1162. Dio / Killing the Dragon. 2002. 4/5

The doldrum days were behind the band Dio by 2002. The 1990’s hadn’t been kind to the band, but with the excellence and success of the album “Magica”, Dio had reasserted itself as a band worth taking notice of. Following on its success, band leader Ronnie James Dio discussed in circles that the next album would be a sequel as such to that album’s story, titled “Magica II”. And I guess, given that it had brought his and the band’s career back on track, that was something worth considering. Eventually, that idea was put on the back burner, to be considered at a later time, and instead Dio and guitarist Craig Goldy began writing other songs in preparation for the next Dio album. Interestingly though, there had been rumours of tension between Goldy and both Dio and bass guitarist Jimmy Bain at the end of the Magica tour, and even though song writing continued, this tension must have remained, because in January 2002, Goldy left the band, apparently for ‘family commitments.’ Nothing has ever been said about this since it occurred, and although it appeared as though it must have been an acrimonial split, Goldy did return to the band less than two years later so whatever the situation was, it didn’t appear as though it was unsolvable. Three songs co-written by Ronnie and Goldy appear on “Killing the Dragon” so writing must have been going well to that point in time.
In his place, Doug Aldrich was hired, a man who had a great reputation as a session guitarist as well as in other bands in his own right. In an interview before the album was released, Aldrich was quoted as saying that he felt that his role in coming into the band was to restore Dio to its 1980’s heyday, in regards to pushing for a faster pace in the songs and more vitality. In his mind (and many of the fans), the band had been slowing down the tempo of the songs on the latter albums too much, and that the band sounded better when the songs were played faster and with more energy. He even went as far to say he wanted the guitars to sound the way former member Vivian Campbell used to play on those early albums. I’m not sure Ronnie would have overly enjoyed that statement. However, it was music to the ears of fans, who were eager to have that kind of arrangement made for the writing and recording of the album. With Doug pushing Ronnie throughout the writing and recording process to achieve his own vision for what the album should sound like, we came up with “Killing the Dragon”, an album that, at least in some places, achieves exactly what Doug Aldrich was hoping for.

All albums are pieced together to make the fit work as best as they can, and on some albums it is interesting as to how they find a way to mix in the various different styles of songs to make the album work. This one is no exception, and while I think it works well, there are still moments when you wonder exactly what was being thought as the songs were being put together.
The first six songs on the album meander beautifully along, finding their rhythm and feeding off each other in their ways to elicit a response. The high voltage opening of the title track is a beauty, not only brought to life with Simon Wright’s powerful thumping drum kit and Jimmy’s rumbling bass, but at the perfect tempo that isn’t rushed. Doug’s guitar riff and brilliant solo bring the album to life early, as our first hearing of him play it is superb. And of course Ronnie’s powerful, dominating vocals, just superb. This is a great opening track and showcases exactly what Doug had been talking about, and opening track that draws you into the album immediately. This is followed by “Along Comes a Spider” which continues this faster pace than recent albums, with Ronnie’s vocals in a terrific mid-range that doesn’t extend himself beyond his range. He’s not 35 anymore, and though his voice remains the greatest in music he has found a great spot here to stick to. “Scream” is just fantastic, a much moodier song that moves along like the tide rushing out the river heads, a great counter point to the two opening tracks without losing any momentum into the start of the album. This cannons into the fastest song of the album, “Better in the Dark”, with Ronnie not only delving back into monster lyric territory but with Simon and Doug being allowed off the leash, and Jimmy adding a nice solo bass piece in and under the guitar solo in the middle. I love this song, it is arguably my favourite on the album. But – then comes the counterpoint to all of this, the slow, grunging and heavy tones of “Rock and Roll”. Mixing the elements of the kind of songs the band did in the 1990’s, but by adding a better arrangement of guitars and drums rather than the tuned down stylings of those songs, this is a great song. Ronnie gets the kind of tempo he has drifted towards for years, but is lifted by the brightness of the music from his bandmates rather than it feeling as though it is bringing the mood down. It is really very enjoyable. The final of those first six tracks is “Push”, again a track pushed along by Doug to ensure it doesn’t sit in a mid-range tempo that wouldn’t have worked. Dio’s vocals are supreme, very much reminiscent of those first three albums of the band. The song even had Dio’s first music video in years made for it, helped along with an appearance by Tenacious D. this video helped push the popularity of both the song and the album. It’s still a ripper.
The final four songs of the album don’t quite reach the same standard as the first six, but are by no means second class. Perhaps it is the downgrading of the tempo in three of the songs that makes it feel like that to me, and perhaps I am just being pedantic. “Guilty” is the first of these songs, and I’ve always wondered if Dio wrote this about himself, as it seems like an interesting topic to write about if it wasn’t. “Throw Away Children” is a similar style, and if you believe what is written in certain places, was originally planned to be a part of another “Hear n Aid” styled project to raise money for Ronnie’s charity, but nothing came of it and it found its way onto this album instead. I love “Before the Fall”, obviously written about someone chasing stardom but falling to the same pitfalls of many people before them. This is a classic styled Dio/Bain track, and with the keys mixed in with the track it has similarities to their Rainbow days as well. The album then concludes with “Cold Feet”, which is fine... but remember the days when Dio had epic closing tracks to their albums? I’d have loved one of those to be here as well.

I still remember my excitement prior to this album’s release. “Magica” had been a real hit for me, I had loved everything about it, and reading everything about this album leading up to its release just exacerbated that. And when I got it, I wasn’t disappointed. It came in the mail on the day of its release – a whole new experience by 2002 rather than heading out to the record store to buy it – and when I got home from work there it was, and on it went. And it was one of those albums that I loved from the very start, something that becomes less and less likely the older I get. But this was everything that it promised. It had songs that felt more closely tied to those first three albums than the next three. Doug Aldrich on guitar was magnificent, Simon Wright and Jimmy Bain just as wonderful as ever, and Ronnie’s vocals were truly brilliant. I think it is the final recording he made where his vocals were truly supreme, that they weren’t straining under age to be as they were in his youth. His singing here doesn’t feel or sound like he is trying to compensate for not being able to hit the exact same notes as he could 20 or 30 years previously. The songs as I mentioned have a tempo that had been missing for some time in Dio’s music, and that is rectified for the most part on “Killing the Dragon”. I played this a lot, at work and at home, for those few months after its release. It is still one of the best albums for me that has been released in this century.
Perhaps the biggest shame of it all is that it is the only Dio album that Doug plays on. About a year after its release, he moved on to join Whitesnake, and Craig Goldy returned for the next, and final, Dio album. He does however play on two Dio live albums, where he not only showcases how good he is on his material, but how faithfully he plays on the older material, a true mark of his love of the work.

1161. Kiss / Revenge. 1992. 3.5/5

Coming into the new decade, after an up and down time through the 1980’s, Kiss had managed to find another top ten hit, the god-awful ballad “Forever” from the “Hot in the Shade” album, and as a fan I know I had my doubts that the next album wasn’t going to jump on that and follow its lead. As it turned out, there was a lot more other stuff going on when it came to writing and recording the follow up to that final album of the 80’s decade. Firstly, the band was asked to record a version of the hit song by Argent from the early 1970’s “God Gave Rock and Roll to You” to be a part of the movie “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey”, the song that at the time I thought was the one that was supposed to unite the world. The third sequel proved that to be wrong. However, the success of that track, which had been produced by Bob Ezrin, whom the band had forsaken since they had worked together on “Music from The Elder”, led the band to decide to continue on with Ezrin in producing their next album. Along with this, long time drummer Eric Carr had been diagnosed with cancer, and though he had participated in the filming of the video for the “God Gave Rock and Roll To You II”, he was then told by the band to recuperate. Eric Singer was brought into the band to fill in as drummer until Carr was well enough to re-join the band, but sadly his condition deteriorated, and he died in November of 1991. Singer was then made a full time member of Kiss. Once the band returned to the studio to continue putting the album together, both Paul and Gene found themselves writing with some unusual partners. Paul wrote some material with both Dave Sabo from Skid Row and Jani Lane form Warrant, the latter as that band was putting together their biggest album “Cherry Pie”. Though the songs were completed they both missed out on inclusion on the album. One song that did make the cut was “Take it Off”, co-written with former Alice Cooper guitarist and composer Kane Roberts, and that song does have that vibe about it. Perhaps the most unusual was Gene getting together with former Kiss guitarist Vinnie Vincent. Vincent had left the band on very bad terms, but had now returned and wanted to patch up the relationship. Both Gene and Paul wrote songs with him during this time, but then as the album neared Vincent again reneged on a deal, then decided to sue, and lost. It was the final straw for Vinnie and Kiss, but as a result of the sessions Vincent gained three co-writing credits on “Revenge”.

