1303. Black Sabbath / Live at Last. 1980. 5/5

Black Sabbath the band had been stuck in murky waters for a couple of years by the time that this album came to light. Everyone knows the story of the eventual dismissal of Ozzy Osbourne from the band, the health problems being faced by Bill Ward, and the difficulty in the band really knowing what they were going to do from that point. Then there was the entrance of Ronnie James Dio, whose wonderful vocals and writing appeared to revitalise the band with the release of their ninth album “Heaven and Hell” in April of 1980. Prior to this though, the band had parted ways with their previous management led by Patrick Meehan, and had been embroiled in a long running dispute. The culmination of this saw Meehan through a different record label re-release all of the Black Sabbath back catalogue without the band’s consent. As well as this, he also owned the rights to live recordings that had been made of the band in 1973 on the tour to support the album “Volume 4”. These recordings were made with the view to releasing a live album following the tour, but this idea was abandoned when the band felt they were unhappy with the way they had come out. Six years later however, a disgruntled Meehan decided that as he had the rights to the recordings, and on the back of not only the split in the band’s fanbase in regards to Ozzy Osbourne or Ronnie James Dio being the lead singer of the band, and the fact that the new album “Heaven and Hell” had already sold very well, that he would release an album consisting of those live recordings. And so, once again, without the permission of the band, Black Sabbath had its first live album publicly released under the name of “Live at Last”.

If you are looking for a stunningly incisive review of this album, one that is full of interesting insights and dramatic revelations, then I’m afraid you are in the wrong place. That’s the difficulty with live albums, because the majority of them are very good. And this is no exception. Because the songs selected to be played on this tour that appear on this album are all very good. And the musician's performance of the band on these recorded songs is very very good. So there isn’t anything particularly enlightening that I can offer.
The songs here off “Volume 4” sound as fresh as they were on this tour. “Tomorrow’s Dream” opens up the album in a great way, even though I would love to have heard “Wheels of Confusion” as that opening. “Sweet Leaf” follows, and is particularly crushing through the middle of the song and into Tony Iommi’s guitar solo, backed by that ridiculous bass line underneath and Bill Ward’s hammering drums. Fabulous stuff, oh yeah baby! “Killing Yourself to Live” is one of the great classic Black Sabbath songs that still seems so underrated despite its obvious brilliance. It again is highlighted by Tony’s guitar with Geezer’s booming bassline running underneath, and Ozzy’s wonderful vocal lines over the top. What a great song this is, and this is a great version of it.
The “Volume 4” double up comes next though in reverse order from how they appear on that album, with the barnstorming “Cornucopia” charging through the middle of the album, and flowing into the utter brilliance of “Snowblind”, that opening solo show into the main riff – just magnificence. And Ozzy proclaiming ‘my eyes are blind but I can see’... Geezer’s lyrics are just so amazing in this song and Ozzy sings them so well. Then we have the heavy hitters from the big early albums, “Children of the Grave” and “War Pigs” either side of the album turnover. Both sound as huge, heavy and magnificent as they always have.
The medley of various pieces thrown together as a part of the wild and winding version of “Wicked World” here is surprisingly good. “Wicked World” sounds so much better here in the live environment than it does on the debut album, and the middle of the track has lots of great surprises thrown in such as “Into the Void” and “Supernaut”, and a drum solo from Bill Ward in the mix. At almost 19 minutes this alone is worth listening to the album for. Perhaps the only slightly disappointing ting about the album is that “Paranoid” is the closing track. It sounds so... simple and ineffective... compared to the wonderful and brilliant things the band has played before this. Yes, I get that they have to play it, even back then in 1973, but surely something else would have been a better set closer.

You’ve heard me say it before, and no doubt you will hear me say it again. Live albums should almost always be automatic 5/5 albums, because they contain the bands best songs in their best environment. Now, whether this is the case here given the complexities of how this release occurred is open to question. And I will once again raise another point about live albums, where I would prefer to hear the setlist as it was performed, and not chopped and changed. And that is not the case here. This album is a slightly rearranged selection of the songs performed over those two nights in 1973. Whatever the reason is for that, it doesn’t actually harm the flow of the album. Though, I guess this is mostly because I didn’t KNOW the order had been changed until four years ago, when the band released the Super Deluxe version of “Volume 4”, which contain the entire concert remastered for release. And it sounds fantastic.
None of that actually takes away from this release. As a snapshot of the band in this era it is fantastic. The band sounds terrific. Ozzy’s vocals are surprisingly good throughout, the fabulous basslines of Geezer Butler hold everything together, Tony Iommi's guitar breezes through the speakers and Bill Ward’s drumming is brutally proficient. The song selection is top shelf, and with just songs from the first four albums to choose from it just works.
I’ve had a couple of copies of this over the years, but in the last 12 months I managed to find a second-hand vinyl copy at my local record store Music Farmers in Wollongong, and that has been the version I have revisited over the last couple of days. And it is still as good as the first time I heard it. Prior to the Super Deluxe editions of albums coming out with the bonus live material, this was all we had of the original foursome recorded live, so it was always a special release. And, to be fair, it still is. If you want to hear Sabbath with Ozzy, this is still your best bet. “Reunion” is okay. The live albums from the last tour are okay. This has the lifeblood still running through it.

