1192. ZZ Top / Eliminator. 1983. 3/5

For an outsider, who may not be a fan of ZZ Top or their music, the way this album was crafted is still a really interesting story. There has been no shortage of controversy over it through the years, completely apart from how the album eventually became such a huge success and seller around the world.
ZZ Top had always been known for their blues rock sound, exemplified in hit songs such as “La Grange” and “Tush”, but as the band moved into the 1980’s, and the change in the music landscape around them, there was a push by band leader Billy Gibbons to update that sound slightly for the new generation.
What exactly did this mean? Well, Gibbons has gone on record that he was looking to find the synth rock and new wave vitality that was popular at the time, while retaining the band’s basic guitar rock sound as well. How was this achieved? It was a somewhat controversial move at the time, where fellow band members Dusty Hill and Frank Beard had come in to record their bass and drum parts, as well as contribute the vocals that they needed to, and left to return home. From here, Gibbons and the album producer and engineer came in and almost systematically replaced the majority of their parts – with Gibbons replacing the bass with his own playing or of that on a keyboard synthesiser, and the drums being replaced by a drum machine, with Beard’s tom rolls and cymbals being the only thing left in the recording. Outside singers also came in to add backing vocals where necessary.
There was also a push to have the tempo of the songs played at a certain bpm, as this had apparently been proven to be the speed which helped songs become popular when broadcast. Go figure. And finally there was a dispute over the writing credits for the album, with Linden Hudson claiming to have been a collaborator on many of the tracks, and solely on the song “Thug”. Overall, despite these things all happening, the whole process seemed to move rather smoothly. Now all that had to happen was to wait and see if they would gain the rewards for their work.

Aside from the hit singles that everybody knew if you were growing up in the 1980’s, the remainder of the track list is a mixed bag, depending on whether you were a massive fan of the band or a casual observer, and whether you enjoy their style of blues based rock with the modern changes that had been made to coincide with the writing for this album. “I Got the Six” (sung by Dusty Hill) and “If I Could Only Flag Her Down” are typical ZZ Top tracks from their past, utilising all of the trademarks from those early albums and hits. Yes, it is in a modern way but the techniques are the same. “Bad Girl” draws from old school rock and blues such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard, which must have been a shock to the kids listening to this who had no idea such artists existed. All three are good strong tracks that are a strength of ZZ Top at their best. Other tracks such as “I Need You Tonight” and “Dirty Dog” and “TV Dinners”, which was released as a single, are more in the average class of song, and not the kind of song that makes you sit up and notice. In most ways, they are overshadowed by the singles and the popularity they garnered.
Surely even the band could not have imagined the way those singles went through the charts and blew up the screens. Backed by the fun storylines drawn out by the music videos that took over MTV and other music video shows around the world, these songs pushed the enormous sales of the album and therefore the fans love of the album. “Gimme All Your Lovin”, “Sharp Dressed Man” and especially “Legs” became the standard bearers for the album, highlighted by the 1933 Ford coupe that appeared in each film clip, and the band themselves. And, the good looking women too I guess. Along with the superb guitar riffs, great vocals and catchy lyrics, the album took off around the world, going top ten in the US, UK and Australia.

Given that this was released in the year that I first became interested in buying albums of bands rather than Various Artists compilations, and that I was still focused on rock bands more than the heavy metal gnre that came a couple of years later, there was always a chance that I may have purchased this at the time it came out. But because of the staggered singles release, it wasn’t until over 12 months later that “Legs” was released as a single and a music video, and it was definitely this song that made me look up and take notice. For reasons already mentioned. And the first two singles are good ones, and got good coverage on the radio at the time. Despite this, I didn’t actually listen to the album until I had left high school a few years later, and it came on at an acquaintances house we were gathered at that evening. And the conversation around the album as it played was “remember those film clips for those songs?!?”
It is not an album I have owned a physical copy of. I have a downloaded version, and I have listened to it sparingly over the years. I did so most recently on the passing of Dusty Hill last year, and came away from that with a more rounded view on the album rather than just the singles component.
The album remains as the band’s best known, and if you play it today you will get as much enjoyment out of it as you are looking for.

1191. Iron Maiden / Virtual XI. 1998. 3.5/5

To look upon the band Iron Maiden in the year 1998, compared to where they were five years earlier, is quite an interesting affair. For those of you who listened to the recent episode for the Maiden live album “A Real Live One” from 1993, the Maiden ship was taking on water, with Bruce Dickinson leaving the band and the future of the band up in the air. Eventually, Blaze Bayley, lead singer of the British band Wolfsbane was brought in as his replacement, and the album “The X Factor” was released, and the band toured on the back of it. The album received mixed reviews from the fans. While Bayley’s performance was intially well received, the album itself was, in some quarters, thought to be very un-Maiden, with the songs and issues much darker than the band usually tackled, and the tempo of the album lacking the gallop that the 1980’s Maiden albums thrived on. There was also concern on tour for Bayley’s vocals which struggled with the older material, and also under the constant touring regime that Iron Maiden kept.
Coming together again to compose the follow up, two events came together to help inspire the album cover and the name of the album. The band was in the process of creating a video game which eventually became “Ed Hunter”, starring Eddie the Head, which brought about the ‘virtual’ part of the album concept, with the advent of virtual reality. It was also the year for the football World Cup, and the band’s members were all football fans. As a part of the tour to promote this album, the band decided to organise football matches against teams in the cities they played in, also roping in celebrities along the way. And as such the name “Virtual XI” came into being. The 11 fitting nicely with the 11 members of a football team, and the fact that it would be Iron Maiden’s 11th studio album.
Even by this stage however, Iron Maiden was on a hiding to nothing. The loss of Smith and Dickinson, along with the changing music landscape, meant that holding onto fans who were both more interested in the music the band had released a decade ago as well being drawn into the new music being produced that was of a much different style of heavy metal than Iron Maiden would ever produce, meant it was difficult to retain the fans popularity that they had cultivated over the previous 20 years. Falling album sales, falling concert ticket sales... it was a time when you imagine that Iron Maiden as a band probably felt they needed to produce an album that was going to change that course and get them back in the spotlight for all the right reasons. It would be something easier said than achieved.

