1232. Black Sabbath / Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. 1973. 5/5

When a band comes around to writing and recording their fourth and fifth albums, its about the time that you expect true greatness from them – if they have it in them. Because by this stage the band will have been touring and writing almost non-stop for five years from the time their debut album comes out, to that period arriving. Thinking back on the great bands who have had a good degree of longevity, and thinking of their fourth and fifth albums, and in the main, it is those albums that are still beloved today. Black Sabbath is no different here.
Having been out promoting the band’s fourth studio album, “Volume 4”, through 1972 and 1973, the tour had come to a rapid conclusion with Tony Iommi’s collapse after one gig towards the end of the run, resulting in the remaining dates of the tour having to be scrubbed, and the band actually going on a hiatus for the first time since their formation four years prior, with each member going their own way to spend some down time away from the spotlight. No doubt it seemed like a good idea at the time, but whether it played out that way or not is open to conjecture.
To read all four autobiographies of the four members of the band, 1973 appeared to be a tipping point of sorts. All four admit to a rampant drug and alcohol usage, and especially cocaine which had become the drug of choice. When the band reconvened at a rented home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, in order to write for the new album, they found that nothing was forthcoming. Perhaps the break had severed the momentum that the band had gained, or just relaxed them enough that they were unable to get back into that writing groove again. Tony feared writers block, either from the drug use or the pressure he felt upon him to get the band started and find the riffs that he had in the past to create the basis of their amazing songs. Geezer found his irritation with Ozzy growing, as he felt that Ozzy was leaning too much on him to provide the lyrics to the songs, rather than contributing more of his own. After a month of almost zero output, the band returned to the UK and rented Clearwater Castle to work in. Whether or not it was mood and surroundings of the dank castle that brought back the right creative environment for the masters of doom, whatever the reason the band found inspiration returning. While rehearsing in a dungeon in the castle, Tony came across the riff that became the basis of the title track of the album, and suddenly the band was back in business, and with it the album that became “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”.

The opening salvo of the title track, that opening riff into the joining of bass and drums, and then Ozzy’s vocal, is a moment in time, one of those things that you still remember the first time you experienced it each and every time you start this album. Because it is unique, in such a way that any guitarist who first plays it at home must feel magic coursing through their fingers. From the distorted to the clear, from Ozzy starting off at a high octave and then going through the roof in the middle of the song, so much so that it became impossible for him to sing it in the years since, is iconic and amazing.
This is followed by the spine shuddering “A National Acrobat”, that opening riff which is such a changeup for the band with Ozzy crooning over the top. In many ways it is very un-Black Sabbath like, until you reach the middle passage, where the crunch comes back into the riff, and suddenly the true heaviness of the track is revealed. Tony directs the song throughout with riff and wah pedal, then plays it out with another un-Sabbath type riff. The whole song on first impressions is so much different from what you would expect the band to produce if you only knew those most played tracks, but by the end, it is amorphic. Some may call it underrated, while I just call it genius.
“Fluff” is an instrumental composed by Tony, in the spirit of other musical pieces the band has placed on previous albums between songs. As I’m sure I have said before, to me the albums would be better served not to have them there, breaking that flow, but they are. “Fluff” to me has always been like the music you hear when you are on call waiting, because in essence that’s how I feel when I hear it on this album, I’m on hold, waiting for the next song to start. At least when I come off call waiting here, I am not disappointed.
How good a song is “Sabbra Cadabra”? Brilliantly upbeat, both lyrically and musically, the piano and synth perfectly utilised even in a Black Sabbath song that does nothing to restrict the heaviness of the track in the slightest. Every time I hear this song, it lifts my spirits, whether they needed lifting or not. This is one of Sabbath’s greatest even songs, and a supreme accomplishment by making what is technically by the lyrics a love song into a song that a partner could never ever be disappointed in hearing you sing it to them. It is a brilliant way to conclude the first side of the album.

Side 2 then opens up with the equally brilliant “Killing Yourself to Live”, composed by Geezer as he was laid up in hospital recovering from the effects that his wild lifestyle was causing him. Well, both he and his bandmates. Here is another song that some would call underrated but I have always considered one of their best. The bass heavy under riff is what immediately makes this a noticeably Geezer influenced track, and hearing his fingers up and down that fretboard and being the solid basis of the song is what makes it for me. Ozzy’s vocal here is also perfect, not extending beyond what the song needs, and sung at a level that us mere mortals can actually get close to as we sing along. One of Sabbath’s best.
“Who Are You?” came about from an Ozzy composition, which he relates in his autobiography. He had gone out and bought himself a synthesiser, and while indisposed one evening he came up with this tune which he also happened to record. Tony expressed surprise at this in his book, as he claimed that Ozzy had no idea how to play the synth. Perhaps he didn’t, but the basic structure of the song he came up with made this song, and again, while it may not be in the absolute wheelhouse of what most consider to be the Black Sabbath heavy guitar and drum song, it incorporates the experimental side that the band had always had a knack of incorporating into their music along the way.
More of that can be heard on “Looking for Today”, though it is a much more basic song in format and layout. Overall, the vocals tend to hold the song together, though in a somewhat repetitive fashion that can get a little monotonous.
The continued movement of Black Sabbath from the founders of heavy metal and doom music to another plane continues with the amazing “Spiral Architect” which concludes the album. The way that this song rises and falls in platitudes, with heavy passages and beautiful vocals, the riffing guitars then complemented and even overridden in places by the strings that are a part of the track, is just amazing. It has been written in places and occasionally said in interviews that the band didn’t want to be held by the constraints of the music they wrote early in their careers, and that they always had the desire to expand their songs because of the artists they loved coming up through their childhood, such as The Beatles and even Jethro Tull, who Tony had flirted with prior to Sabbath signing their first recording contract. In some ways (and this is certainly the case on albums such as “Technical Ecstasy” and “Never Say Die”) this didn’t always work. Here on “Spiral Architect”, it is a rousing success.

How in the hell is this album 50 years old? I don’t often feel my age, but listening to this album today, and actually have it hit me that it is 50 years old, is just amazing.
Having not fallen into heavy metal until the middle of the 1980’s decade, I found all of Black Sabbath’s albums up to that time in a mixed up order, generally discovering them whenever either myself or one of my mates could afford one of their albums, at which point we would all bring in our cassette tapes and get a copy recorded for us. Apart from the Dio fronted albums, “Paranoid” and this album were the first Sabbath albums I owned, and perhaps that is why I have so much love for it. But I think there is a reaction here to what was happening in and around the band at the time. We touched on the drug and alcohol problems, which caused the tour to stop and the band members to go away for awhile, and then the difficulty that was faced in eventually coming up with ideas. All of that is perhaps a good thing, because the band’s previous album “Volume 4”, the episode of which you can find in Season 3 of this podcast, was one where the experimenting in formula arguably went too far too soon. Having the break, as short as it was, and finding the inspiration again from a gothic castle, seemed to bring back the real Sabbath. Yes, there was some additions to the music such as synth and strings in places to complement the formula, but it is the Tony Iommi guitar riffs, the Geezer Butler bass lines that boom through the speakers, the Bill Ward drumming and Ozzy Osbourne vocal brilliance that shines back through every song on this album, that creates what is one of the band’s masterpieces. Could the band have created it if they weren’t all in the midst of trying to kill themselves with drugs and alcohol? Or what may they have done with clear heads?
I don’t know how many times I have listened to this album over the past month. A lot. And having the vinyl spinning in my own Metal Cavern at home, coming at me out of the speakers, and feeling the bass thumping in my chest, and Ozzy’s vocals screaming through my eardrums, is still such a satisfying experience. It is an impossible task to try and rank Sabbath albums, through generations, or simply through the first eight albums they produced. Suffice to say that this is still a joyous experience every time I put it on. It lifts spirits, it pounds away the angst and anger, and just leaves you in a far better mood once it is done than you were in before you started. And if an album can do that, it is something to keep close and use it for that at all times.

1231. Alice Cooper Band / Muscle of Love. 1973. 2.5/5

By the time that this album came around to being released, the Alice Cooper Band was on top of the world, literally. Their previous album, “Billion Dollar Babies”, had gone to number 1 in the US and UK as well as number 4 in Australia, and had been the culmination of a long building string of success. You can hear all about that on the episode that appears in Season 4 of this podcast. It was widely and critically acclaimed, so you would think that the band would have had the world at its feet. Instead, the cracks were beginning to appear in the framework. And to be fair, it was understandable why. “Muscle of Love” was about to become the band’s 7th studio album release in just four years. Add to this the constant touring that the band did to promote those albums, and they would already have been exhausted. Add to this the ‘trappings’ of success, and you had a whole other set of problems attached.
“Muscle of Love” was to become the first Alice Cooper album without Bob Ezrin as producer since the "Easy Action”. At the time, this was explained away as Ezrin having been ill and being unable to do the duties as required by the band at the time, though in later interviews it was reported that a disagreement over the arrangement of the song that became “Woman Machine” on the album was the reason for the split. Apparently, guitarist Michael Bruce stood his ground and refused to change the arrangement as Ezrin wanted, which led to more than words being exchanged and the separation of the two parties that had had so much success together. And it had only been eight months since “Billion Dollar Babies” had been released, a very short space of time in which to tour and then come up with a slew of new songs and then record them and then release the album. Whatever else was going on behind the scenes, and it was obvious that there was, this alone would have made “Muscle of Love” a difficult birth.