1302. Mötley Crüe / Theatre of Pain. 1985. 2.5/5

Motley Crue’s sophomore album, the heavy yet accessible “Shout at the Devil”, had catapulted the band to national and international recognition, on the back of songs such as “Too Young to Fall in Love”, “Helter Skelter”, “Looks That Kill” and the title track “Shout at the Devil”. It was this song, and its perceived imagery of Satanism that was exacerbated by the album cover, that had many religious and political groups claiming that they had nefarious thoughts and plans. It was the time of the PMRC in the United States and their growing influence upon the media. In the long run this did not harm the sales of the album and even provided further promotion for it. During the recording of that album bass guitarist Nikki Sixx had crashed a friend’s Porsche which he had stolen while drunk, and the resulting shoulder injury found him develop a Percocet addiction that transitioned quickly to a $3,500 a day heroin addiction. They then found even greater popularity and airplay – and infamy - on tour when they supported Ozzy Osborne, before going on the Monsters of Rock tour in 1984 with Van Halen and AC/DC. On each of these occasions the band were a huge hit, but their backstage antics caused friction wherever they went. The band’s debauchery had shocked even Ozzy himself on that tour, and on the Monsters of Rock tour the band was eventually restricted to only leaving their trailer to play their slot, and having to leave the venue immediately afterwards, following incidents where Vince Neil had bitten Eddie Van Halen, Tommy Lee had bitten Malcolm Young and had also gotten into a fistfight with David Lee Roth. Popular with fans they may have been, but not with touring bands. There was even a discussion at one stage by the band of firing guitarist Mick Mars, which was only saved by then Ozzy bass guitarist, Bob Daisley, reminding them that they should not change something that wasn’t broken.
On December 8, 1984, in a car driven by Vince Neil while severely under the influence of alcohol, Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle was killed when Neil crashed the car that he was a passenger in. With the threat of serious jail time a possibility, Neil found a way to escape this threat by writing a very large cheque and doing 30 days jail time, of which he only completed 20. Never a dull moment in the Motley Crue camp.
With all of this going on, the band finally entered the studio in January 1985 to finally write and record their follow up to their sophomore album. At the time, given the lengthy period between releases, there must have been some concern that they had failed to strike while the iron was hot. The end result offered a mixed response to those thoughts.

Taking in everything that I’ve mentioned in the opening monologue to this episode, one can only wonder what the mood and headspace of the band was as they wrote and recorded this album, and in many ways that seems obvious when you listen to the finished product. The lyrics are not groundbreaking or particularly outstanding, and as they came from a mostly overly influenced lyrics writer that isn’t much of a stretch, though Nikki did seem to stick to a central theme. “City Boy Blues” is basically just a revved-up blues riff throughout as Vince moans about being unable to break the shackles of the city boy blues. It’s mostly a repetitive uninspired opening track that hardly sets the world on fire like the opening tracks on just about every other Motley Crue album does. “Louder Than Hell” mirrors the sound and style of track from “Shout at the Devil” with the guitar riff and Neil’s vocal stylings and squeals, but without the attitude that album possesses. It was actually a leftover track from that album, which explains why it sounds similar to that album, and also why it didn’t make the cut for that album. “Keep Your Eye on the Money” has some good lyrics early on, switching between the gambling and drug metaphors, but eventually becomes a song where the title of the song is repeated over and over in the back half to completely sink whatever credence it may have begun with. It isn’t a new technique for the band, and one that gets the same treatment on the second side of the album, beginning with “Tonight (We Need a Lover)”, “Use It or Lose It”, “Raise Your Hands to Rock” and even “Fight for Your Rights”. And yes, it is a very rock and roll formula to have repeated choruses or verses to encourage pop lyrical memory from the fans, and maybe it is just me, but this album does have it in overkill mode.
So lyrically the album does fall a little short on the band’s opening two albums. Musically... well there is a similar problem really. Tommy Lee’s drumming is solid on this album, but he isn’t really pushing himself to new heights, trying to be innovative or at the very least energetic in a way that has your head bobbing along in time with him. Mick Mars guitar work is as clean as always; he lets loose with a couple of bursts of soloing and with a riff that makes its mark but none of it is as spectacular as the previous two albums. Vince Neil’s vocals are serviceable but don’t inspire much enthusiasm. And Nikki Sixx’s bass work – well I guess that’s another story as well. In recent times it has been claimed from several sources that Nikki has not recorded the bass guitar in several instances during the band’s history. Now this isn’t unusual in the history of music, where other musicians have recorded instruments on an album uncredited, so it isn’t really a shock or surprise, but it has been made to be so. In the instance of this album, former Motley Crue guitarist Greg Leon recently said in an interview that Sixx did not play any bass on “Theatre of Pain”.
The two songs that stand out on this album, and the ones that have proven to be the most popular through the years are the two single releases, “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” and “Home Sweet Home”. “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” is a cover of the Brownsville Station song, and is immediately a standout on this album because it suddenly revives the fun and energetic part of the band that for the most part of this album lies dormant. And it sounds like they are having fun playing it. Vince sounds up and at his best, Mick’s guitaring is suddenly inspired, and Tommy’s drumming is far more upbeat. It stands out like sore thumb on this album. “Home Sweet Home” of course is the power ballad, the piano driven song that concludes side one of the album, and became the band’s signature song. It is a step further along from what they had tried before, and its style grabbed the attention of the target audience. As a leading light and forerunner to the singles oriented glam metal future of bands such as Poison, Cinderella and others, “Theatre of Pain” can lay claim to the one they all used as a template. Not only with the cover song they turned into a teenage anthem, but the power ballad that seduced the hopeless romantics of the world, or those just hoping that it would end up in sex. “Home Sweet Home” became that template that drove many bands that followed Motley Crue into the charts on the back of the sickly-sweet ballad, and with that cemented the bands reputation, and arguably also their conversion from the heavier side of metal to the glam styled version that exploded in the mid-1980's.

