Forgotten Future” crashes into the opening track of “Kill and Destroy”, a perfect meshing of great riffs from Wray and Slater and Blaze’s awesome vocals that kick the song off from the start and drives it to its conclusion. It has been, and remains, one of Blaze’s best songs. It is the perfect tempo and riffage. “End Dream” then comes in with a slower tempo but retains the energy, while the title track is a beauty, filled with great vocals and suitably excellent dual guitar solos. It’s a great start to the album, and continues with “Leap of Faith” which also bounds along in that same great bouncing tempo.
Even when the album slows down in the middle, such as with the growing ascendance from quiet acoustic to faster heavier tones in “Nothing Will Stop Me”, and with the short acoustic “The Truth Revealed” into “Meant to Be”, the band perform it terrifically well. Other bands of the era may have looked to turn “Meant to Be” into a power ballad, but as a part of the story it most definitely isn’t a ballad. This is where Blaze’s vocals shine through, living proof to the doubters that he can most definitely sing when he isn’t expected to be singing at the same pitch as Bruce Dickinson.
“Speed of Light” once again showcases just how good Blaze and the band are when they go for the uptempo heavy rocking track, because this is another ripper on this album. It flies along and is where the band sounds at their best. And when listening to the album, it is the standout of the back half of the album, and definitely because of its pace and fire, whereas songs such as “Land of the Blind” and “Stealing Time” are lesser in comparison. Also, somewhat, is the closing track “Stranger to the Light”, which is the longest song on the album, and is dialled right back into the slower, crunching song as the finale to the story. Now, while I like the song, and you can understand why it is designed the way it is, it gets found out because of the excellence of the previous track, and that does tend to hold back the last third of the album compared to what comes at the front end.

When Blaze was with Iron Maiden, he was always going to be judged against Bruce Dickinson and the work he had done in the band. That meant that the songs he performed on and co-wrote would be judged against the best era of Iron Maiden, and he was never going to be able to win that competition. Beyond that though, on both his debut album and this album, Blaze found a great band with terrific musicians who wrote songs that not only better suited Blaze’s excellent vocals, but music that better suited the generation. I love the two albums Blaze sang on for Maiden, but the music led by Steve Harris had already begun to creep towards the progressive sound, with ten minute tracks that also had instrumental start and finishes and whose tempo was dragged right back from the golden era of Iron Maiden. That wasn’t something that Blaze could change, and in many ways it was he that felt the brunt of blame for it.
But here on Tenth Dimension, you get a much better idea of Blaze’s own ideas for his brand of heavy metal. All of the songs here range from 4-6 minutes, there is an excellent mixture of the fast tempo, high energy, guitar driven heavy metal tracks along with thoughtfully vocalled, mid-tempo songs that don’t lose themselves into becoming power ballads that euro metal bands may do. Having put together a terrific range of musicians who not only play well, but contributed to the writing of the music and shared a similar ideology, you can hear on both this album and the previous album that they are a great fit. Jeff Singer on drums is terrific, and the bass lines of Rob Naylor purr along beautifully throughout. The guitar riffing from Steve Wray and John Slater is quite remarkable, and their contributions to the writing of the songs is exceptional. Indeed, everything about this version of the band is brilliant, and having heard both of the first two albums, it continues to be a regret that this was their final act together. As was to become common place in Blaze’s first decade, management and money problems meant that all four other members of the band moved on following the tour to promote Tenth Dimension, and Blaze had to recruit a whole new assembly for his next album.

And just one further comment. Blaze’s first album was released at the same time as Iron Maiden’s reunion album Brave New World in 2000, while their follow up Dance of Death” came out in 2003. And I love both of those albums, because how couldn’t you? It’s Iron Maiden, as you expect them to be. But, and many will say I am either mad or blinded to be saying this, I have always felt that both Silicon Messiah and Tenth Dimension hold their own against both of those Iron Maiden albums on their own merits, because Blaze had progressed down a path that he was able to lead, rather than be a hired member. And that for me is the best part of Tenth Dimension – that a band of little-known performers with their slightly better known lead singer were able to come out and produce an album that loses nothing in comparison to a band with a massively greater profile.

1146. Dream Theater / A View from the Top of the World. 2021. 4/5

Anyone who has heard of Dream Theater and has listened to them should know what to expect here. As far back as their first single, “Pull Me Under” off the Images and Words album from 1992, Dream Theater has provided a blueprint that they continue to stretch and weave. Mixing brilliant musicianship with soaring vocals, each album provides a stability yet varied environment musically.A View From the Top of the World is no different to that. In many ways, it all feels so effortless. To be fair, there is nothing ground breaking from what the band has been producing for 30 years here, it’s just that they continue to do what they do so well... so well!

Opening with the brilliant “The Alien” offers plenty of ingredient's fans crave – it’s fast-paced in spots, technically proficient and wonderfully melodic. It doesn’t offer any real surprises, but it certainly gets the job done. That’s a sentiment you could apply to much of the record, too – exceptionally well-played, with real attention to detail, albeit with precious little that diehards haven’t encountered before. Indeed it could be said of ‘Invisible Monster’, a reasonable mid-tempo cut with a key message about the effects of anxiety, that it is a touch... average... for their catalogue. Not poor, just bland in a brilliant musicianship kinda way. “Answering the Call” is a better song that still seems more simplified than most Dream Theater work, but not in a bad way. You then move into “Sleeping Giant” which resumes normality, filled with lots of guitar, drums and keyboard changes to really keep you guessing as to where the song is going. Petrucci in particular stars in this song. “Transcending Time” has been mentioned in dozens of reviews as being Dream Theater’s tribute to Rush. Apparently it was something the band wanted to attempt, a song with a major key structure without trying to sound too much like a pop song. I don’t know, I just read that in places. There are traces of 1980’s Rush if you listen hard, so maybe they succeeded on both fronts. “Awaken the Master” is another good song, while the closing title track feels like the Dream Theater of old, a 20 minute monster with three suites. Excellent stuff.

As always, all five members are awesome. James La Brie’s vocals continue to defy time, soaring in places as wonderful as he has ever done. Because of the pandemic he was unable to be with the band when they wrote the album, only able to tune in through Zoom calls, but his vocals on recording are still top shelf. Mike Mangini on drums continues to drive each song perfectly – does anyone think the band has missed Portnoy? Jordan Rudess on keys still defies the instrument at times with the effects and atmosphere he is able to create. John Myung still plays things on the bass guitar that defies any normal human from trying to replicate them, while John Petrucci remains at the top of the tree as a guitarist, even breaking out an eight string version on a couple of songs. I’d like to see him playing on that live, just once.

While I have been a fan of Dream Theater for quite some time now, I am the first to admit that when it comes to throwing on one of their albums for a casual listen... it doesn’t happen too often. As much as you can love their music and appreciate the amazing musicianship time and again, generally when I’m looking to grab something to listen to, I’m not just going to the D section and pulling out one of their 15 albums. Why? Because your mood dictates the music you want to listen to. And with Dream Theater, you need to be in the right mood to appreciate everything that is being thrown at you, because it is a (no pun intended) theatrical experience.
So for me, some Dream Theater albums miss the mark slightly, and while I still think they are great I just don’t ever think to drag them out for a listen. However, that wasn’t the case with their previous album Distance Over Time which I played for a lengthy period of time, and that also is not the case with A View From the Top of the World. I don’t deny I love the heavier periods of Dream Theater more than I do the progressive periods of the band. Most fans hail the awesomeness of Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory while I will always point towards Train of Thought as my favourite moment in their career. This new album doesn’t quite scale the same heights for me as that album did, but I have immensely enjoyed the past two efforts. Is there a reason behind this? Not one I can put my finger on, apart from the fact I think that despite the length of each song continues to be in the higher echelons as with most of their albums, the actual crafting of the songs feels right to me. Sometimes with Dream Theater it can feel as though they are just being too clever for themselves, and it is the song length rather than what is crafted that becomes the main artefact. Is it too much to say that sometimes that gets boring? Because in essence that is what it becomes. However, here on A View From the Top of the World I think they once again get that balance right, and that is what is important in getting into the album and being willing to get it back in the CD player and crank the stereo to get the most out of it.
Will you all enjoy it? Well no, because if you don’t enjoy long-winded progressive metal rock songs stretching out beyond the ten minute mark then this will probably become tired for you pretty quickly. On the other hand, those of you willing to give it a go and let the music flow around and through you, I think that you’ll find this is another excellent entry into the Dream Theater discography, and one that will find itself on rotation as it has done for me over the last couple of months.

1145. Ozzy Osbourne + Motorhead / Hellraiser [Single]. 2021. 5/5

“Hellraiser” was written for the Ozzy Osbourne album No More Tears which was released in 1991. It was one of several songs on that album that was co-written not only with guitarist Zakk Wylde, but with Motorhead bassist and frontman Lemmy Kilmister, a role Lemmy performed with several artists through the years. The lyrics are very much about the touring musician, the life on the road, and would have pulled vey much from the trio’s own experiences and feelings about their life and roles.
The version recorded for Ozzy Osbourne’s No More Tears album is typical Osbourne – the high range vocals filled with melodic choruses, rumbling bass and drums and superb soling and riffing from Wylde at his peak. It has always been considered one of the highlights of the album.
Whether it was the success of Ozzy’s song, or whether Lemmy just enjoyed the song itself as it was, but Lemmy was approached to have Motorhead record their own version of the song, which would then be used on the soundtrack of the film Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth - Movie Soundtrack. The Hellraiser films, conceived from the book of the same name by Clive Barker, were the epitome of horror films in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, and so the addition of this version of the song (which appears over the closing credits) was a winning solution. At the same time, the song also appeared on Motorhead’s album March ör Die which was also released in 1992. It is the Motorhead version of the song, with some of the lyrics changed to suit their own metal style and with different solo riff and singing style.