The success of “God Gave Rock N Roll to You II” in the movie and the charts gave Kiss and “Revenge” the kind of boost they hadn’t had for quite some time. Coming in off the back of that, it just required the right attitude and sound for the album to be a success. And the band delivers on this from the outset. The Simmons/Vincent penned opener “Unholy” is a great track, and Gene’s dulcet tones actually make a great start to the album, the perfect hard rock beat along with chorus support vocals in the chorus. You can almost hear the explosion and fire being spurted on stage as you listen to Gene’s final scream. This moves into Paul and Kane Roberts “Take it Off”. Nothing outstanding about the lyrics (the only strip-club song), nothing technical in the song writing, but it is a typical straight forward Kiss hard rock track that sounds great with Paul singing and then a great lead from Bruce Kulick. And this sets the standard for the remainder of side A of the album. It won’t help you to love the songs as such if you study the lyrics and search for any meaning in the lyrics. Because that is not what Kiss is about, or has ever been about. The subject matter is... women, plain and simple, in several different...um... positions. And as we all get older, it becomes a little awkward at times, but mostly it’s just so ridiculous its funny, and mostly that is what Kiss has always been. But, do I like the songs? I do. I love Bruce’s guitar work on this album, and for the most part his solo breaks are the star of the album. And the songs are entertaining and fun... as long as you don’t think too much about what is being sung. “Tough Love”, “Spit”, “Domino”, they all have that fascination.
Not a lot changes on the second side of the album with “Heart of Chrome”, but from here we find the split in the album’s lyrical aspect at least, and for me it improves the style. Gone are the ‘let’s have sex” songs and in their place are a couple of different thoughts in the lyrical mix. Gene’s "Thou Shalt Not” changes things up nicely with an angry rant at street preachers, and it is one of my favourite songs on the album, with Gene spitting out his vocals in the fashion that he does on all of his best songs. Love it. “Every Time I Look at you” is the album’s power ballad, something that despite the band’s reputation Kiss have always done well. IF you like that kind of thing. Which, of course, I don’t. I’m sure it sells well where it is supposed to, but once it just stops the momentum of the album in its tracks. “Paralyzed” picks it up again with a more thought provoking style and great guitars from Bruce again. Clever entendres are at work in “I Just Wanna”, which is the best kind of Kiss song, with double meaning lyrics that are fun without the cringe, and hard rocking music that picks up the vibe along the way.
The album concludes with “Carr Jam 1981”, something Eric had played when he first joined the band, with Bruce playing guitar over the top. Originally neither this nor “God Gave Rock N Roll to You II” was supposed to be on the album, but were brought on once Eric had passed away as the band’s tribute to him.

The Kiss albums from the 1980’s, and more especially the ones where the make-up came off, get panned by a lot of Kiss fans, generally the older fans. But for me, I really enjoy all of them, and absolutely adore two or three of them. It helps to have grown up in that decade and had them there rather than judging them on the earlier material. I had been a bit cold however on “Hot in the Shade”, and probably wouldn’t have cottoned on to “Revenge” as quickly as I did if not for ‘Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey’ and the accompanying soundtrack. But it quickly got swallowed up by the big gun releases from that same period which took up almost all of my music listening at the time – Iron Maiden’s ‘Fear of the Dark’, W.A.S.P.s ‘The Crimson Idol’ and Black Sabbath’s ‘Dehumanizer’ - and I really never gave it much of a listen on its release. It wasn’t until a number of years later, into the new millenium in fact, that I came back to this album, along with a number of other Kiss releases, and found my love for it. And it wasn’t because I didn’t like it at the time, it just got lost. But on rediscovering it, I had as much enjoyment for it as I did for a lot of the Kiss discography.
What attracts me to this album still is that Kiss hadn’t changed their formula to find a way to fit into 1992. This album is actually a harder album than the past couple of albums had been that had moved with the 80’s flow. “Stripped back” is a phrase that doesn’t work here, but it does get back to basics in the musical department, with great drum work from Singer and especially terrific guitar licks and solos from Kulick which give it the oomph it needs to set itself apart and to individualise it. Many people would have come into “Revenge” for the Bill & Ted single, but would have stayed for the solid hard rock material that surrounded it. This reached #5 on the Australian record charts, and 6 in the US and 10 in the UK. Those numbers suggest that the enjoyment of this Kiss album was worldwide as they entered their third decade of rocking and rolling all night.

1160. Testament / The Ritual. 1992. 3.5/5

By the end of the first third of 1991, Testament had concluded their tour behind their fourth album “Souls of Black”, and from all reports were physically and mentally exhausted. In the five years since they had gained their first recording contract, they had barely had a break. Each album was written and recorded in and around the tours that were occurring to promote the previous one, and once it had been recorded they were back on the road to promote it. The continued success of all four albums, “The Legacy”, which was reviewed on this blog just last month, “The New Order”, “Practice What You Preach” and “Souls of Black”, meant growing success on the road, and bigger tours in bigger venues. Though they were not included in the theoretical ‘big four’ of the thrash scene, their success had climbed to such a point that they were being thought of as being the number 5.
But the band needed a break, and the time to properly write and record their follow up. They did this, taking almost seven months in the writing process while on their down time, and then almost another two months record it. And while there had been rumours of some disenchantment while on the road, which had been put down to over work and the need for a rest, one wonders if that was all to do with that. The approach of the music on “The Ritual” continued the trend of the band to move away from out-and-out-thrash metal, which had been the staple on their debut album, and incorporate a slower tempo to their songs, and in the search for a groove rather than speed and wailing solo bursts. In some ways this was ahead of their time, as it was a style that nu-metal and alternative metal bands began to take just a few years down the track. But at this time, with metal bands being influenced by what was happening with grunge in the music world, it still sounded like an even more radical path for the band to take than they had done so with “Souls of Black”.

There is only one song on this album that clocks in at under five minutes, so from the get go there is a danger that things could have been stretched too long. That’s only an observation I have come up with over the last few weeks in reliving the album, as I search for ways to best describe what happens on “The Ritual”. The opening of Skolnick’s instrumental “Signs of Chaos” into “Electric Crown” is terrific, everything seems to be working well and the album gets under way in a positive fashion. “So Many Lies” kicks in with Louie Clemente’s drums and you think that we are about to click into high gear again (I still do to this day, every time I listen to this album), but the tempo halts and winds back into a different gear. It’s a good enough song, but it is very unlike the songs that came on that debut album just five years earlier. “Let Go of My World” is more enthusiastic about its work, led by a satisfying guitar riff and Chuck’s more hardcore vocals. The title track of the album, “The Ritual”, is the longest song on the album, and is very much at that below-walking speed, moving between the quiet clear guitar to a harder vocal and some distortion on the instruments. Skolnick’s solo in the middle still reigns supreme and lifts the song out of the doldrums, and the song is still effective for the style. But is it the style you come to a Testament album for? “Deadline” settles nicely into a more mid-tempo groove and allows Chuck’s newly utilised vocal melodies to float along throughout the track, raising in speed only for Alex and Eric’s trading guitar solo’s. “As the Season’s Grey” is one of the album’s best tracks, which Chuck getting serious in the explanation of the songs vocals, where we really feel him singing for the first time on the album. “Agony” follows, and the speed of the intro brings hope to the heart that we will finally get a real thrash song on this album. Alas it is not to be, and while once again the song grows on you over time, the change in tempo is... disappointing. “The Sermon” which follows – the song, not me carrying on, or Testament preaching what they practice – follows the playbook of the album, with a tempo wound back with mostly inactive drums and the riff running underneath throughout.
“Return to Serenity” to me has always been Testament’s version of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters”. But better. Slightly. It is everything that goes against the grain of what I felt a Testament song should be. It’s slowish, it’s moody, though again it gets saved by the brilliant guitar solo that threads through the middle of the song. Honestly, if this wasn’t a part of the track you’d be wondering just how this fits into the Testament discography. The closing track “Troubled Dreams” continues to tread water in the same way as many of the songs seem to do before it – the vocals from Chuck set in that whiny tone that seems out of character and place, and yet the song is saved with the introduction of the guitars in the middle doing their thing.

With my introduction to Testament having been “Practice What You Preach” and “Souls of Black”, I had come in at a middling phase of the band. Those albums weren’t as thrashy as their first two albums, they had a developed sound. But “The Ritual” had gone a step further, and I don’t know the full reasons why that was so. Certainly, as with all of these albums from 1992, the music landscape had shifted, and bands were either adapting to stay alive, or adapting because they felt they wanted to make that change. I can’t say for certain what was the case with Testament and this album, but change they did.
The change for me, when this album was released, was to feel as though perhaps the band was of the way out. It was a way I felt about many of the bands that did the same thing around the same time. In 1992 I thought “The Legacy” was an OK album, but it quickly found its way onto the shelves for a long stay, and it contributed to me not hearing the following three albums until well after their release. That was partly also due to my own turning to the European power metal scene.
Over the past three weeks I have listened to this over and over again, having just come off 2-3 weeks of listening to their debut album “The Legacy” for this same blog, and that has been an interesting experience. That debut is amazing, it is the epitome of thrash metal, and its contrast to “The Ritual” is somewhat astounding. My choice of album between these two is easy. But leaving that aside, and not comparing eras, there is still a lot to like on this album, as long as you are prepared to just let it be what it is and not try to project it to being something it is not.

