This led to Jake deciding to start up his own band, and his first stop was to find a lead vocalist who could not only perform vocally but also charismatically on stage. It eventually led him to come to Ray Gillen, who had been through his own journey in that time period. Gillen had come in to the 80’s version of Black Sabbath, replacing Glenn Hughes who had sung on the “Seventh Star” album for the tour that followed, and had then begun to write and record songs for the album that eventually became “The Eternal Idol”. Through problems that arose with, amongst others, Gillen being unable to contribute effectively to the writing process, which necessitated Bob Daisley being brought in to help reassess the writing of the album, the process of writing and recording was a mess, and eventually with both Gillen and drummer Eric Singer quit the band prior to the album’s release. It eventually was re-recorded completely with Tony Marton on vocals. Something similar happened with his next band, when Gillen joined John Sykes and Blue Murder as vocalist, but was again let go following singing on demos for the album, also due to difficulties in writing. That story can be heard on the episode recently released for that debut Blue Murder album. Given his problems in just those two projects, it’s interesting that Jake took Gillen on in this project. It is my opinion that vocally at least, Gillen would have improved Blue Murder as a band.
To complete the band, both Jake and Ray brought in musicians they had recently been playing with. Ray recruited Eric Singer to play drums, with whom he had been involved in Black Sabbath, while Jake brought in Greg Chaisson, who he had initially met during auditions for Ozzy’s band. With the foursome complete, it was time for the band that had been brought together to pull together their debut album, the self-titled “Badlands”.
The opening two tracks of the album are the money shots and are the ones that have forever since been Exhibit A and Exhibit B as to why this band should have been in the superstar class. “High Wire” is a great opening track, showcasing all four members doing their job at the highest class imaginable. This is followed by the single “Dreams in the Dark” where Ray’s vocals ramp up, and Jake’s guitar has a very ‘ultimate sin’ sound about it during the solo. These two songs have always been the ones that I would play to people to convince them that Badlands is a very good band and a very impressive album, but the remainder has to also be very good if it is to live up to the opening.
“Jade’s Song” is an instrumental that comes after the opening two tracks on the album, quiet and reserved, written by Jake and showcasing the other side of his guitaring talent.
“Winter’s Call” starts off in the same fashion, segueing from that quiet perspective with Ray singing gently over the top, before the track bursts into action, with its heavy blues base emphasises by Ray’s top notch vocals.
“Dancing on the Edge” is arguably the hardest song on the album, moving along at a fast clip and Ray singing hard with gusto. Jake’s guitaring here again does feel as though it surpasses what he did in his previous band, which is a big call, but that’s how terrific it is. The same can be said of “Hard Driver”, another fast paced track that combines the brilliant bass lines of Chaisson with Jake’s outstanding guitar to drive this song throughout. These are both sensational songs that almost no one seems to know, and that seems like a crime. They are split on the album by the excellent “Streets Cry Freedom” which starts off in a mid tempo range before changing up to bring home the second half of the song with a faster energy.
OK, so “Rumblin’ Train” does dive back into that blues sound, something that seems like a slight letdown considering the songs that have come before it. It’s a stock standard blues rock song, that’s probably all you need to know. “Devil’s Stomp” runs a similar agenda that “Streets Cry Freedom” does with the slower start to the song before it breaks out at the two minute mark with a hard core guitar riff and Ray’s killer vocals stealing the song. Another awesome track on the album. The album then concludes with “Seasons”, which, if I am going to get picky (and I am) is the wrong tempo for a closing track. Nothing wrong with looking for an epic finish to the album, but at least ramp it up a bit in doing so. It’s not a bad song, just not as good as others on this album.
All through this album, it is important to note that all four members of the band are superb. Eric Singer’s drumming, as he was becoming renown for by this stage of his career, is fantastic. Hard hitting, giving those 4/4 and 2/4 beats everything as the signature power of the band. In the same way as Cozy Powell was doing through the decade, Eric was laying his stamp over the albums he played on, and this is no different. Greg Chaisson’s bass lines are just wonderful, providing the core base that allows Jake to play his guitar the way he does, without the music losing any of its depth and power. It is a great performance. And as you will already have guessed, Jake and Ray’s efforts here are platinum. Jake’s guitaring is just superb, and showing that he certainly wasn’t let go from his previous band because of his skills, while Ray’s vocals are supreme, channelling Tony Martin and Ronnie Dio and playing an integral part in making this album as good as it is.
Given the quality of the personnel in the band, it was pretty hard to go past buying this album when it was first released. It had been given a reasonable amount of exposure in Australia’s ‘Hot Metal’ magazine at the time, and having loved both of Ozzy’s previous two albums that had Jake E. Lee on guitar especially, I leapt at this when it finally hit the record stores. I bought it on vinyl from Utopia Records, and played it a lot. I taped it on cassette and had it in the car. And overall I thought it was… pretty good! It didn’t all gel with what I was listening to at the time, and perhaps that slight bias against the blues side of the rock on offer was a part of that. My overriding memories of that time was that it was a really good album but not one I could play in front of other albums released at the time.
On the occasional listens I gave to it after that I found more enjoyment, probably due to that slight bias having retreated after those end of teenage years. Tragedy occurred in 2001 when a flood destroyed all of my vinyl albums, including this one, which given the inability to find this on physical media in the modern age is even more distressing. And have you tried to find this on a streaming service? Also impossible. YouTube is your best bet, though for me my mp3 version is still my best friend.
So when it came to this anniversary coming up, I began listening to it once again. And I found out just how good it is again. It’s a crime that this album isn’t better known in the modern age. Those amazing vocals of Ray Gillen, that blazing guitar from Jake E. Lee, that combination is still fantastic to this day.
Unfortunately, the curse of Ray Gillen’s bands continued down the track. The tensions between Gillen and Lee ramped up during the tour to support the album, and into the writing for the follow up. Gillen was eventually fired during the tour for that album, which had come a year after his initial diagnosis for AIDS. That tragic end… is for another episode down the track.
In the end, this debut album is one that for a short space of time lit up the airwaves and the metal magazines, and if the music gods had aligned in the right way, would have been the first of many more terrific albums from a great lineup. That didn’t happen, but you can still enjoy the short burst of joy that we did receive.
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