With 2021 being the 30th anniversary of the song appearing on No More Tears, and with Lemmy now having left us some five years ago, to celebrate the moment a new version of the song has been released. Through the wonders of technology, the two versions of the song you have just heard have been spliced together, in order to create a duet between the two great metal vocalists along with the varied versions of the song itself. An animated music video has also been created which really is a joy to watch, and is worth checking out on YouTube if you have not yet seen it.

For me, each version proves just how good a song it is, that it is able to flex and stretch to each different way it has been put together, and to me that suggests just how strong the bones of the song are.

1144. Deep Purple / Turning to Crime. 2021. 3/5

Back in the very early days of Deep Purple, and I’m talking about those first albums back in the late 1960’s, the band often delved into performing cover songs in their sets, and also recorded several that appeared on those albums. Their first successful song and single was “Hush”, a song written and performed originally by Joe South, and one the band still performs on occasions today. The also did a cover of The Beatles “Help” and Billy Roberts “Hey Joe” on that first album, Shades of Deep Purple. On their second album The Book of Taliesyn they released two singles, both cover songs – “Kentucky Woman” which was a cover of a Neil Diamond song, and “River Deep, Mountain High” a cover of the Ike & Tina Turner song. It also contained yet another Beatles cover, “We Can Work It Out”. Finally, on the self titled third album, a cover of the Donovan song “Lalena” was recorded. As with most cover songs recorded by bands, some of them sound good and do a great job of transferring Deep Purple’s sound to the original song without compromising the original, and others are basically an abomination. Seriously. Steer clear of “Help”, it could easily turn you off Deep Purple forever. Thankfully, once the Mark II line up came together, they stuck to writing their own songs, and also to taking a much heavier approach to their song writing.
All of that leads us to this new album, Turning to Crime, because all of the songs here are cover versions of other songs, and all the original songs are mainly from that period of when Deep Purple first came to formation and fruition. Covid presented challenges to the band in regards to no performing being able to be done, the members were all holed up in their far flung residences, and they needed to find something to keep them occupied. The band didn’t like the idea that many bands came up with, which was to record live streams of songs and release them to the internet. Bob Ezrin, who has been the band’s producer since 2013, came up with the idea to do this project, with each of the members able to rehearse and record their parts in their own home studios, and he then wove them all together to form the songs. The only member without his own home studio was lead vocalist Ian Gillan, so Ezrin hired a studio in Europe for several days where he and Gillan met and put down the vocals. The end result was this album, Turning to Crime.
I was at a disadvantage when it came to the majority of the songs of this album, as I didn’t know many of the bands the songs here were originally played by, and knew barely more of the actual songs themselves. So when it came to listening to the album and deciding whether I liked it or not, it pretty much came down to how much I enjoyed the band’s performance. And I’m sure to the surprise of no one, it was the rock tracks that grabbed me more here than the blues based tracks.
“Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” as you would expect is a real blues song with honky tonk piano and horns to match, which sounds great but is a long way from where Deep Purple as a band is musically. Or is it? “Jenny Take a Ride” also has the piano involved but is more on the rock side than the blues side of the genre, with plenty of energy and Don Airey switching between piano and keys which gives it a nice Purps touch. I’m not a Bob Dylan, and the version here of “Watching the River Flow” also does little for me. “Let the Good Times Roll”, from the big band era of the 30’s and 40’s sounds great here but just doesn’t interest me, and “Dixie Chicken” is the same deal. More interesting is the version of “The Battle of New Orleans” by honky tonk country artist Johnny Horton, but again I think they missed a trick in not just trying to put a real Deep Purple spin on the song rather than staying so close to the original song.
On the good side, “7 and 7 Is” is a great rock song, and perfectly suits how Purps perform it. Ian Paice’s drumming is a highlight while Gillan’s voice is a great fit and the solo by Steve Morse is very Blackmore-ish from that time. “Oh Well” is the cover of Fleetwood Mac’s early hit when the band still had their Peter Green blues influence, and is another song that suits the Deep Purple treatment. Steve Morse again sounds brilliant when given the chance to shine. I’ve always loved The Yardbirds song “Shapes of Things”, but while this version of the song is good, it pales in comparison to Gary Moore’s version from 35 years ago. It’s a song that lends itself to being rocked up, and Purps here sit closer to the original version. So too with the Bob Seger song “Lucifer”, in that while this version is good it could have really been given a harder treatment in order to get a modern take on the song. Of course, then there is Cream’s “White Room”, which must have been covered a thousand times over the years, but this song is really in Deep Purple’s wheelhouse, and their version here is stellar. The album then finishes with a motley crew of a medley, called “Caught in the Act” but covering five different songs of different genres to compete the album.

Cover albums are things that I have reviewed before and spoken about before, and my opinion on them rarely changes. So here is the spiel I usually give to start off with. Most cover albums are fun to listen to, to here different versions of songs you may or may not know, performed by a band you admire or love, and to see how they go about performing their own versions of those songs. But in the long run, the novelty will wear off, and that album will go back onto the shelves and rarely be thought of again in regards to putting it back in the cd tray or on the turntable to listen to again. And essentially for the same reason every time, in that either the original versions of those songs are better, or the songs covered just aren’t that interesting.
And when talking about Turning to Crime I don’t really have to add that much more. As I said here earlier, I knew very few of these songs in the first place, so in order for me to really enjoy this album I had to really enjoy the treatment the band gave to them. And in a few cases that was true, but overall the style of song selection wasn’t right for me to get the maximum enjoyment out of it. For those fans out there who are ten or fifteen years older than me and would know these songs better, then your enjoyment of this album may be completely the reverse.
Overall though, my main problem with the album is that I would like to have heard a real Deep Purple-izing of the tracks they covered, and that just isn’t the case here. And without a doubt the main reason behind that is because it was all recorded separately, and not together as a band. In the long run, this project gave the band something to do as they whiled away the months of isolation created by the Covid-19 pandemic, and taking that into account, you can only say that while some like me may not be jumping out of their skin over the song choice, it is a worthy and worthwhile project to have undertaken.

1143. Alcatrazz / V. 2021. 2/5

There was a trend a few years ago now where bands that had good followings in the 1980’s, but had broken up over either ‘musical differences’ or the fact their sound became less relevant in a changing market, found that 20 years on their songs were suddenly popular again, and so the bands reformed and began touring and writing again. Now, this was mostly true of the 1980’s pop and new wave bands, but it also happened for different styles of metal bands as well. Alcatrazz proved to be one of those bands. Having released three albums who, to be fair, were more famous from the lead guitarists in Yngwie Malmsteen and then Steve Vai that were playing on them than the rest of the band themselves (at least, that’s how I discovered them), the band went on a hiatus for a 20 year period between 1987 and 2006, when lead singer Graham Bonnet put a new band together under the name. This outfit toured for a number of years before again disbanding. Then in 2019, original members in Jimmy Waldo on keyboards and Garry Shea on bass guitar joined back up with Bonnet, along with guitarist Joe Stump and drummer Mark Benquechea, and the band released their fourth album titled Born Innocent. In essence, this could have been the album I was reviewing here today, but just a few months after the album was released, the band announced a split amongst their ranks, reportedly due to conflicts with the band’s management. Graham Bonnet was out, and in his place the band recruited veteran band hopper vocalist Doogie White in his place. Not only that, they didn’t muck around waiting another 34 years before they released their NEXT album. Indeed it was only ten months later that this album arrived. So the questions that arise are obvious. What does a band from the 1980’s have to offer in the 2020’s when so much time has passed from their heyday? And given that Bonnet had been the frontman that everyone knew from the band, and who had sounded so great on the Born Innocent album, could they find a way to make this an album that pleased all aspects of the fan base?
This album is a much more traditional heavy sound than the albums from the 1980’s actually are, which were recorded and released in the middle of that era! It’s an interesting development that this album is harking back to a popular era of heavy metal music, but ends up being a heavier release than the band actually recorded in the 1980’s. Perhaps in this day and age that isn’t that unusual.
In regards to the songs, they are all a good solid mix of hard rock sound with some nuances to both heavy and hair metal. “Guardian Angel” is a solid opening track giving all of the band members their chance to introduce themselves, before moving into the further up-tempo of “Nightwatch”. “Sword of Deliverance” is a funny one for me. The vocals appear to be at an awkward level. It almost seems to be offkey the way Doogie is getting the lyrics out at an unusual pitch. And for the most part this feels the same on “Turn of the Wheel”. It is a strange way to sing those songs. Doogie can sing, we all know that, but on these couple of songs it is an interesting and slightly off putting expression. What is also off putting for me is that part of the solo break by Joe Stump in “Turn of the Wheel” is a dead ringer, almost note for note, of the solo in Yngwie Malmsteen’s “I’ll See the Light, Tonight”. It just has to be deliberate it is so close, so is it being done as a tribute to the former Alcatrazz guitarist, or is it simply being stolen? I can’t answer that, but maybe I’m the only one who has listened to this album that has picked it up. But it isn’t the only case of this being done on the album, because the solo riff in “Alice’s Eyes” is also, for me, taken from Blaze Bayley’s “Ghost in the Machine”. Now music is not an exclusive artform, there are going to be times when riffs and melodies are borrowed from other songs in creating new songs, but sometimes it feels like it is too much of a coincidence. Anyway...
I guess if I’m going to continue to be picky, I’d best get back to the vocals. “Return to Nevermore” again has a vocal melody line that seems out of focus, and the chorus does tend to drone a bit. But you know, maybe that’s just me. Beyond that, the album ends with some good tracks. “House of Lies” really is a Bonnet song, you can imagine him singing this with gusto, it has that sound about his era of Rainbow, and despite the repeating lyrics has a great upbeat tempo about it that Doogie does well. “Alice’s Eyes” utilises a great guitar and bass rhythm with solid drum back beat that drives the song along. And the closing track “Dark Day for My Soul” rounds out the album in a less hectic but high level tone.