The album contains eight songs, and while they are not as dark and moody as those on the predeceasing album, there is still a less jaunty mood about them than on the albums from the 1980’s. This had been a growing and creeping part of the Iron Maiden sound since “No Prayer for the Dying”, and one that prevailed in all four albums released in the 1990’s. It could be argued that this came about because of the change in personnel and thus the change in the writers contributing to the songs of those albums. It was certainly a contributing factor to some of the fan base, who blamed Blaze’s contributions as the cause of this. But overall this isn’t the case. The main songwriter continued to be Steve Harris, who had his fingers over most aspects of those albums, so the direction the music was heading in most definitely had to have been orchestrated by him. This has always been my biggest concern over the albums of this period. I just don’t think the right people – or person – has been attributed with the way the songs are, and therefore where that disappointment, if it existed, should have been directed.
Despite all of this, the album opens with a classic. “Futureal” is a terrific song and atypical of most opening tracks on Iron Maiden albums. It gallops along, the guitars and drums are great, and Blaze gives it all with his vocals over the top. If Dickinson had recorded it, it would still be played in set lists to today. Unfortunately because it wasn’t, it has been confined to Blaze’s own shows ever since.
“The Angel and the Gambler” follows, and was also released as the first single from the album. Not only that, the single release was heavily edited to get it down to a length that radio stations would play, and had a video-game-like music video made for it as well. And I will never understand that decision. Because “The Angel and the Gambler” is a pretty average song. It’s almost ten minutes in length, it has too much keys and synth in the mix in places, and has too much of the same lyrics being repeated ad nauseum, something that haunts many of the songs on this album. There has never been anything much to write home about this track, and it remains one of the greatest mysteries of the band’s history as to how it got through meetings to actually appear on this album.
To me, there are two songs on this album that are like twins, and not because they sound like each, but because they seem to be on the same wavelength. “Lightning Strikes Twice” is the first of those songs, a nice twist of lyrics with dual meanings, and a great performance from Blaze where he really emotes the song terrifically, backed by the drums and guitars which also kick in at the right time to emphasise it. I still really love this song, which is only pulled back slightly by the repeating of the song title for the second half of the song. Great solos by both Dave and Jannick punctuate the back half of the song as well. Another great song under utilised in set lists since this tour.
The other twin is “When Two Worlds Collide”, which seems as though it may have been inspired by two films released in 1998 - “Armageddon” and “Deep Impact”, except that both of those films were released well after this album came out. But the scenario is the same, and again, like “Lightning Strikes Twice”, the important lyrics of the song are sung with great gusto and force by Blaze, with the other members also providing the appropriate backing. And, again, the over repeating of the chorus through to the end of the song just overplays itself, taking away a part of the impact the song makes.
The outstanding song on the album is “The Clansman”, arguably the best Maiden song of the 1990’s decade. Based around the events of the movie “Braveheart”, this Steve Harris gem perfectly gets the mood right throughout the whole track, and Blaze’s war cry of “Freeeeedoooom!” makes crowd participation when played live easy. It is the song that could have sold this album on its own if it had been marketed that way. Someone missed a trick there, without doubt.
The back half of the album is perhaps the most maligned, and not without some cause. “The Educated Fool” trundles along in second gear for much of the track, before the solo section brightens things up a little. Of all the tracks here, this is the one that sounds most like it came from the previous album in style. “Don’t Look to the Eyes of a Stranger” again tends to over repeat certain lines, and at over 8 minutes in length is again probably too long to retain interest all the way through. Then the closing track, “Como Estais Amigos”, whose loose translation is “how are you, friends”, is written as a tribute to the fallen on both sides of the Falklands War. I know these have proven lacklustre over the years, and when listening to the album it does prove to be the case. Up until the end of “When Two Worlds Collide” the album still holds its own, but the finale does eventually become something that feels a little less exciting.

Of all my friends from high school, who had been so enthralled by Iron Maiden as we grew up in the 1980’s, I was the only one who bought a copy of this album on its release. As far as I know, I am still the only one who owns a copy of this album. As it stands, I own two, both the original CD and the remastered double vinyl from a couple of years ago. And I was determined to like this album. I had enjoyed “The X Factor” and Blaze’s contributions, even though the tempo of the songs had come down markedly on that album from the earlier albums. And come on – when you first put on this album and you hear “Futureal” come through the speakers, you can’t be disappointed!
Am I biased? Perhaps somewhat. But that’s the thing. I love Iron Maiden, and I love Blaze Bayley’s solo material he has released since this album. But on repeated listens to the album, the truth of the matter came to pass. In the long run, this is only an average Iron Maiden album. And while that may make it better than most other bands good albums, it really doesn’t hold your interest all the way through. It does for me, because I have had it from the beginning, and I have listened to it a lot over the years, but for the casual listener, it is going to be a difficult album to get anything out of.
I am happy to nominate five of the eight songs as good songs, but most will only feel as though “Futureal” and “The Clansman” have any chance of being held in the same high regard as the great songs of the past.
In 1998, I listened to this album for a while, and then, with no chance of the band touring Australia or of this growing any fonder to me, it was returned to the shelves and only occasionally brought out for a relisten. And I probably didn’t really listen to it much again until five years later when Blaze Bayley released his first live album, which included both “Futureal” and “When Two Worlds Collide” on it, and I went back to “Virtual XI” to see if it had improved for me. And it had, it must be said, though that perhaps was on the back of the fact that Blaze’s first two solo albums “Ghost in the Machine” and “Tenth Dimension” were so good, and I just wanted to hear his stuff with Maiden again. Since that time, I have had the album on sporadically as I work through the Maiden back catalogue along the way over the years, and I enjoy it every time I put it on. No, it isn’t one of their great albums. And Blaze is often held up as the cause. But a couple of things disprove this point. The first is that Steve Harris wrote the songs as well as co-producing the album, and they were arranged the way he wanted them. It isn’t Blaze’s vocals to blame on the studio album. The second is that Blaze’s first two solo albums released after he agreed to leave Iron Maiden in order for Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith to return, are both better than this album. And he wrote all of those.
In the long run, the fans, and probably the band itself, wanted and needed Bruce and Adrian to be back in order for it to be felt as though it was really ‘Iron Maiden’. And this would have been a major reason why it didn’t sell as well, simply because they weren’t there. Their return allowed the next album “Brave New World” to be a monster, and kickstarted Maiden’s return to the top of the heavy metal tree. For “Virtual XI” though, at least it can still hang its hat on one of the band’s best songs of the past 30 years.

