1164. Blind Guardian / Somewhere Far Beyond. 1992. 4/5

Blind Guardian had spent several years making a gradual build from their earliest beginnings into a popular and well received band. Their initial albums had been heavily influenced by Helloween and other speed metal bands of the era, and their earliest recordings reflected that. Their third album, “Tales from the Twilight World” had begun to incorporate more melodic pieces in their songs, and coming off the success of that album the direction of their writing for their fourth album, “Somewhere Far Beyond”, actually looked to push that a little further again.
Given the time this was written and recorded, it provides a stark contrast as to the way heavy metal music was heading at the time. As has been noted on other episodes, 1992 really saw American music following the influence of the popularity of the grunge movement with many bands gravitating in that direction to hold on to their popularity and so-called relevance, whereas in Europe bands like Bind Guardian just kept pushing their boundaries in a different direction, as far away from that scene as was possible.
Once again, lyricist and lead singer Hansi Kursch delved deep into his literary material to come up with the lyrics for the songs. His love of fantasy and science fiction meant that he drew inspiration from the writings of Michael Moorcock and his ‘Eternal Champion’ which features in two songs on the album, as well as the writings of Philip K Dick and Stephen King and JRR Tolkien. For me it was one of the best part of early Blind Guardian, having these influences in the lyrics of these great songs.

This album starts off in a typical Blind Guardian fashion, with the speed metal hybrid of the opening track “Time What is Time”, which is written about the movie Blade Runner, but from the perspective of a replicant rather than a human, then careering into “Journey Through the Dark”. Both showcase where Blind Guardian had brought their fame, with fast double kick drums driving these songs with fast riffing guitars and vocals that are melodically just perfect for the songs as they are written. Why then, I always ask when listening to the album, is there the short momentum killer of “Black Chamber” placed here following these two opening tracks? It acts as a speed bump, something that doesn’t feel as though it was needed. No matter, the album is redeemed immediately with “Theatre of Pain” and “The Quest for Tanelorn”. As he had done on earlier albums, Kai Hansen makes a guest appearance here on “The Quest for Tanelorn”, offered a co-writing credit as well as playing the lead solo on the song. You don’t need to ask me twice to listen to anything Kai is involved in. “Ashes to Ashes” mixes in classic Blind Guardian with personal feelings for lyric composer Hansi Kursch, who wrote this song about the death of his father. I guess a lot of artists would be pulled in the direction of a ballad, or at the very least a power ballad if they were to write a song about their father’s death. Nothing could be farther from that here, another brilliantly fast and powerful song.
Perhaps the best known songs from the album come here in the middle of the album, “The Bard’s Song – In the Forest” and “The Bard’s Song – The Hobbit”. In fandom, the songs are generally now just known as “The Bard’s Song” and “The Hobbit” to eliminate having to say the full title of the songs when discussing them. “The Bards Song” is one of the most requested Blind Guardian tracks and they rarely play a gig without it being in the set list. The style of the song, with the acoustic guitar and harp and violin, brings visions of ‘Lord of the Rings” to the album, and indeed is something that was progressed a few years down the track. This is complemented by the return to a heavier version of this style with “The Hobbit”. It’s interesting that “The Bards Tale” is inspired by the computer game of the same name from the mid-1980's, and of course “The Hobbit” is based on the Tolkien novel, but the way the band creates both of these songs with similar bases but different takes is really quite ingenious.
For some reason, just like with “Black Chamber” earlier, we have the short interlude of “The Piper’s Calling”, a bagpipe track that breaks up the haunting piece of the two Bard’s, before the closing song of the album, the title track “Somewhere Far Beyond”, which relates to the first two books of Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” series, “The Gunslinger” and “The Drawing of the Three”. It is another great song, and the perfect way to end the album, with a high-quality track that befits closing out a high-quality album.
The album then does contain some bonus cover songs, both great versions of the original songs. First is their version of Queen’s “Spread Your Wings” which is perfectly reproduced, along with “Trial by Fire” by NWoBHM alumni Satan.

I came into Blind Guardian far too late, another of those bands that I really should have discovered a lot earlier than I did. As a result of this, it wasn’t until the turn of the century that I finally began to track down the bands and its albums. This was then delayed slightly again as the first album I bought, “A Night at the Opera”, was one that did NOT enthuse me at the time at all. Eventually I found my way at the start of the Blind Guardian journey, discovered the speed metal base that they began with, and found the hook, progressing through the albums with joy. And it was really three albums that especially caught my attention, and Somewhere Far Beyond was definitely one of those. It was before they developed their absolute affinity to the folkish side of their music that they brought forth with their love of Tolkien’s written works, and before they infused a more power metal base into their music and the grandiose vision with orchestral arrangements and creating albums that sounded like they were operas. They dabbled with the folk ballad here with “In the Forest”, but in the main stuck with the tried and true that had gotten them to this point of their career. And that’s what lights this up for me, the power and speed of the twin guitars, the terrific drumming here to support that, and as always Hansi Kursch’s amazing vocals with their unique sound and brilliant range of emotion.
When it comes to European metal from the 1990’s and beyond, many of the bands in this category can sometimes sound a bit samey, that they follow the same template and go for the same overreaching vocal or keyboards to harness their strengths. But Blind Guardian have always been unique in that respect, and “Somewhere Far Beyond” again showed the terrific ability this band has to write and record an album that is their own. It has the powerful singalong choruses but it has those hard riffing head banging moments as well. 30 years on, and it has stood the test of time wonderfully well. Whether you are a long time fan or just a new person on the block, “Somewhere Far Beyond” has something here that will grab you and drag you in. And once you are in, there is no turning back.