To be 100% honest with you, I would probably have not given this album a second thought when I saw it had been released except that it came in a lull of material for me to listen to. It has sat on my playlist for a good six weeks, getting its dues every day, but without ever really grabbing my attention to listen to more. In the long run I guess I have done this review on it more for the fact that it has paid its dues and probably needs to be moved on.
The band plays well, the musicianship is great, and like I have mentioned the songs themselves are less pop oriented hair metal than the band wrote almost 40 years ago. But they aren’t scene stealers, and even that one major attention grabber in Graham Bonnet no longer resides in this version of the band. Alcatrazz never really appeared to be huge in their day, and anyone who didn’t have a clue who they were would not have given this album a second glance. The fact that their main point of fame is Japan is probably where this market will lie. Unless you are a hard core fan of the band from your youth, in the long run I think you can safely look elsewhere for your next new album to listen to.

1142. The Unity / The Devil You Know: Live. 2021. 4/5

2015 turned out to be a big year for a few bands, the future of which were all tied by the same twist of fate. Kai Hansen had put Gamma Ray on a hiatus while he returned to Helloween for a reunion tour. This left drummer Michael Ehre and guitarist Henjo Richter looking for a project in order to fill in their days (and no doubt to pay the bills), and it was Michael who came to the party. One of his former bands, Love.Might.Kill had more or less called it quits, and so when he was looking to form a new project he came up with the idea to utilise his former bandmates. In the process, guitarist Stefan Ellerhorst, bassist Jogi Sweers, keyboardist Sascha Onnen and vocalist Jan Manenti joined forces with Michael and Henjo to form the new band they called The Unity. And of course, with the Gamma Ray connection, especially the guitaring of Henjo which has always been a joy, this is how I began to follow them as well.
Their sound is exactly what you would expect. It is European power metal, based on dominating drums and lots of harmony guitars and keyboards and soaring vocals. They aren’t rewriting history with their music, but if you are a fan of the genre then it’s hard not to enjoy it.
And the band hasn’t mucked around. Three studio albums have been released, their self titled effort in 2017, Rise in 2018 and Pride in 2020, and they have toured extensively throughout Europe as a result. With the onset on the covid pandemic there has been lots of time for bands to decide what their next move should be, and fortunately for The Unity they had already recorded some of their live shows with the prospect of releasing them in order to showcase their live performances, and with live music having stalled in almost all parts of the world, this album was released to keep their fans happy and to keep their name out there.

European power metal is an acquired taste. If you aren’t a fan then you won’t be jumping out of your skin about this. And of course you can love bands like Helloween and Gamma Ray and Blind Guardian and still not necessarily go for it. But all of the mechanics are in place with The Unity, and by showcasing the best of their material here in a live setting, they also showcase the best of their own musicianship.
Only one of the songs comes from their latest album Pride, that being “We Don’t Need Them Here”. This is essentially as the album takes songs from various recordings at different clubs and festivals, with most of the recordings coming from the tour of their second album Rise.
The opening to the album is where the money shots mostly take place. The opening instrumental of “Revenge” cuts straight into the high energy burst of “Last Betrayal” which immediately showcases the wonderful vocals of Jan Manenti and of course Henjo’s electrifying guitaring. “No Hero” gives the crowd another anthemic chorus and bridge to be involved in. “No More Lies” becomes a more steadying influence on the setlist, while “Welcome Home” is another of the intense faster tracks that has Jan soaring his vocals to the ceiling, taking on the song and driving it from start to finish. This is a great start to the album.
If you want to be picky, and many of you who may listen to the album are certain to be that, the remainder of the album can be either excellent or average depending on your personal music preference. Power metal can absolutely get a bit samey after a while if either the band isn’t good enough to keep every song interesting or the songs revert to a similar rhythm pattern throughout and rely on either brilliant vocals or hard core solo break to draw your attention away from it. And personally for me there is enough there to distinguish each song from the other. But I can also understand where some critics feel as though the rhythm of drums and bass tends to hold the same through many of the songs here, and in places on the studio albums as well. As an example, “Firesign” and “The Storm” could be seen as a plodder with only Jan’s vocals there to save it, and if you isolated it you could probably assess that it is a one trick pony. And there are definite similarities to some of the songs here to other power metal bands like Avantasia and HammerFall and the like. And of course, you can’t forget the power metal power ballad, and yes unfortunately that also has its place here, with “The Willow Tree” taking up valuable air time that could have been utilised with a much better song. But when the pace is cranked up again on songs such as “We Don’t Need Them Here” you get to experience the best that The Unity has to offer.

Live albums are generally difficult to review, and I’ve probably said this before but you would expect most live albums to have the best songs of the band on them, so if you like the band you should love the live album that they produce. This is certainly true of Iron Maiden and Slayer. So given that I do enjoy The Unity, it goes hand in hand that I enjoy this album.
But for those people who don’t know The Unity at all, then can I recommend this as a starting point? To be honest, the answer is probably yes. Even if you haven’t heard any of the band’s music before this, The Devil You Know (Live) is a reasonable starting point. Jan’s vocals are supreme in the live setting, and that alone should give you cause for going back and checking out the studio albums as well. Band leader Michael Ehre is a very impressive drummer and his work here is excellent, and well supported by his former bandmates on bass, guitar and keyboards. Front and centre for me, as biased as I am for anyone who has played in Gamma Ray, is Henjo Richter, the smiling assassin on guitar, whose technical style and flying fingers are always a favourite for me.

If you are a fan of European power metal like me, then you will find that not only does The Unity have plenty to offer you musically, but also on this live album. I have pretty much picked the eyes out of it here with what I consider the best performances from the album, but if any of this has caught your fancy then I highly recommend that you got and check out all three studio albums as well. No, this is not the next Helloween or Gamma Ray, but they are a very enjoyable band who put the right attitude and joy into their music, and sometimes that is enough just to raise a fist to.

1141. Jerry Cantrell / Brighten. 2021. 4/5

Jerry Cantrell had already dipped his toe into the solo recording business long before this album ever saw the light of day. In essence his first album, Boggy Depot, came out of the staleness that followed Alice in Chains instability, or perhaps more accurately singer Layne Staley’s drug dependency. With little writing or touring, Cantrell instead put his energy into that album and touring supporting Metallica and Van Halen throughout 1998. That success eventually led to a second album, Degradation Trip, written in 1999 but not realised until 2002, and released under the despondent time of what he called the ‘death of Alice in Chains’ and the cloud of Layne’s eventual drug overdose and death.After a number of years of inactivity, it was Alice in Chains that came to revival with William DuVall coming in, and three further albums in Black Gives Way to Blue, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here and Rainier Fog. Thus, with his main band and focus now once again firmly established in the public’s eye and ears, Jerry once again turned his attention to a solo album. Like almost every album in the past 18 months it was bogged down in the onset of the pandemic, which led to it being delayed by a year from being released, despite having been written and started to being recorded as far back as January in 2020. Was there a reason why he felt that now was the time to do another solo album? Was he comfortable enough that his main band was now stable enough for him to come out and perhaps do material that he felt wasn’t quite right for the band? Though I don’t have an answer for that, this seems the most likely scenario.