1190. Van Halen / Van Halen III. 1998. 2/5

For over 20 years Van Halen had been one of the leading hard rock bands in the US, and with a popularity that had also spread around the world. Even with a change of lead singer halfway through their career, their popularity had never waned, and indeed could be said to have increased as a result.
Following the release of the band’s tenth studio album “Balance”, the growing tensions within members of the band were beginning to overflow. The relationship between lead singer Sammy Hagar and the Van Halen brothers Alex and Eddie was unwinding. Over a period of months, where the band was first writing and recording songs for the film “Twister”, and then over the negotiations over the release of a greatest hits package, where Hagar’s desires for its compilation seemed contrary to what the Van Halen’s were thinking, the working and personal relationship between the two parties deteriorated to the point that Hagar was no longer a member of the band. Depending on which story you choose to believe, Hagar was either fired, or Hagar quit of his own accord. Those stories have never really found a common ground in the years since.
This resulted in a short-term reunion with David Lee Roth, where two songs were written and recorded for the aforementioned greatest hits album, before he too was spurned by the band, and again the story as to what happened in that period of time has two versions.
The band had continued to try out new lead singers, and they eventually decided to hire former Extreme lead vocalist Gary Cherone as Hagar and Roth’s replacement, an interesting choice at the time, but at least someone who was a proven performer and a well-known singer in the rock and pop world, someone who had proven in his former band to be able to sing hard rock sings and rock ballads as well. Now all that needed to be achieved was to have an album to showcase his potential to add to the already known quality of Van Halen, Anthony and Van Halen.

It would be fair to say that when “Van Halen III” came out, it was not especially what everyone was expecting. The music was less intense, less... rock. There was a more acoustic vibe to most of the songs, the energy seemed to have been cast aside. Sure, there are still some good riffs here, and some of the songs have energetic pieces in them, and occasionally you here a bit of the old Eddie Van Halen on guitar. But the album is a world away from what most people got into Van Halen for.
Over the period of time from when the album was released, and the tour to promote it had come and gone, it was Gary Cherone who was the one who copped most of the flak for the performance of the album. Many people dubbed it the Van Halen and Extreme crossover, suggesting that the success of Extreme’s “More Than Words” single a few years earlier had infiltrated the way this album was written. But the things that those critics would never have taken into account is that Cherone would have had almost zero input into the direction of the album. He was the hired gun, the one asked to follow in the footsteps of David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar, and that was always going to be a thankless task no matter how talented he was.
Cherone himself made the point that he felt that it would have been beneficial for both himself and the band if they had toured together before they went in and recorded the album. This would not only have given him a chance to be seen by the fans as a part of the band, the four band members would have found their way to bond as well and be able to take that into the studio with them.
Still, even if that had been the case, the majority of the writing and performing on the album was by Eddie himself. For whatever reason, he played the bass on almost every track, with Michael Anthony only contributing to three of the tracks, and later on Michael admitted that he had been told exactly what and how to play on those three songs, which was not something that had been a part of his playing in the past. The result of this was that Michael himself, along with others, have seen this album more of an Eddie solo album than a true Van Halen album. Though all the tracks were credited to all four members of the band, in fact the writing and arranging pretty much came down to Eddie, and he played most of it as well.
Importantly, and this is something that probably wasn’t really utilised on the album’s release when it came to album reviews and fans thoughts, it is difficult to separate what you WANT the album to sound like, and the way it is actually written. And in separating that, is it possible to listen to this with an open mind, and try to discern whether it is an average album, or just an album that is so different from what you wanted or expected that you simply categorise it as that as a result.

20 years on from their eponymous debut album crashing the charts and making a scene, as reviewed here on this podcast just a few episodes ago, this album was up against the changing face of hard rock and metal music in the late 1990’s, and Van Halen’s style was one that you suspect could still have fit into that mould of the music scene. But there is little doubt that the change in the music here went beyond even what had occurred on the last couple of Van Halen albums with Hagar on the mic, and that change was something that felt as though it was pulling away from the long-time fans the band had. The back up vocals don’t feel as lively, nor sound as convincing as in the past. Just about everything about this album makes you feel like there is something missing, but also perhaps missing a trick.
I bought this album on its release, mainly because Van Halen were finally going to tour Australia, and I was finally going to see them live. So I did my due diligence, and I listened to it on rotation for the two months leading up to that concert. They played five songs off this album live, and they were fine, but what I got from that gig was how good Gary Cherone was, and how well he sang all eras of Van Halen songs. And I thought at the time, that with a bit more of the traditional Van Halen sound, the NEXT album could be really killer! Of course, that was not to be. Eddie had his hip replacement, and they parted amicably. But it did seem like a missed opportunity. Again.
So I’ve had this album on again over the last couple of weeks, and honestly it hasn’t gotten better with age. It is too long (at over an hour the longest Van Halen album), it is too slow, it is too reflective. It is the most un-Van Halen Van Halen album. I think Cherone was unfairly saddled with the blame for that, but I’m sure Michael Anthony was closer to the truth in that this was more an Eddie solo thing, one that was to be different from what the band usually provided.
Even though there was one more album to come down the track, Van Halen effectively finished at this point. Michael Anthony was replaced by Wolfgang Van Halen at that time, and it became a nostalgia based act from then on until Eddie’s passing.

1189. Van Halen / Live: Right Here, Right Now. 1993. 4/5

Few people were aware of it at the time, but this album became one of the final releases on Van Halen, though the band was still active beyond this for 25 years. With several albums having now been released with Sammy Hagar at the helm, there were already nervous kicking at the ground and whispered thoughts behind closed doors as to how much further the band could go in its current form.
One thing that the band had not done by the time it had finished its “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” album was released an official live album, showcasing the greatness of the band and the four individuals who were a part of it. And whatever the decision making behind this album eventually being recorded, it still seems as though it didn’t go as smoothly as it probably should have, given it had been almost 20 years that Van Halen had toured the US in particular.
The album was recorded over two nights in Fresno, California, with a combining of performances over the double album release. However, what seemed to damn this release was the fact that the original show had been broadcast at the time of it being played, and when fans heard what was on offer with this album, it was apparent that some post-production work had been done. The originally broadcast concert had a rawer sound that was much closer to what people thought of as the Van Halen live sound, whereas this album had differences in both the instruments and the vocals. It was later revealed by Hagar in his 2011 autobiography that the Van Halen’s had tinkered with the speed of the recording and other factors in order to fix up perceived problems in the live set. Hagar said this then made his vocals sound out of key and sync. As a result, he was asked to come into the studio, and sing along with the video of the gig, and completely re-record his vocals. Now, other live albums over the years have used a similar technique and have survived the scrutiny that was on offer at the time, and to be honest this album has as well. Unfortunately, because it is the only true live album the band released, it perhaps doesn’t give the clearest indication of the powerhouse that van Halen was when on stage because of this.