My introduction to Motley Crue came reasonably early on in my conversion to the heavier side of music. I had asked my heavy metal music dealer to record me an album that had become the next in my line of requirements. He asked me what I wanted him to put on the other side of the cassette, to which I said to him to choose something he thought I might like. The cassette came back with “Shout at the Devil” as the chosen second side album, and I never looked back.
As it turned out, “Theatre of Pain” is not an album I actually got until the start of the 1990’s decade, well after I had acquired the other albums of the band’s discography. I knew of course the two singles – very well as it turns out, as one was the overplayed ballad on TV and at parties, and the other was covered a band that my heavy metal music dealer played in around the local pubs. So, having been very familiar with Motley Crue’s four other albums, I eventually came around to buying my own copy of this album. And it is fair to say that I was underwhelmed by it. But I’m guessing you all had already guessed that by now. I don’t think it would have mattered what order I got these albums though, this for me would always have been the least likely to succeed. It doesn’t have the raw aggression of “Too Fast for Love” or the heavy tones of “Shout at the Devil”, the energetic exaltations of “Girls, Girls, Girls” or the anthemic “Dr Feelgood”. I’ve always found this to be the ugly duckling of the band’s iconic era. Much of the album is uninspiring in the ways you look for Motley Crue albums and songs. If I was to choose a best of track list between those five albums I wouldn’t choose one song from this album. And initially that may well have been because I heard it last of all those five albums, all of which I found at least half of their tracks appealing. Here though, it doesn't grab me.
The CD came back off the shelves this week for its habitual listen in the Metal Cavern. I’ve had it on at work also. And at no stage did I ever really grasp anything new from it. In fact, the only time my head popped up at work because of an energetic burst of a song was when “Theatre of Pain” had concluded, and the next album started in rotation. I think for me that sums up exactly how I feel about this album.
In the Crue catalogue, “Theatre of Pain” for me ranks at #9 of their 9 studio album releases. I’m sure there are fans out there who have thrown their listening devices out the window upon this revelation. Sorry to disappoint you. Just think about the fact though that this album has always disappointed me more than you are disappointed with me. Or, something like that.

1301. Original Soundtrack / The Blues Brothers. 1980. 4/5.

Living in Australia and not being exposed to the show Saturday Night Live like those on the American continent were, most of us had little idea of the Blues Brothers before the movie hit our shores. And for those of us who were reasonably young when that happened, we didn’t see it until it came on television or on video. But as to the history of how the band came into being, and became something beyond the two-dimensional cell of the TV and movie screens, I knew none of that at the time.
The inspiration for the band came from an early sketch on Saturday Night Live, and the love of blues music of two castmates, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. Aykroyd had grown up in Ottowa, Canada, and had been exposed to many of the greats of the blues genre during his youth. One night he even got up and played drums for Muddy Waters when his regular drummer decided to take a break. He also performed on occasions with the Toronto-based Downchild Blues Band, co-founded in 1969 by two brothers, Donnie and Richard "Hock" Walsh, who served as an inspiration for the two Blues Brothers characters. Aykroyd modelled Elwood Blues in part on Donnie Walsh, a harmonica player and guitarist, while Belushi's Jake Blues character was modelled after Hock Walsh, Downchild's lead singer.
During the Saturday Night Live years, Aykroyd rented a blues bar where the cast would go after recordings. Aykroyd filled a jukebox with songs, and Belushi bought an amplifier and they kept some musical instruments there for anyone who wanted to jam. It was at the bar that Aykroyd and Ron Gwynne wrote and developed the story which Aykroyd turned into the draft screenplay for the Blues Brothers movie. It was also at the bar that Aykroyd introduced Belushi to the blues, which became a fascination, and it was not long before the two began singing with local blues bands. Jokingly, SNL band leader Howard Shore suggested that they call themselves "The Blues Brothers".
Eventually both Aykroyd and Belushi started to get serious about the band idea, and with the help of Paul Shaffer who was the leader of the SNL band, they began to look for the right people SNL band members saxophonist "Blue" Lou Marini and trombonist-saxophonist Tom Malone, who had previously played in Blood, Sweat & Tears, were the first. Shaffer's suggested guitarist Steve Cropper and bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn, who had played with Booker T. & the M.G.'s, and who both agreed to come on board. To fulfill Belushi’s desire for a trumpet player and guitarist, they found Alan Rubin and Matt "Guitar" Murphy, who had performed with many blues legends. With the band together, the final touch came for the two leads themselves, who donned hats and sunglasses in the tradition of John Lee Hooker to complete their look. And this was born the Blues Brothers Band – and not too long after, the movie that carried their name, “The Blues Brothers”.