The opening songs were the first singles released from the album, “Atone” and “Brighten”. Both set up the album nicely, providing a mix of Jerry’s workmanlike solo vocal as well as his harmony within the songs, and his acoustic guitar mixed with his terrific lead guitar that complements both of those things. You can almost hear Layne singing along in harmony on the chorus of “Brighten”. These are followed by “Prism of Doubt” Unlike most of the fans by the sounds of it, I am not as taken by “Siren Song” which was the third single released from the album. It’s far too mellow and quiet for my own personal taste but it has certainly struck a chord with the music community out there. I must insist though that that doesn’t mean I don’t like the song, I just think there are better ones here. “Black Hearts and Evil Done” which is very acoustically based throughout I enjoy more despite it being in a similar category to “Siren Song”. For me the vocals carry it and make it a more accessible song, given the same acoustic guitar strum that lies underneath for the entirety of the song. Jerry’s vocals give it the oomph it needs when it comes.
“Had to Know” is the most electrified track here, and it is great to hear Jerry giving a little bit more on that instrument here. Still, why does it sound to me that is has more in sync with REM than Alice in Chains? For most of the song I just feel as though if you substituted in Michael Stipe instead of Jerry it could pass as an REM song! “Nobody Breaks You” returns to the acoustic guitar base of the song, but it is the lead solo break in the back third of the song that is the winner here. I must admit that I would loved to have heard more of that in the songs here than the acoustic medleys, but you can’t have everything can you? “Dismembered” is probably the hardest rocking song on this collection (but don’t read much into that, there isn’t a plethora of it in any case). And the album finishes off with the Elton John cover “Goodbye”, a song that Jerry played to Elton to get his approval before he would put it on the album.
While there are several guest stars who come on and play on this album, for the most part Jerry does it almost all himself. Guitar, bass, keyboards and of course all of the vocals, as well as writing all of the songs himself. It is a real tour de force where we get Jerry’s heart and soul almost unfettered by other influences around him.

It is important not to come into this album and expect it to be Alice in Chains. There is a different mood and tempo to the songs that that band produces even in the modern day, and certainly not like the fire and brimstone and anger and angst that came from their first two albums. Indeed, if trying to compare this to anything, it is much closer to the songs produced on the Sap and Jar of Flies EPs than anything else. This of course sounds phonically like Alice in Chains. Jerry’s vocals are the most giveaway, and you aren’t going to be able to change those just because this is a solo project. And his own melody lines throughout are a triumph. And, even though I have said this about his other two solo albums, I’m going to say it again. Imagine if Layne was duetting here on these songs, just imagine how much better they would sound. That is a very unfair thing to say, but for me and I guess many other fans, Jerry and Layne together is a monster, either on their own isn’t quite the same. There, I’ve said it. Now I’m just going to move on.
This has been a really nice surprise leading into the end of 2021, I must say. Yes it’s familiar which is always a positive, but it still has to have the right stuff to make that happen, and “Brighten” certainly has that. Even though it has that easy listening feel to it, there are still some terrific guitar riffs and solos that bring this to the next level without turning off those that aren’t into that kind of thing. And again, without trying to compare green apples and red apples, if you enjoy Alice in Chains, then you will certainly get something out of this album – sort of like an Alice in Chains Lite.

1140. The Hard-Ons / I'm Sorry Sir, That Riff’s Been Taken. 2021. 3.5/5

40 years is a long time to be around and still relevant, but one gets the feeling that the Hard-Ons have survived for as long as they have because the core of the band remains true, and their music essentially stays the same. They may not be as overtly energetic and hardcore as they were in the 1980’s, but that is also true of all of us. The band has maintained a constant stream of releases over the years, and is not just an Australian band. They have big followings overseas and they have charts in countries such as Spain and Greece.At the start of 2021 however, the band parted ways with their long term on-again-off-again lead singer Keish de Silva after an accusation of sexual misconduct against him. As a result a planned documentary on the band was also canned. More interesting more news was to come later in the year, as the band eventually announced a new album, I'm Sorry Sir, That Riff’s Been Taken but the bigger news was that Tim Rogers, best known for his work in Australian band You Am I, had joined the band and would be taking over lead vocals for the group. Would it just be for the album or was this to be a long term gig? Whichever way it turns out, Rogers involvement immediately made this one of the year’s most popular releases.

If you’ve heard the Hard-Ons before then you will know what to expect overall. Perhaps interestingly enough though, the addition of Tim Rogers vocals actually pulls this back more into the mainstream than you would expect, though I’m willing to bet that when played in a live atmosphere there will be a more usual Hard-Ons pile on than comes across on these studio versions.
Songs like the opening track “Hold Tight” and “Lite as a Feather” are almost mainstream in themselves, enjoyable and with a modicum of angst within the vocals. On the other hand they are followed by songs such as “Fucked Up Party”, “Pucker Up”, “Back Pack Sweat” and “Frequencies” which in particular ramp up the aggression both lyrically and musically, with “Back Pack Sweat” and “Frequencies” especially being favourites for their fast and hard thrashing throughout. “Home Sweet Home” to me almost sounds like a Foo Fighters song, one of their mid-range songs that sit between their ballads and their hard core moments. Then we have “Humiliated / Humiliator” which has those 80’s skate punk tendencies throughout. This then leaks into “The Laws of Gossip” where the lyrics ramp up as you would expect from the title of the song. The conclusion of “Shove it Down” leading into “Shoot Me in the Back” are some of the best moments of the album, harsh yet humorous, bleeding yet raucous and tie up all the loose ends nicely to complete an excellently packaged album.

How many of you have ever seen the Hard-Ons live? That was an experience back in the late 1980’s I can tell you. It was loud and raucous and lots of fun – from my memory of it anyway. For some reason I have not seen them since then, which I think is probably an oversight, and given the lack of seeing live bands in the last two years, I would really like to see them on this tour, for several reasons. I’d like to see Tim out the front singing not only these songs but ones from the back catalogue. And I would also like to hear how this album is interpreted in a live environment. Because the Hard-Ons are a live band, that is where they are in their element. And I have enjoyed listening to this album over the last couple of months. But the studio version to me seems to be lacking something, and I do think it is the extra energy and perhaps loudness that a live setting will add to them. Certainly I’m not trying to suggest that this is an album that lacks energy, but I would never have thought to have a hard-Ons album playing in the background at a dinner party for instance, it just wouldn’t fit. But, for some reason, this album could actually fulfil that kind of requirement.

If you haven’t actually heard a Hard-Ons album – then why not? They are a massive part of the Australian music landscape, and while perhaps it would be better to start with one of their 1980’s hits, if you are middle aged and comfortable with that, then this album will probably work for you anyway.

1139. Trivium / In the Court of the Dragon. 2021. 4/5

It’s hard to believe that, in their relatively short period of existence, Trivium has just released their tenth studio album. In the ‘old’ days, and that generally covers the period before the internet arrived and allowed music sharing to become a more accessible thing, bands would release a new album every year, sometimes even two, because in those days you could still make a living out of selling vinyl albums. In the modern day that is much more difficult, and so the desire to crate and record albums with a relatively short time span between them becomes less motivating than getting out there and playing live shows where the band can make its living. And yet in recent times Trivium have been at their most prolific. The pandemic triggered different responses in the music industry, oscillating between frantic energy to sofa sitting stagnation. Trivium seem to have settled much closer to the first description than the latter. Matt Heafy’s Twitch live videos have been entertaining, and beyond that it is obvious that the band worked as hard as they could during those lockdown and isolation months in putting together new material. Indeed, Trivium’s ninth album, What the Dead Men Say, had only been released in April 2020, and yet by June of 2020 the band was already well into the writing mode for their next album. Pandemic days utilised to their fullest. The first single from the album surfaced in mid 2021, In the Court of the Dragon, and was followed by the new album’s release of the same name.

From a personal point of view, it feels and sounds like Trivium have been cresting a wave over the last five years, refining and improving all parts of their craft such that their first couple of albums feel like an almost different band. And I believe that in a good way, because they have retained everything that was great about that start and made it into a more distinct and fan friendly sound. Though, to be fair, there are others out there who distinctly dislike the way the band has gone about here. It comes across perfectly in the opening tracks, with the opening of “X” blasting into the title track at top speed and intensity. The confidence the band has in their direction, from Heafy’s stronger than ever vocal chords with both scream and clear alike, along with the guitars and blazing drums, is evident early.
This crashes into “Like a Sword Over Damocles” which combines plenty of fiery riffs with a soaring chorus that highlights the sound that Trivium has ascended to. “Feast of Fire” has an interesting blend of both radio friendly hard rock style that also combines some crunching riffling to offset any thoughts of selling out. “A Crisis of Revelation” and “The Shadow of the Abattoir” offset each other, with “A Crisis of Revelation” incorporating an almost melodic prog metal sound – if such a thing exists, maybe I just made it up – while “The Shadow of the Abattoir” reveals that more standardised enjoyment of great guitar riffs along with a great chorus.
“No Way Back But Through” is highlighted by the catchy riff and easily singalong vocals that make this a fast paced song that keeps the fire lighted throughout. “Fall Into Your Hands” comes back in a much heavier and dominating way, with Heafy’s harsh vocals complementing the harder drumming and guttural riffing that cuts back in. This is followed by “From Dawn to Decadence” which changes tempo and intensity throughout, and defines itself by Heafy’s high velocity harsh vocals being brilliantly doubled along on the drums, which makes the song. The album is concluded with “The Phalanx”, a song that form all reports was written during the session for the Shogun album, but was reassessed and rebuilt to suit the band’s current sound, and it is a nice way to bring the proceedings to an end.