Alex and Louie both left the band after this album and tour, Louie to a more stable job and life, and Alex to pursue music that was NOT thrash metal, which he did for a number of years with some success. His return to the band on their reformation album “The Formation of Damnation” in 2008 was part of the catalyst for the new great era of the band, one that continues today, just as his departure following this album closed off the first great era of the band.

1159. The Clash / Combat Rock. 1982. 1.5/5

The Clash had been on an existential high for a number of years, following on the success of their eponymous debut album on to ”Give Em Enough Rope”, then the hoped-for breakthrough into the American market with the double LP ”London Calling” before releasing the overblown triple LP 36 song epic of ”Sandinista!” And as the band had risen, so had begun the tangents of its eventual demise.
Through 1981, a number of flash points came to not only dictate what would happen with the next album, but also the future of the band beyond its recording and release. After the extravagance of “Sandinista!”, Joe Stummer and Paul Simonon pushed to have their previous manager reinstated over their current management, suggestively in order to try and recaptured the punk roots of the band rather than the continuing progressiveness to commerciality and new wave. On the back of this, original band manager Bernie Rhoads indeed regained this position, though it left Mick Jones offside as he had not been overly in favour of the move. This may not have been the first step towards the tension beginning to be felt amongst the bands members, but it was a strong one.
The working title for the new album was “Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg”, and after some preliminary work in London the album was recorded in New York. The band then went on tour to Australia, New Zealand and Japan, before returning to complete the new album for release. With 18 songs recorded, the band debated whether or not to release another double LP or whether it should be edited down to a single LP. While Mick Jones, who had done the initial mix, was in favour of the double LP, the rest of the band wanted to bring it back to a single album. Another difference of opinion. Jones was then probably also unimpressed by newly reinstated manager Rhoads suggesting the band bring in Glyn Johns, who had produced and engineered great albums by bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Eagles, to try and do this for their album. Over the course of three days, Johns, Strummer and Jones managed to edit the 77 minute initial album down to its final length of 46 minutes, both through shortening some songs and also deleting six altogether. It was this version of “Combat Rock” that hit the shelves 40 years ago today, having been preceded two weeks earlier by the first single from the album, “Know Your Rights”

The thing that I have always found with this album is that is just feels long. And that’s the released version, not the initial Mick Jones mix. Because while the subject matter of the songs lyrically may equate to a punk album, the music pretty much has had all punk tendencies washed out completely. Lyrically the album has plenty of politically motivated songs. The opening two tracks deal with this, with “Know Your Rights” pointedly discussing the knowing of your rights as a middle or lower class person, but then showing how those rights are skewed to benefit to rich and upper class, and “Car Jamming” discusses the impact and aftermath of the Vietnam War in particular. "Red Angel Dragnet" was inspired by the January 1982 shooting death of a New York member of the Guardian Angels, and quotes several lines of dialogue from the movie “Taxi Driver”. "Straight to Hell" describes the children fathered by American soldiers to Vietnamese mothers and then abandoned, while "Sean Flynn" is about the photojournalist son of actor Errol Flynn who disappeared in 1970 after being captured by the Vietcong in Cambodia.
The album has several guests coming on and providing vocals or at least readings, performing on songs such as “Red Angel Dragnet”, “Overpowered by Funk” and “Ghetto Defendant”.
So here is where we have to come clean on just what kind of album “Combat Rock” is. Because although you may have been led to believe that The Clash is a punk band, there is very little to none of that on this album. I have spoken before of my problem with punk bands heavily infusing reggae into their music, mainly because of my dislike for reggae, but also because from a punk band I want power and vitality and anger and feeling. And what we get on this album generally has none of those things. “Red Angel Dragnet” and “Straight to Hell”, which close out the first side of the album, are listenable enough, but they stretch out forever, and are slow and desolate. Then we move on the second side of the album, with “Overpowered by Funk” absolutely just being a funky R&B song which, it may surprise you, is not what I come to this band for. Though I really shouldn’t have been surprised at it all. “Sean Flynn” has the saxophone implemented, like all new wave music of the era. “Ghetto Defendant” has the harmonica and the mournful vocals of Joe over both of those songs and the dreary pace really makes it a punish to get through. And the closing track “Death is a Star” not only feels as though it goes for 20 minutes it can send you to sleep in the process.
The two obvious counter points on this album are the two big singles, that to be honest have been well overplayed over the years to the point of overexposure. “Should I Stay or Should I Go” has been used in ads and movies and probably became more popular ten years after the albums release than when it came out as a single. “Rock the Casbah” though was the breakthrough for the band in the US and charted around the world. And perhaps what makes it stand out from all of the other tracks on the album is that it was almost completely written and recorded by drummer Topper Headon, on a day when there was no one else in the studio. He lay down the piano riff that he had been toying with, did the drums and added the bass guitar. Joe Strummer wrote the lyrics that featured on the track. But it is the completely different vibe of the music here compared to every other track on the album that is perhaps the most damning part about it.

Is Combat Rock the most boring album in the universe? Or perhaps just from 1982. Take two songs out – no, really, take ONE song out, and it would certainly have to be in the running for such an award.
Because of the success of the radio single in Australia, and the subsequent championing of the band by several of my friend group in high school, I have listened to “Combat Rock” for a long time. Not consistently, not every month or year, but consistently through those years. And for me, it really has never been an album that I’ve cottoned on to. I’ve said it before on the previous episode when I retrospectively reviewed their debut album, what I love about The Clash is their punk songs, the ones with energy and bounce and an ability to strike out hard. But by this album a lot of that had been gently slid to one side, as their music if not their lyrics had taken on a more commercial aspect, and that slower, less immediate style of song that dominates this album just doesn’t interest me at all. And I know there are millions of people out there who think very differently than I do, but “Combat Rock” has disappointed me for decades. I’ve always hoped I would come back to it, and find something that hooked me in, that changed my entire feelings about this album, but it never has.

Topper Headon was sacked from the band when the album was released due to his spiralling drug problem, and Mick Jones was dismissed after the tour that followed. The Clash was fast coming to its conclusion, and though I am anything but an expert on the band, I’ve always felt that the withdrawal from the scene that made them who they were was the major contributing factor to their demise.

1158. Death Angel / The Ultra-Violence. 1987. 4.5/5

What were you doing when you were 19 years of age? Better yet, what were you doing when you were 14 years of age? Or even 10 years of age? Why do I ask? Well, those ages are significant when it comes to the historical timeline of Death Angel. Because when they first formed and began to play together back in 1982 and 1983, the band members were all around the ages of 14 and 15. Except for their drummer of course, because at the time Andy Galeon was 10 years of age.
Is that ridiculous? Well of course it is. But then they put out their first demo tape, titled “Heavy Metal Insanity”, and that brought them more attention. The band, led by lead guitarist Rob Cavestany, rhythm guitar Gus Pepa and bass guitar Dennis Pepa, and Galeon on drums, were soon joined by band roadie Mark Osegueda on vocals, and gigged around for the next two years, writing new songs and supporting such bands as Megadeth, Exodus and Voivod. In 1985 they band recorded and released their demo
Kill As One”, produced by Metallica’s guitarist Kirk Hammett. As a result of the tape trading scene that existed in those days, Death Angel found themselves turning up to gigs, and having the crowds sing their songs along with them, despite the fact they had yet to secure a recording contract. The success of this demo led the band to gaining that contract with Enigma Records, and allowed the band to record and release their debut album, “The Ultra-Violence". And the remarkable thing about that was that, after four years of working for this moment, all of the band members were still under the age of 20 on the day of its release, with Andy Galeon still only 14 years of age. So imagine yourself at that age, not only playing so many high level gigs over so many years, but also writing songs like this.

If you are coming into this album without any reservations, or if you are coming into it having heard some of their more recent releases, then what you discover is going to blow your mind. Because this is a true version of a thrash metal album, from the days when thrash was at its peak in its development, and this is a band that meshed and melded with the greats of the genre at their own inception. Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Exodus. And yet these guys were just kids, who by the time this came out had had a wealth of experience that most older musicians could only dream of. So when you listen to the songs, you can pick up those influences of the bands that Death Angel had performed with over that time, and while they are there, they do not dominate. They thrash hard and fast, but have developed their sound, their version of the music that had been dominating the Bay Area over that time, and then they had forcibly pressed it onto vinyl for the world to hear. But there is a progression to this thrash metal, with all of the tracks barring the final one pushing beyond four and five minutes, filled with fast aggressive guitaring and hard hitting drumming.
Dennis Pepa actually leads the vocal assault on the opening track “Thrashers”, while the guitar sound is very Megadeth from their first album in style. “Evil Priest” follows and is another excellent song, fast and furious, and ties in nicely to “Voracious Souls”. Lyrically the band is walking the tightrope, singing about a priest inhabited by an evil spirit and then a cannibalistic tribe. The devil and evil have a central piece in the lyrics on the album, but if you are a thrashing teenager it isn’t likely to bother you too much.
“Kill As One” is just a superb song, combining everything that is brilliant about thrash metal into its five minutes. Great vocals, superb guitaring, and drumming that makes you tired just listening to the energy being expelled in driving the track to its conclusion. “Mistress of Pain”, which the band actually dedicated to one of their old teachers when they played at their high school prior to this album being released, actually has vocals from Mark that remind me heavily of Joey Belladonna on the early Anthrax albums. This is followed by “Final Death” on which I think Mark’s vocals sound the best, a sign of things to come over the course of the next couple of albums. And the album concludes with the short and sharp instrumental “I.P.F.S”.
It is possible that the crowning glory of this album is the title track, “The Ultra-Violence", a ten-and-a-half-minute instrumental that showcases the absolute talent of this band and its members. There have been plenty of great instrumental track from all sorts of bands down the years, but this is the equal of those. Everything about it is spectacular. The guitaring and riffing is magnificent, the bass guitar line throughout is wonderful, and the showcasing of Galeon’s drumming is brilliant, proving what a talent he was at that age. I love this song, it is a beauty, and more than worth the ten and a half minutes of your time.