It is interesting the couple of directions that this album takes, and the reasons that have come for that to occur. In interviews at the time of the album’s release, Alice is quoted as saying the band was looking to go back and make an album with a more basic rock sound. It was felt that the previous album had had a lot of time in the studio making it sound right, whereas this time around they wanted to be able to just play a song in its entirety, to be more natural in the way the songs were played rather than over produced.
Both Alice and bass guitarist Dennis Dunaway have suggested, and which is confirmed when listening to the album, that there is a loose theme of sexual habits that flows through many of the songs on the album. The title track is the main purveyor of this, as the “Muscle of Love” being sung about is both conceptually attributed to the heart and the male genitalia. “Woman Machine”, of which the basics of the song date back to the beginning of the band, is about a female robot who can do... well... the things that you want. “Never Been Sold Before” speaks of the musings of a prostitute, while the opening track “Big Apple Dreamin’ (Hippo)” is about the Hippopotamus Club in New York, which the band apparently attended frequently in the day. And then there is “Working Up a Sweat” which follows along the same lines as the song that follows it, “Muscle of Love” It is an interesting flow of these songs, ones that no doubt added to the shock value of the band at the time.
Other songs on the album of course have no such desire, and indeed have other content apart from the sexual. “Teenage Lament ‘74” relates the problems faced by every teenage boy who tries to change things about themselves just to be cool or hip or even just to fit in. Still a great song to this day. “Crazy Little Child” goes the other route and talks about teenage crime. And then there is “The Man with the Golden Gun”, a song that was written to be theme song of the James Bond movie of the same name. Apparently it arrived a day late, and the producers had already chosen another song for that theme before they heard the Alice Cooper song. It contains a lot of sound effects that fit in with that James Bond theme, along with supporting vocals from artists such as Ronnie Spector, the Pointer Sisters and Liza Minelli to fill it out. A missed opportunity to follow up the Wings theme song for “Live and Let Die”.
Once again, Glen Buxton is credited as lead guitarist on this album, but did not play on anything that made the cut for the album. Due to his addictions, it was decided he either shouldn’t or couldn’t contribute to the album, and his parts were played by session musicians including Dick Wagner, who would have more to do down the track.

It was only a couple of episodes ago that I spoke of how I went about catching the entire catalogue of Alice Cooper albums, starting with the 1980’s and then back through the popular albums to see what I may have missed along the way. “Muscle of Love” came in that second or third period of finding the band’s albums, once I had digested the big releases of both the band and then the solo act that followed. So it is fair to say that this album already had a great deal to beat by the time I got around to getting it and listening to it. And as a result, it wasn’t one that really captured my imagination at that time. It sits right between two amazing albums, the Alice Cooper Band’s “Billion Dollar Babies”, and Alice Cooper’s first solo outing with “Welcome to my Nightmare”. That’s some tough competition. And while it does still compare favourably with the rest of the original band’s work, and those who grew up with the albums from the 1970’s would still rank it highly, as a kid whose high school years were the 1980’s it is those albums that appeal to me most.
I’ve listened to this on my rotation for the past couple of weeks, and again when I just sit down with this on my stereo in the Metal Cavern and turn it up, it still sounds great and is enjoyable to listen to. The title track is such a brilliantly upbeat song, I often wonder why they couldn’t make the whole album like this song. But that wasn’t to be. It is the one main song that leaps off the vinyl or off the Spotify playlist when you listen to the album, the one excellent shining light. But if you want me to listen the ten best Alice Cooper Band slash solo albums, this doesn’t get a look in.
With a few months of this album’s release, the band split up, and this became the final album of the actual Alice Cooper Band. Vincent Furnier legally changed his name to Alice Cooper, went off and did the “Welcome to my Nightmare” solo album (with the return of Bob Ezrin as producer), and never looked back. Michael Bruce, Glen Buxton and Dennis Dunaway formed the short-lived band Billion Dollar Babies and released one album. “Muscle of Love” closes that one door and opened another, and the story of Alice Cooper continued in the hands of the frontman only.

1230. Billy Idol / Rebel Yell. 1983. 4/5

Billy Idol had already had a solid career in music long before he became a successful solo act with the release of his first self-titled album in 1982. Originally hailing from the UK, he had been a staple of the growing punk movement in the mid-to-late 1970’s, first being the guitarist of the band Chelsea. Unsatisfied however he soon left the group, and with band mate Tony James they formed the band Generation X. With Billy Idol as lead singer, the band achieved success in the United Kingdom and released three studio albums over the next three years before disbanding.
In 1981, Idol moved to New York City to pursue his solo career. Here he met up with an up and coming guitarist called Steve Stevens, and they hit it off immediately. With Idol’s punk-like image combined with the growing glam metal scene, the pair looked like a match made in heaven. The pair pulled their band together, and eventually recorded their debut album, the self-titled "Billy Idol”. On the back of singles such as “Hot in the City” and “White Wedding”, and being picked up for heavy rotation on MTV, the album became a hit, and the band and its titular star were underway.
Keith Forsey returned to produce the follow up, and the trio of Forsey, Idol and Steven went to work on what was to become “Rebel Yell”. Idol apparently came up with the title for the album at a party he was attending where many guests were drinking Rebel Yell bourbon, and he liked the name. It of course then also became the titular song that dominated the album. Also, during the recording of the album, Idol had been fighting with the record company over creative control of the project. At the height of this, he stole the master tapes of the recordings, which he eventually returned to the studio when he had won his battle. It was at his time that Forsey informed him that he had in fact stolen the wrong tapes, and his tapes had never left the studio. Someone’s album could have met with a messy end over that dispute.

The album’s title track, “Rebel Yell,” is one of the most iconic songs of the 1980s. It features a catchy guitar riff and a memorable chorus that is sure to get stuck in your head. How this only reach number 9 on the charts in the US and 7 in Australia is beyond me. As terrific as “White Wedding” is as a song, this is the one that everyone knows, that everyone rocks out to, that you sing along to at top volume when it comes on. A terrific video clip featuring Billy, and that amazingly iconic solo from Steve Stevens. If you were to make a mixed tape of the 1980’s (and yes many of you would have no idea what that actually is) then surely this song has to be on it.
“Daytime Drama” is a typically new wave song that highlights the drama of relationships which, I believe, and it is only my thoughts, that mirrors the daytime soaps that proliferated the screens in the 1980’s, such as Days of our Lives and The Young and the Restless. The album’s second single, “Eyes Without a Face,” follows, and is a slower ballad that showcases Billy Idol’s vocal range. He had done songs like this before, but this was perhaps the best example of the range that Idol had with his voice, and the diversity the band had to create such a song, so different from the types of songs that they were best known for. The song was also a commercial success and peaked at number four in the US, helped by its susceptibility of radio airplay, as well as the growing medium of MTV. “Blue Highway” closes out side one of the album, and again delves into love and relationships, and a yearning for freedom. It’s a hard rock song with a great tempo and super riff that lifts the album again in a positive fashion.
The album’s third single, “Flesh for Fantasy,” opens up the second side of the album, and is a hard rock song that features a driving beat and a catchy chorus. Back to the hard rock roots of the band, the attitude is what drives this song beyond the average, a song that in the hands of another vocalist would not have worked as well as it did. It eventually reached only 29 on the US charts, which perhaps doesn’t reflect how popular it was at the time with his core audience. This is followed by the album’s fourth single, “Catch My Fall,” which is a slower ballad that features a piano and a string section. The song was not as successful as the previous three singles, and perhaps it was overkill going for another track of this type, but in the course of the album it is still a good song. “Crank Call” is a fun track highlighted by Stevens on guitar and bass, before launching in to “Do Not Stand in the Shadows”, a great fast paced hard rock track that lets Idol rip in with his vocals again in their best fashion. This is the song I would have released as that fourth single, because of the great energy it puts out, and would have allowed Billy to again put himself forward in a video clip such as his best efforts. The album then concludes with “The Dead Next Door” which for me is a very strange choice given the soft and quiet nature of the track. The end of “Do Not Stand in the Shadows” to me is the perfect finish to the album, “The Dead Next Door” is an extra four minutes of sleep music to finish off instead.

When the first album came out, I was completely obsessed with “White Wedding” as a song. In fact, it and Chris de Burgh’s “Don’t Pay the Ferryman” were the first two songs on a compilation cassette I was given for my birthday that year, and I wore out that tape just listening to those two songs. Then “Rebel Yell” came out, and that song caught my imagination as well. This was all in the days prior to me buying albums of bands, so the singles were what I had.
Flash forwards a few years, and I get my first listen to this album. And I knew the singles from the album very well, but from the first time I listened to this I thought it was just terrific. Even the slower songs have a depth about them that I enjoyed, which isn’t always the case when it comes to albums of such style. Especially I enjoyed “Blue Highway” and “Do Not Stand in the Shadows”, I felt they were terrific songs that were under utilised and certainly under appreciated when it came to Billy Idol’s work. In terms of album releases from the early 1980’s, I think this is up with the very best. And it is important to note that even though the album artist is credited to only Billy Idol, there are other very important people involved. Steve Stevens, not only as the lead guitarist and other instruments in the recording process as well, but as a co-composer of all of the tracks here, does a fantastic job. While the album is promoted by Idol’s presence, his writing and playing is just as important to the final product. And the producing of Kevin Forsey again is a major contributing factor to the eventual success of this album.
Overall, “Rebel Yell” is a great album that showcases Billy Idol’s and Steve Stevens talent as songwriters and performers. The album features a mix of new wave, hard rock, and pop rock that is sure to please fans of all genres. The album’s title track, “Rebel Yell,” is one of the most iconic songs of the 1980s, and it is a must-listen for anyone who is a fan of music from that era. Or essentially, any era.