Through their whole career, Trivium have been hit and miss with me. Either the album just clicks with me from the first moment I put the CD in the tray and press play, or I find myself giving the album several listens and searching for a way in, some sort of hook to grab a hold of that makes me ‘get’ the album, and then I am away. And almost without fail, over their whole discography, if I haven’t found myself happy to put the album back on without a struggle after those first three or four tries, then I’m pretty much done and have never been able to come back and try again. And believe me, with those albums that didn’t grab me on release, I have tried to come back later and see if I can discover what I had missed – and I never have. And it isn’t because I don’t like their style, their mix of metal core and a more traditional heavy metal that they obviously grew up with, and the mix of both growling and clear vocals from Matt Heafy, and the thundering of the guitars against the double kick drumming. All of that I like and enjoy.
But for me with Trivium, it appears that I need the right mix of those things to keep me interested. And it has been more over their recent albums that I have found this. Which means that the morphing and maturing of their music over the last decade has been what has appealed to me the most. For me that started with the album “Vengeance Falls” and has continued with every album following that.
While there are the early fans who have been disappointed in what the band has released in the last decade, for me it has been a triumph. I personally think this is a terrific album, especially turned up loud to allow it to engulf you rather than just trying to have it as background music. It may not be their best, but it is best enough.

1138. Men at Work / Business as Usual. 1981. 4/5

Similarities have been made in the past between Australia’s Men at Work and England’s The Police. Certainly both bands use the saxophone in their music, which is often a staple of New Wave bands and their style. Along with this is the utilisation of reggae in different ways, although for me it is much more subtle and not as prominent with Men at Work’s songs as it is with The Police, certainly in their early albums. Both bands have a lead vocalist with an automatically recognisable singing style and voice. And both bands eventually had quite a shortened career, The Police with five albums between 1978 and 1983, and Men at Work three albums between 1981 and 1985.Men at Work actually formed in 1979 in Melbourne, and consisted of the Greg Ham on flute, saxophone, keyboards and vocals; Colin Hay on vocals and guitar; John Rees on bass guitar; Jerry Speiser on drums and backing vocals; and Ron Strykert on lead guitar and vocals. From mid-1979 to mid-1981 they built themselves into one of the hardest working and more popular pub rock bands on the east coast of Australia. They had released two singles, one a self-financed independent release of “Keypunch Operator” (whose B-side was a little ditty called “Down Under”), and the second after having been signed by CBS titled “Who Can it Be Now”, the single that topped the Australian singles charts and remained in the charts for 24 weeks. It was with this success that Men at Work had entered the studio to write and record their debut album, one that was released 40 years ago today on November 9, 1981. A week prior to this, the band released the attached single, a song that they had rearranged from a previous version to place on the first album, and that the record company hoped would prove a success in promoting the band nationally and internationally, as well as push sales of the album. That single was “Down Under”.

Business as Usual fits very comfortably into the albums of the era in which it was released. It has the three main singles that were released from the album, all of which were popular on the radio and gave the band the national and international coverage it would have hoped for. This flows into the other tracks on the album, almost all of which are enjoyable on the same scale as those heavy hitters. “Who Can it Be Now” is a great opening track and showcases everything that is great about the band from the outset, including the sax and other great instrumentation throughout the song. This is followed by the mainstream soft rock stylings of “I Can See it in Your Eyes” which I think gets run down a little given the two songs it is sandwiched between. In the end it acts as quite a nice conduit between the opening song and then the overly familiarised strains of “Down Under” which follows it.
“Underground” continues the upbeat progression of the opening tracks, with the fast paced 4/4 timing of the drums and the punctuation of the sax driving the song along with plenty of energy. “Helpless Automation” follows and is written by Greg Ham, who also provides the lead vocal for the track as well. It closes out the first side of the album wonderfully well, with high tempo and once again great drumming from Speiser pushing the song along.
The second side opens with “People Just Love to Play With Words”, and a song that begins to show a different influence in the music, with John Rees dominating throughout with his roving bass riff throughout. This leads into the third single form the album, “Be Good Johnny”, still one of the band’s best. I still love how the song tells the story, without detracting from the actual song at all. It has been sung for generations now, with the name Johnny being substituted with any of a hundred thousand other people's name to suit the situation it gets brought up in.
The final three songs on the album take a much different style than what has come before them. “Touching the Untouchables” slows the tempo right back down to almost a lounge club act, allowing Colin to go back to crooning his vocals throughout with Greg’s sax coming into the mix with a greater influence. “Catch a Star” is very much in the reggae groove, the most noticeable of all the songs here that that genre is an influence on the band’s music. “Down By the Sea” closes out the album in a slower moodier pace than much of the album before it, resting on Colin Hay’s vocals dominating the sludgy pace of the track and the saxophone creating the atmosphere of the last moments of the album.

Most of you will know the story of the album’s most famous track “Down Under”. It helped propel the album to number one in the US, an amazing achievement for an Australian band’s debut album. It then became the unofficial anthem of Australia II’s campaign to be the first foreign based syndicate to life yachting’s most famous trophy, the America’s Cup, which they duly did in September 1983, and gave the song another lifespan in the charts. And then in 2010 there was the court case that claimed – and subsequently won – that the signature flute tune in the song had been ‘borrowed’ from the famous ‘Kookaburra sits in the old gumtree’ song from the 1930’s. Greg Ham, who had introduced the flute piece into the rejigged song that found its way onto the album, took the decision hard, believing that now he would always be known as the man who had plagiarised the piece. He suffered from anxiety and depression as a result. Two years after the decision, Greg Ham was found dead in his home after suffering a fatal heart attack at the age of 58.

With radio being a dominant force when it came to listening to music in those early days of the 1980’s, I knew all three singles from the album long before I was able to get this album. It wasn’t until sometime in 1984 that I purchased by cassette copy of Business as Usual, and it was one of the first albums I ever bought with my own money, and it was on the back of those three singles. And once I got it I enjoyed the whole album and didn’t just concentrate on those songs I had, by that time, known so well. As you might imagine from my review here, it was the first two-thirds of the album that really captured my attention and that remains the same now. The final three tracks on the album aren’t poor, they are just different in style from those that came before it, and so I could quite happily not listen to them if I chose that way.
This remains one of the best albums ever released by an Australian artist. It topped the charts in Australia, New Zealand, the US and the UK, and was followed up by the excellent Cargo which also sold extremely well. Not only was it the best selling album in Australia through 1982, it was the 12th best selling album in Australia in 1983, two years after its initial release. That's the sign of a terrific album.

1137. Led Zeppelin / Led Zeppelin [IV]. 1971. 3.5/5

Back in the days when bands released albums almost at the drop of a hat, Led Zeppelin came out and released their first three albums in an 18 month period in 1969-70. All three had been well received by the fans, although the final of those three albums, Led Zeppelin III, had been a bit cool with the music critics, something that hadn’t sat well with the band. Apparently as a result of this, the band decided that their fourth album would not have a title at all, and would be represented by four symbols on the inside sleeve, with each of the members of the band – Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham – designing one. Given the difficulty this would have in both promoting the album and selling the album, let alone when people wanted to discuss the album, it has almost universally been labelled as Led Zeppelin [IV]. In interviews, Page and Plant have mostly only ever referred to it as ‘the fourth album’.To write and record the album, the band moved to Hampshire into a place called Headley Grange, an old house built in 1795 where several bands had rehearsed and recorded – indeed Led Zeppelin had utilised it in the past also. It was here that perhaps their best known album and songs were written and recorded. Once recorded, the album was originally set to be released in April, but the band disliked the original mix, so after tour dates were played Page remixed it entirely. There was then some debate over the cover of the album, and also whether or not all of the songs the band had recorded should be included to make it a double album, but eventually the format that was released was the one that was confirmed, and fifty years ago it hit the shelves to an adoring public.

The quieter, acoustic-like songs still seem to dominate the album despite the appearance of the big hitters here. “The Battle of Evermore” is basically Jimmy Page playing on the mandolin, while Plant duets the song with Sandy Denny, who was the lead vocalist of British folk-rock band Fairport Convention. It is an interesting segue on side one of the album, as it passes from the two opening rock tracks and then into the number one hit that follows it. No John Bonham for quite a length of time through that period. “Misty Mountain Hop” mixes moments of that same folk rock with a more progressive rock sound, with Page’s guitar riffing in the back half of the song showcasing the sound that he brought to music, and is similar in that era that Brian May of Queen also began using. “Going to California” is a much quieter, acoustic number, with interviews from both Plant and page saying that it was inspired by the music of Joni Mitchell. You can certainly tie her sound to this track. “Four Sticks” lifts the tempo and barometer of the second side as Bonham gets his moment to impress, while the closing track is a cover of an old blues song “When the Levee Breaks”, and allows all four members to improvise their way in the music that is a heavy base to their own style.
That leaves the three most famous songs from the album, ones where even if you don’t know their names you would know if you heard them. Two of them you have already heard here. “Black Dog” is always known by Plant’s opening monologue, while “Rock and Roll” for me is dominated by John Bonham’s drumkit, which he pounds into oblivion throughout the song. It must have been something to witness live.
Led Zeppelin was one of those bands that I was always told I should be listening heavily to, but in general I just cherry picked at the songs and moments that actually enticed me and left the rest of the carcass for the other listeners. That wasn’t my way of being blasé about a band that had a crucial and massive part in forming the genre of heavy metal at its core. It was more about the fact that a lot of their songs for me just weren’t in anyway near the sphere of music that I enjoyed, and so rather than pushing blindly through these types of dongs constantly in order to appease others, or to find some way to enjoy them myself, I generally just left them, happy to enjoy those songs that appealed to me and not feeling as though I had to own the whole Zeppelin discography just because ‘everyone has to have those albums’. Even to this day, I only own Led Zeppelin CDs that were gifted to me or were cheap at the time I felt like buying something. As a result, I am no expert when it comes to Led Zeppelin and their music. My most played Led Zeppelin album is the Remasters double CD that was released in 1990, which acts as their greatest hits. The second most played album of theirs would be this one, and pretty much just for those songs I have chosen to play here.

