1169. Michael Schenker Group / Universal. 2022. 4/5

It has been two months now since the release of Michael Schenker’s new album. Schenker of course is a legend, and whether you know him as the guitarist for UFO in the 1970’s, or for his own band through the 80’s and beyond, or his all-too-short stints in Scorpions with his brother Rudolph, you will know of his prowess on the guitar and how influential he has been as a result. It’s hard to believe that many, probably myself included, felt that he had reached his peak thirty years ago, and that his album output could possibly exceed what he had produced to that point of his career, or that his success could exceed what he had achieve to that point. Indeed after some surprisingly good outings in recent years with the Michael Schenker Fest albums "Resurrection" (2018) and "Revelation" (2019), and then his 50th anniversary album “Immortal” just last year, there was nothing to suggest that the new album from the Michael Schenker Group “Universal” wouldn’t be more of the same.
Ronnie Romero again features on vocals on this album, and is also still the lead singer on tour, which recently included the summer festival season throughout Europe and will continue through the US after this. Now while Ronnie has a great set of pipes on him, it is interesting to note two things in this regard; firstly he is still sharing vocal duties with other guest singers on this album, all of whom (in my opinion) out do his own contributions to songs on this album. And secondly, for other reasons, during last year’s tour to promote the “Immortal” album, former lead vocalist Robin McAuley filled in, and from all reports was a hit.
Working again with producer Michael Voss seems to be something that Schenker is also comfortable with. In describing their working relationship recently, Schenker was quoted as saying “Michael Voss is happy to wait until I have worked out an idea and takes the time to really get to know the song, simultaneously developing ideas for the vocals. Then we work out the drums, bass and some keyboard parts together. He always has plenty of great ideas up his sleeve.”

While both Ronnie and Michael are real talents, they are only part of a wonderful line up that includes vocalists Michael Kiske (Helloween) and Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear), drummers Simon Phillips (Toto, The Who), Brian Tichy (Whitesnake, Foreigner), Bobby Rondinelli (Rainbow) and Bodo Schopf (Eloy), as well as legendary bassists Bob Daisley (Black Sabbath), Barry Sparks (Malmsteen, Dokken) and Barend Courbois (Blind Guardian, Zakk Wylde), along with Tony Carey on keyboards.
If you’ve enjoyed Schenker’s recent albums then you will find that this follows a similar pattern. Opening with the brooding ‘Emergency’ and the more melodic build of ‘Under Attack’ there is a definite trend towards the sound that slightly resembles that from the MSG albums on the 1980’s. They aren’t quite as anthemic or bright and energetic, but there are some concurrent similarities.
Following on from this comes the pointed and poignant tribute of “Calling Baal” into “A King Has Gone”, a tribute to Ronnie James Dio and particularly to the classic Rainbow album “Rising”. “Calling Baal” is an instrumental intro into the main track, and features Tony Carey on keyboards in a callback to his intro to that album that he played on, the opening keyboard solo of the song “Tarot Woman”. It’s a nice touch by Schenker to invite him to play on these two tracks given he played on the album it is paying tribute to. This is then extended to the appearance of Bobby Rondinelli on drums, who did not play on the “Rising” album but played for Rainbow in their latter 1980’s years, as well as the legend that is Bob Daisley, who again didn’t play on this particular album but did so on its follow up “Long Live Rock n Roll”. Thes three former Rainbow members give this song a nice touch of nostalgia, ably sung by Helloween’s Michael Kiske. Great stuff.
This is followed by “The Universe”, a soft ballad that sees Gary Barden and Ronnie Romero share the duet. ‘Long Long Road’ picks things up again, before the vocals of Ralph Scheepers return on ‘Wrecking Ball’, one again providing probably the real highlight of the album.
The final four songs all provide good moments. ‘Yesterday is Dead’ has a great riff and solo combination that Schenker does so well, before ‘London Calling (No not the Clash song – imagine that!) pays homage to the 80’s UK rock bands that put hard rock in the mainstream. It’s a great song that is probably lifted by Schenker’s solo again, another real treat. ‘Sad is the Song’ that follows gives off a Rainbow vibe especially in the verses which are vaguely Eastern, and in Schenker’s guitar work again. The album is concluded by the red hot fretwork of ‘Au Revoir’, the paciest song offering here and another of the best, and again really draws from that 1980’s MSG legacy.
The album features two bonus tracks, something in this day and age that barely matters given all formats seem to include them, so they may as well be considered album tracks. ‘Turn Off the World’ which with that opening guitar is actually one of the best on the album, while ‘Fighter’ is a mid-tempo rocker that would be worth inclusion just for the solo. So... let’s just say they are the final two tracks of the album instead, shall we?

I still get sucked into anything that has the name of Michael Schenker attached to it. It’s an addiction. Those albums for the 1980’s by the Michael Schenker Group, and the albums from the 1970’s with UFO, still contain some of the best riffage I’ve ever heard, and it is all from this man. So I always want to check out what he’s up to in the current day. And in recent times that has been a slightly paying off gold mine, because there have been some terrific moments over the albums he has released with all of his friends over recent years. And that continues on this album. I felt last year’s “Immortal” album had some good moments, and some average moments. It was, perhaps, a bit uneven. “Universal” is a much better compilation of tracks and players. Ronnie Romero and Michael Voss combine much better here in their vocals and songs, and Michael definitely delivers on a more aggressive scale when it comes to his guitaring. In fact, Schenker’s guitaring here is still just as brilliant as it ever was, and I think it is because he has started to look back a bit to those glory days, and realised that not only is that still what people are coming for, but that he is still capable of creating riff and solos of that calibre. And despite the fact that he has some great guests here, who all deliver as you would expect, it can’t work if the Schenker guitar is not on centre stage and the number one part of the mix. “Universal” is that album, and it is great to hear.