The soundtracks album has a couple of things that are left off that are a very slight disappointment, but not earth shatteringly so. It doesn’t have the version of “Stand by Your Man” that the band does at Bob’s Country Bunker, that brings the crowd there to tears. It is one of the many great moments in the film, and although it is not included on the soundtrack it is perhaps best viewed in the film anyway. There are also some great songs that appear in the background in several scenes, a couple by Sam & Dave when the boys are driving around in the Bluesmobile, and another couple by John Lee Hooker, one of which he appears in the film performing, in the Maxwell Street scene outside the cafe owned by Aretha Franklin’s character. These songs would have rounded out the soundtrack album but in the end, they don’t make it any less of an album.
The other thing is that these versions of the songs were all recorded in the studio, and that means that the ones that were performed live for the movie have less of a feel and energy as those versions in the movie has. For example, the two songs played at the Palace Hotel Ballroom, “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” and “Sweet Home Chicago”, sound less energetic and less in the moment than the versions in the film. The same goes for “Gimme Some Lovin’”, the song halted at Bob’s Country Bunker when they realise that it isn’t either of the two types of music, ‘country OR western’, or even the “Theme from Rawhide”. These versions are fine, believe me, and if you are listening to this soundtrack you probably won’t care in the slightest about what I’m explaining here, it's just that as a hard core fan of this film, I notice the slight changes here from the versions I know so well from the movie.
Beyond that, there are the other musical moments that made this such a terrific film. “She Caught the Katy”, the song played when Jake is being released from prison and being picked up by Elwood is great, and the Peter Gunn Theme that follows them around from most of the film fits perfectly as well. Ray Charles’s version with the band of “Shake a Tail Feather” was played over Australian radio for some time after the release of the soundtrack and I got to know it well before I’d even seen the film itself. “The Old Landmark” as performed in the church scene with James Brown has its charm, as does Aretha Franklin and her own great hit “Think”, but again it is not as energetic and fabulous as it is in the film itself. On the other hand, Cab Calloway singing his own terrific song “Minnie the Moocher” comes across fabulously here, and the final ensemble of “Jailhouse Rock” finishes off the soundtrack in the same way as the film itself, in a flurry of energy and dance.

What is there to say about this film that hasn’t already been said somewhere else? As with everything in life, there will be those of you out there that either do not like this film at all, or find it is only average. And no doubt will feel the same way about the music that makes this movie so entertaining. As those of you who follow this podcast will know, the blues is not one of the genres of music that I follow. But from the first time I saw this movie, the music that is such a major part of the movie also grabbed me. But what I enjoy most about the soundtrack is the mix of artists. The terrific music that the actual Blues Brothers band produces here for a start. I mean, the bringing together of these wonderful artists to become that band itself. There is only one song on this soundtrack that they are not the backing band to, and that is the James Brown gospel song in the church scene. Every other song has the Blues Brothers Band as the mainstay, and they sound terrific. It is remarkable that such a talented bunch of musicians were brought together to be the backing to two comedians who thought it would be a fun idea to start their own band to play the music they loved. That it would never have happened without their shared love of blues music is a somewhat amazing thing.
So this soundtrack showcases their abilities, along with the very special guests they talked into not only contributing to the soundtrack but also appearing in the movie. Dan Aykroyd apparently demanded that they be able to appear in the film to support the songs that were built around them. The studio wanted more current artists who had had hits around that time in order to help the profile of the movie, but Aykroyd and director John Landis would not budge, and the movie is all the better for it.
And of course, the amazing talents of Aykroyd himself alongside John Belushi. Comedically they were proven performers, but musically could they actually hold this film together? The answer of course is yes, and this soundtrack proves it.
I’ve had the soundtrack going around now for a week, and whenever I do listen to it, all it makes me think about is watching the film all over again. The performances here are terrific, and it covers the very best pieces of the movie. But you can’t see any car chases and pile up listening to a soundtrack.
If I could only choose ten movies to watch for the rest of my life, The Blues Brothers would be one of them. The music is a huge part of that. It is well worth your time checking it out.

1300. Scorpions / World Wide Live. 1985. 5/5

By the time the Scorpions had reached the middle of the 1980’s decade, their popularity had reached a peak that they could only have ever imagined that they would ever achieve. While they had had big selling albums through the 1970’s, their surge on the back of their 1980’s album such as “Animal Magnetism”, “Blackout” and “Love at First Sting” had been on another level entirely, and their tour around the world on the back of “Love at First Sting” had seen record crowds and sales especially from the singles “Rock You Like a Hurricane” and “Still Loving You”.
In 1978, with the news that guitarist Uli Jon Roth had decided to leave the band, Scorpions released their first double live album titled “Tokyo Tapes”, one that highlighted the very best songs the band had recorded over the first five albums of their career. It acted as a nice way to conclude that era of the band. The arrival of Matthias Jabs as his replacement brought about a change in style for the band, one that saw a slightly heavier direction taken, one that not only reflected the changing tide of music early in the 1980’s decade but also to suit the arrival of the new guitarist and his style.
With the band riding the crest of that wave, the decision was made to record several shows on their tour to release their second live album. At some point, the decision was made that the album would include only songs from the albums since “Tokyo Tapes” had been released, that being the three albums released in the 1980’s, along with Jabs’ first album with the band, 1979’s “Lovedrive”. In hindsight this was a savvy move. It meant that, when listening to both of the live albums back to back, it not only gives a wonderful anthology of the band’s great songs from their first release right through to their ninth studio album, there are no repeat tracks. It gives more of the 1980’s hits a chance to get their live rendition recorded for posterity, and though at the time there was some blowback from older fans saying that the band had abandoned their earlier material, the way it was been constructed has indeed turned out to be the best format the band could have achieved.
This the band released their second live album “World Wide Live”, an album that not only showcased the greatness of the band in the live setting, but proved to be my introduction to their amazing music.