The last track to discuss is of course their most famous. “Stairway to Heaven” has been one of those tracks that, for many people, is a constant, and that applies to me as well. One of my friends from high school actually did “Stairway to Heaven” as his performance piece for his music exam at the end of high school, and several other of my friends were involved in supporting him in that performance piece. Many of us sat outside the hall as they performed it, and it is still my favourite memory of any Led Zeppelin song. When I lived in Sydney and frequented the Erskineville Hotel on a regular basis, I would always slot the same twelve songs on the jukebox, in the same order. It became known as “Bill’s Burly Dozen”, and when regulars heard the opening strains to Deep Purple’s “Highway Star”, they would look around to find me. That dozen always finished with “Stairway to Heaven”, the perfect way to end that playlist.

What do YOU really think of Led Zeppelin, and in particular this album? Like I’ve said, Led Zeppelin is a band where I tend to like songs rather than albums. I wouldn’t say that I think any of their albums are rated more than a 7 out of 10, and the main reason for that is just that they all have songs I like, but others I could happily not listen to. There isn’t on album that I can put on and listen all the way through without thinking... “man, this song is still a bit average”. And this album is still like that for me. I have listened to this album quite a bit over the last couple of weeks, probably more in that time than I have in the previous 50 years since its release. And my taste in music is different from most of the stuff Led Zeppelin released, because they are of a different era. It’s a bit like that old mantra – I can appreciate it, but I just don’t love it. Apart from those three songs.

1136. Black Sabbath / Mob Rules. 1981. 5/5

Black Sabbath the band had appeared to be a washed up entity as the new decade had approached, with Ozzy Osbourne having been moved on and the rest of the band ambivalent about moving forward. The addition of Ronnie James Dio as new lead vocalist and lyrics writer, lifting that burden from Geezer Butler’s shoulders, brought about the amazing and legendary Heaven and Hell album, and the sales of that album and the tour that followed breathed a second life into the band that had in many ways started it all in regards to the heavy metal genre. The band had lost drummer Bill Ward during that tour. Ward, who had become a full blown alcoholic by this time, claimed it was intolerable for him to get on stage with Ozzy. He had been replaced mid-tour by Vinny Appice, who then became a full member of the band for the writing and recording of Mob Rules.
All of the band members have acknowledged that the writing of the album was different than it had been for Heaven and Hell. The initial writing of that album had been purely Tony and Ronnie, after Geezer had quit the band for a period, and was done in their lounge rooms with small amps in an intimate atmosphere. For Mob Rules, the band bought their own studio and soundboard in an attempt to save money and give them the time to come up with new material. With the noise turned up loud, not everyone involved found it a perfect way for writing, and so the writing didn’t come as naturally as it had for the previous album. It also created a different type of song for the album. Martin Birch was again producing, and there does seem to be a different bombarding within some of the songs on this album compared to the previous album. Sonically it is a much bigger and louder noise throughout, and with the lyrical matter being dragged further away from the darker side that the band sang about during its first incarnation, the band feels like a completely separate entity than the one that contained Osbourne and Ward – and this has been a disputed argument over the years, with those in the corner of the original band suggesting these albums should never be associated with the band name Black Sabbath because they are of such a different sound and focus than the first eight albums of the band’s discography. When this foursome eventually reunited under the name of Heaven and Hell many years later, many felt it was a much better fit than to have both Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules, along with Dehumanizer 11 years later under the Black Sabbath label.
The band and Martin Birch have been accused of doing a carbon copy of Heaven and Hell when it comes to the style and arrangement of the tracks on Mob Rules. I’ve never really agreed with that statement, as to me the tracks here are in places more of a commercial bent than those on the previous album. Indeed, some of the tracks have been criticised for this, especially by Ozzy Sabbath fans. The second side of the album comes under the most scrutiny, particularly for the songs “Country Girl”, “Slipping Away” and “Over and Over”. “Country Girl” is seen as a similar track lyrically as “Lady Evil” from “Heaven and Hell”, and certainly comparisons can be drawn between the lyrical content of those two songs. “Slipping Away” is compared to “Walk Away”, and the closing tracks “Over and Over” and “Lonely is the Word” again are compared to be like for like. Now if you play both of these albums, and you then play these tracks next to each other, you can come to a conclusion that the formula in regards to the style of song being placed in the same order of the tracks of the album can be argued, and successfully. I can’t say that I have ever honestly thought about it much, as I just love both albums for what they are, but having thought about it for this album review I have to say that it is a fair point, that the success of the format of the previous album may well have ensured that a similar format was used for Mob Rules. Is that a bad thing? I wouldn’t have thought so. I’d have been more concerned about whether a similar number of songs where the mood and tempo is changed from the real big hitters of the album affects the overall enjoyment of said album. In this regard, that is a matter of personal taste.
I still like all three songs, but would I ever put them on a playlist for the car? Probably not. Do they compare to the outstanding tracks on the album? No. “Country Girl” is a song with the right groove and singable lyrics, but it was seemed a strange choice to me to be put into a live setlist, as Sabbath did for the Mob Rules tour. “Slipping Away” talks about regeneration, turning the page, starting over, and turns up the tempo further to keep the momentum of the album going. And “Over and Over” is such a typical Dio-written song lyrically that perhaps it doesn’t feel as though it fits a Black Sabbath album – but my word I love this song. Emotionally and emotively Dio’s vocals here are truly magnificent, soaring to the heavens and stealing the show, before Tony’s amazing guitar solo that goes on forever to play the song out is an underrated and often forgotten moment of brilliance in his amazing career. Yes, it is much like the album closers of Dio first two solo albums that were yet to come, but it is a brilliant piece of music and song writing.

So there are moments here that are challenged as being ‘great’ or ‘subpar’ - but let’s look at the remainder of the album. The opening salvo of “Turn Up the Night” kicks the album off in perfect fashion, a great riff from Tony and Dio jumping in from the outset with his anthemic vocals charging along. “Voodoo” is a moody and slower tempo follow up, and a track that is also vastly underrated as a song in the Black Sabbath catalogue. It is one that is often overlooked when discussing Sabbath songs, but to me has always been a terrific one. This then moves into the first of two epic tracks on the album, the amazing “The Sign of the Southern Cross”, an amazing song which features Geezer Butler’s remarkable experimenting on the bass guitar, drilling up sounds that are the base track of this song. The changing mood of the track from quiet and reflective to loud and hard mirrors the bobbing of the ocean, and always makes me think of that whenever I hear the song. The entire song is a triumph and remains one of their best. This then segues into “E5150”, the instrumental pause before the busting opening guitar riff of the title track “The Mob Rules” rips in and sets off another burst of energy and Iommi riffing goodness. This is the song that Heaven and Hell opened with as they toured the world in the late 2000’s, and what a way to open a concert.
That leaves the only song I haven’t yet mentioned, a song which to me is perhaps one of my favourite ten songs of all time. It is “Falling Off the Edge of the World”, which sits comfortably between the high energy of “Slipping Away” and the genius completion of “Over and Over”. The song builds from the opening words with atmospheric keys to the hard core drums, bass and guitar, and then once again into the solo riff that opens the gates, and the band is unleashed into the fury of the main song. Vinny holds the beat together on the drums as Geezer dominates with the underlying bass riff and Ronnie powers through the range of his vocals and smashes the song to send shivers down the spine, before Tony breaks into his solo piece that raises the song to its peak. I personally think this song is a masterpiece, with all four members of the band contributing heavily to the greatness of the track.

I didn’t find Black Sabbath and all of those bands until some years later after this release. 1986 was my real awakening to heavy metal music, and perhaps amusingly enough when it came to Black Sabbath the band, it was the Ronnie James Dio fronted albums that caught my ear first. As a result, it was both Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules that became my go to albums when it came to Black Sabbath. Now while Heaven and Hell was certainly the star, Mob Rules was the album that always felt bigger, harder, heavier and with more energy. Maybe I just played it with more bass on my stereo, or perhaps it was the differing styles in the drumming between Bill Ward and Vinny Appice that brought about the slight nuances in the songs between both albums. Whatever it was, even the three songs that may be considered the forgotten tracks of the album always sounded bigger and brighter than the ones off the previous album.
This album, along with so many of my discoveries over those couple of years at the end of high school, was massive for me. Each song is imprinted in my mind and still stirs memories of those days each and every time I put on the stereo. Everything about it is pure magic. Vinny’s drumming seals the songs tight. It might be uncomplicated, or at least sound that way, but it is the basis of everything that comes over the top of it. Geezer’s bass work is truly amazing as it always had been and always is, and the riffs he plays acting as a second guitar are still incomprehensible. How can this band have such a deep and full sound with just a guitar and a bass? Tony lights up the album again with his guitar riffs and solos, and it is a joy to hear the best of him on every song after the relative disappointments on the last two Ozzy-fronted albums. And I will never have enough superlatives to describe Ronnie James Dio’s vocals let alone his song writing ability.