1229. The Clash / Give 'Em Enough Rope. 1978. 3/5

On the back of their self titled debut album in 1977, The Clash had begun their rise in the punk scene of the UK in particular. In and amongst the plethora of bands that seemed to crop up one day and be gone the next, The Clash and contemporaries the Buzzcocks were the driving force of the movement where it wasn’t necessarily the shock of the music and lyric topics that caught the attention, but the maturity of it. Touring behind that first album The Clash played on their own ‘Out of Control’ tour, which apart from a small riot when their first gig in Belfast was cancelled at the last minute due to the insurance being pulled from the venue, created a storm of the music kind. They also played at the ‘Rock Against Racism’ carnival in London later that year, which was attended by 100,000 people. In between this they released two non-album singles to great acclaim. “Clash City Rockers” was played on a BBC children's morning show after its release, alongside the unreleased (at that time) “Tommy Gun”, while “(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais” became a favourite with Clash fans and was voted single of the year in the 1978 NME Readers' Poll.
Before the Clash began recording their second album, their American based record company asked if they could produce an album with a 'cleaner’ sound than their debut, in order to reach American audiences. Sandy Pearlman, known for his work with Blue Öyster Cult, was hired to produce the record. Bass guitarist Paul Simonon later recalled, "Recording that album was just the most boring situation ever. It was just so nitpicking, such a contrast to the first album ... it ruined any spontaneity."
When the album arrived, it received mixed reviews in the UK music press, where some complained about its relatively mainstream production style in comparison to that debut album. Despite the backlash from sections of the music press, NME readers voted it the second best album of 1978 and The Clash were voted the best group in the same end of year poll.

"Give 'Em Enough Rope” is often overlooked in the band’s discography. It opens with the track “Safe European Home,” which is a fast-paced punk rock song that features Mick Jones’ guitar work and Joe Strummer’s vocals. The song describes Strummer's and Jones uneasy writing trip to Jamaica and their experiences with racism and violence. Jones later commented on the trip by saying, "we went down to the docks, and I think we only survived because they mistook us for sailors”. The song also contains references of Jamaican culture and buildings like the Sheraton hotel in Kingston. This is followed by “English Civil War,” which is a slower song that features a catchy chorus, and which is derived from an American Civil War song, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", that was popular among both sides of the conflict. Guitarist and vocalist Joe Strummer had learned the song at school and suggested to his bandmates that they should update it. The Clash’s version is about the state of politics in the UK at that time and warns against what things may come.
“Tommy Gun” is one of the most well-known songs from the album and from The Clash’s entire catalogue. The song features a driving beat and lyrics about gun violence. The lyrics especially deal with Middle Eastern terrorism, specifically the hi-jacking of aircraft. It is an especially interesting beginning to the album, with the band not shying away from what was going on in the world at home and abroad at this time, and not afraid to exhort their opinions on those matters. Listening to it today is just as revealing and important as it was when these songs were written all those years ago.
Continuing in this vein is “Julie’s Been Working for the Drug Squad”, a fast-paced punk rock song that features lyrics about drug enforcement, and acts as a commentary on the infamous "Operation Julie" drug bust that saw the largest LSD production ring in the world, based in Wales, dismantled by an undercover police operation. Side one is then closed out by “Last Gang in Town,” which is a more mid-paced song about gang violence.
Side two opens up with “Guns on the Roof,” a great song that is set up beautifully by Mick Jones and his excellent guitar riffs and solo work, as well as the rumbling bass of Simonon and terrific drumming from Headon. It is a song that talks about global terrorism, war and corruption, which in part was inspired by an incident that resulted in the Metropolitan Police's armed counterterrorist squad raiding The Clash's Camden Market base. Paul Simonon and drummer Topper Headon were arrested and charged with criminal damage for shooting racing pigeons with an air-gun from the roof of their rehearsal building. Strummer’s vocals here leave no doubt as to the band’s feelings about the whole incident.
“Drug-Stabbing Time” is strongly anti-drug lyrically with another great riff through the song and combined vocals that describes the paranoia of being caught in the act, which is somewhat ironic given the band's (specifically Mick Jones's) drug usage at this time. “Stay Free” moves back in style, and feels like a song that was written for that American market the band’s record company was looking for. “Cheapskates” is dominated by Strummer’s chanting thoughts firing out of the speakers, and the album then concludes with "All the Young Punks (New Boots and Contracts)" to round out the band’s second LP.

The Clash came to me, like many of my generation, through the radio hit “Rock the Casbah”, and the splash it made with one of my oldest school friends at that time, who then chased down every release by the band, which in time then found its way into my hands as well. And this all occurred at around the time that I was beginning to move away from just radio singles, and taping them off Kasey Kasem’s American Top 40 every Sunday arvo, and looking to move into whole albums by bands. Compilation tapes were still important in that, because it was a way of discovering multiple bands. So The Clash was a band that I listened to when I went around to this particular mate’s house, but were still some way away from me having a huge interest in them. That is a long winded way of saying that while I enjoyed The Clash, I didn’t really listen to their albums often or a lot.
In many ways, that is still the case, but the order I would choose to listen to them would be from first release to last release, meaning “Give ‘Em Enough Rope” rates very highly for me as a The Clash album. It is the punk sound I enjoy from them most rather than the reggae or rockabilly or straight rock they utilised in pieces later in their career. And while the producer of this album apparently felt so little about Joe Strummer’s vocals that he tried to have the drums drown them out on this record, I actually think they are quite good here. In fact the whole band sounds great. Mick Jones on guitar is wonderful once again, while I am still extremely impressed at how the bass and drums of both Paul Simonon and Topper Headon still hold up today. To me they often get overlooked for their contributions to the band, and certainly on this album I believe they are excellent and an important part of the success of this album. The reviews of the day were generally critical of the more produced sound of the album, and it is obviously a difference between the first two albums by the band. I have been listening to it now for a couple of weeks, and it still sounds great each time it comes up in my rotation. I enjoy the music, but it is the lyrics that I enjoy the most, the shaking of the fist at authority, and the standing up and telling it as they see it. Whatever else this album may be, its commentary on the era it was released is as fascinating today as it must have been on its release.

1228. Iron Maiden / Live at Donington 1992. 1993. 5/5

As has been noted on a few recent episodes in regards to Iron Maiden albums, 1992 and 1993 were not easy years for the band. Bruce Dickinson had already made his decision and announced that he was quitting the band by the time the Fear of the Dark tour concluded late in 1992, and yet the band had already announced further dates for 1993, which Bruce somewhat reluctantly agreed to complete, which took up another 6 months of 1993. During this time, the band did not get on as they had done, and by its conclusion it is probably fair to say that everyone was relieved.
With Bruce leaving the band, they had decided to record and release two separate live albums in 1993, being “A Real Live One” - the episode of which you can find in Season 4 of this podcast - and “A Real Dead One” - the episode of which you can find just a few episodes back here in Season 5. While both sold well as you would expect, one of the main criticisms of the releases was that they were both a collection of live songs, taken from different concerts at different times during the tour. Having had the wonderful “Live After Death” album eight years beforehand, what most Maiden fans were after was another complete concert recording, which reflected how Maiden sounded at that time.
Now, whether this was taken on board by the management and record company, or whether they just saw another opportunity to make a great big pile of cash, something facilitated the release of this album, along with the concert footage in full on video as well, which is the complete set of Iron Maiden’s headlining gig at Castle Donington in August 1992, one where perhaps for the final time before the full reformation of the band seven years later showcased just how good this band was when they were at the peak of their powers. The fact that the gluttony of releasing three live albums in the space of eight months was possibly overlooked in the chase for sales didn’t stop the fans from rushing to their record retailers and buying all three albums up in huge numbers.

Initially this was a limited edition 2 CD release, with the plain white cover and not meant to be a full album release. As such, when it first went on sale 30 years ago it was highly sought. Eventually, with all things such as this, it was re-released to a wider audience worldwide and on various formats.
The gig contains the full setlist from the Fear of the Dark tour than the band was in the middle of at the time, this containing a large mix of recent release songs and then the well worn classics (not as well worn then as they are now!). The then current album had plenty of representation, with “Be Quick or Be Dead”, “From Here to Eternity”, “Wasting Love”, “Afraid to Shoot Strangers”, and “Fear of the Dark” all appearing in the first half of the setlist. All of the versions are great here, even the title track, which I admit I have tired of over the years. But the versions done on this tour, when the song was fresh and new, are all terrific, and is again here. Also, as I am sure was made obvious on previous episodes, I am not a fan in any way of the song “Wasting Love”. To me it was a mistake releasing it as a single, and in ever playing it live, as it is a momentum killer. On the other hand, “Afraid to Shoot Strangers” is a gem, mixed with both high velocity power and also emotion. A great song performed beautifully here. These songs on the first CD are all perfectly interspaced with old and new, with “The Number for the Beast” and “Wrathchild” coming at the top of the song list, and ten “Can I Play With Madness?”, “Tailgunner” ad “The Evil That Men Do” providing a great lift as soon as they come out of the speakers. The whole first CD – well, OK, apart from “Wasting Love” - is a real triumph.
The second CD starts with three fantastic songs from the then middle age of Iron Maiden’s great hits, the brilliant “Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter”, the magnificent “The Clairvoyant” and the fantastic “Heaven Can Wait”. What a truly awesome run of three songs to be able to watch live in concert. Action packed, fast paced and Bruce’s vocals at the top of their game.
This then leads us into the prehistoric era of the band, finishing off the night with those great songs that their earliest fans grew up with and still demand in the live setting. You know them all. “Run to the Hills”, “2 Minutes to Midnight”, “Hallowed Be Thy Name”, “The Trooper”, and then “Sanctuary” into “Running Free”. A pretty fair way to finish off your night, and this album. The final song “Running Free” also features an appearance from former guitarist Adrian Smith, coming on stage to be reminded of what he left behind when he left the band in 1989.