Like a majority of the albums that I have reviewed over the last few episodes, Death Angel was a band I came into on a later album, and didn’t discover this until after that. That album was “Act III”, still an amazing album and one that then forced me to check out the two previous releases. Whereas the sophomore release initially disappointed me, this album did not. When I first put it on, it was like going back to when I first discovered Metallica and Megadeth, and the excitement and sheer joy I got when I first heard those bands albums. And for me that is what is so terrific about “The Ultra-Violence". The fact that the band grew up and played in that era of such influential bands from that area, the songs and sounds on this album are naturally also tied to it. And though I may not have picked it up in 1987 – far out, another lost opportunity for those heady days of the final year of school – it still reminds me of that time just from the style of the music on the album.
And, in many ways, this album stands alone in the Death Angel catalogue. By “Act III” there was a certain maturity that came in the music, not being the rough and frenzied output from the debut. The of course it was 14 years before the next album, and as brilliant as it is, it is a different age of metal by then. So “The Ultra-Violence" stands as a testament to the age, both the era of thrash metal and that individual age of those in the band at the time. And because of this, it remains a wonderfully special album that is impossible to ignore whenever it hits the stereo.

1157. Rainbow / Straight Between the Eyes. 1982. 3.5/5

Rainbow had been Ritchie Blackmore’s ticket out of Deep Purple, and since its beginning Blackmore had begun looking to tweak the material the band was writing in order to go for a more commercial sound, to find the mainstream success he was looking for. It had led to separation with Ronnie James Dio, and after one album it found his replacement Graham Bonnet also leaving due to dissatisfaction with the material and with the relationship he had with Blackmore. That had led to the hiring of Joe Lynn Turner as lead vocalist, and along with the return of his former Deep Purple band mate in Roger Glover, the band had released “Difficult to Cure”. With some of that commercial success coming from the release of the single “Since You Been Gone” (ironically not written by the band, but instead another writer called Russ Ballard), the scope was to continue down the path the band had set for itself, and find that success it longed for. It had already led to much of the Dio-era songs being shunned on live tours, and a much different feel for the way the band approached that side of things as well.
The album was written and recorded in Quebec in December 1981, with Roger Glover once again producing. And while “Difficult to Cure” had still had moments where Blackmore was experimenting beyond the fringe, the new album left little doubt as to where the band leader and his members were looking to tread when it came to their new material.

The first single from the album was the big power ballad, “Stone Cold”. It is the kind of song that Joe Lynn Turner styled his career on, and that’s not to say that he couldn’t sing great hard rock songs either, because he proved over a long career that he could. But it is this song especially that Rainbow was looking for their commercial success, and in that regard they succeeded, reaching top 40 in both the US and the UK with this single. Spoiler alert – it was the only single Rainbow had that did.
It was not the only song in that style on the album however, as the band sped down the commercial highway. “Tite Squeeze” lyrically and musically tends to push those boundaries, and without a doubt “Tearin’ Out My Heart” absolutely does this, a song that musically is looking for that radio airplay to sell singles, which in many ways makes it unusual that it wasn’t released in that way. Sure, in many ways it is a slightly changed variation on a Deep Purple song that has been pushed towards a different angle, however, the title of the song itself already tells you what it is trying to achieve musically. And the closing track on the album, “Eyes of Fire”, certainly sets itself up to be the epic song of the album, the longest at over six and a half minutes, and harks back slightly to those days of “Rising” and “Long Live Rock N Roll” without the same intensity of the songs on those albums.
Beyond that though, there is still lots to like here for the fans of fastest more potent material. The uptempo vibes of “Bring on the Night (Dream Chaser) is excellent, driven along by the excellent drumming from Bobby Rondinelli and bass legend Roger Glover, while Joe sings his heart out and Ritchie produces another great solo burst on the guitar. “Power” is a great song to open the second side of the album with great lyrics and vocals from Joe, while Ritchie again dominates the song with his solo break. “MISS Mistreated” is the antithesis of a metal song or a power ballad. Indeed, it is almost the perfect combination of the two, and it is pulled off in style. The keys of David Rosenthal give it that power ballad feel, but the power increase prior to the chorus and through the bridge of the song raises it above that. It could still have been released as a single in that respect, but I think it does gravitate beyond that. Or maybe I’m just trying to justify my love of a power ballad. And the suitably titled “Rock Fever” also has a great tempo that bounces along nicely. But perhaps the best song of the album is the one that kicks the album off, raging in with drums and guitar riff and fast paced driving power that becomes that great album opener, “Death Alley Driver”.

While there are four distinct eras of Rainbow the band – quite a few if you think about it considering they only released eight albums – I have always enjoyed each of them for what they were. The Dio-Blackmore-Bain-Powell era was amazing, where they were absolutely at their most influential. The Bonnet era of the “Down to Earth” album is superb. And I still love the Doogie White-helmed comeback of “Stranger in Us All”. And what really makes this era of the band is the fantastic combination of Joe Lynn Turner on vocals, with his unmistakeable commercial voice that he can still bring the power to for hard rock and metal tracks when the need arises, and Roger Glover’s cool presence on bass guitar as well as album production, Bobby Rondinelli’s solid drumming that doesn’t take the focus away from the core of the band, and Ritchie Blackmore’s still-defining guitar playing and ability to write a catchy riff and make it stick.

And there is no doubt there are still some great songs here. All of the ones I’ve chosen for this podcast episode - “Death Alley Driver”, “Stone Cold”, “Power”, “Miss Mistreated” - are still worth listen to 40 years on.
At high school I had one particular mate who took on Rainbow, and Ritchie Blackmore especially, as his heroes, and he never ceased to bring them up in conversations in music. “Ritchie Blackmore is the only musician with originality in music – everyone copies him” was one of those quotes that not only provoked serious discussion but hearty laughs in the same instance. And this album has always stuck with me for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the album cover, with the guitar coming out straight between the eyes – it is distinctive and memorable even to this day. And secondly those four songs I mentioned. I had a Rainbow best-of cassette I recorded for myself in those years, with Dio and Bonnett on one side, and Turner on the other, and these four songs got played over and over a thousand times as that tape went around and around. And, as always with these episodes, I have had this album playing a lot over the last two weeks, and it has been fantastic catching up and reliving all those old memories, but perhaps just with Joe’s smooth as honey vocals and Ritchie’s awesome riffing.

1156. The Clash / The Clash. 1977. 4/5

Whenever you mention the name The Clash, the eyes of people may open up, and straight away come out and say ‘Rock the casbah!’ or ‘London calling!’ but overall, certainly in this day and age, there may not be a lot of recognition of the name of the band. And yet they became one of the most influential leaders of the punk movement in the UK in the mid-to-late 1970’s. Indeed, it is amazing just how quickly everything seemed to come together for the band, and band that didn’t play its first live gig until July 1976, as support to the rising force that was the Sex Pistols. The band had multiple revolving doors of musicians coming in and out of the group, but once Joe Strummer came on board to perform lead vocals the group seemed to settle. In fact, they even eschewed live gigs for some time in order to practice themselves to the point of exhaustion, to make sure that they were as tight as they could be before returning to the stage.

Over the course of that six months, the band played a total of under 30 gigs, but each one seemed to be drawing wide fame. Indeed, by January 1977 they had been signed by CBS Records for 100,000 pounds - a remarkable amount of money, considering that to that point in time, they had never headlined their own show, they had always been the support act. It was later revealed that the deal still meant they had to pay for their own gigs, their own recordings, their own gear, so the money invested was not as extravagant to the band as people may believe. It did however allow them to get together and write and record what would be their debut album, one that somewhat amazingly predated the Sex Pistols album, a band that had been on the scene much longer than The Clash had been.