The band certainly made up for not having had a live album prior to this one. The two CD release covers almost two and a half hours of live songs and performances. And while ignoring a little the news I have already related over the post-production issues, it sounds terrific, but especially on those songs where the energy is at its highest, and the band gets to really showcase what they do.
But... and there almost always is a BUT when it comes to live albums... there are a couple of things that I find grate on my conscience a little. The first is the insertion of both a bass solo and a drum solo. Now I know the band was renown for these, and that it was a part of their live act through their whole career. But do we need to have them placed on a live album? How many of you out there, on ANY live album that contains bass, drum or guitar solos, actually listen them all when you are listening to the album? Truly! Because I know that when its on CD I press skip immediately, and when it is on vinyl I groan my way through until we reach the next song. They are unnecessary. Great when you see a band live, but please don’t hold up the momentum of the album by putting them on here.
Secondly, where are all the songs from pre-1985? I know the band pretty much only played their big singles from the 1978-1984 era once Dave had been let go, and I’m sure that grated on fans who saw the band during this era, but how can you release a double live album, with 24 songs on it, and only have four Roth era songs on it? And one of those was “You Really Got Me” which of course is a Kinks cover! So three Roth era tracks, but we also have TWO Sammy Hagar solo tracks on here, and a cover of The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again”! Now, come on. Were we just trying to wipe away half of the back catalogue because another guy was singing on it? Imagine Black Sabbath not playing any Ozzy era tracks when Dio was singing? How about Iron Maiden ignoring their first two albums once Bruce Dickinson arrived? It just doesn’t make sense.
And finally, while I am all in favour of bands promoting their latest album in order to show how good their new material is, surely playing 10 out of the 11 songs from their then current album “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” is just way over the top. I mean, how bad could “The Dream is Over” have been to miss out on being included on this album? (though they did actually play it). They could probably have just played that whole album in one hit, and then bunched the hits together in the second half of the concert. I mean, that’s been done plenty of times since. They could have been the originals when it came to this trend if they had.

I bought this album on a whim sometime in the late 1990’s at a shopping centre in Erskineville in Sydney, probably sometime not long before I eventually got to see Van Halen live for the first and only time – though by this time it was Gary Cherone who was fronting the band. I hadn’t heard anything by Van Halen since the “OU812” album, so I do remember getting through this for the first time and wondering what the hell had I just listened to. Probably was always going to be the case given I hadn’t heard the “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” album at all, and that I had been expecting to hear great Roth era songs such as “Unchained”, “Hot for Teacher”, “Mean Streets” and “Dance the Night Away”, just to name a few. Instead, I got this album, which at the time was a slight disappointment. Then I went off, saw Van Halen with Cherone which was absolutely sensational, and then promptly put this back in the CD shelves to be mostly forgotten for the next 20-odd years.
Pretty much until two weeks ago, when I pulled it out again to prepare for this podcast episode. And, not surprisingly, I have enjoyed this immensely. Time can sometimes be a comfort, and hearing Hagar singing at his peak has been totally worth the time spent. And, to be honest, it’s the vocals here that really win the day. And perhaps with Eddie’s growing love of synths and keyboards in this phase of the band’s career, that isn’t completely surprising. Because while there are still some good guitar pieces in the current material of the album, most of it is based around the soft rock ballad than the hard rock guitar. For someone of my vintage now, I am much more able to accept that as part of the Van Halen package than I would have been back when I first got this album, though as I have related, I’d have loved to have heard more of that older material as well, when Eddie’s guitar was the star rather than the band as a whole as it did eventually become, for better or worse. So for me, this album has improved over time, and become something that is still worth listening to – even given the gripes that I have brought up through this episode. Sometimes, you just have to accept what you have, and get on with it.

1188. David Lee Roth / Skyscraper. 1988. 3/5

By the time we had reached 1988, enough time had now passed to allow the furious debate over the Van Halen/David Lee Roth split to dissipate somewhat. Both Van Halen with Sammy Hagar at the helm, and Roth, had released albums, and fans of both or either had spent months or years dissecting them and declaring which was better and which proved who was right over the whole episode. 18 months later, and while the divide remained it wasn’t as hardline as it had once been. The success of both sides probably contributed to that.
For their part, DLR and his band – Steve Vai, Billy Sheehan and Gregg Bissonette – had toured the world for 12 months, drawn great crowds and showed that as a live performer, they as a group and Roth in particular still had it. They then got together to produce the follow up album that became “Skyscraper”. The writing and recording process was not as straight forward this time around, and it is interesting to note that while Billy Sheehan did play the bass on the album that he was not asked, or did not contribute, to writing on the album. Not long after the recording, and before the world tour to support it started, Sheehan left the band, to be replaced by Gregg Bissonette’s brother, Matt. Sheehan of course went on to Mr Big, where his writing was one of the cornerstones of the band.
When this album was about to be released, the biggest questions about it were in regards to the musical direction that the band would take with their sophomore release. Would they stretch themselves beyond what they had done on “Eat em And Smile”, or would they look to not reinvent the wheel, and stick to what was safe and known?

The majority of the tracks here are credited as being co-written between Roth and Vai, which is as you would expect. But four tracks stand out as the most accessible commercially wise, and those four tracks did not have Steve Vai credited as a co-writer. The opening song “Knucklebones” is a fun sounding hard rock track with both Gregg and Matt Bissonette as the co-writers, and the drum and bass heavy instrumentation aren’t a surprise as a result. The single from the album, “Just Like Paradise” is one of three songs here co-composed with keyboardist Brett Tuggle, and the music video for this was plastered everywhere for a number of months on its release. It mixes the two best attributes of the band, Dave’s fantastic vocals and Steve’s electrifying guitar. “Stand Up” is such an 80’s track that it is hard to fathom when you listen to it all these years later. The synth and keyboard progressions are tied to that time and no other, with Tuggle obviously having a huge influence on what was going to dominate the song. It may not be new wave as such but it sure is pure 80’s. And “Perfect Timing”, the last of the songs written by this duo, may not be so obvious, but it is top heavy again on the keys and much more like pop song than a rock song.
“The Bottom Line” is treading a thin line between an early-styled Van Halen track, with Dave and Steve playing off against each other throughout the song. “Skyscraper” has the feel of earlier-in-the-decade new wave elements to the track. Then you have the acoustic ballad-type track “Damn Good”, which not only is a stop-the-momentum track smack in the middle of the album, it just seems to be out of place from the style that Dave suggested he was heading in when he quit that other band he had been in. On the other hand, “Hot Dog and a Shake” returns to the fun and lively Dave style that most of us love best, with a faster pace and return of Vai’s electric guitaring.
Given all of the elements that went into the split of Van Halen a few years earlier, where statements were made that because Van Halen wanted to use synths in their songs and a certain lead singe wanted to remain in a more focused hard rock vein, it’s an interesting development that this album actually seems to have gone further down that path as well. There is more prominence of keys and synths on “Skyscraper” than there was on “Eat em and Smile”, and while some of the songs are still in the uptempo vibe, there are those elements that make the listener reconsider just what the endgame really was and is when it came to the artist and his music in the back half of the 80’s decade.