It was an interesting time when this live album came out. As already mentioned, this was the third live album that Iron Maiden had released in 1993, which is overkill in anyone’s language. Beyond this, there were mixed emotions, because when this album was actually recorded it would have been one of the highlights of the band’s career, headlining the Donington Festival in front of 80,000 fans, and yet when it was released just over a year later, it was at one of the lowest ebbs that the band had faced. And as a fan I felt that same way. This was a great album, showcasing everything brilliant about one of my favourite all time bands, and yet it was also showcasing what we would now miss with the departure of Bruce Dickinson.
This album is not in question in regards to quality and quantity. As I often remark, live albums should be an automatic 5/5 rating, because they have the band’s best songs played in their best environment. And that is certainly the case here. While the other two live albums released in 1993 may have some flaws, this full concert album does not. A great set list, all performed fantastically.
Is it an essential album for fans of the band? In the main, if you have “Live After Death” you have the band’s best live album. Both the “Maiden Japan” EP and “Maiden England” album from the Seventh Son tour are also terrific, and this actually makes a solid set with those three albums. Iron Maiden does have a lot of live albums now, but this is still great to listen to.
I saw Iron Maiden for the first time two months after this gig was played, in Sydney in October 1992. Due to a terrible mix and soundboard problems it was, unfortunately, a forgettable concert in the main. And this album was both a relief that it is so good when it came out, and a disappointment because the night I saw them sounded nothing like this. Thankfully for me, better Maiden concerts were to come, but not for a very very long time.

1227. Midnight Oil / Midnight Oil. 1978. 4/5

Midnight Oil the band was formed over a number of years, with the original members coming together from a variety of backgrounds. The original trio of drummer Rob Hirst, bass guitarist Andrew James, and keyboard player/lead guitarist Jim Moginie performed together in a band called "Farm" as far back as 1972, and played cover version of songs by bands such as Cream, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Led Zeppelin. Eventually they decided to advertise for other players to come on board, an advert that was answered by Peter Garrett, who came to the band as lead vocalist and synth player. Garrett was studying in Canberra which made the band really a part-time gig, as the others were all based in Sydney. Having started playing on Sydney’s north shore, by 1975 the band was touring the Australian east coast on a regular basis. This then led to Garrett moving to Sydney the following year to complete his law degree, but also allowing the band to become a whole group rather than working in dispatches from different cities. It also led to the four piece deciding to change their name to Midnight Oil.
Following this, the group began to refine their sound, and began to develop a more aggressive, hard rock sound that was being more sought after in the Sydney pub rock scene. To help increase this, Martin Rotsey joined in 1977 to become the second guitarist with the band and Midnight Oil, with their manager Gary Morris, established their own record label Powderworks. The band had built a dedicated fan base in Sydney, which grew through constant touring, performing around 200 gigs in their first year as Midnight Oil. They became known for their furious live performances, and when they entered the studio to record their debut album, the hope was that they could transfer that energy onto vinyl. Sometimes that is not easy thing to do.

The album opens with “Powderworks”, a fast-paced rocker that sets the tone for the rest of the album. The song features a catchy riff, a driving rhythm section, and Peter Garrett’s distinctive vocals. The lyrics are about the band’s frustration with the music industry and their desire to make their own music. This is followed by “Head Over Heels”, a slower and more melodic track that showcases Jim Moginie’s keyboard skills. The song is a love song with a twist, as Garrett sings about a woman who is “head over heels in love with herself”.
The third track on the album is “Dust”, a dark and atmospheric song that deals with environmental issues. The song features a haunting synthesizer melody, a heavy bass line, and Garrett’s ominous vocals. The lyrics focus on the effects of pollution and nuclear war on the planet. The song is one of the earliest examples of the band’s social and political commentary, which would become more prominent in their later albums. “Used and Abused” is a hard-hitting punk rock styled song that criticizes consumerism and materialism. It features a fast tempo, a distorted guitar sound, and Garrett’s angry vocals. The lyrics are about the exploitation of the average person by corporations and advertisers, and how they waste their lives chasing after money and possessions.
Opening up the second side of the album is “Surfing with a Spoon”, a fun and upbeat song that celebrates surfing and freedom. The song features a catchy chorus, a surf rock guitar sound, and Garrett’s playful vocals, based around escaping from the pressures of society and enjoying life on the beach.
“Run by Night”, the band’s first single and one of their most popular songs, features another catchy hook, a grooved bass line, and Garrett’s confident vocals singing about living on the edge and taking risks in life.
The closing track is “Nothing Lost - Nothing Gained”, a complex and progressive rock song that features a long instrumental section, with various changes in tempo, mood, and style. The song showcases the band’s musical skills and versatility, as well as their experimental side. The lyrics are about finding balance and harmony in life, and accepting the consequences of one’s actions.
The album is an impressive debut that introduces the band’s unique sound and vision while displaying the band’s talent, creativity, and passion for music. Mixed with this the album also suffers from some flaws, such as uneven production quality, lack of cohesion in the tracks, and does not fully reflect the band’s live potential at the time, something that many fans of the day were disappointed with, and which would be rectified in their subsequent albums.

Growing up in Australia, Midnight Oil is a right of passage. And people can guess your age from which album you choose to offer as your favourite. Those older than me will often suggest Blue Sky Mining or Diesel and Dust as the ultimate. Those younger than me will likely to choose an album such as “Head Injuries” as the one that showcased them best. For me, it has always been “10-1” that is the go to album. All of this is to suggest that I had well and truly digested most of Midnight Oil’s great albums before I eventually got around to listening to this album. And I don’t really know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Because even from the first time I listened to this album I really enjoyed it, but also knew that their material further along the road was more polished, more intense and more amazing overall.
I wasn’t old enough to see them in concert in their early days, in sweaty Sydney pubs where the walls would bleed from the energy perspiring from band and crowd. Those that did generally found this album to be a tame imitation of the band they knew, which was always going to be a problem when trying to replicate that in the studio.
Looking back though, and listening to the album now, all of the bones are there for what was built upon this first foray onto vinyl. The experimenting of the sound in each song perhaps doesn’t give a true indication of what the band was when this was released back in 1978, but it gave the band its start, and the ability to widen their fan base, and push on to become the band they became.
For the fan of the band there is still lots to like about this album. It isn’t one of their biggest albums, and certainly not their most commercial, but if you turn it up loud and just let it come at you, then the misgivings of youth will still find you in the music.

1226. Dio / Strange Highways. 1993. 4/5

From what could be assumed to be the absolute peak of Ronnie James Dio’s career, with his band Dio’s third studio album “Sacred Heart” in the mid-1980's, the band and his own fortunes had begun to plateau, and the road became a more rocky one than he had traversed in some time. After the band’s “Dream Evil” album in 1987, Dio had more or less fired the entire band and brought in new personnel for 1990’s “Lock Up the Wolves” album, one that didn’t gain the all encompassing love that the band’s previous four had brought. The change in tempo and mood caught fans unawares, and their popularity had begun to seep away somewhat. Then came the reformation of the Mark II lineup of Black Sabbath, and the album “Dehumanizer”, one that for a short period of time caught the imagination of the fans once again, with a revitalised heavy and modern sounding metal album from one of the great band lineups of all time. Of course, this then collapsed again with the decision by Iommi and Butler to open up for Ozzy Osbourne’s famous ‘last gig ever’, and once again both Dio and drummer Vinny Appice moved on from Black Sabbath in controversial circumstances. If ever there was a way to metaphorically shoot yourself in the foot, that four year period was one where Dio had done a pretty good job of it. And now, in a period of upheaval in the music world with the onset of the grunge movement, one of heavy metal’s greatest singers had to find a way to pick himself up off the carpet for the first time in a very long time.
And so, back to Dio the band it was. Appice, who had been dismissed during the writing session for “Lock Up the Wolves” in favour of former AC/DC drummer Simon Wright, was now back in the band, no doubt due to his locality and recent time together on that Black Sabbath album. Dio also decided to go for a whole new look with the band lineup. Guitarist Tracy Grijalva, better known as Tracy G, was brought in on guitar, Jeff Pilson, who had plied his trade with Dokken for several years, came in on bass guitar and keyboards, while Scott Warren who had been in Warrant would become the band’s keyboardist on tour.
Many wondered what this version of Dio could bring to the music world, given that by 1993 it had moved on from glam and hair metal and was hurtling into a new dimension. Could the band famous for dragons and rainbows find a way to still be relevant in the 1990’s decade? In many ways, the title of the new album, “Strange Highways”, was a metaphor for the journey the band was about to begin.