The subject matter of the songs on the album would be pretty much as you would expect from a band in those days of 1977. From a famous brothel owner in “Janie Jones”, to raging against bureaucrats and the police in “Remote Control”, and the political and economic situation ravaging the UK, The Clash delved into their own lives and situation to come up with songs that spoke from their hearts. And while they were classified as a punk band at the beginning of that era, they were of a wider genre and influence than that. Not always for the better, but it was still the case.
“Janie Jones” opens the album well, while “Remote Control” was released by the record company as the second single without consulting the band, something they were furious about. Joe Strummer indeed thought it was one of the weakest songs on the album. I love how “I’m So Bored with the USA” was developed, given it was originally a song by Mick Jones called “I’m so Bored with You” about his then girlfriend, but Joe misheard the title and felt it was the USA, at which point the song was changed to reference what they felt was the Americanisation of the UK. The best song on the album is still the first single, “White Riot”, the perfect exemplification of a punk rock song. Short, sharp, fast, angry. Awesome.
The slower songs on the album (which I can only assume were played much faster at their live gigs) still come across great, with lyrics that spit and sting but without the real fast pace that for me makes the best punk songs. “Hate & War” certainly fits this description. Then there is “London’s Burning”, sung in full cockney mode chanting away, preaching in fact to the listener, and followed by “Career Opportunities” in a similar vein. Great stuff.
Still, the faster songs are the ones that I love the best. “What’s My name?”, “Deny”, “Cheat”, “Protex Blue”, “48 Hours” and “Garageland”. “Garageland” came from when a journalist wrote a review of a gig that The Clash played, and suggested, and I quote “The Clash are the kind of garage band who should be returned to the garage immediately, preferably with the engine running". And from that the song comes. Excellent.
However.... and here is the one bone of contention I have... I have never understood the fascination that many punk or punk-inspired bands from the UK had with reggae, and not only covering reggae songs in their live sets and on their albums, but then writing songs that were infused with reggae overtones as well. To me it has always been a difficult thing to come to terms with – probably because I generally like early punk music but have almost zero love for reggae music! Case in point is here on their debut album. The band realised that their album was quite short in length and they needed to find a way to increase that. So instead of coming up with a whole new slew of songs, they decided to cover “Police & Thieves”. Originally written by Junior Murvin, the song became an anthem in the UK in 1976 as the Notting Hill Carnival erupted into a riot. Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon were involved in the rioting, which inspired them to cover the song on the album, in a style that they called 'punk reggae', not 'white reggae'. I just call it ’crap reggae’. It goes for six minutes which is twice as long as the next longest song on the album. And given the amount of time I have spent on this, I guess you know where I stand.

My first experience with The Clash was when the radio single “Rock the Casbah” made the airwaves in Australia and was played incessantly for a six month period. From here a few of my friends became obsessed with the band, got all of their material, and began to share it around. And for me, I enjoyed parts of their music, and then not so much with other parts. Towards the end of 1985 I was passed on a copy of a punk mixed tape, collated by the older brother of one of my mates, that became a rite of passage for our group, introducing us to so many brilliant bands and songs. Far out I wish I still had it, or could at least remember all of the songs on it. I know for a fact “White Riot” was one of them, and that Stiff Little Fingers “Go For It” immediately followed it. Even now, I still expect “Go For It” to come on every time I hear “White Riot” play.
In regards to this album though, I honestly only listened to it the whole way through for the first time during the covid lockdowns that started two years ago. Now that may seem like madness, but for years and years the only Clash I had was a best of CD, and I listened to that a fair bit, and never really felt the urge to go out and check out the albums themselves. And then came lockdown, and with time to burn, I went back and checked them out. And this is the one that I have actually played the most of all of them. We even had a ‘vinyl listening day’ with my mates at the end of that first lockdown at my house, and one of my best mates brought his vinyl copy of this album to put on – and it made it just all the better hearing it on vinyl, and holding that cover in my hands. It felt right then.

And what I have discovered is just how good this album is. Perhaps if I HAD discovered it earlier, I may not have thought that. Right album for the right time – the world falling into chaos, political strife everywhere, corruption in politics, rioters and protestors in the street... maybe this album is the perfect soundtrack for the Covid pandemic after all.

1155. Iron Maiden / Rock in Rio. 2002. 5/5

There wouldn’t have been a heavy metal music lover in the world who hadn’t been full of anticipation of the release of Iron Maiden’s “Brave New World” album in 2000, the first album after the return of Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith to the fold. Following on from this, the fans began to wonder just what the live line up would sound like, not only with those two coming back into the band, but with the retention of Jannick Gers it meant three guitarists in a live setting. Just what did that mean for the sound the band would produce? Following on from the band headlining the Rock in Rio festival in 2001, they released a live album and DVD of that performance, to help answer that very question.

Welcome to the next century, the new millennium! The back half of that final decade of the previous millennium had been a difficult one for Iron Maiden, on the back of falling sales and concert attendances, which had occurred for various reasons which were not limited to the change in lead singer and the changing landscape of music in general, and whether or not heavy metal music in its 1980’s form still had a place in the world. All of this was answered with the return of Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith, and the release of the “Brave New World” album which returned album sales back to figures not seen in a decade.
The following World Tour went to most of their popular destinations, though once again ignoring the parts of the world that were seen as too difficult and expensive to reach. And yes, that comes from a very disgruntled Australian resident. The 2001 edition of Rock in Rio was the final date of the “Brave New World” world tour, and given the huge exposure of the concert, and the fact that it had the size and ability to create a great stage show, the band decided to record and release the performance for a new live album. It acted as a celebration for the fans, to hear many of the new song (6 in all) in their live setting, as well as hear how the band sounded now on the older songs, and how that incorporated the three guitarists. And though as I have said on various previous podcast episodes on live albums, you can hardly go wrong with a collection of basic ‘greatest hits’ songs, sometimes it can be easy to be a little bit picky when it comes to the result.

There is little doubt that all fans of Iron Maiden will enjoy the set list that the band played on this tour. Given the significance of the return of both Bruce and Adrian to the fold after a long period of time (in the whole scheme of the band at least) with Bruce having been absent for two albums and Adrian four, and the way fans had taken to the new album as a result, having six songs from “Brave New World” in the setlist was a given. And even by starting the gig by playing the first three songs of that album back-to-back was also a terrific way to start off. “The Wicker Man” into “Ghost of the Navigator” and then the album’s title track still sounds great to this day.

Beyond this there is a great mix of the old and new. When a band gets to the age that Iron Maiden was 20 years ago let alone today, being able to please everyone with the set list becomes a real juggling act. In this regard, the band has done a great job. The classic songs such as “Wrathchild”, “2 Minutes to Midnight”, “The Trooper”, “Fear of the Dark” and “The Evil That Men Do” are interspersed with other songs from the latest album in “Blood Brothers”, “The Mercenary” and “Dream of Mirrors”. But, just in case you were an old fan, a REALLY old fan, then the band does the right thing by you to end the gig, coming at you with an old fashioned heavy metal combination of “Iron Maiden”, “The Number of the Beast”, “Hallowed Be Thy Name”, “Sanctuary” and “Run to the Hills”, all of the old favourites performed with aplomb and finishing off the gig, the album and the tour in style.
Everything about this is excellent. All the band members are as terrific as you could imagine. Bruce’s vocals are supreme, and he drags the audience along for the ride the whole way. Steve Harris on bass is still the leader, which admittedly still comes through more on the older songs than the newer ones. Nicko McBrain is a beast on the drums, always the driving force. And the switching between the three guitarists still sounds amazing.

As is my wont, I bought this on double CD as well as purchasing the DVD a couple of months later when it was released, with Maiden once again pulling in double my money for what is essentially the same product. And I didn’t regret it, though it is the CD version that gets the most use. And all of the live versions of these songs still hold up today, even the very old songs. However, my three main observations on this album would be these. One, it is fantastic to hear “Sign of the Cross” and “The Clansman” with Bruce on vocals. And that is not having a go at Blaze Bayley at all because they are both his songs and he sings them superbly too. But hearing Bruce, with his different range, bringing both of these songs to life, ones that he had no involvement in originally, is perhaps the best part of this live album. If not for covid I would have had the chance to hear him sing both songs again on their current Legacy of the Beast tour, but that was cancelled before it arrived in Australia. Joy.
Secondly, also on Bruce’s vocals, for some reason Steve Harris, who ended up doing the editing and production of the live album, decided that in all of the places where Bruce calls for the crowd to sing along and participate and he deliberately doesn’t sing to give the crowd its moment, to cut and paste vocals from other parts of the song or recorded from warm ups, and insert them into those gaps so that it sounds like Bruce is singing the entire song. Now... while Steve obviously had his reasons for thinking this sounded better, I absolutely beg to differ. A live album is to hear the songs live, and that includes hearing the crowd participation, especially when there are 250,000 of them joining in! I have never understood it, and the sections stick out like dogs balls to, because Bruce will cry out ‘come on!” in beckoning to the crows to sing the next line, but then he does anyway, and it is pretty obvious it is not in the same pitch or key or anything like it would be if he had done so naturally. It’s a small thing, and not that big a deal, but I just don’t understand the reasoning behind it.
And thirdly, it’s terrific that the band went to three guitarists with the return of Adrian to the band, and I’m sure all fans like me were looking forward to hearing some great things musically, such as three way harmony and melodic guitars sewn through all of the material, new and old. However, that wasn’t (and hasn’t) been the case. The only change that has happened is that on the songs prior to ‘Brave New World’, some of Adrian’s solos are played by Jannick to ensure he isn’t left out of the mix entirely. Apart from that, each guitarist plays their solo, and the other two hold the rhythm together. It’s a tad disappointing in that respect.