My usual spiel about live albums remains the same as I talk you through this album – that a live album should be an automatic 5/5 album, because you get the band’s best material in its best environment, the stage that it has been written to be performed on. And I can say that without question that this is the case for “World Wide Live”. It has the band’s best tracks from their previous four albums all represented, and they all sound brilliant here, in some cases maybe even better than their studio versions.
“Coming Home” is the perfect opening track for the album, with lyrics that relate the band’s feelings about its fan base, while also doubling as an allternative story as well. But simply saying that “I know for me it is like... coming home”, that brings the crowd into the show from the outset, and sets up what is to come. It’s a great song, jumping and jivy, one that brings the crowd to its feet. This crashes straight into the brilliant “Blackout”, one of the band’s best, a song that should never be out of its setlist. Klaus Meine’s vocals here set the scene along with Rudolph Schenker’s excellent rhythm guitar riff. This then enters the crawling guitar riff that opens “Bad Boys Running Wild”, another great anthemic track with a super guitar riff and singalong lyrics that offers the best of the band. These opening three tracks on the album find a great chord from the outset.
The version here of “Loving You Sunday Morning” is one of the best proof in points of live tracks that can make studio versions pop. This song, that opens the “Lovedrive” album is a terrific track in its own right, but perhaps is a slight plodder on the album itself. Here, it sparkles, with all of the great spots on the song brought to life and made all sparkly. The riff is a bit heavier, the pace is a bit faster, and it all seems to fit better in the live setting. A great track. The same can be said for the next two tracks as well. Both songs are good on their particular studio albums, but they sound better in this environment. “Make it Real” from “Animal Magnetism” and “Big City Nights” from “Love at First Sting” have more potency and a better feel all round on this album, and make the middle of the first album worthy of its content. It is topped off by the always brilliant instrumental track “Coast to Coast”, with Rudolph’s riffing throughout backed by the excellent rhythm section of Herman Rarebell’s titanic drum beat and Francis Buchholz’s metronomic bass line setting the base that makes this song so special.
The band then puts together their two enormous power ballads back to back, something that would always seem to be a dangerous thing in the live setting, chancing bringing the nights momentum to a standstill. But these are no ordinary power ballads, and Scorpions are no ordinary band. They pull this off perfectly, playing just the first half of “Holiday”, which then segues perfectly into “Still Loving You”. The way the band emotes during these tracks, musically and vocally, not only makes these a highlight, but showcases the side of the band that actually attracted a lot of fans to the band in the first place.
Not me though, because what attracted me to the band was their hard rock classics, and that is where the album heads now. “Rock You Like a Hurricane” crashes in to restore heavy loud order to the album, as anthemic as ever and a great live version. Following up is the brilliant “Can’t Live Without You”, perfectly introduced through the beginning of the song, and that bursts with energy throughout. Even when just listening to this section of the album, you can see the fun the band is having on stage while playing these songs, it is infectious. From here the drive through the back half of the album continues with Lovedrive’s “Another Piece of Meat” and on to the closing track of the gig, “Dynamite”, another song with such power and energy it takes you along for the ride. Everything the band had kept in reserve while performing their power ballad duo has been expended by the conclusion of these four tracks.
The encore starts with the quite magnificent “The Zoo”, one of the band’s best, and another where Rudolph’s rhythm riff dominates the track with its groove and perfect setting. They then bust into “No One Like You”, another song that has its highlights from the dual guitars, the delightful squeals from Matthias’s guitar complemented by Schenker pure riffing underneath holding the song together. The album and gig then conclude with “Can’t Get Enough”, including a solo spot from Matthias Jabs to remind everyone that he is still the gunslinger in the band alongside the band leader Schenker. All in all, 16 songs that remain almost unmatched in the band’s career, collected here to sit in posterity forever.

Back in the first half of 1986, I was beginning my heavy metal journey, one that mostly involved my heavy metal music dealer being asked to record me albums that he had brought up in conversation that he thought were excellent. I would find a blank cassette at home that had something on it that I didn’t want (or on rare occasions when I had some cash, I would buy new ones), and would bring them to school, and he would take them home overnight and bring them back the next day with new offerings for me to dine out on. On occasions when I had requested an album and he asked ‘what do you want on the other side of the cassette?’ I would suggest that he could put on something that he thought I might like. This occurred for me sometime during the first half of 1986, when on the back side of an album he recorded for me was the album “World Wide Live” by Scorpions – or at least, however much would fit on the space available. It was my first real meeting with the band, and I was immediately smitten. The great songs keep rolling into each other, they are upbeat and pacey with great riffs and those amazing unique vocals. Everything came together, and I caught the bug.
It would be a couple of years before I started to get the studio albums of the band, not until I began university and sought out a particular second hand record shop in Wollongong, but this album was enough in the meantime. The riffs from Rudolph Schenker, that became the mainstay of each song, were just superb. Matthias Jabs soloing and squeals and intricate pieces he kept throwing in – case in point the opening scrawling guitar to “Bad Boys Running Wild” - are wonderful, and his trademark to the band on those four albums to that point in time he had played on. And Klaus Meine’s vocals are out of this world.
For the past week my CD copy of this album has been back in my stereo, and I have relived it over and over, and it has brought back so many great memories of those school days when I was first introduced to it. It will always do that, because it is very much tied to that time of my life. And now having done that, I just want to go back and listen to the four albums that these songs were taken from and relive them as well. It is a difficult thing to rank live albums in the scheme of things. My heart tells me this is one of the best lives albums I own of any band. I am more certain that it is the best live album that the Scorpions have released. But as a vehicle to discovering the band, for me it was the perfect introduction.