There is an interesting transition over the three-album spread between “Lock up the Wolves”, “Dehumanizer” and “Strange Highways”. The first of these albums saw the band’s sound slow the tempo from previous albums and have a slightly more serious tone about the lyrics, still delving into fantasy and other realms but in a different tone. “Dehumanizer” of course was a Black Sabbath album, with the attitude that that band always possesses. However, moving into “Strange Highways”, there’s little doubt that similar tones are being used for this album as well. It may not be Iommi and Butler here, but the music is what could be said to be an extension from that album. Is it too similar? Does it come across as a rip off of the “Dehumanizer” album? Some fans believe so, generally those that are not fans of this album. More accurately, I think this album mirrors what Dio’s writing was portraying at this stage of his career, and the previous two albums he had written progressed to this point and would further down the track with the follow up to this album. What it does is place itself at a destination far away from where the Dio band had started with “Holy Diver” some ten years earlier.
Ronnie’s vocals are more aggressive than any from the previous Dio albums, but less so than he gave us on “Dehumanizer”. Tracy G’s guitar does not copy what Iommi produced on the same album, but it is in a similar vein given the writing of the band. So, we have that same kind of heavy Sabbath-inspired songs here, which Ronnie attaches his heavier vocals to. In many ways this would be as a result of the appearance of the grunge bands and their sound. Whilst many hair metal bands tried to move to the grunge sound and failed, Dio here have moved in a heavier slower direction to combat that music trend, almost as if to say ‘this is heavy metal in the 1990’s, come follow us’.
Songs such as the opener “Jesus, Mary & the Holy Ghost”, the hardcore “Firehead”, "Hollywood Black” (which apparently had been demoed for the “Dehumanizer” album), “Evilution” and “Pain” all move in this newish direction that the new Dio has paved. Vinny’s drumwork has always appeared to be leading to this kind of work, the hard hitting, slow 2/4 tempo style that resonate through the speakers at you, and Tracy G seems happy to play the game. There’s no doubt that it takes some getting used to if you came into the band through the 1980’s.
The title track “Strange Highways” could have come straight off “Dehumanizer” - indeed, listen to “After All (the Dead)” from that album and then listen to this song, and you’ll know where the inspiration for the music and tone of the lyrics comes from. I couldn’t understand why I enjoyed this song so much when I first got the album, and then it clicked. And it’s the same reason people who don’t enjoy the Sabbath album also don’t enjoy this song. It was the real point at which one can tie the writing of this album to that previous album but the other band.
One thing that has disappeared almost completely is the lyrical mysticism that Dio had spent almost two decades weaving into his songs, in this band or his others. There are no rainbows, no dragons, no knights, no heaven and hell. Here the songs come at you with modern themes, social issues and darker elements throughout. This is apparent in songs in the back half of the album, such as “One Foot in the Grave”, “Give Her the Gun” and “Blood from a Stone”, with Ronnie passionately almost spitting the lyrics out with Tracy and Pilson pushing the hard core line musically. The album then ends almost cynically lyrically with “Here’s to You” and “Bring Down the Rain” bringing a slightly different tone to the conclusion.
As an album from this band, it is quite unique, and definitely not like anything they had done before. But it is done awfully well.

When I first got this album, which was pretty close to the release date, I really wasn’t sure what I was in for. “Lock Up the Wolves” had been a bit of a barrier to many of my friends in regards to Dio albums, with the musical changes involved there having them look in another direction. I had found enough to like and love about that album, but sonically it was very different. Then “Dehumanizer” had reinvigorated Dio’s mettle once again, and his stocks rose. The Sabbath separation again left the Dio band at a new crossroads, and I really didn’t know what to expect. And, as it turned out, I had some trouble reconciling what I heard when I initially listened to this album. Why? Well, looking back now, I think what made it difficult for me was that I was expecting to hear the band Dio that I knew, the band that produced those first three amazing scintillating albums, and hearing that energy and buzz and awesomeness. And what I got instead was this album – just not what I was expecting. So I was less than excited, but I kept listening to it, because something about it did click with me. And it wasn’t for some time (probably longer than it should have been) that I realised that this album was far more similar to the album Dio and Vinny had done with Sabbath the previous year than to anything they had done in the 1980’s. And that (eventual) realisation was what unlocked the love of this album for me. And once I had ignored what I had wanted the tempo to be, and just listened to it for what it is, I really did come to enjoy this album immensely.
Is it affected by the time it was released? I think so, but I also think it was written as a statement of the times, and that for many Dio fans, that isn’t what they were after. They wanted more dragons and night people and being hungry for heaven, when the reality was that Dio wanted something else, something that mightn't move with the times but set the agenda. It’s just that the times didn’t agree, and were actually looking for something different.
I listen to this album now, and I still find most of it thoroughly enjoyable. It needs to be in the right environment, and it needs to be LOUD to get the full impact of what the band plays here. And even 30 years on, it has an impact. It mightn’t be from Dio’s classic era, and it might be from a time when Dio’s form of classic heavy metal was on the ropes, but he still delivers vocally as he always did, and his commentary on social issues on this album, which was not something he made a lot of time doing, it still as biting as it was on its release.
The fact is that “Strange Highways” will never rate as one of the great albums, or the essential albums of all time. Asked to choose the best five albums from the band Dio, this probably won’t make your list. Those who were slightly younger than me when this was released tens to rate it much more highly than those of my generation. Perhaps that is its best light – it spoke to a generation that came next from the one he originally touched back in 1983. As a musician, to be able to do that in any age, is a pretty worthwhile achievement.

1225. Whitesnake / Trouble. 1978. 3/5

By 1976, Deep Purple had finally collapsed in on itself and ceased to exist after ten years of amazing albums and several personnel changes. One of those had been lead vocalist David Coverdale, who had presided over the final three albums the band had released. Following their demise, Coverdale went out and immediately got to work on his own solo work, releasing his first solo album titled “White Snake” in 1977, and then “Northwinds” in early 1978. In an effort to distance himself from the hard rock sound that had been synonymous with Deep Purple, his solo work combined elements of blues, soul and funk to give it a different sound, and also characteristics that suited his vocals well. Long term friend, guitarist Micky Moody, had played on both albums, and when Coverdale started to assemble a backing band for his project he was the first to join. It was Moody who suggested the group needed a second guitarist, and through this they found Bernie Marsden who had started out as a member of UFO. Marsden then facilitated the recruitment of bass guitarist Neil Murray as they had recently played in another band together. Drummer Dave Doyle and keyboardist Pete Solley also came in to round out the initial group, which at the time was dubbed David Coverdale’s Whitesnake. Coverdale had not wanted his name attached to the band’s name, but record company interest was only fanned if it could be promoted in such a way.
The band were offered the chance to record for EMI, but only an EP rather than a full album. The four track was released in June 1978 (which included a cover of the song “Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City” which became an unofficial fan anthem of the band) and the reaction was so positive that Whitesnake was offered the chance to record their full length debut soon after.
During this recording, keyboardist Pete Solley’s contributions were re-recorded by a man who had been chased and coaxed for some time by Coverdale to join the band. After much back and forth, his former Deep Purple bandmate Jon Lord agreed to come on board and provide his ample talents to the band. Thus came together the first outing for the band Whitesnake, and the debut album titled “Trouble”.

“Take Me With You” is a jaunty opening number, with a great bassline that is the mainstay throughout. It is a real rollicking rock song with a bluesy underbase, and immediately sets itself apart from what Coverdale’s previous band had been producing. This then moves into Coverdale’s slower paced “Love to Keep You Warm”, dominated by his smooth vocals and the more soul and funk sound that had come from his solo albums. These two tracks typified the direction of the music that this album brought to the table, and where the band would go over the next couple of albums as well. This is followed by “Lie Down (A Modern Love Song)” that is dominated by Jon Lord’s piano, an upbeat song that is a great counterpoint to the genre, with Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden combining perfectly to draw attention in the middle of the song, and finishing off in style.
It’s a brave move at any stage by any band to take on covering a Beatles song, and this is no different. “Day Tripper” is the one that gets the Whitesnake treatment here, and on first impressions you feel as though it doesn’t work. The energy and great vibe of the track is extricated on this version and replaced with a staccato and bluesier version of the original. Once you get used to it (after several dozen listens to be honest) it comes across better, but compared to the other tracks on the album it is a little out of place musically. “Nighthawk (Vampire Blues)” lifts the action again, with a great blues playoff between Marsden and Lord on guitar and keys respectively, and a rollicking pace throughout as Coverdale’s vocals play great games in a fun atmosphere.
“The Time is Right for Love” is a familiar tune and theme to any Whitesnake fan with a great drum beat setting the scene from David Dowle and super rumbling bass line again from the amazing Neil Murray that is the base of the song again. The secret to the enjoyment of this track is the tempo it is played at. It would have been destroyed if it was a slower paced ballad, but here as the excellently written up-tempo blues-based track, it is a beauty. On the other side of the coin, the title track “Trouble” IS that midtempo track, slowed back from the previous song, and with Coverdale crooning rather than belting, and the rest of the band dialling everything back. Another example of the two sides of Whitesnake on this, and to be honest, most of their albums.
“Belgian Tom’s Hat Trick” is a terrific instrumental where everyone has their moment, but it is the trade off between Marsden and Moody again that is the star of the show. Once again the faster tempo of the track is what brings it all to life, and as per usual whenever Jon Lord’s keyboards come to the fore it is a fun and frantic time. “Free Flight” finds that mid tempo again, before the closing track “Don’t Mess With Me” moves forward again and finishes the album on a high note.
The album tends to mix up the tempo of the songs throughout, which perhaps could have been altered slightly in order to keep the energy up in different spots, but the overall flow of the album is excellent still to this day.