Still, aside from those observations, “Rock in Rio” is a most enjoyable live album. It’s no “Live After Death”, but as a moment in time, to mark the start of the next chapter of the Iron Maiden story, it is mor than worth your time in checking out.

1154. Ozzy Osbourne / Tribute. 1987. 5/5

There is plenty of evidence out there in the music world that Ozzy Osbourne’s career after the conclusion of his years in Black Sabbath was saved by his collaboration with Bob Daisley and Randy Rhoads. If not for their involvement in what became the first two albums of his ‘solo’ career, then there must be questions asked as to whether or not he would ever have become the icon that he now is. Certainly those two albums rely heavily on the magnificence of Randy Rhoads’s guitar playing, and his sudden and tragic death is still mourned to this day. It wasn’t until five years after his death that a live album recorded during those days was released, as a tribute to his special skills. The double album, titled “Tribute” shone a light on just how amazing an artist Randy was.

It’s remarkable that this album came to light in the way it did. The recordings were done without any clear idea as to what they wanted to do with them, just how they were to be released, if at all. At the time Ozzy was still in a period of one-upmanship with his former band, trying to find a way to out manoeuvre them. In the weeks leading up to Randy’s death, Ozzy had wanted to do some shows that included only songs from his Black Sabbath days, to record and release in order to show that he was still more Black Sabbath than his former band. It was only when both Randy and drummer Tommy Aldridge refused to do so that it fell through. And then the accident occurred, Randy was gone, and this was what was left. So, it is truly very fortunate that these recordings were made. Imagine our music world since if we had not had this amazing album, showcasing just how brilliant Randy Rhoads the guitarist was in the live environment, playing on these brilliant songs that he helped to create?
And of course, it would be remiss not to mention the other parties involved. On the majority of the songs played on this album, the band consists of drummer Tommy Aldridge and bass guitarist Rudy Sarzo, and both deliver wonderful performances here. The day and age of live drum solo, in order to give the other band members a rest during proceedings, allows Tommy to show off his amazing skills on this album, and throughout his drum sound is top notch. Rudy’s performance is excellent here too, acting as the lineal standard whenever Randy’s guitar moves off into his own projections of the song. On the two songs at the end of the album, “Goodbye to Romance” and “No Bone Movies”, which are from a different gig a year earlier, original Blizzard of Ozz members, drummer Lee Kerslake and bassist Bob Daisley are playing. And then there is Ozzy himself. It’s interesting to hear him for the majority of this album. By the time this was recorded, he had recovered from the loss he felt of leaving Black Sabbath, his reputation had been restored by the albums “Blizzard of Ozz” and “Diary of a Madman” and the writing and performing efforts of Randy, Bob and Lee, and you can hear that confidence again flowing through him, that he is back on top of the world and his fans are there for him. For him, the world was once again his oyster. All of this never ceases to bring a tinge of sadness when listening to the album, knowing that it was the last we would hear of this band in its current lineup.

When you listen to all of these songs, I still wonder at how bands go about doing their set lists, and then decide what they are going to play and what they are not. Obviously for this release, more than five years after they were recorded, it came out to showcase the marvellous talents of the guitarist. And they all do. “I Don’t Know” is a great opening track, coming in as it does after the band’s intro music, ballsy and ballistic straight from the get-go. Followed by its sister track from the same album, and this version of “Crazy Train” is still probably the ultimate of all of the versions live and studio released over the years. Randy just smokes on guitar throughout, and it is the perfect tribute song for him. But then you have two just majestic songs that also not only showcase his guitar, but the awesome bass lines and improving melody lines of Ozzy’s vocals. “Believer” has such an amazing tone and atmosphere, but this live version just brings it to life more than the studio version does, and it has always been one of my favourites. And then this is followed by “Mr Crowley” which even after all these years perhaps highlights just how good Randy was, his guitar playing on this track is that segue from metal to classical that it feels like he was looking for. Both of these songs gell those pieces together, and are brilliantly done here.
I love that they also did “Revelation Mother Earth” and “Steal Away the Night” back to back like they did on the album, because they fit together so perfectly in that way, and both sound sensational here. “Steal Away the Night” is one of the most underrated songs in the Ozzy Osbourne discography, a song to me that would be a sensational opening to a gig. “Suicide Solution” is also terrific, and is where Randy’s guitar solo is inserted into, which works well in the fact that this is, of course, his tribute. We then have the three Sabbath songs to close out with, which sound terrific. This version of “Children of the Grave” is one of my favourites, and Randy does an outstanding job of playing his own version without trying to pinpoint copy Tony Iommi’s guitar but yet remaining faithful to the original. It is superb.
Getting back to my opening point about set lists, I guess my one regret here is the songs that the band didn’t play. “Over the Mountain”, “S.A.T.O”, “You Can’t Kill Rock n Roll”, “Diary of a Madman”… but that album didn’t come out for another six months after these live recordings were made and so the songs were not played. More is the pity… I just would have loved to have heard Randy play these live.

Randy Rhoads had come and gone before I knew about him, and before I had begun listening to metal music at all. That came a few short years later when, as you do, your group of mates at school all gravitate towards the same kind of music, and begin to share their loves into the conglomerate. About twelve months before this album was released, perhaps had been even thought about being released, one of my best friends – again, my metal music dealer that I have mentioned in past episodes – came back from an expedition to the second hand record stores in Sydney rather excited. He had come across an album that was enclosed in just a white cover, with the simple “Iron Maiden – LIVE!” printed across it. Without any clue as to what was actually on the album he made the purchase, brought it home, put it on… and thought ‘wow, that doesn’t sound like Iron Maiden….’
What he had actually found… was the recordings that ended becoming the basis of this album. Sure, the official release was cleaned up and mastered, but he had essentially found this album, and as a result those of us in our listening circle at Kiama High were listening to this album for pretty much 18 months before we actually got to buy this album. Which was cool before we knew this album was going to be released, but was soooo much cooler once it had been announced, and we heard it for the first time and thought ‘far out we’ve had this for ages!’ I wish I still had that cassette, but it died after being listened to a thousand times.
But I still had this album, and I still play it frequently, because how can you not? Not only because the songs are awesome and the versions are better, but once again because it reminds me of those simpler times back in my last couple of years of high school, when the world seemed a much simpler place.


It is 40 years to the day that Randy was killed while sleeping in a bus that a light plane then flew into, and it is 35 years to the day that this album was released as his Tribute. I don’t think there is a better way to remember his guitar playing by, than to take an hour and a half of your day, put this album on, and let Randy Rhoads amaze you all over again.

1153. Gary Moore / Wild Frontier. 1987. 4/5

In many ways it is somewhat surprising that an excellent Irish guitarist/vocalist that was not known for sticking around in the same situation for very long could forge a successful and lauded career, especially in the 1980’s where pop music reigned supreme for much of the decade and rarely allowed other artists to get much of a look in. But Gary Moore, guitar virtuoso and mostly leader of his own solo project for much of that decade, was one who found a way to slip through those gaps. And without doubt, regarding commercial success and the height of his performing profile, it was his sixth studio album that brought him to his peak, at least when it came to his hard rock music before the onset of his refurbished career in the blues.

Gary Moore’s career as an artist had been well over a decade old by the time we reached the mid-1980’s. Having played in the Irish blues band Skid Row where he first met Phil Lynott, he then had a couple of stints in Lynott’s next band Thin Lizzy. In and around all of this he forged a solo career, with several albums through the early 1980’s that all kept building upon each other, improving as they went. Each album saw a refinement in the songs, and perhaps just as much in Gary’s vocals.
Prior to the writing and recording of “Wild Frontier”, Gary had travelled back to his native Belfast in Northern Ireland, the first time in many years he had returned to his place of birth. There seems little doubt that this trip inspired the writing for this album. The lyrical content of many of the songs are about his home country, and the music itself has its roots in his celtic background.
For the album, Gary once again handles all of the lead vocals, and of course all of the guitars, lead, rhythm and acoustic. He is again joined by his right hand man Neil Carter, who contributes the keyboards along with backing vocals. Neil was very much an important part of Gary’s liv performances during this time, and especially on the tour that followed this album. Coming in on bass guitar for the album was the legendary Bob Daisley, who at this time was on one of several hiatuses from Ozzy Osbourne’s band. Daisley’s bass lines always seem to dominate the songs he plays, though he did not contribute to any of the writing of the album.
Perhaps the one part of this album that nags me is the fact that the drums are all programmed, one of those quirks of the 1980’s that has never sat well with me. Obviously once on tour a ‘real drummer’ was hired to play, who ended up being the excellent Eric Singer, but why would you use a drum machine for the album? Yes, it probably saved time and it probably saved money, but a couple of the songs, mostly notably for me the opening track, are the lesser for not having someone at the back giving the real skins a thorough thumping.