1163. Ozzy Osbourne / Live at Budokan. 2002. 4/5

Given that Ozzy Osbourne had proclaimed that he was going to retire from touring a decade earlier than this live album was released, it seems unnecessary to suggest that a bit had gone on in that ten year span. Those that are avid readers of this blog will have recently read of the debacle that occurred at the end of Black Sabbath’s “Dehumanizer” album, where the four original members of the band reunited for an encore at what was to be Ozzy’s final ever live gig. Well, those plans soon faded, no doubt due to the dollar signs in everyone’s eyes, and the album “Ozzmosis” followed, as well as the following album “Down to Earth” in 2001. Avid readers will also have read the entry dedicated to THAT album on this blog.
The same foursome who recorded that album, Ozzy, guitarist Zakk Wylde, bass guitarist Robert Trujillo and drummer Mike Bordin all toured on this album, and subsequently ended up on the live gig that makes up this album. It was an interesting idea to release a live album and DVD from this tour. Ozzy’s first two live albums had been the Black Sabbath-induced “Speak of the Devil” and was followed by the “Tribute” album in 1987. Then came the “Live and Loud” double live album from that “No More Tours” era, which tied up all the strings nicely. This one, just two albums later, seemed like a marketing decision rather than an opportunity to showcase the band in their element, but then again, Iron Maiden seem to release a live album after every studio effort, so certainly in comparison now, it isn't such a bad decision.

As always, live albums can be split and categorised with the following denominators – the songs from the latest studio album, songs that have not appeared on a live album prior to the one being released, and the old favourites that appear on practically every live album the band or artist releases. And in this way, you can get a feel for just how unique or stock standard the live album is.
Here on “Live at Budokan”, there are three songs that come from the “Down to Earth” album, and it is probably fair to say that they all sound better here in the live environment than they do on the studio album. Those songs are “That I Never Had”, “Junkie” and “Gets Me Through”. Not only does the band sound great playing these live, the songs are enhanced by having Zakk singing on back up vocals. It especially sounds great in “That I Never Had”, a song that would have been the lesser without him helping Ozzy out.
Interestingly, there are four songs from “No More Tears” played here, more songs than from the album they are promoting, and from any other Ozzy album as well. There is no problem with that. “No More Tears” the song is a no brainer, and “Mama I’m Coming Home” given its commercial success is also one that was played a lot on tours following its release. “Road to Nowhere” and “I Don’t Want to Change the World” are probably strange selections, though again Zakk’s backing vocals on “I Don’t Want to Change the World” enhances this version of the song immensely. “I Don’t Know”, “Believer” and “Mr Crowley” pepper the first half of the album, while you Can’t finish an Ozzy gig without “Crazy Train”, “Bark at the Moon” and “Paranoid” now, can you? And perhaps it is a small point, and a bit of a nit-picking point, but “Believer” for instance had appeared on “Tribute”, and while this version is also terrific, wasn’t there an opportunity to play a different track, maybe from the “Ultimate Sin” or “No Rest for the Wicked” era? Because neither of those albums had a song from them in this set list, and it would have been great to have had them represented. On the other hand perhaps, maybe Ozzy was already moving into his habit of playing the same songs and rarely diverging to give other great songs from his past an opportunity, because of the difficulty of representing them live in a fashion that they deserved. I don’t know for sure, but it would have been great to have.

I first heard this album several months after its release. I didn’t rush out to buy it, at the time I was at a stage where I was listening to other music, and having heard the “Down to Earth” album I was at an ambivalent stage. I eventually saw the DVD on a trip out west to a mates house, where we discussed how great most of the songs were, and how average the new ones were, and that maybe if Zakk Wylde had been involved in the writing process it would have been a whole lot better. First impressions are always interesting.
I now own a copy of this album but not the DVD. I have been listening to it through streaming services for the purpose of this episode, and I can find the video online if I feel the need. But I really don’t. No, this isn’t a bad live album. Bordin and Trujillo are brilliant musicians, and they are great here. Ozzy sings well, and Zakk is still at a peak as a guitarist. But the problem here is that there isn’t anything special brought to the table to inspire you to either purchase it or listen to it. I’ve enjoyed listening to this album again over the last couple of weeks. And I believe that if you put it on, you’ll enjoy it too. The problem is, much like the plethora of Iron Maiden live albums, if you want to listen to an Ozzy live album, then you are either going to reach for “Tribute” to listen to those early songs and Randy Rhoads shred, or you are going to reach for “Live and Loud” that has every great Ozzy song on the two discs and perfectly performed. There hasn’t been as need for me to own this, because apart from this reviewing of the album, I’m just not likely to reach for it on the shelves. And that will always be the conundrum of a live album – no matter how good it sounds and the songs that are on it, if it isn’t one of the better one or two released by the band or artist, it is going to get ignored.

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

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

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

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

1161. Kiss / Revenge. 1992. 3.5/5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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