Being in high school through the mid-1980's, it probably isn’t hard for you to believe that my first initiation to Whitesnake was their multi-million selling album ‘1987’, or self-titled, whichever way you know it to be called. That album is still such a massive part of my life and is so tied to that time of my life it is a difficult thing to get past. The other part of that is that ‘1987’ is such a different album musically than the band’s first albums were, but I didn’t discover that for a few years down the track, when I began to go back and find the albums of bands that I loved that I just hadn’t discovered. So you can probably imagine just how I felt the first time I heard this album, given how different every part of it is to those albums I knew of the band from the late 1980’s. This album is amazingly different, so much so that it was a real shock and something I didn’t process well on that initial discovery. Indeed, this album went away to collect dust for some time after that initial foray.
Thankfully though, I grew older, and more open to the changing musical styles of bands and the times they were recorded, and I went back to Whitesnake's “Trouble” for a second time. And this time around, I discovered exactly what I had missed that first time around. Because this is a very underestimated album, even within the Whitesnake catalogue. Most people know “Ready n Willing”, and “Saints n Sinners” and “Come an Get It”, and “Slide it In”, but how many people of my generation and younger have really appreciated the early Whitesnake albums? And “Trouble” in particular?
In my early twenties I was incredulous that there were fans out there who claimed that the early albums were so much better than the band’s later albums, that Coverdale had sold his soul to conquer America, and that Marsden and Moody outweighed anything that Vandeburg and Sykes and Vai had done in the latter years. I laughed. And then I really began listening to the albums of this era, and discovered that, even though I still love the albums from my era, that those people were right. That this band lineup is superb, their writing and playing is magnificent, and that they deserve to be on that pedestal as well. And this album Is a major part of that. In particular, Neil Murray on bass is just superb, in his element really in this genre of music. His bottom end to support the guitars of Marsden and Moody, and the leys of Jon Lord, is magnificent. And of course there is Coverdale himself, with those amazing vocal chords that are the star attraction of what the band does.
It took me a long time to get around to giving this album the time of day, and the time it deserved, to discover how good it is. And though there are a lot of years there that I have wasted due to not appreciating it sooner, the time since has been well spent. “Trouble” may not get the accolades of other great albums in the Whitesnake discography, but in my opinion it deserves them as much as any of those other albums.

1224. Black Sabbath / Reunion. 1998. 5/5

For almost 20 years from 1979, when Ozzy Osbourne finally parted ways with Black Sabbath, the fan base constantly speculated about the possibility of a reunion of the original foursome to not only tour but to record a new album. No matter how good other lineups of the band happened to be, or how enjoyable the albums that they released were, there was a somewhat morbid anticipation of what might occur should the individuals Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne ever get on the same stage again, and then the studio.
There were some close calls along the way that tried to amount to something but eventually fell short. The four did get on stage together to play a three song set at Live Aid in 1985, but it was a far cry from an outstanding success. Up against the biggest bands of the era, they failed to show the same energy that came from many of the other acts, and they all went their separate ways once again. Then there was the ill-fated appearance at what was to be Ozzy’s final touring performance when Iommi, Butler and Ward agreed to support Ozzy at that gig, and then come out at the end as the original quartet to play a couple of songs. It resulted in that current formation of Black Sabbath, with Ronnie Dio and Vinny Appice, collapsing on the spot. From here there was an attempt for these four to get together and compose some new material, but old scars and wounds seemed to reopen, and the venture once again fell apart as they all moved on again.
Eventually in 1997, for Ozzy’s own Ozzfest festival, Ozzy, Tony and Geezer came together to play as Black Sabbath, with Mike Bordin from Faith No More filling in for an absent Ward on drums, and played a set of classic songs to a rousing reception. This led to yet another bout of ‘will they-won't they’ discussion on a possible reunion. Following the success of these gigs, the four got together, and managed to agree on playing two nights in their home city of Birmingham in November 1997, which they would record to release as a live album under the name Black Sabbath. This was despite their still being concerns over Bill Ward’s ability to play two gigs given his health problems. Another former Sabbath drummer in Vinny Appice was on hand to step in if required, which fortunately did not eventuate. And so, the fans finally got what they were after, a true Black Sabbath reunion, even if it was only on stage. Or so everyone was led to believe.

So what we have here is a two CD set, unless you have just purchased the brand new anniversary release on 3LP’s, that contains a great mix of songs from Black Sabbath’s era of 1970 to 1978, the era of the band that many hard core fans believe is the ONLY era of the band. And, looking back now, it’s probably a little hard to believe that these guys were still amazingly young. They were all under 50 years of age when this was recorded, well within the prime of their playing existence. And it comes across here beautifully. All of the songs played are classics, and while the versions may not be as fast of energetic as they were back when the band was in its prime in the 1970’s, they sound magnificent on this album. The production and recording of the two nights is done perfectly, and the result is a fantastic live album.
You get the songs you expect. The opening battle cry of “War Pigs”, the psychedelic ramblings of “Fairies Wear Boots”, the drug anthemic lines of “Sweet Leaf” and “Snowblind”. The majesty of “Black Sabbath” and “Iron Man”, the heaviest riff ever written in “Children of the Grave” and the afterthought of “Paranoid”. All are performed here exactly as you would expect, and their impact is significant. There are the other great tracks you would expect to hear as well, such as “N.I.B” (complete with a stage intruder at the end of the song proclaiming his love of Ozzy and the band before being dragged off) and the fantastic “Electric Funeral”, the power doom of “Into the Void” and “Lord of This World”. Each of them is terrific.
There are a couple of surprises, but none of them is a disappointment. In fact for me they are a highlight. Who would have expected “Spiral Architect” to make the cut, and yet it is a brilliant version of this classic song. I’m not sure anyone was expecting “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, if only for the reason that there is no way Ozzy could have sung this song in its original pitch, even at that stage of his career. But play it they did, and Ozzy’s subtle change in the way he sings it just gives it a different character that is fun to hear. And the wonderful version of “Dirty Women” from “Technical Ecstasy” is perfect, and great to have a song this far into their catalogue get a run for this album.
Perhaps the biggest talking point at the time of this album’s release was the addition of two new studio tracks, “Psycho Man” and “Selling My Soul”, both written by Ozzy and Tony. These were done in Aril and May of 1998, when there was a concerted effort to try and write for a new album. The sessions went slowly however, and eventually these two songs were all that eventuated from them. The differences in their styles are obvious, and given where each of the four members were at in their careers at that point in time, perhaps it is not difficult to understand how it would hard to write together again.

And we’re back with my overly typical comment – and if you are listening to these episodes in release order you’ll know exactly what I mean, as this is the third live album in a row I have podcasted on – in that a live album should ALWAYS be a 5/5 experience, because you have the band’s best songs in their best environment. And with “Reunion”, you absolutely have that. The return of the original line up of Black Sabbath, playing a bunch of their greatest ever tracks in front of an ecstatic audience, and having the time of their lives.
This truly is a terrific live album. Sabbath to this point had not done many live albums, and had barely taken the chance to do so when this line up was together. It is only in recent years, with the re-release of deluxe versions of those classic albums, that they have included rare and unreleased recordings of concerts from those grand old days, and they are all quite brilliant. But for the most part, despite the hurriedly released “Live at Last” album, this line up hadn’t had a proper live release. And this absolutely does the band justice. Bill’s drumming mightn’t be anything like he did in the day but it still fits the bill (pun intended). The ‘wall of noise’ known as Geezer and Tony is simply superb, both still supreme on their instruments, while Ozzy’s vocals are still amazingly good throughout.
I bought this within a few days of its release and loved it immediately. It was one of the highlights of my music purchases of 1998. My best memory of listening to this album was being at a get together at a mates house in my home town of Kiama, where he was renting a house that looked down the local beach into town. We had this album cranking during the BBQ and beers that went into the night, and it was brilliant singing along and air guitaring to each song as it came on. I highly recommend listening to the album this way.
The quartet tried again to write a new album in 2002, but they just couldn’t find a way to make it work, which Iommi always regretted as he believed that the songs they did produce were top shelf. Eventually, following the Heaven and Hell project and then Dio’s sad demise, Iommi, Butler and Osbourne did write and record a final Black Sabbath album titled “13”... but that story is for another day.

1223. Black Sabbath / Never Say Die! 1978. 3.5/5

It would be fair to say that it was remarkable enough that this album ended up being made at all with the original foursome intact, as the lead up to its release was anything but smooth. The previous album “Technical Ecstasy”, the episode of which you can listen to in Season 1 of this podcast, had been a tough time writing and recording, and it had received a lukewarm reception on its release. The fact that the band had begun to expand its music (along with its mind with a furthering of drugs and alcohol) meant that the changes in the songs produced had brought some indifference in their fan base.
Following the tour to promote that album, and while in the process of beginning rehearsals for the next album, Ozzy Osbourne suddenly quit the band. Aside from his own problems, he has said in interviews and books that he had just become tired of the same quartet, and wanted to do something different. This brought about two situations, firstly with Sabbath immediately bringing in Dave Walker, who had sung in many bands including Fleetwood Mac and Humble Pie for a short time, and getting to work writing new material, and secondly Ozzy pulling together his own musicians in order to do the same. In early January 1978, Black Sabbath with Walker on vocals played live on a BBC music program. It was to be the only time they did so with this formation. Ozzy’s new band had been in rehearsals at the time, when suddenly he had a change of heart, and returned to Black Sabbath. No defining reason has ever been aired for this change of heart, though one could suspect that if Ozzy had seen or heard of his former band already playing together on British TV, perhaps he realised that he wasn’t ready to move on. Either way, Walker was out and Osbourne was back.
The difficulties didn’t finish there though. Back in the fold, Ozzy refused to sing or play any material that had been written with Walker as a part of the band. It mean that the better part of 6-8 weeks worth of material was unusable, and that the band had to start from the beginning again. As they had booked a studio in Canada to record in, it meant that the band had to pull double duty in order to write and record the new album. To do this, they actually hired out a cinema during the day where they could get together to write, before heading into the studio at night to try and put down the tracks as they went. The studio itself also produced a sound that was not to the band’s liking, so they tore up all the carpet in order to help improve that situation. On top of that, there was copious drugs and copious alcohol, such that often the band arrived at the studio to record, only to pack up again because one or more members were unable to perform. And it was no secret that the band themselves were just not getting on like they used to. Add all of this together, and in many ways it is remarkable that the album was made at all. Once it was released, there were many fans and critics who wished that it hadn’t.