When it comes to opening tracks on albums, the necessity and desire is that you have a track that immediately grabs the attention of the listener and drags them in. And I love the opening of “Over the Hills and Far Away” for just that reason. A great drumrolling beginning before Gary recites the opening stanza, and then into the guitar riff. Not only a great start, but a terrific song, one of my absolute favourite Gary Moore songs. Daisley’s bass line throughout is great, and the moment towards the end when the music stops and the vocalists harmonise without it, is just perfect. A brilliant start.
This is followed up by the excellent title track “Wild Frontier” and typical Moore rock track “Take a Little Time”. “Wild Frontier” was the second single from the album, sitting in the middle ground tempo wise, and focusing lyrically on his homeland, the inspiration received from his trip back home. Another great track. “Take a Little Time” rushes a long at a much faster tempo, filled with a great mix of guitar riff and keyboard infusion, with Moore’s vocals in his higher register spitting out their venom. This is an overlooked song in Moore’s catalogue, one that I thing is a lot better than it is often given credit for.
“The Loner” is a song that was originally recorded by Cozy Powell on is solo album “Over the Top”, ironically an album where Gary played on a song – but not this one. Moore heavy improvised and changed the structure of this instrumental for this album, something that becomes very clear if you listen to the two versions. Here Gary plays like only Gary can, and he has absolutely made this his song.
The cover of the Easybeats’ “Friday on My Mind” was a real surprise when I first got the album, just so unexpected. And I thought it was great, and of course it became the anthem for our final year of high school. But I’ve always thought it just overused Carter’s synth and keyboard in this version. The song lends itself to a really heavy guitar and drum combo, but here Moore and his band have gone for a synth heavy version, perhaps in the main to get that elusive radio airplay in an era when synth heavy tracks were gaining that. “Strangers in the Darkness” dials back everything from what has come before it, moving closer towards the soft rock ballad that is particularly comfortable. This is then solved by the rollicking “Thunder Rising”, another song that lyrically is based on a take from his homeland, and better utilises Moore’s best guitar attributes. Closing out the album is “Johnny Boy”, which I’ve always felt is just Gary’s version of the old classic “Danny Boy”… but you know… I could be wrong…

In retrospect, this album has a lot of things going for it in regards to me loving it. It is another of those magical albums released in year of 1987, my final year of high school, where I have so many great memories of that time that are always brought to the forefront by the albums of that era.
This was the first new album the Moore released after I had discovered him and his music the previous year, so it struck a chord at the time because of that as well. And for me at the time it wasn’t only his marvellous guitaring that sucked me in, it was his vocals as well that I felt were so wonderful.
When this was released, the album stuck quite firmly and for a long time on my cassette player because of the strategic release of the singles. The video for “Over the Hills and Far Away” was on all the late night music video programs at the start of the year – Rage on ABC, MTV on 9 and NightShift on 10 – followed by “Wild Frontier” In April and May, and then “Friday on My Mind” midway through the year, which meant I was always going back to listen to the album because I heard these songs. I still vividly remember being at parties at friend’s houses late on Saturday nights, or at other friend’s houses watching movies until those music video shows came on, and watching these songs videos come on and singing them loud and proud.
So for me, even on reflection now, I think this is a top shelf album. The songs are still strong, both lyrically and musically. Not every song here is a favourite, but the strength of the album overall more than holds its own. I love those three singles I mentioned, and “Take a Little Time” and “Thunder Rising” are also very good songs.

It’s a different album from Moore’s other releases. They all have the style of the time they were written and recorded, and “Wild Frontier” definitely allows Neil Carter to push his synths a little louder into the mix as was the way of rock music at the time. And as a result, in some ways it may sound a little dated, especially to those who did not grow up in the era it was released. I certainly don’t try to hide from the accusation of bias in this regard, because it is an album of that time that is firmly embedded in my psyche. Despite that, and trying to put that aside, there is still plenty here for the casual fan of Gary Moore, some of his best work, and a couple of songs that survive beyond his own legend.

1152. Scorpions / Rock Believer. 2022. 4/5

One of the greatest German bands of all time, the Scorpions, have now been on the music scene for over fifty years, and the milestone of that first album release occurred just a few weeks ago. In that time the band has been remarkably stable in line up, and remarkably consistent in both album releases and the quality of those albums themselves. The band had even decided to ‘retire’ a few years ago, citing a final album and a final world tour. And yet, here we are, having gone through two years of a global pandemic, and the Scorpions are still at it, planning yet another tour, and having just completed and released another new album, titled “Rock Believer”. So what keeps the band going, how do they retain their fans undying faith in them, and what can you expect from a new album from a group that has so much history behind it? As it turns out, I can't answer all of those questions, but what I can do is offer you an insight into the best that the new album has to offer, as I give you MY review of Scorpions “Rock Believer”.

Scorpions have had a quite remarkable career, from local German legends to worldwide chart topper, from hard rock and metal fist pumping anthems to multi million selling power ballads. And all of it has been done without selling out their sound or integrity. Whether you prefer their metal balltearers or their crooning ballads, you can appreciate the other because they all have those grounded Scorpions basics about them, that they are all undeniably written and performed by the same band.
The longevity of the band has been one of its hallmarks, with founding members Klaus Meine and Rudolph Schenker still there at the age of 73, and with legendary 66 year old guitarist Matthias Jabs who has been with the band since 1978 they continue to form the core of the band’s success. Along with bass guitarist Pavel Macwoda and for the first time recording with the group former Motorhead drummer Mikkey Dee, the band had been toying with a new album as a follow up to “Return to Forever” for some time, and with the onset of the covid pandemic had an excuse to have to put their touring schedule on hold and use that time to get back into writing. All this after they had announced that they were going to retire from the music business following the tour to promote their 2010 album “Sting in the Tail”. So what changed after that?, Well, depending on who you listen to, the band just found that they were still enjoying the ride, and after the compilation “Comeblack” was released, they even had ideas for new songs, and so they continued onwards.
Ideas and initial writing for the album began in 2019, but with the onset of the covid19 pandemic the band found themselves with time to fill and the writing began in earnest. From all reports, the songs were written lyrics first which was unusual for the writing pairing of Meine and Schenker. And through 2021 there were videos posted by Mikkey Dee on his pages of the band in the studio, mysteriously recording new music but without any hint of what it was. So whether it was just a project that took a long time to form, or the fact that the band had time to spend in writing a new record, we came to a couple of weeks ago when the long awaited for new album, “Rock Believer” finally came to rest, and the fans responded in the only way they knew how. By celebrating.

So after fifty years of writing and recording some of the great songs of the era, there is no reinventing of the wheel here by the band. Their tried and true formula comes to the fore again, the same number of hard rock songs and the same number of slower more reflective tracks as they have done for so much of their career. It’s a formula that has worked well for generations, and perhaps it’s a little predictable in places. The opening track “Gas in the Tank” is a beauty, but both lyrically and musically it is of the same progression as other recent album opening tracks like “Going Out With a Bang”, “Raised on Rock”, “The Game of Life” and “New Generation”. They all are great tempo opening tracks, ones that get you in the mood immediately, and the lyrics are unashamedly about the place the band finds themselves at the time of their career. Here on “Rock Believer” the band has found they still have enough gas in their tank.
The days of unashamed ballads such as “Wind Of Change”, or pop-metal such as “Is There Anybody There?” or bold experiments such as “The Zoo” are long gone. Instead, barring two versions of the 'hold your lighters in the air’ styled “When You Know (Where You Come From”), (yes, one electric and one acoustic) they’ve stuck very much to the hard rock that they have built their career around, and done in such a way that it is hard to imagine they are at an age when most of us would prefer to be retired and in our armchairs.
The formula remains wonderfully intact: galloping guitars and deft choruses – or, as Meine encapsulates in less grammatical terms in “Gas In The Tank”: ‘let’s play it louder, play it hard’. Meine’s vocals, as powerful as they were when he’d rock you like a hurricane, have retained their emotional undertone, and incredibly appear to have deteriorated not a bit since those heady days of the 1980’s when he did actually blow out his vocal chords. He is a modern miracle, where he still seems to sing every song as he did when he first recorded them. Just as impressive is Matthias Jabs’s guitar playing, still which still stands out from the crowd, most heroically on the terrific “Shoot For Your Heart”, and that rhythm section is still just as powerful as it ever was. The great songs keep coming, with “Roots in My Boots” to “Knock em Dead” to “Rock Believer” dealing out the great vibes in the same way they always have.
The utilisation of the reggae guitar riff in “Shining of your Soul” further exemplifies that “past present future” sound, though to be honest it has never really excited me in the songs that the Scorpions use it in. On the other hand, songs such as the frantic and brilliant “When I Lay My Bones to Rest” and the single from the album “Peacemaker” are top shelf Scorpions tracks.
There are two CDs on the Deluxe edition, and I can’t understand why the first song of that second CD, “Shoot from the Heart”, is not on the main album. It is an absolute ripper, fast paced, Klaus really getting into the vocals and Matthias’ guitaring is just superb. It’s practically the best song on the album. This is followed up by the excellent “When Tomorrow Comes” where Klaus sings at us ‘Good morning, world. How do you feel? You look so tired’, and the unusual but interesting “Unleash the Beast”, all of which showcases a terrific band that continues to surprise as to just how good they are.