1299. Paradise Lost / Draconian Times. 1995. 4/5

The journey taken by Paradise Lost over the first few albums of their development showcased quite the journey, and one that saw them making a mark in European countries that were well versed in the music that the band stylised their own output as, but with little recognition in their own home in the UK. Those earliest albums focused on a death and doom metal style, musically and also within the vocal stylings of vocalist Nick Holmes. Having been signed by Music for Nations, they released their third album “Shades of God”, where the progression away from this began in earnest. The band's musical approach certainly evolved within the structure of this album, with the addition of quieter passages in the song's compositions, the softening of vocalist Nick Holmes's death growl, and Gregor Mackintosh's incorporation of acoustic guitar to his sound. The follow up album to this, “Icon”, continued down the path that had been lain, and further cemented the band’s popularity in Europe.
Coming into what became “Draconian Times”, Paradise Lost found themselves on the very edge of a possible major breakthrough. The release of four albums in four years, though it had been a regular occurrence for bands in the decades of the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s, had become a lost artform, and by not only achieving this themselves, but in the process having created a pathway for the morphing of their own identity into an evolving sound, they had tapped into a fan base that was looking for exactly what they were producing. This even led to the band – through a photo of lead vocalist Nick Holmes – being splashed over the front cover of Kerrang’s issue 549 on June 10 1995 with the headline “The New Metallica – The Band You Need to Hear”. That is a massive statement, and one that threw an enormous amount of pressure and weight onto the back of the band on the eve of the release of their fifth studio album. The question to be asked was, could Paradise Lost and their new album live up to that kind of hype?

Something that I read out there on the internet I think actually provides an interesting analysis of the evolving nature of Paradise Lost up to this album, about how the themes would have been approached by the band at various stages of their career. And here it is: 5 years earlier, it would have been about anger and inhumanity; 4 years earlier, it would have been about guilt and self-denial; 3 years earlier, about religion and sin; 2 years earlier, about loneliness and judgement. In 1995, it was shadowy and indefinite, the lyrics very open and symbolic, still dark, but in a different way. And although this album became incredibly important in setting a template for the genre extension of gothic metal, of the first five Paradise Lost albums, “Draconian Times” seems to have the least distinct character. That isn’t a criticism, it is just an observation.
Much of this album continues to remind me of artists and influences that may well not have been those of the band, but the music and its style and progression undeniably find these comparisons inevitable. The obvious one that is always spoken of is of Metallica’s black album, in tempo and riffage of the music and the style of vocals used by Nick Holmes here, though I will always hear a muted version of Burton C. Bell and Peter Steele as well. But when I have this on in the background, I absolutely catch snatches of Joy Division and The Smiths and Morrissey, which again has been referenced at points during the band’s career.
Much is made of the evolution of Holmes’s vocals from those first two albums to this album. The growl became less prevalent along the way until we reach this album where it is non-existent. And there is no doubt that, along with the music the band was writing, this created an inference and a belief that this is a more commercial album than the early works, or indeed that that was what the band was aiming for. I’ve never really believed that. Having started out in the late 1980’s where thrash metal was still reigning; and then moving through the early 1990’s where grunge took over the commerciality of the music world, the maturing of Paradise Lost’s sound mirrors other artists in the way they approached their music. Smashing Pumpkins on their outstanding album “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” were mixing grunge and alternative with pure heavy metal in places, and the angst of the lyrics and vocals were not following a plan for commercial success. And I think the same stands true for “Draconian Times”. While the path had been set to a degree from “Shades of God” to “Icon” to this album, it doesn’t come across as a deliberate ploy with an endgame in sight.
Why does this album work so well then? Why is it generally considered to be one of the band’s best, and to have been so influential when it comes to this style of metal? The simple answer is – because it is written and performed so well. The tempo of the album is set from very early on. There is no real wriggle room when it comes to that, but what that does is allows you to settle into the album like you would a comfortable chair, just find your comfort spot and let the album do the rest. New drummer Lee Morris has obviously been well versed for exactly what is expected of him on this album, and he does it superbly. Stephen Edmondson on bass guitar settles in alongside Aaron Aedy’s rhythm guitar perfectly, combining to produce the thick heavy undertone of each song that is the defining aspect of the album. Greog Mackintosh’s leads on this album are understated, not as outstandingly prominent as they have been in the past, but the perfunctory way they intersperse the songs is the perfect rejoinder for them. And yes, Nick Holmes’s vocals are masterful, drawing in an emotional aspect that draws the whole album together. There is a natural flow from song to song, something that if it isn’t done well, the songs can begin to feel a bit too samey, like there has been no definition between one to the next. That isn’t the case here, each song has its own individuality, each casting its own monolith over the album.