Seriously, if you were asked to judge an album just on its first track, you would be giving “Never Say Die!” full marks, because the title track is an absolute ripper. Bombastic, fast, a great riff and bass line and hard driven drums. Truly one of the best Black Sabbath tracks, hands down. No one can deny that it immediately pulls you in to the album and sets it all up for the brilliance to come. And then it ends, like running into a brick wall, and you are left with the rest of the sodden mess. That's a bit harsh I know, but after the beginning its hard to describe the rest of the album in glowing terms.
Following the genius that is present on much of the first six albums, it feels as though the well had well and truly gone dry by the time this came out. Yes, the band had problems, drugs and alcohol were rampant and Ozzy was more or less finished in his enthusiasm for the task at hand, but given the great opening track you would have hoped for more following it. Instead, it mostly becomes a freeform instrumental recital, with fusions of jazz and early electronica replacing the great guitar and bass that the band it built on.
There is a fine line when it comes to comparing albums, and while this album simply cannot be held in the same esteem as the band’s first six albums, there are glimpses of the real Black Sabbath beyond the title track. “Johnny Blade” lyrically and musically is interesting, in that Ozzy actually sings off the riff rather than with it, Tony’s phasing guitar sound enhanced by Don Airey’s keyboards create a sound that harks to the previous album and the way it began to transcend what Sabbath had done to that point in their career. “Junior’s Eyes” began its life as one of the songs written while Dave Walker was in the band, but was transformed lyrically into being about the death of Ozzy’s father, who had passed just prior to his leaving of the band the previous year. “A Hard Road” was the second single released from the album, which did chart (marginally) in the UK, but contains little of the hard core elements of what made Black Sabbath great. The drums are not that frenetic and hard hitting style that Bill Ward had been renown for, the guitar and bass play along nicely together without actually making themselves known in the song. It’s all very genteel and is missing the attitude the band was once known for.
“Shock Wave” is perhaps the most Sabbath sounding song on this album. Tony’s guitar has its sound back, and his solo is true Iommi. Geezer’s bass plays as that second guitar that makes the best Sabbath music and Ozzy sings like he means it. “Air Dance” is a nice enough song but it just isn’t a Sabbath song. It sounds like it is about to break out on a couple of occasions during the track... and the just doesn’t.
“Over to You” is in a classic Sabbath style, not in the bombastic sense but in the psychedelic sense, a song that could almost be found of the “Volume 4” era of the band. No solo to speak of, but Tony’s riff and Geezer’s bass moving up and down the fretboard underneath gives the song a solid sound throughout. Ozzy’s vocal line is his best performance on the album as well.
The closing two tracks are a bit out of the box though, even for this era of the band. “Breakout” is an instrumental, but it is really just a jazz infused track, with horns and brass, and sounds more like the intro to “Saturday Night Live” than a Black Sabbath song. Ludicrous. This then segues straight into the closing number, “Swinging the Chain”, that has similar features but at least has less of the brass horns, which instead are replaced for the most part by the harmonica. Ozzy even refused to sing on "Swinging the Chain", leaving Bill Ward to add the vocals as he had done on “I’m Alright” on the previous album.
There is so much out of whack on this album, it is difficult to believe that it came together at all. Once you get into the deep dive of the time, and read each of the four members autobiographies and get to this part of their lives, it becomes a little clearer as to why this is such a conglomerate mash up.

“Never Say Die!” as an album has always been one of those difficult albums to reconcile with. When I first started listening to heavy metal music, I was exposed to Black Sabbath through a ‘best of’ collection from the time, that perhaps somewhat obviously had no tracks from this album on it. And it was at that time that I was listening to Ozzy’s solo albums and the Dio Sabbath albums, rather than the Sabbath albums of the second half of the 70’s decade. They were the ones that grew in significance to my listening. One of my best mates, who is now my brother-in-law, did get both “Technical Ecstasy” and “Never Say Die!” on vinyl, so I got copies of them from him, as well as hearing them often when I was around at his house as he manned the phones at the taxi base his family owned at the time. But this was never an album I just put on to listen to, there were so many better Sabbath albums that I could choose when I was after that kind of sound.
I don’t hate this album, but to me it isn’t Black Sabbath either. I listen to this the same way that I listen to sections of the Tony Martin era of the band, or even “Seventh Star”. These albums in particular are all so different from the sound and genius they created on the first six albums, and that’s the real trick to the situation. If you listen to and compare any of those albums with this one, then the other albums win, hands down, no question. But, if you just put this album on and listen without expectation, the everything flows in the right way. “Johnny Blade”, “Junior’s Eyes”, “A Hard Road”, “Air Dance” - none of these songs are “Symptom of the Universe”, “Children of the Grave”, “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, “War Pigs”. They can’t be. So when I listen to this album and not expect Black Sabbath... it kinda works. For the most part. Not completely.
I’ve had a CD copy of this album for some time, but this year I was able to get the special vinyl release of the album that came out for Record Store Day, and I must say it is still the best way to listen to all Black Sabbath, putting the vinyl on the turntable and turning it up. It works for me for this copy of my album. I can’t say to you that everyone will enjoy this album. I can only offer that it is worth giving it a try.
If nothing else, the aftermath led to better things for all sides - Ozzy was fired after the band spent a year trying to write a follow up to this album, and he left to form Blizzard of Ozz where with the help of some wonderful musicians and writers he was able to rediscover his mojo, while the remainder of the band recruited Ronnie James Dio as Ozzy’s replacement, and well and truly rediscovered their magic. Despite the fact that Ozzy returned 35 years later to record the final Black Sabbath album “13”, “Never Say Die!” put a pin in that original lineup of Butler Iommi Osbourne and Ward. It was a somewhat tame way to conclude a period of music that this foursome had helped to create and then dominate. But then, perhaps the title track is what set up what came next.

1222. Ozzy Osbourne / No Rest for the Wicked. 1988. 4/5

By the time this album came around to being released, it had been well over 2.5 years since Ozzy Osbourne and his band had released a studio album. The fan response to “The Ultimate Sin” album has been less pronounced than it had for the other albums released during the 1980’s, and had been beset by problems from its inception and through to the tour that followed to promote it. Ozzy himself had the usual dependencies that haunted him over the decade, while the battle behind the scenes in regards to publishing rights and writing credits continued to be problematic. Some fans also felt that “The Ultimate Sin” album had gone too far towards a hair or glam metal sound than the music which they had enjoyed from him from Ozzy’s Sabbath days and even the Randy Rhodes albums. The end result of this was that guitarist Jake E. Lee was fired, for which there was never a full explanation given, and bass guitarist Phil Soussan also left the band. It seems probable that a combination of all of these factors – Ozzy's drug and alcohol problems, the refusal of both Lee and Soussan to give up their royalty rights, and the slight ambivalence of his long term fans over the recent release – all contributed to this situation occurring. It meant that the Ozzy Osbourne band required rebuilding.
Audition tapes were received from hundreds of guitarists, but eventually it was one from a young unknown guitarist by the name of Zakk Wylde that caught their attention. After auditioning for the spot Wylde was hired soon after, and became a major part of Osbourne’s resurgence into the next decade. The bass player’s spot was more inconclusive, and eventually it was through mutual benefit that former Ozzy band player Bob Daisley returned to the fold once again. Despite having been burned in the past and having issues over the same songwriting credits issue that had forced two members from the most recent line up of the band, Daisley returned to play bass and also contribute to the writing process for what became the album “No Rest for the Wicked”. Daisley had been bypassed for “The Ultimate Sin” album after having been heavily involved in Osbourne’s first three album after his leaving from Balck Sabbath, and his troubles with Ozzy’s management in that time are well known. However, his desire and enjoyment of being involved with Ozzy and his music again saw his return. Of course, as seems to be a recurring them in this story, it didn’t end well for him on this occasion either.

There is little doubt that the music direction here on “No Rest for the Wicked” moves itself forward from the previous album. You can name any number of reasons why this may be the case. The obvious one is the change of personnel. Both Zakk and Bob play their instruments in a different style from their predecessors, and as a result the music here is different. They both also write differently, which is a big thing to take under consideration. And we are now coming towards the end of 1988 and not at the end of 1985, so the style of heavy metal has also changed. Just take a look at Ozzy’s hairstyle as the main piece of knowledge for that! But in the main, Zakk comes in with a heavier riff style which is the dominant factor of the songs on this album.
The mood is set from the outset, with Zakk’s wonderful opening riff on “Miracle Man” tearing up the playbook and making his mark from the start. The fact that his guitar style is again different from all of the players Ozzy has had – Tony Iommi, Randy Rhodes and Jake E Lee – makes him the focal point again, and in the direction the music is taking. Along for the ride again is Bob’s wonderfully written and performed bass work, the perfect undertone to emphasise each track with Randy’s fantastic drumming, precision perfect and annunciating each musical portion of the song. These three combine superbly throughout this album, which only makes it slightly disappointing it was the only time they played together. Zakk and Bob were the main contributors to the songwriting process and they seem to have paired up well.
Ozzy comes back firing vocally, especially on that opening track “Miracle Man”, pointedly another song by a metal band of this era that gets stuck into the televangelism of the day, and the hypocritical acts of those involved. It’s a great song highlighted by Zakk’s terrific solo slot. This is followed by “Devil’s Daughter” and “Crazy Babies” that also feel dominated by the arrival of Zakk Wylde. While the tempo of the songs is not overly fast, they feel as though they are by Zakk’s unique guitar sound and his wailing guitar squeal. The intro and chorus of “Devil’s Daughter” is especially fun and driven, while Crazy Babies is dominated by Ozzy’s lyrical slinging after that initial opening crunching riff from Zakk – magnificent.
Then you have songs such as “Breakin’ All the Rules” and “Fire in the Sky” that slot right into that mid-tempo style and where Ozzy makes the songs what they are, with great vocal lines and melodies over the rhythm of the song. Ozzy is quite brilliant at being able to make these kinds of songs so entertaining and interesting, where other artists would be unable to make them so enjoyable. They are of a slightly different tone that sometimes halt the momentum of albums of other artists, but Ozzy and his crew make them much more than that.
“Bloodbath in Paradise” uses mentions of Charles Manson and the Manson family within its lyrics, while “Demon Alcohol” is so obviously written for Ozzy to sing about himself by Daisley that it should certainly be referred to as biographical. “Tattooed Dancer” also has its obvious reference points, and again is dominated by Zakk’s amazing guitaring, and his couple of riffs prior to and concluding the chorus especially being game changers. The album concludes with “Hero”, with more biographical lyrics from Zakk and Bob that continue to allow Ozzy to sing loudly about himself and be the hero to his fans that he sometimes doesn’t understand that he is.