How good are the Scorpions? The first album I ever heard of the band was their “World Wide Live” live album from the mid-80's which was taped for me by my number one metal music dealer from high school, and I was hooked from the start. From there I went back and bought albums such as “Lovedrive” and “Love at First Sting” and “Blackout”, albums that I still today are their best. But really, are there any truly bad Scorpions albums? Sure, their first couple were of a different era, and they hadn’t really found their sound at that point, but from the time Matthias jabs joined the group, they have just been pumping out hit after hit, and it has been a joy to listen to. I thought especially “Humanity: Hour 1” 15 years ago was just an extraordinary album, one that showed they still had what it takes.
And in that spirit, I have thoroughly enjoyed “Rock Believer”. In many ways, the only ingredient that is missing here from those three monster albums of the 1980’s is a... ‘youthful exuberance’. And I guess what I mean in that way is that there is still such energy in these tracks on this album, but it isn’t a hyped up natural ‘we are mid-30's here we are’ kind of energy, it’s a ‘we are middle-aged but we can still rock’ kind of energy. And it is still the same things today that made Scorpions such a great band 40 years ago. Those Klaus Meine vocals that still defy belief – and that he still produces on stage too, as I can finally verify after waiting my whole life to see them. The raging guitars of Rudolph Schenker and Matthias Jabs, both still producing amazing riffs after all of these years. Schenker is still a marvel, still so tight in that rhythm, while the solos and over the top riffing from Matthias here still equals anything he has ever produced. It is a masterclass and still so satisfying and electric. And that rhythm section of Pavel’s bass and the legend of Mikkey Dee on drums is magnificent.

Judas Priest came out a couple of years ago, ironically another band who had whispered about a retirement album and tour about ten years ago, and released their album “Firepower” to worldwide acclaim, as having returned to their roots yet made a modern metal album which was loved by new fans and old alike. And for me, this is a similar album. The formula is tried and tested, there is nothing here that you will consider ground breaking. But it is that great old fashioned Scorpions sound, but in a modern way. The musicianship is second to none, it is recorded, mixed and produced to perfection. And the songs are all terrific. Is there another “Rock You Like a Hurricane” or “Blackout” or even “Wind of Change” here? No, because you don’t want another one of those. You want new songs that remind you how good this band is. And that’s what you get here on “Rock Believer”. Listen... and believe...

1151. Tony Martin / Thorns. 2022. 3.5/5

It is sometimes amazing to me that even those friends of mine who are massive Black Sabbath fans, as most of us are, only very few of them know Tony Martin’s part in the band’s legacy, or indeed know the albums he sang and co-wrote. And while it is not the only part of Martin’s long and storied musical career, it is the part that probably made him as a singer. And yet, ask anyone to name the albums he made with that band, and you’ll probably get a blank face. Now, some 25 years after that door was closed, Tony Martin has returned with another solo album, one that at the very least shows that he still has the ability to write and record some terrific songs.

It seems funny how Martin has almost stumbled into a doom metal career given the amazing range of his vocals. Often compared to Ronnie James Dio when it comes to vocalising, I’d always imagined that he would have succeeded more in a band where the music was in a more up-tempo style rather than the step-by-step slowed pace that permeates doom metal at its best. That’s just a personal opinion, because I guarantee you Tony’s vocals here match anything else he has done in his career.
Tony’s big moment of fame came when he scored the gig as vocalist of Black Sabbath in the mid-1980's when that ship was taking on water and looked to be heading for a big iceberg after several false starts following the Osbourne and Dio days. And yet he sang and contributed on five of the final seven Sabbath studio albums, with only “Dehumanizer” and “13” not featuring his vocals. And for the most part they are terrifically enjoyable albums. You should check them out if you haven’t already done so.
Since those days Martin has been prolific in the music business, appearing on many bands sings as a guest singer as well touring and recording both in his own band and other projects. Despite this, his music hasn’t always been easy to track down for fans, and on a personal level this has always been a disappointment. Tony Martin’s vocals were always superb, a great voice and a great range, and to have not seen him make his mark since those days of the late 1990’s is remarkable. So when it was announced that he had recorded a new solo album I was genuinely excited, because several artists in recent years have released albums that have harked back to their roots, to when they produced their best material, and have poured that into their new material. Judas Priest’s “Firepower” is the best example of this. So I hoped to hear a new album, a long overdue one, that provided us with the best that Tony Martin could offer, and while I didn’t expect his Sabbath-era material, there was always hope.

For anyone who is familiar with Tony’s work from the past, this album is a pleasantly surprising detour to something a little more aggressive both vocally and musically from what he has done before. That’s not to say it is as big a deviation as Black Sabbath’s “Forbidden” was from “Headless Cross”, but it is an interesting path. Anyone who knows Sunbomb’s “Evil and Divine” album from 2021 would know it is Tracii Guns and Michael Sweet’s foray into doom metal, and how well that worked, and this acts in the same way. Tony’s career with Sabbath would prepare you for this, but not completely, as it is a modern take on the classic doom metal sound, and does it really well. Martin combines with guitarist and co-writer Scott McClellan to create an excellent collection of differing tracks within the genre. With other excellent musicians in Venom drummer Danny Needham, and ex-HammerFall bass guitarist Magnus Rosen, the band is on song throughout.
Opening with the excellent “As the World Burns” that does sound eerily similar in its opening to the Sabbath song “When Death Calls”, it is probably the fastest and most intense song of the album, but that does not mean that it is all downhill form this point. Indeed the terrific mood created here is encapsulated as the album moves on. “Black Widow Angel” dials the tempo right back but still punches at you , before the atmospheric synths and drums through the first half of “Book of Shadows” perfectly offset Martin’s vocals where he shows how effortlessly he can sing and still retain perfect pitch throughout. “Crying Wolf” is perhaps a little out of place within that, as its more bluesy feel takes it out of the genre that has come so far. That’s not to say it isn’t enjoyable, it just sticks out like Adam Gilchrist’s ears amongst the other songs in its company.
The power of Martin’s vocals through “Damned by You” is just awesome, turning what could easily have been an above average song into one that becomes one of the best on the album. It is this vocal power that continues to keep Tony Martin so high in fans thoughts as a singer. “No Shame at All” is a mid-paced doom rocker that is enjoyable enough though without anything overtly brilliant to attract you to it, and “Nowhere to Fly” is the token sombre ballad that is one where you feel the urge to press the skip button if you are so inclined. All albums seem to have one don’t they, that ballad track that seems to be the one blight on society that covid hasn’t found yet.
The final four songs of the album follow the style of what has come before them “Passion Killer” is a standard mid-tempo doom song without any real surprises, no changes in riff stylings of drum pattern, and for the most part Martin singing in the same key throughout. “Run Like the Devil” changes things up, upping that tempo and with a faster running pattern that gives the band the chance to loosen the seatbelts and see where the road will lead them. “This is Your Damnation” drags things back again by driving the acoustically based track to its conclusion. Again, you all know my feelings on songs such as this. If you enjoy them, this is good. If you’d rather have more power and aggression, this is a sore point. The album the concludes with the title track “Thorns”, which mixes everything into the song to be what I guess the band is hoping will be an epic conclusion. I think it’s ironic that Pamela Moore, best known in metal circles for having played the role of Mary on Queensryche’s “Operation: Mindcrime” album, also has a role here on a song that sounds very like a late 90’s early 2000’s Queensryche song... which, if you are fan of Queensryche, you will know is a massive sledge on this song. If you switched Geoff Tate in to sing this, it would be a Queensryche song. Oh well, you can’t have everything I guess...

I can tell you that I am a great fan of the three albums Tony Martin sang on with Black Sabbath from the late 1980’s - “The Eternal Idol”, “Headless Cross” and “Tyr” - and as a result I think this album had a lot to live up to before I had even heard it. And one of the main things that I have taken away from this is that Tony’ vocals are a more mature version that from those albums. And given they are more than thirty years ago that shouldn’t be surprising. But along with the songs written, and the style of music they sit in, it is remarkable to listen to. The resulting contrast between the bottom-heavy instrumental sound and Martin’s largely clean and soaring vocals that have lost none of their power at the age of 62 is pretty stark, and yet these two opposing extremes work together effortlessly to create a highly unique and nuanced take on the modern heavy metal aesthetic.

In looking back at Tony Martin’s wonderful career, this stands as one of the most unique offerings to carry his name, and for me it is definitely one of his best. Not all of it may be brilliant. In some places it tends to get off track with a couple of bluesy acoustic numbers in “Crying Wolf” and “This Is Your Damnation”, which while they are performed adequately, they just seem out of place amongst the stronger tracks at the front of the album. The songwriting partnership between Martin and McClellan is almost as compelling as the former’s was with Tony Iommi, and hopefully if another installment of this duo is to come to light, it will manifest itself in a span of less than 17 years. Existing fans of this highly underrated master of the metal microphone will not be disappointed, and there is a far broader appeal to those in doom and groove metal circles than you would expect.