What you may have been expecting from this album, and what you finally get out of it, are most likely two completely opposite things. I know that on its release, I had mixed emotions, and that may well have come directly from the opposite poles that my main musical listening intentions were at the time. Albums with heavy speed and/or melodic guitars and vocals was where 1988 was heading for me, and I guess that was what I was looking for. The lead single “Just Like Paradise” was, and is, a fun song, right in the David Lee Roth sweetspot, so I had guessed that this was typical of what the rest of the album would be like. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was in the style as I spoke of here in the middle section, a lot of mid tempo songs that concentrated more on the 80’s synths than the genius of Steve Vai’s guitar, as had been the case on the debut solo album. And as a result it fell off my radar fairly swiftly as other more aggressive albums began to find their way into my spectrum.
Listening to it now, I have different emotions. To be honest, it is more like a glam metal or rock album than a hard rock album, and if I had gone in listening to it as such at the time I reckon I would have enjoyed it more. Because the songs here might be harmless but they are enjoyable if you take in the fac that it is tied to the era, and has more to do with new wave and hair metal rock than heavy metal or hard rock, as it was promoted at the time. I’ve had it on rotation for two weeks, and have enjoyed it each time I’ve listened to it. Is t because I am less judemental of it now than I was at the time? That’s probably a fair statement. It isn’t a great album. It isn’t groundbreaking. But Dave is always enjoyable to listen to, and Vai and Sheehan and BIssonette are great musicians. It’s an album to listen to like elevator music, on in the background in a harmless way. Perhaps that’s not what he was looking for at the time, but it’s not a bad way to end up in someone’s collection for.

1187. Def Leppard / Pyromania. 1983. 5/5

As has been stated on other episodes of this podcast when it comes to retro-reviewing Def Leppard albums, for a band that was spoken of as one of the early leaders of the NWoBHM movement, they shirked that title at every turn, and rather than go down that path they chose their own, which mainly looked to try and crack the American rock market. And given the brilliance of their sophomore album “High N Dry”, which made a few inroads in that respect but perhaps not the break they were looking for, there was no doubt an even bigger push to have that occur with their follow up album.
Writing and recording of “Pyromania” was again not a particularly easy process. Recording took up most of 1982 as the band, along with producer “Mutt” Lange, searched for the sound that would propel them to the success they were looking to achieve. And while Def Leppard, even in their earliest form, could not be classed as heavy metal, the faster and heavier tracks from “High N Dry” still had the band labelled as such in many quarters. What can be seen on “Pyromania” is a band in transition. There are still the faster tracks here that showcase what the band had been like in their earliest days, bFor ut there are also the tracks here that, while not being pop songs as such, were beginning to develop more into songs that radio stations would be happy to pull up and play on rotation, which in 1983 was still the best way to sell albums.
Along with this, Pete Willis, whose alcoholism had caused some ructions within the group for some time, eventually found he had run out of chances. Towards the end of the recording process he had laid down all of his rhythm tracks for the album, but the band had lost its patience, and he was fired before the album was completed. In his place came Phil Collen, who with the support of Mutt Lange was encouraged to ‘just be a lead guitarist, jump around and have fun’ as he competed the album by coming up with his own lead guitar pieces to complement the songs and bring them all together. And when you listen to the album, you can hear that fun inspiration in the songs because of that. Some may say… well, I may say… that the greatness of the tracks here is that scintillating lead guitar work from the man who came in and gave the album the kick that pushes it into greatness.

For me, there is a common misconception when it comes to Def Leppard albums depending on the era you grew up in. Those who were early Def Leppard fans feel that this album is a diverse change from the first two albums, and that it signalled the real change in the band’s direction, whereas later fans feel that change didn’t occur until the following album “Hysteria”. If you were to play the first four albums back to back, I think you will agree that there is a maturing of the material and the production of each album, but that essentially the songs on “Pyromania” can be collated much more closely with “High N Dry” than with “Hysteria”.
There are the obvious singles here on “Pyromania” that have either been purpose-written to find their way onto radio airplay, or just naturally occurred that way. But none of those four songs could be accused of ‘selling out’ or drifting away from the overall theme of the album. “Too Late For Love” takes on that role lyrically and with a greater concentration of the chorused vocals that would come to define the later sound that the band took, but all three initial singles – “Photograph”, “Rock of Ages” and “Foolin’” are no less hard rock than the songs that came before them. “Photograph” was the song that really broke them in the US, and it had repeated playings of the music video on those video shows as well. The follow up “Rock of Ages” also did well, and perhaps drew in another section of fans because it wasn’t a typical radio friendly song of the day.
But the ore of the album is still, for me at least, that great hard rock style that Def Leppard had produced on their earlier albums. “Die Hard the Hunter” finishes off side one of the album in style, while the triumvirate that completes side two – “Comin Under Fire”, “Action Not Words” and “Billy’s Got a Gun”, are just superb, played and sung with a passion that still gives me goosebumps when I put the album on and listen to, and sing out loud, these songs.
The biggest change on “Pyromania” then was probably the production of Mutt Lange. Whereas “High N Dry” still had that gritty hard rock, almost live feeling about most of the tracks, a lot of that doesn’t exist in the same way here. “Stagefright” is the closest song here to being felt like it was a live song (probably for the faux crowd being inserted onto the track), and I can attest that a song like the opening track “Rock Rock til You Drop” sounds amazingly better live, because it is written to be a live song, but it doesn’t always come across that way here. Lange and no doubt the band was looking for a showpiece to present to the world, and that is exactly how it was prepared, and how it comes across.