When it comes to putting together episodes for this podcast, inevitably there will come times when I am strapped for time, or have so many albums that have come up for their anniversary in the times frames I have set as the parameters for this podcast, that I am forced to put aside some albums, and hope that this podcast is still going in five years time so that I can give them the episode they deserve on that next anniversary. And there have also been some rare occasions when I have been personally sequestered by members of the public - who are much appreciated avid listeners and promotors of this podcast - who have asked if I am going to do an episode on a particular album that is coming up for its anniversary. And if my answer has not been to their liking, they then make it a demand. Such is the position that I have been placed in by two much respected listeners about this particular album, when I waffled on whether or not this album would be one of the ones that received an episode or if it would be cut from the list. Part of the problem with either result is that there is every chance that they may well get their wish in having an album receive its episode, as is the case here, but they may also not like what I have to say about it. Which is why I certainly do NOT encourage requests. Anyway, to Kirsty from Perth, and Jeff AKA Doomy – your demands have been met. And I truly appreciate the love both of you have shown for me and my little inconsequential podcast.
I have never been a big listener to Paradise Lost, or other bands in the same sphere such as My Dying Bride and Katatonia. I have albums by them, I listen to them on occasions, I admire much of their work, but they just aren’t on my go to list. But sometimes certain albums or songs grab your ear at the most interesting times, and from there you have an entry point that never seems to go away. And with Paradise Lost it happened to be this particular album, though not on its release, which is perhaps a shame, for during the year of 1995 it would have been a handy addition to my playlist. It was a couple of years later, when we were living in the inner city suburb of Sydney called Erskineville. The music most listened to by my wife Helen and her friend group from work included bands like I’ve already mentioned here today – The Smiths, Morrissey, Smashing Pumpkins, along with P.J. Harvey, The Cure and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. There’s a lot of desolate work there, and one of these friends of ours whose musical tastes took in these bands but also lent to my own music tastes, one day said “Bill, I’ve got an album that will mix with this perfectly, and you’ll like it too”. So one night he introduced us all to Paradise Lost and “Draconian Times”, and while it didn’t become a hit for those others in the group, they were happy to have it on. Occasionally. Maybe not for long, but long enough. And that was my introduction. I got a copy of the album recorded for me on cassette, and it resided in my car until we moved back home to Kiama in 1999, at which point it was lost. It wasn’t until the 2010’s, when I began the long journey back into bands that I had once heard material from and began to catch up on their catalogues that I met up with Paradise Lost again, and this album in particular. And that journey continues to today. This past week I have again delved back into the wonderful moodiness of this album, on one particular evening on my lonesome in a darkened room as this album played twice in succession without interruption, and I found myself entranced once again by the tones of emotion that both calmed and overwhelmed me as I listened. Is this the perfect state to listen to this album? For me I believe that it is. Having the album channel through me without any other distractions still allows me to gain the most from everything this album and band has to offer.
I am loathe to offer a ranking of this album within the Paradise Lost catalogue, firstly because as I have mentioned I am not a massive listener to the band’s albums, and secondly this album was my entry point to the band, and will therefore have an unfair advantage over the others. Best just to say that having listened to this album more than any others over the years, and it still enchants me to this day in a way that not many albums do.

1298. W.A.S.P. / Still Not Black Enough. 1995. 3/5

From the band’s inception through to 1990, and the tour to promote the release of their fourth studio album “The Headless Children”, W.A.S.P. had been on an inexorable rise in the heavy metal scene. Four excellent albums and one live album had seen their profile rise across the world and their stage shows had created an enthusiasm and a horror at turning up to one of their shows. The rise in tensions within the band, especially between band leader Blackie Lawless and guitar hero Chris Holmes had seen Holmes quit the band, and eventually following the conclusion of the tour the band broke up.
In its place, Lawless went about creating a solo album, a writing and recording process that took over two years to complete. A concept based around a rather autobiographical character named Johnathon Steel, the album came to be called “The Crimson Idol”. However, his plans to release it as a solo album were thwarted by his record company and promotors, who insisted that it should be released under the band name W.A.S.P. Lawless eventually acceded to their wishes, and the album and following tour enjoyed great reviews and sales. This did not save the band as such, with the end of the tour once again seeing Lawless retreat on his own, and begin to compose his next album, which, once again, he was determined to release as a solo artist.
This time however, although the sounds and themes were familiar, there was to be no hiding behind a fictitious character, or to create a story that took elements that he knew and experienced and create a story around them. For this follow up album, the words coming out onto the page were of Blackie’s own stark and sometimes desolate emotions. Whereas “The Crimson Idol” had been deliberately written as a rock opera, a story that utilised fictional characters to represent the story that he had wanted to tell, his follow up to that, a solo album, was Blackie Lawless speaking from the heart, about things he had known and experienced, and hiding behind no mask. He also added some cover songs, as he had done in the past of W.A.S.P. albums, to fill out his album. Once again, though, despite his desire to release this as a solo album, his record company convinced him that it needed to be released under the W.A.S.P. name in order to be able to promote it. Unlike “The Crimson Idol” though, this was not an album with a purpose, it was a letter to his fans describing his inner turmoil, not designed to be an album released by a band. And thus, with the release of “Still Not Black Enough”, the one member of W.A.S.P. and his paid assistants brought out an album that seemed to promise something that it was not – a fully fledged album by the band.