Ozzy and his music has been a big part of my life since I first discovered it back in the mid-1980's, and while “The Ultimate Sin” had been the first album I had heard at the time (or around the time at least) it had been released, it was this one that was truly a ‘discovered on release’ moment for me. And yes, it is fair to say that the differences between what had come before, and this one, were obvious from the start. Which, at the time for me, was a big thing to take in. I loved the Randy era, and I loved the Jake E Lee era. But this was newer, bolder, brasher than any of that. And that was quite something to take in initially. But it didn’t take long to take the lacquer off the new ball. Zakk’s unique guitaring was a hit from the beginning. Just listening to it in songs like “Miracle Man”, “Crazy Babies”, “Tattooed Dancer” and “Demon Alcohol” was mesmerising, and everything fell into place after that.
This is still a great album, but often you will get asked where it fits in your own personal music rating for the artist. And if you ignore everything after 1994 – which was when Ozzy was going to retire from everything or just from touring or just from doing albums, or whatever that whole kerfuffle ending up being about – then this for me is the least interesting of Ozzy’s albums. His first two Blizzard of Ozz albums with Randy, Bob and Lee Kerslake are magnificent. His next two with Jake E Lee are the perfect 80’s hair metal albums. And the follow up to this, the amazing “No More Tears” speaks for itself. Sas much as I still enjoy this album, it is middle range when you think of the band’s albums as a whole.
After recording this album, Bob Daisley was ushered out the door again, to be replaced in the touring band by Ozzy former bandmate Geezer Butler, only for Bob to be recalled to play (but not write) on this album’s follow up. But that story is available on the episode dedicated to it in season 1 for those that are interested. This album is still an entertaining album of the age, and kept the Osbourne torch aflame into the next decade and beyond.

1221. Kiss / Psycho Circus. 1998. 3/5

Even for Kiss, the three years leading up to the release of this album was turbulent, with the twists and turns of the band and its fortunes being played out publicly as the unfolding story took place. Most of that began with the band’s appearance on MTV Unplugged, where the four band members were joined on stage for the end of the concert by original members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, which got a huge reaction from the fans. Following this, as the public rumours of a possible reunion grew, the band went into the studio to complete the recording of their follow up album to “Revenge” titled “Carnival of Souls”, an album which certainly messed with the prototype Kiss sound to incorporate the more modern rock sound that was around in the mid-1990's. Though it was completed in early 1996, the release was shelved, as Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons then confirmed that a reunion tour with Ace and Peter as the original foursome would take place, and did so in the full makeup and outfits of the Love Gun era, to the rapturous accolades of their fans everywhere. As the ‘return of make-up’ tour wound through 1996, both Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer were paid a weekly salary as they sat on the sidelines to cool their heels, no doubt to assuage just how everything would play out once the tour was over. By the end of 1996, Kulick had left the band, obviously seeing the writing on the wall with the success of the reunion tour, and Singer also found his place had been reverted back to Criss.
The band continued to tour worldwide throughout 1997, with “Carnival of Souls” eventually seeing the light of day in October of that year. But the tours were only playing songs from the era prior to 1982, when this foursome had been the band, and the question from the fans now was; would this reunited line up go into the studio and record a new album? The eventual answer to that question was; yes, they would. But it wouldn’t be Kiss if there weren’t any further twists and turns in the story, and it is fair to say this was true once again of the writing and recording of the album that eventually became “Psycho Circus”.

For an album that was touted as the return of the original awesome foursome, the actual amount that was contributed to the writing and recording of “Psycho Circus” by both Ace and Peter was minimal. Peter only played drums on one song, the Ace Frehley penned “Into the Void”, with the remainder being done by session drummer Kevin Valentine. Peter did sing lead vocals on the Paul Stanley and Bob Ezrin written ballad “I Finally Found My Way”, which was apparently especially written for him to sing. Peter also sang on the song “You Wanted the Best”, written by Gene and featuring all four artists on lead vocals, the only song in the Kiss catalogue where that occurred. Beyond this, Peter Criss was non-existent on this reunion album. For Ace’s part, he co-wrote “Into the Void” with Karl Cochran, and also played lead guitar and sang lead vocals on the track, and also played lead and sang on the collaborative track “You Wanted the Best”. As with Peter, Ace was not involved with any other part of the album. He was quoted some years later as saying he had written quite a bit of material for the album, but it was rejected by Paul and Gene for various reasons. In his book, Peter Criss stated that both he and Ace were paid an enormous amount of money to stay out of participation of the album, while for their part Paul and Gene have suggested different reasons over the years as to why the other two were kept at arm's length, ranging from their not being capable, to them not showing up when required, to their wanting new financial deals, and to its being the producer's choice to not use them. Most of these reasons conflicted with each other at different times over the years, and indeed have changed over time. Even producer Bruce Fairbairn, who has cropped up a few times in recent episodes of this podcast, stated that he wanted to stay away from gimmicks and trends such as guest appearances, and just stay true to what Kiss does best and what people remembered them for. This being the case, why was this not followed? Tommy Thayer, who would eventually replace Ace as lead guitarist a few years down the track, played most of the lead guitar on this album, while there were a few other who contributed either instrumentally or creatively.
Logic would suggest that Paul and Gene felt THEY were in fact the band, and that the return of Ace and Peter was only as hired guns, paid contractors there to do their job of playing on stage and little else. And this was accurate, as both had sign short term contracts to play in the band once again. Thus, rather than have a collaborative effort such as the band did back in their glory days together, now it was not so much a band as four individuals who appeared on stage together.
Would this album have been better if they had played and written as the band? It’s difficult to say. Tommy Thayer is a skilled guitarist as he has shown in the past two decades as the band’s lead player, but he is also different. When you listen to “Into the Void” you immediately know it is Ace playing guitar as it is so distinctive, but that doesn’t make Thayer’s guitaring on the other songs less excellent, it’s just that it isn’t Ace, which sort of defeats the purpose of labelling this a Kiss album. And Ace does write some terrific songs, so surely at least one other of his tracks could have been used?
The album itself has its highs and lows. The ballad “I Finally Found My Way” does nothing for me, while songs such as “Journey of 1000 Years” and “We Are One” and “Dreamin’” are in that average section of Kiss songs that are inoffensive easy listening portions. Ace’s “Into the Void” is one of the better tracks here, as is the title lead off track “Psycho Circus”, a perfect concert opening song that gets the masses on their feet and first pumping from the very start. Why then it hasn’t been utilised as this opening song at their concerts for the last 20-odd years for me is very strange. This holds its own as one the bands best songs since the original foursomes demise. Of the rest, “You Wanted the Best”, that utilises all four members both instrumentally and vocally, reminds you most of the way these four used to be regarded.

Over the years this hasn’t been an album that I have given a great deal of listening to. I didn’t buy it on its release, judging at the time that it was a money grab from a band who were using the gimmick of going back to their original line up and donning the make up again. I don’t think that observation was far off the mark. I heard it a couple of times before I saw the band on their first farewell tour in 2001, where the only song they played was the title track, which did indeed sound great. From that point, it wasn’t for another decade that I heard it again, when I went on my mission to acquire all of the Kiss back catalogue that I didn’t have, and give it all a fair listen. And then we come to the last 12 months, where I saw the band again on their latest farewell tour, along with my son Josh. And it was Josh’s growing love of Kiss in the last six years that convinced me to delve deeper into the albums I didn’t know as well. Which then led me to a new appreciation of “Psycho Circus”.
The more I listen to this album, the more I think it was a missed opportunity. There are some terrific songs here, ones I still sing along to whenever I put the album on. And some great moments. My ears honestly still prick up on the two songs that Ace Frehley plays lead guitar on, because the two solos in those songs remind me of that early material so much, and it really triggers something when I listen to it. And like I’ve said, Thayer is a good guitarist... but he isn’t Ace Frehley. Whatever the reason was to exclude Ace and Peter from the recording of this album, I still think it was a mistake. It didn’t matter when it came to selling the album, because it was still Kiss and the Reunion, even if it really wasn’t in the long run. The “Revenge” album actually stands out more because it had both Vinnie Vincent and Bruce Kulick writing songs, and Kulick’s stand out guitaring. Here, Thayer is actually the hired gun, but is not significantly outstanding in his lead work to command the songs like any of those other three guitarists would have. Along with the other two dozen albums I have spent the last month listening to, this has received plenty of airplay, and I probably enjoy the album more now than I did when I started. The good is great, the average is average. In many ways, that sums up almost every Kiss album in existence.