The 1980’s decade was where Def Leppard found their way through numerous challenges and blockades to find the fame and sound that they wanted, and the success that it then brought. Nothing was easy about it, and they made lots of fans along the way, and probably lost a few as well.
“Pyromania” came to me by way of my high school metal music dealer, back in 1986, which was before the hype of “Hysteria” drew in every kind of music fan to say “DEF LEPPARD!!! WHOA!!!” And I can assure you that I adored this album at the time, and there were a LOT of bands and albums that I was getting into at the time, and for this to find its way above water level to keep being heard was a feat in itself. And I guess it was also fortunate that, given I didn’t first hear this until over three years after it was released, it didn’t have any new Def Leppard music to compete against it, given the length of time that came between albums. But what always impressed me, and allowed me to fall in love with this album, was that while it wasn’t the traditional heavy metal of Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath or the thrash metal of Metallica that I was gorging on at the time, nor was it soft core. These songs have a great hard rock base, solid drumming from Rick Allen, an awesome bass sound from Rick Savage, sensational guitars from Steve Clark and Phil Collen, and those amazing unique vocals from Joe Elliott, along with the harmony backing vocals that a lot of bands I was listening to at the time just didn’t have. They mixed all of that together to have songs you cold sing along to at the top of your voice, and play air drums and air guitar along to, and make them so catchy that as soon as the album finished, you just had to put it on again to hear them all again. The momentum of the album is never bogged down, each song carries itself and is both wonderful it itself and as a part of the whole.
Having had this on my stereo in the Metal Cavern for the past two weeks on constant rotation, I am still not sick of it. I have it going right now in the background as I record this podcast episode. And it has again raised in my head the question “what is my favourite Def Leppard album?” Because whenever I listen to “High N Dry”, I think it is that album. And now? Well. Honestly. How can you go past this work of art as the best that Def Leppard has produced?

1186. Deep Purple / Who Do We Think We Are. 1973. 3.5/5

Deep Purple the band had barely stopped to take breath over the three years leading up to this album being written and recorded. The infusion of Ian Gillan and Roger Glover to the group had brought the Mark II line up to the fore, and on the back of three triumphant albums in “In Rock”, “Fireball” and “Machine Head”, along with the euphoric live album “Made in Japan” which had been recorded on the Machine Head tour, Deep Purple was riding the crest of a wave that never looked like stalling. However, the pace that was being set for them was one that always appeared as though it would eventually be the straw that broke the camel’s back. As has been said on earlier episodes of this podcast, where the albums “Fireball” and “Machine Head” were given the 50 year treatment, the band’s management and record company were pushing the band to its limits. Forced to write and record those albums on minimal breaks from their touring schedule, and then straight back on the road to continue to bring in the dollars, you can imagine just how tired the band members must have been getting.
The album was recorded in two sessions. The first was in Rome in July 1972, and the second in Frankfurt in October of that year. From the first session, only one song made the final cut for the album, the single “Woman from Tokyo”. The band was then back on the road, including the tour of Japan where the live album was recorded and then subsequently released. The band then went to Frankfurt, but was struggling on all kinds of levels. They were struggling to come to any agreement upon which tracks should be used or even completed, and various members were not even speaking to each other through the process. Indeed, many of the tracks were only completed and recorded by having schedules arranged so that they could record their parts separately and therefore not have to be in the studio at the same time as the other members of the band. This of course all came to light after the album had been released, and is something that is often quoted by critics when they like to suggest that this isn’t up to the standard of the previous albums that this line up had released.

You couldn’t ask for a better start to this album, especially given the quality of the few albums that preceded it. “Woman From Tokyo” is a great opening track, written about touring Japan and combining the best parts of Jon Lord’s organ and keyboards, Ian Paice’s drums and Ian Gillan’s smooth as honey vocals. It was a mainstay of the setlists both prior to the sabbatical and then once again after the reformation. That Ritchie Blackmore guitar riff along with Roger Glover’s bass line throughout help to make this one of Deep Purple’s classic tracks. This then flows into the beautiful “Mary Long”, a superb track that not only is fantastic musically, but cutting edge lyrically. Ian Gillan was quoted about the meaning of the song, saying, "Mary Whitehouse and Lord Longford were particularly high-profile figures at the time. It was about the standards of the older generation, the whole moral framework, intellectual vandalism – all of the things that exist throughout the generations… Mary Whitehouse and Lord Longford became one person, fusing together to represent the hypocrisy that I saw at the time."
“Super Trouper” holds that kind of form and continues down the line of easy listening 70’s rock. “Smooth Dancer” tends to lift the tempo in the middle of the album, with a concentration of Lord’s keyboards, that go from jaunty piano bar through the verse and chorus, into an orgasmic (pun intended) solo in the middle of the song. It’s quite noticeable how this is his song to dominate and shine on. “Rat Bat Blue” pulls back that intensity again to the mid-road tempo the album hides in, lyrically moving in the Gillan/Glover styled ‘girl meets boy’ theme. “Place in Line” is very much in an old blues theme, carrying many of the same characteristics of AC/DC songs that are in the same realm. The turn has begun to come. “Our Lady” completes the seven track album in much the same way, in a slow mannered way that tinges itself in the same sort of style.
Does "Who Do We Think We Are” take on more of a blues feel, as many critics suggest? I guess in a way it does, as there are no out-and-out hard rock tracks here such that had been prevalent on earlier albums, and the back half of the album definitely in mired in this, which is perhaps the first time Deep Purple had moved in this direction for some time musically. There is little doubt that this grated with Ritchie in particular who at that time wanted to continue down the hard rock path, whereas Gillan was less inclined. This had been an issue since the “Fireball” album, and it continued to fuel the fire here, and it can be easily seen why tensions flared during the writing and recording process.

Having conducted my Deep Purple upbringing with the album “In Rock”, “Machine Head” and “Perfect Strangers”, this album has always been a bit of a mystery to me. The opening is fantastic, and over recent days having put the album on again at home and listened to it in the Metal cavern, it is still terrific to listen to, taking in every part of each band members brilliance and what they contribute to the album in that way. The songs however? Well, if I was to sit here and pick them apart, then I would certainly not rank it in the top echelon of Deep Purple albums. It was never an album I grabbed and put on, that always fell to those three I mentioned earlier, as well as a few modern albums. And for me it IS the lack of momentum in the album and the tracks, the fall back to a slower tempo and less aggressive approach throughout. And once you factor in the trouble that went into writing and recording, and how exhausted the band must have been, and how they were certainly pulling apart, then it probably isn’t hard to understand how they got to this point. It didn’t stop the album selling all over the world. For me though, despite a couple of songs that are still favourites to this day, it doesn’t stand up to the best the band has produced.
Ian Gillan left the band following this album, citing internal tensions, which was basically reaching the breaking point that had been coming for some time with Ritchie Blackmore. It is interesting though that in an interview held when they reformed once again in 1983, Ian stated that fatigue and management had a lot to do with it, that if the managers and record company had just afforded them a three month holiday in order to rest and recuperate, then perhaps the band would never have exploded. Of course, that would have changed the entire history of the band, and we may never have had the legendary album that followed this one in just a few short months time.