I will always wonder what could have come if this foursome had stayed together instead of breaking up following the tour for this album. Reasons for the break up have varied, with stories about Dio sneaking in to the studio for the mastering of their live album that followed this, Live Evil, in order to raise the vocals in the mix, having been hosed down a little in recent years. In the long run, it appears that whereas Tony and Geezer had been in control of the band in the past, they were not ready for someone like Ronnie to come in and want a similar amount of say in what happened in and out of the studio, and it eventually caused the split. Ronnie and Vinny went on the form Dio and record Holy Diver, another of those albums that I devoured during 1986, while Tony and Geezer eventually brought in Ian Gillan and recorded Born Again. I still enjoy the Born Again album, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Holy Diver. Just what kind of follow up to Mob Rules could these four have produced if not for their egos? Perhaps the Dehumanizer album ten years later actually is the answer to that question.

1135. Gamma Ray / 30 Years Live Anniversary. 2021. 5/5

Anyone who knows me will know of my love to the point of obsession of the band Gamma Ray, so it may not come as a surprise to you that the lack of new material from the band over recent years has been frustrating. There have been obvious reasons for that, the number one reason being the reunited Helloween line-up that included Gamma Ray front man and guitarist Kai Hansen. Gamma Ray’s last studio album, Empire of the Undead was released in March 2014, eight years ago. Since that album and the tour that followed, Kai has been tied up in the previously mentioned reunited line up of Helloween, which not only did a massive greatest hits tour called Pumpkins United, but then entered the studio and released a new album. As a result of this, Gamma Ray has very much gone on the back burner. Drummer Michael Ehre teamed up with guitarist extraordinaire Henjo Richter and formed a new band called The Unity, who have released three studio albums in that time and will shortly release their own live album. Bass guitarist Dirk Schlachter has been working on other projects, and recent introduction to the band Frank Beck has been biding his time, waiting to be unleashed. There was certainly a time when I had become convinced that, with the success of the Helloween juggernaut and with both Michael and Henjo firmly entrenched in their new band, that the demise of Gamma Ray had in fact had already come and there would be no further albums from the band.Fortunately, all was not lost. The Covid pandemic had interrupted and cancelled many things over the preceding months, which was disrupting the recording and releasing of that new Helloween album. In the meantime, the 30th anniversary of the creation of Gamma Ray approached, and in mid 2020 it was announced that the band would come together and do a 30th anniversary concert – sadly not in front of any fans except a lucky few who could get seats in corporate boxes in the venue chosen – and it would be streamed live around the world. It didn’t take much for me to jump on board. And the show they performed was just brilliant. That initial stream unfortunately only came through in mono, so you couldn’t hear Henjo’s guitar at all, but the spectacle was terrific. Thankfully the band rectified the problem and then replayed the stream a couple of weeks later. Playing a live gig in front of no one but cameras must have been daunting but it went over terrifically well, and the crowning glory was in bringing back original lead vocalist Ralf Scheepers to come in and sing on four songs. As a present to the fans, this was almost as much as you could ask for. Better was to come, as 12 months later the band announced they were releasing the anniversary gig on vinyl, cd and DVD for us all to enjoy over and over and over again.

Live albums are a tricky thing at the best of times, trying to get all the set up right and hoping the sound is going to be perfect. In this case, with no crowd to work around and almost being in a live studio setting, it must have worked really well for the production crew to have everything exactly as they wanted it.
The setlist is terrific, and although it does not cover all of the 11 studio albums of the band’s discography it does a great job of spreading over the majority of them. The band opens up with its more recent material, with “Dethrone Tyranny” and “New World Order” from the No World Order album opening up proceedings, followed by the fantastic version of “Avalon” from Empire of the Undead and then “Empathy” from the To the Metal! album. All of these songs not only highlight the great song writing and lyrically diverse topics, but also the emotive range that the music and vocals can reach within each song. It has been a trademark especially of Kai’s writing throughout his career but it is exemplified by his co-writers on these songs in particular.
From here we can move into the moneyshots from the band’s career, and in particular two of their best ever in “Rebellion in Dreamland” and “Land of the Free”, both from the legendary Land of the Free album. As always they both sound brilliant here, but the addition of Frank’s vocals make them both particularly joyous in this live environment. In the past, with either just Kai’s vocal line or along with Dirk they have been good, but not as satisfactory as the studio versions. Now though, with both vocalists able to take a harmony line each, they retain their studio magnificence and add that live sound that gives them even more depth and balance. Awesome.
The second half of the set list introduces Ralf Scheepers to take the lead on the songs he was involved with in the band, and each of them are excellent... well... I have always had a problem with “The Silence” from the Heading for Tomorrow album. The second half of the song is great once the guitars kick in, but the rest is only average in my opinion, which is funny because it is a song that seems to be in almost every Gamma ray setlist! However, “Lust for Life” cranks along like the joyous song it is, and “One with the World” from Sigh No More is also amazing. Then Ralf has a rest while the band does “Armageddon” the closer of the Power Plant album, before Ralf returns for the sensational title track from the first Gamma Ray album, the 15 minute brilliance of “Heading for Tomorrow”, where Ralf, Kai and Frank tear the vocals apart. The gig is completed by the usual encore of “Send Me a Sign” to close out what was, and is, a terrific set list.

The performers all put in fantastic performances. Michael Ehre is excellent once again on the drums, again proving what a terrific replacement he was for former long term stool sitter Dan Zimmermann. Given that he now also has roles in his own band The Unity and is also currently playing for Primal Fear, he has a busy worksheet but you can hear why he is in such high demand. Long term tenants in the band, Henjo Richter on guitar and Dirk Schlacter on bass are brilliant once again. I don’t think these guys have ever played a gig without those huge smiles wide across their face, and that can be heard in their guitaring throughout. Kai again stands centre stage and does his thing, though now his vocals are shared throughout which actually works much better than I thought it may when I first heard that Frank Beck had been brought into the band to ‘help out’ on vocals. Indeed, they complement each other really well, and it does fill out the vocals on each song with two terrific vocalists being able to harmonise as well as each sing their sections on their own. Even better here, the addition of Ralf Scheepers, the lead singer on each of the first three Gamma Ray albums, to come back and do so here again on the four songs played off those albums - “Lust for Life”, “One With the World”, “The Silence” and “Heading for Tomorrow” - is just superb, and with all three being involved along with Dirk makes for fantastic versions of these songs in particular. Ralf comes in and gives note-for-note performances of those songs which makes this 30th anniversary gig even more significant and excellent to watch and listen to.

Like I mentioned I bought my ticket with glee to watch this when it occurred last year. I bought the repeat watch ticket, which gave the holder 48 hours to watch it as many times as they liked. I watched it five times, and then a further four times when we got the second chance two weeks later with the proper audio. Even at the time I wanted to be able to record it to have it forever. Thankfully the band and their management thought that would be a good idea as well.
In a world gone mad where live shows of all artists – bands, plays, comedy – has been put on hold for the better part of two years, this for me was a great experience. And it isn’t as if Gamma Ray is short of live albums in their discography – this one being their seventh if you don’t mind, but all of them are excellent in their own way.
This album has many characteristics which make it a vital addition to the Gamma Ray family. It finally introduces Frank Beck as roving vocalist to those of us in the world who had not heard him take his place in the band before, and shows that he is indeed and asset as a result. It has Ralf Scheepers returning to the band where he made his name, and reliving those great old songs with his voice on vocals is also terrific. And in being there for this live experience, it made it the perfect way to celebrate the occasion, of marking 30 years of Gamma Ray on the music scene, an amazing amount of time when you consider that Kai’s original run in the first band he created, Helloween, the band everyone knows him from, was only for five years. Five years to create a legend, who has now had six times that amount of time in the band he created after leaving Helloween. Those that love those early Helloween albums but know almost nothing about Gamma Ray should take that on board – get out there and listen to Gamma Ray and find out what you have been missing out on.

1134. Iron Maiden / Senjutsu. 2021. 4/5

The rumours of a new Iron Maiden album had been around for over a year before the announcement of its pending release came to pass. That reliable source of information, the internet, did indeed quote one particular user who claimed that he had seen members of the band around the studio in France where they had recorded before back in 2019 and that he had been sure new material had been recorded. There had been silence from the band and management, indeed few questions seemed to asked at all, and considering the band was still in the middle of its Legacy of the Beast World Tour, it seemed a long shot at best that a new album had been finished. Then the covid pandemic hit, and all tours were cancelled – including Maiden’s which was also supposed to stop in Australia – and the music world stood still for almost 12 months.
Eventually, Maiden released a new song and music video on an unsuspecting world, “The Writing on the Wall”, and not long after indeed came clean. They had secretly recorded a new album at the time that was suspected by some, and the intention had been to release it after the Legacy of the Beast tour had finished, giving them a break between touring and writing and touring again. Covid had ruined those plans – and goodness knows exactly what they will now do with the tours they had previously announced now that there is a new album out as well – and so Senjutsu was released upon the world.