Still Not Black Enough can be seen to be a collection of dark, introspective tunes that extended the Crimson Idol mythology, this time with Blackie speaking directly to his audience about his own feelings. As we will discuss, this album lacks the cohesiveness of its predecessor even as the lyrics explored similar topics to Crimson Idol: being an outcast and misfit, the pressures of fame and society, and the search for love. This album has several different track listings and also tracks, with each version being different from the other, so rather than trying to combine all of those into one review, I will be going off my CD version of the album and reviewing it in that order.
The title track “Still Not Black Enough” is straight away the same style lyrically and musically as “The Crimson Idol”, so much so that it really is almost a cut and paste or colour by numbers reimagining of any numbers of songs from the album. And look, Blackie wrote that album and he wrote this album, so he can perform however he wants. But even the drumming and drum rolls in the song mimic what has come three years earlier on that album. It’s a bit disconcerting from the outset. Blackie offers us lyrics that also reference the darker side of his conceptual magnum opus such as “I can't go on till I get off, for me it's still not black enough, with darkness gone, my fear is seen, my fear is real, my fear is me”. Yes, this is Blackie talking and not Jonathan, but as we all know they are mostly one and the same, and so is this song. “Skinwalker” follows another similar structure musically as Blackie walks us through the torment of his mind, questioning his sanity and how he can fight his way out of the darkness and find his way back to normality. “Black Forever” has Blackie further expunging his fears and doubt and regret, making everything black forever, but wanting to hold it inside and keep it there forever.
The first real change up musically comes from “Scared to Death”, an excellent mid-tempo hard rocking track with a great riff chugging through the main part of the track as Blackie once again spews froth with his fears and the contents of his blackened soul. Bob Kulick offers a great solo through the middle of the song, but the fact that the album has moved beyond its Crimson Idol melodies is what makes this song far more accessible on this album. It doesn’t last for long though, as the similarities return on “Goodbye America”. We have spoken word passages at the start and in the breakdown in the middle, and then Blackie preaching to us about how his country is broken. It reveals more about Blackie’s political ties than it does anything else, and as a poor man’s “Chainsaw Charlie” it doesn’t quite live up to what has come before this. It then, perhaps strangely, is followed up by a cover of the popular 60’s track “Somebody to Love” which was popularised by Jefferson Airplane. Is it a statement from Blackie on what he has been singing about to this point of the album? Is he looking for somebody to love, or vice versa? The cover is fine, but it asks more questions than it answers. This again is followed by the next step with the ballad “Keep Holding On”, acoustically based and with harmony vocals from Blackie himself. Now W.A.S.P. and Blackie know how to do power ballads, and they have some beauties in the past. But this one comes across half-arsed and just there for the sake of throwing in a ballad on the back of the emotional outpouring he has been making lyrically on this album.
There’s a bit of a bounce now though, as “Rock and Roll to Death” channels not only 60’s rock and roll but an old school W.A.S.P version of it, and adds that lyrically as well. It brings a bit of sanity back into the mix here and a feel for traditional W.A.S.P. into the album. It is short-lived though, because then we are accosted by a second power ballad, this one called “Breathe”, which is attempting to channel “Hold on to Your Heart” from the previous related concept album. Again though, it is the poor cousin of that. It lacks the emotive yet powerful element that that particular song enshrines. And if that isn’t enough, then we have the further recycling of musical passages and riff and drum beats to create “I Can’t”. And I get that by now you are probably wondering whether or not I am amplifying the purported similarities of the songs on this album to the previous album, and that I am perhaps being harsh in that comparison. But it really is inevitable when you listen to the album, you cannot help but hear that this is just an offshoot of that album. “No Way Out of Here” does make a much better mix of those characteristics, once again pulling together the themes of this album with the colours of red and black again being brought into play to describe Blackie’s state of mind. “One Tribe” closes out the main part of the album with Blackie crying out for love, whether it is on a personal basis or a part of his whole world.
Following this are two more cover songs which do not appear to be connected to the emotional outpouring that Blackie has done on this album, but are surely just because he loves the songs and the artists. The versions here of Queen’s “Tie Your Mother Down” and AC/DC’s “Whole Lotta Rosie” are faithful and you can hear the joy as Blackie plays them, and is a good way to finish off the album.

Given that this album came out in what for me was the black hole year of 1995, I didn’t actually pick this album up until the early months of 1996 once my life had settled down a little again. I had bought the greatest hits CD called “First Blood, Last Cuts” that had kept me company through most of that preceding year, so that when I saw this in Utopia Records when I walked in one day it was very exciting. W.A.S.P. had grown into one of my favourite bands, especially on the back of both “The Headless Children” and then “The Crimson Idol”, so seeing “Still Not Black Enough” meant for me more of the same. Surely! It is fair to say that this album was not what I expected, but looking back from this long length of time I don’t know why I didn’t expect it. As you have heard, this album is almost a direct continuation of “The Crimson Idol” both musically and lyrically. It could almost be a sister as such. But what it truly lacks is that fable story, the one with the start and the finish, and with the songs written to tell that story chronologically. Here Blackie expels his heart into song, but this is now his story and not a characters story, and that gives a point of difference to the way this album plays out. And for me, at that time, having been through a year where emotionally I had been completely wrung out, I probably wasn’t in the best headspace to get the most out of this album at that time.
So don’t get me wrong, I listened to this album the usual required amount that you do when you buy a new album, and eventually came to the conclusion that if it came to a choice between listening to this album or “The Crimson Idol”, then the latter would win hands down every time, and that was the direction I followed.
Over the preceding years this has been played sporadically. I have never not enjoyed it, but again when it comes to W.A.S.P. there are any number of other albums that I would prefer to listen to when it came to me wanting to listen to something from that band. The most recent time before the past week was a few months ago when I was a guest on Uncle Steve’s Mega Maiden Zone and we waffled on for three hours on a W.A.S.P. retrospective that was very enjoyable to do.
And so we come to this week, and my CD has come out again, and I have had a lot of fun reliving the album again on multiple occasions. And I still consider this to be a Blackie Lawless solo album, just under the W.A.S.P. moniker. And I think if you accept it as that you’ll find you can get more out of it, because you aren’t searching for things that just aren’t there. If you allow yourself to compare it to the previous album you will walk away disappointed. If you give it a chance, you will find some songs here that are worth your while checking out. And it does rank low on my list of W.A.S.P. albums. Of the 15 studio albums the band has released I rank this at #14.
Not for the first time this could have been the end for W.A.S.P. and yet once again they were pulled from the flames at the last instance, or perhaps it was the phoenix rising from the ashes. Because the return of the prodigal son set up the phase the band’s career, and set them on a musical course that was as at the furthest reaches of the spectrum that you could possibly imagine over their next three releases... but that’s a story for another episode...