1185. Ozzy Osbourne / Patient Number 9. 2022. 4/5

How the hell is Ozzy Osbourne still alive?! After the life he has led, and the substance abuse he has been a part of, it still boggles the mind that firstly he is still alive, and secondly that he is still able to perform on stage as well as he does, though that has certainly almost ceased in recent times. Indeed, following the reunification with Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler for the “13” album for Black Sabbath, it was felt that perhaps that would be the conclusion of his performing career. But no, instead he worked up to and into the covid pandemic period to produce the “Ordinary Man” album, one that utilised a plethora of guest musicians, and changed up his usual style of music. There was some chart success for the album, and also his collaboration on a single with Post Malone, and while this drew in some new fans to his music, it has to be said that many of the long term fans – myself included – felt as though it was a mixed bag, and that after several listens were happy to put it back on the shelves without too much thought of dragging it back out again.
So when it came to announcing this new album, it did come as a surprise. On top of his growing illness with Parkinson’s disease and everything else that he was working with, a new album, coming so soon after his previous one, seemed like a pipe dream. And it wouldn’t be unfair to suggest that my own feelings on a new album were mixed. On one hand, I’m always excited for the release of a new Ozzy album – how could you not be? On the other hand, most of his albums over the last two decades have been uneven, and in places just plain ordinary. You always hope for brilliance, but was there any scope for any of that to remain?
Once again, there were a lot of artists used throughout the album, though the bulk of the songwriting was done by Ozzy (presumably) alongside two other writers, producer, instrumentalist and song writer Andrew Watt, and Alexandra Tamposi who had co-written hit songs with many modern day pop artists. Other artists were then invited to submit guitar riffs and the like, from which they would then join in and help flesh out those riffs that the main writers liked into full songs. In the long run what this created was an eclectic album with different flavours and sounds, while still retaining a core within the tracks to ensure they fit well together on the album, which in my opinion made this album a much better listen than the previous album.

In my opinion, what makes this album an improvement on the previous album is that there has been a better quality of musician brought in to help write and perform on this album. Now that isn’t to decry those who were a part of the last album, but some of the guys brought in on this album KNOW how to write and play on an Ozzy Osbourne album. The number one in this category is Zakk Wylde, whose mysterious absence from Ozzy albums at times over the last two decades is noticed when it happens. It was definitely noticed on “Ordinary Man”. On this album Zakk is back, and plays on many of the songs and is heavily featured on four – the brilliant “Parasite”, “Mr Darkness”, the sensational solo section of “Nothing Feels Right” and “Evil Shuffle”. Ozzy has complained in the past of Zakk’s writing being ‘too Black Label Society’ for his albums, but when Zakk is shredding it feels like Ozzy is at his strength.
Then we have Tony Iommi who contributes to two songs, “No Escape from Now”, which sounds like it could have come straight off that Black Sabbath album ‘13’ with Tony’s solo, and also “Degradation Rules” which tries to hark back to the beginning, with Ozzy joining in on harmonica. It’s great to hear these two together again.
Beyond this, there are some other pretty handy axe wielders on show. Jeff Beck contributes on the first single and title track, as well as the later track “A Thousand Shades”, both excellent songs. Eric Clapton comes on board on “One of Those Days” and does a typically excellent job. And then take a look at the list of other guest musicians who contribute to these tracks. Drummers Chad Smith and Taylor Hawkins before his unfortunate demise, bass guitarists Rob Trujillo and Duff McKagen, as well as Josh Homme and Mike McCreedy. And not to forget the great violins in both “One of Those Days” and the terrific “Dead and Gone”.
All of this – the song writing partners, the amazing musicians involved – has created a wonderful portrait piece, one completed by Ozzy himself. His vocals are still just amazingly good, and how can you not love hearing Ozzy sing? There’s no shouting or screaming, there’s no missed notes or vocals a little off. Every song here sounds terrific, and Ozzy is absolutely on song in every way. And, as I’ve said before, for someone who has had his health issues and at the age of 73 is getting up there, his voice is still the one that many people think of as the best in heavy metal.

I was 50/50 going into this album when I heard of its imminent release. And I love Ozzy, but for me he hadn’t really done a truly Ozzy album since “Ozzmosis” back in 1995. Every album since has been flawed, boring, or pieces of both. He had moved away from the success of his early writing cohorts in Bob Daisley and Zakk Wylde, and gone with different sets of collaborators, and I felt that this harmed the success of those albums. He had even spurned Zakk from playing on some of those albums, and that didn’t feel right either.
But from the moment I hear the first single, which was the title track, it did feel and sound a lot more naturally like Ozzy Osbourne, and that gave me confidence going into the album proper. And I haven’t been disappointed. I don’t think there is a bad track on this album. Sure, there are a few that are a bit slower or go to other others that I am not entirely thrilled about when it comes to my music pleasure, but overall I think this is a triumph. And it is made by the players. It’s hard to dismiss Chad Smith, Rob Trujillo, Zakk, Iommi who are the main players here, along with all the other who make their contributions. The songs are written in the style that allows Ozzy to be himself, and be dragged along into the mix of the excellent musicianship and song structures that exist here. Whether you are a guitar lover, or an Ozzy lover, there is something for everyone here. It is undoubtedly the best album Ozzy has released in 25+ years, which is truly a remarkable achievement in itself, mirroring the recent success of Judas Priest’s “Firepower” album in channelling the past in a positive modern way.
Is this now the final hurrah for Ozzy? It seems almost impossible that he would be able to do any more live tours. But the excellence of this album so soon after “Ordinary Man” could perhaps suggest that, when it comes to releasing another album, or albums, then perhaps we have not heard the end of the great man. No matter what, this is an album to be listened to. In fact, for me, it is probably the album of 2022. And I never thought I’d be saying that about an Ozzy Osbourne album in the 2020’s.

1184. Skid Row / The Gang's All Here. 2022. 4/5

If you are as old as me, and were at that perfect age for when Skid Row first hit the music scene, and for a period of about six years stole the limelight and looked as though they had the world at their feet, then you have probably been waiting around for 25 years to see if they could ever regain those feet that appeared to come out from under them in the late 1990’s, with the somewhat acrimonious split with lead singer Sebastian Bach and drummer Rob Affuso.
In the years since, there has been a litany of lead singers and drummers who have populated the band, while the released work of the band has dried up to a trickle. Only two full albums, “Thickskin” and “Revolutions Per Minute”, were released in the years between 1996 and 2022, with another couple of EPs that tried to keep the flame alive beyond that.
Former Dragonforce lead vocalist ZP Theart had been with the band since 2016, and the talk of a new full length album began once again. However, despite the fact that Theart had a terrific voice, there always seemed to be a delay on just what was occurring with the band during this time. It was intimated that the personalities didn’t quite mix as well as they would have hoped, while it can be said that perhaps his vocals didn’t match the music either.
At the start of 2022 the band announced that Theart had moved on, and almost immediately they announced the recruitment of Erik Gronwall as his replacement. Little known outside of his native Sweden, Gronwall had won Swedish Idol in 2009, and gone on to a successful solo career as a result, and also joined the band H.E.A.T, with whom he recorded four albums.
At some stage Gronwall came on Skid Row’s radar, with many fans tagging them on social media about his vocals and how much they would suit Skid Row. There is little doubt that his range and voice do sound remarkably like original vocalist Seb Bach’s, but the band backed Theart despite this. Eventually though, the planets aligned, and the band decided to go with Gronwall, not only as their new lead singer, but to front the band on their first new album in 16 years.