Iron Maiden is still one of those bands that engenders an anticipation prior to a new album being released. It is not always the case with bands who have been around forever and have released so many albums, but Maiden still does it. It is possible that in the current day it could be because you never really know when their next album will be their last, and the thirst for more material adds to that anticipation.
The album opens with the title track “Senjutsu”, and in many ways sets the tone for the whole album to come. Rather than having an up-tempo and faster paced opening song like so many of Iron Maiden’s albums produce, this is indeed the least of both of those descriptions of almost any Iron Maiden album. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t capture your attention, but it is a different entry into a Maiden album than of most of the discography. The eight minutes of Nicko’s remarkable tom beating throughout the length of the song is the star attraction of this song, allowing Bruce to emote in harmony over the top. It is unlike any Iron Maiden song before this, abandoning a real metal feel of the album and replacing it with the moody and atmospheric sound that still subtly draws you in and arouses your anticipation for what is to come. The first time I put the album on I was surprised and yet comforted by the way the song plays out. Bruce’s vocals also remain in a range that allows him to sing without forcing the issue.
“Stratego” gets about as fast a tempo as we find on the new album and while it is an enjoyable song there are moments when listening to it that you hope for something to jump out and really grab you.
The first single “The Writing on the Wall” is a much different style than Maiden have offered us before as well. The guitar riff to open the song has a country sound to it, which on the first few listens is a bit difficult to fathom, though some interviews with Bruce and Adrian suggest it has more of a Celtic twang about it rather than country. Take your pick, it certainly is drawing from areas not often travelled by Iron Maiden. Once the song is in full swing, and the three guitarists have brought their solo pieces into play the song becomes much more fully formed and less strange to the ear.
“Lost in a Lost World” is almost the stereotypical Steve Harris song now, one where the solo pieces are the saving grace... but I’ll get back to Harry’s writing again shortly.
“Days of Future Past” brings us back to the kind of songs Adrian and Bruce have always been good at, picking up the pace and vibe, a great rhythmic riff from Adrian and Bruce and his vocals motoring along and driving the song in a positive fashion, which is then fleshed out by powerful and anthemic guitar solos by all three men involved. At four minutes in length it is the shortest song here, but also the punchiest, in the tradition that this writing pair have done in the past. Without wanting to sound negative, there should have been more of this kind of song on the album. This is followed by the excellent “The Time Machine”, written by Jannick and Steve, and harks back to the style of songs they have written together over recent albums. While it isn’t as high voltage and brilliant as “The Talisman” from "The Final Frontier” album, it has similarities throughout. It just seems unusual to change and stop within the song like it does rather than just letting it run through naturally, as it would have been much better if it had.

“Darkest Hour”, which opens the second disc, is just far too close to the deplorable “Wasting Love” from the Fear of the Dark album. It has the same tone in the singing, the same sort of weeping guitars, and although the subject matter is different, it is another attempt by our fine song writers to institute a power ballad type song into the Iron Maiden agenda, and that just isn’t doing it for me in any way shape or form. At over seven minutes I think it is exacerbated and drags it out far too long as well.
Something that does remain the same from Maiden songs written by Steve Harris over the past twenty years or so is the way they start and end with the quiet and often acoustic guitars and lyrics. Now, this has been happening for a long time now, and has almost become a trademark of Steve’s songs. But, and I say this with the utmost respect and deference... is it at all necessary? Can these songs survive without those parts being introduced? Yes, all of Steve’s songs tell a story, and a part of those stories is told in those introductions and conclusions, but my problem is that Steve’s songs just become a bit too predictable, not only with the opening and closing, but the lengthy underlying guitar riffs in the middle of the songs where nothing much seems to happen in them. It is absolutely as though all of this is there just to get the songs lengths into double figures, which is very much the way of progressive rock bands especially in the 1970’s, but is that what Steve is trying to achieve? Is he, in the latter years of the band he formed and took to the pinnacle of music, now simply trying to regress to those years of the bands he grew up with and try to out-progress or out-prog them? That may seem like an over-simplification of what is happening here and also on recent Maiden albums, but I could line up a dozen songs from that time and make that argument.

And, is it just me, or is Bruce singing along with the guitar melody guide far more on this album than he ever has? What has often set Bruce and his singing apart has been his ability to find a way to sing the lyrics of a song by not just following the riff, but by having it move in a different pattern to it, which gives each song a much different sound and flavour. Ronnie James Dio was able to do this as well, whereas Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath often just sang the lyrics along the same guide as played by the guitars. Here on Senjutsu, I think Bruce does this a lot, certainly a lot more than he has in the past. Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a change in thought processes.
All of this seems more noticeable in the final three songs of the album, all written solely by Steve and harbouring all of these things I have just spoken about.
Is “Death of the Celts” just an attempt to create another “The Clansman” which Maiden did on the Virtual XI album? If it is, they made a bit of an error of judgement. This lacks the energy and heartfelt vocals of that song, though having said that, the three part guitar solos in the back third of the song are just superb, the absolute highlight of the song in my opinion. This is followed by “The Parchment”, the longest song on the album, and one that reminds me so much of Deep Purple it isn’t funny. Bruce’s singing is very much like latter day Ian Gillan, while Jannick Gers’ guitaring is a dead ringer for Ritchie Blackmore in places, though Jannick has always had a bit of that about him. For me, “The Parchment” is a bit of a plodder, jutting along with the same drumbeat and rhythm line and not really changing its expression throughout. And finally the album is concluded with “Hell on Earth” where Bruce hits the heights once again through the middle of the song and the guitars again do their party trick of three different men offering three different solos that all bind together pleasingly well. What interests me about these three songs is that, with every person I have spoken to over recent weeks who are fans of Iron Maiden, and in all of the reviews I have read published about this album, everyone seems to have a different opinion on which of the three songs is the best and highlights everything great about Maiden, and which song is overblown and a bit weak. I don’t know of anyone who absolutely loves all three songs nor anyone who doesn’t enjoy any of those final three tracks. As you can probably guess from what I have said here, for me it is “The Parchment” that feels a bit average in the long run.

One of the things I have noticed with all of Maiden’s album from A Matter of Life and Death onwards is that I have enjoyed them immensely more on the second round of listening. By that, I mean I give the album its usual time span in my playlist, anything up to 3-4 months, and then the album goes back to the shelf and I move on to the next set of albums – and then sometime over the next 6 months I pull it out again, and find a greater and deeper understanding and enjoyment of it having given it a rest for awhile. I have done that without fail for the three albums that preceded this album, with an initial overall disappointment apart from a few songs replaced by a better complete enjoyment of each album as a whole when I rediscovered them the second time. My guess is that “Senjutsu” won’t be any different from those albums for me. All four of those albums are very similar in the way the songs are written and the way they are set out on the album. Many won’t agree with me, but that similarity is what makes getting into these albums a more time consuming concept than the electrifying albums of the 1980’s was.

On The Final Frontier the immediate standout songs were “The Final Frontier”, “El Dorado” and “The Talisman”. The rest I thought were fine until that second run through later on, at which point I began to love them all and the album as a whole. On The Book of Souls the immediate standout songs were “If Eternity Should Fail”, “Death or Glory” and “Empire of the Clouds”, before the second run through brought to me the glory of songs like “The Red and the Black” and “The Book of Souls” and “Tears of A Clown”, and the joy that album now brings. I have the same feeling about this album, and my guess is the same story will occur. For me, the immediate standouts here are “Senjutsu”, “Days of Future Past” and “The Writing on the Wall”. There are others competing for spots the more I listen to the album, but my guess is that they won’t come to fruition until I get to that second run sometime next year.

The band sounds terrific as always, which is the most gratifying part of the exercise. As I’ve mentioned, each of the guitarists plays their part superbly, especially in each solo break where their styles are individual but combine to create the perfect sequence. Steve’s bass is as always sublime, and Bruce has controlled his vocals superbly to match the nuance of every song in his own inimitable style. For me though the MVP of this album is Nicko McBrain, who at 69 years of age is still producing amazing performances both live and in the studio. I’ve already mentioned how his performance on the opening track makes that song what it is, and again throughout the album he is a dominating force.

In concluding my thoughts on this album, I will again utilise something I have said over the past few Iron Maiden albums, which I believe is still completely true.
If you are going to try and compare this album with the work that this band did through the 1980's then you are never going to accept the wonderful things on offer on Senjutsu. It is a false facade in doing so. Try comparing Black Sabbath's “13” to “Paranoid”. Try comparing Scorpions “Return to Forever” with “Love at First Sting”. Try comparing Judas Priest’s “Firepower” to “Painkiller”. Try comparing anything Metallica release in the next couple of years to anything from that same 1980's era. Any album not from a band's 'great era' will rarely stand up against them, and that is the way it should be, and always will be. These are different men from 35 years ago. They are older, and they have seen and experienced the world since then. For lack of a better word, the music on this album shows a maturity that comes with age and a comfortableness in their lives and with themselves as songwriters. For the most part, the ferociousness may not be as prevalent in their music anymore, but their style and formula is still there to hear. Perhaps you won't jump around and headbang as much to this album as you do some others, but I'm 35 years older too, and I can appreciate what the band has written and recorded here.
This is Iron Maiden. Rejoice in the past. Accept the present. It is more than worth it.