If there was any real doubt as to why the band recruited Gronwall as their lead vocalist, the opening tracks to the album lay that to rest. From the opening strains of “Hell or High Water”, the similarity in the vocals between he and Bach is significant. “Hell of High Water” could almost have been dragged off the debut album such is its similarity across the board. The follow up title track of “The Gang’s All Here” ramps up the attitude, and utilises the best Skid Row has to offer – good backing vocals, nice guitars, and a happy feeling to the song. “Not Dead Yet” continues on in that vein, while “Time Bomb” has its moment but feels a little cliched amongst the first tracks.
“Resurrected” has that great attitude that the band’s best music has always contained, great guitar, terrific singalong lyrics and backup vocals that support Gronwall’s posing and pointed performance. It’s one of my favourites from the album. “Nowhere Fast” jumps between the mid-tempo range that modern Skid Row has adapted to, while also throwing in a bit of hard biting slow tempo drums to emphasise the chorus. “When the Lights Come On” changes things up again, visualising the kind of hair metal songs the band released on their debut all those years ago, focused on the same sort of subject matter and song highlights that they provided back in the day. This is one of the songs where Gronwall really sounds like the band’s first vocalist, in some places the resemblance is uncanny. And then there is the crowd chanting favourite “Tear it Down”, where you can imagine the crowd fist pumping and chanting along with the vocals in tandem with the band.
“October’s Song” is a long winded power ballad that for me is probably one that will sit well with the hard core fan base, but for my tastes doesn’t hit the mark. To be honest it doesn’t even work in a way of promoting the band on radio or those types of institutions, because at just over seven minutes in length it is too long. And really, if you are going to write this kind of song, make it four minutes maximum and get it over and done with. It’s not a mood killer, but it outstays its welcome well before the final chords are struck. “World on Fire” on the other hand fights back hard and sharp, and finishes off the album in the same way it started, with a fresh take on a band’s original sound and songwriting.

As I said in the opening, Skid Row came along at the exact right time of my life. All of those youth anthems that they wrote were aimed at my generation, and they were great years to be out there and listening to music and going to live gigs. I tried really hard to get into “Subhuman Race” but it just didn’t gel with me, and despite this and the changing of the guard, I still gave every Skid Row release a go and hoped it would be the one that rediscovered their mojo.
This is the one that has finally done it. Whether or not you want to call Erik Gronwall a Bach clone, it really doesn’t matter, because his vocals fit the band and the music they have written, and the band fits his voice. Some of the songs seem to be inspired by those early classics, without trying to replicate them. Maybe that’s just Erik’s voice, or maybe it was something that the band tried to achieve. Either way, what Skid Row does succeed with on this album is restoring the pieces to their correct order, and in many ways making them a listenable commodity once again.
I got this album on its release. Enough excitement had been built up with the initial selection of songs to whet the appetite, and I guess I was hopeful that everything would come together in a way that allowed this album to be as enjoyable as it could be. It isn’t about trying to make it sound like they did 30 years ago, it is about harnessing those memories and providing an output for them in the modern day. In all of those ways, the band has succeeded. I wouldn’t compare it to those first two albums, rather I would listen to it with the sound of those albums in mind, and allow that to swing the mood into this new era.

1183. W.A.S.P. / Live... in the Raw! [Live]. 1987. 4.5/5

It had been a wild ride for the band W.A.S.P. over the course of their five year existence at the point of time that this live album was released. Three landmark albums, chart selling singles, and increasing controversy over their stage antics, as well as having been targeted by the movement dubbed the PMRC, had given the band great publicity and a growing legion of fans.
It was on the tour to promote their third album “Inside the Electric Circus” that the idea came up to record the shows and release a live album from them. An initial recording in London at Hammersmith encouraged the band to do a serious run through once they arrived back in the US. Two nights were recorded in California in March 1987 at the end of the tour, when the band should have been at its best and the songs at their tightest. Which in many ways was the case, but there were also the other touring problems that crept into the recordings.
Tensions within the band were rife as they came to the conclusion of the tour, and throughout the time when this album was recorded. At times drummer Steve Riley and bass guitarist Johnny Rod had to be dragged apart, and fisticuffs ensued on a regular basis. It is interesting that in the linear notes for the remastered version of this album, Blackie Lawless actually suggests that Steve Riley was the one who was under pressure, because he had always had to try and live up to the band’s original drummer, Tony Richards, and that he couldn’t do that. Now, I’ve always thought Riley was a great drummer, which he also proved when he either quit or was sacked by Blackie following this tour, and he went on to join L.A Guns as they released their debut album. To be honest, there always appeared to be tension in W.A.S.P. whether they were on a successful roll or not, but it is interesting that there should have been problems within the band at this time, a time when change did seem to be coming, both in the band and in the style of music they had produced prior to this point in time.

As a representative live tribute to their first three albums, this album covers most of the bases. To be fair it would have been a difficult job in which to whittle down the songs choices available for a touring setlist, let alone then choosing which songs to use on the live album produced from it. In the end the band left out four songs from the shows that were recorded - “Sex Drive”, “Animal - Fuck Like a Beast”, “Widowmaker”, and “Shoot it from the Hip”, although all but “Animal” eventually made their way on to the remastered CD version of the album some years later as bonus tracks.
The coverage of the albums was fairly evenly spread, and contained most of the great hits from the band. “L.O.V.E Machine” and “I Wanna Be Somebody” were the big singles from their eponymous debut and are still live favourites to this day. “Sleeping in the Fire is still an underrated track, and one that also plays out beautifully live. “Wild Child” was the big single from the second album “The Last Command” and is another that still sits in the live set in the present day, and is joined by the other great single from that album “Blind in Texas”. And the best of the “Inside the Electric Circus” album on which the band was touring at the time is featured here too, with the opening title track, “9.5.N.A.S.T.Y” and the wonderful cover version of “I Don’t Need No Doctor”.
What makes this live album unique is that it has two songs specially written for this tour, songs that had not been recorded on a studio release before the tour, and in fact never received the studio treatment. Which means that the only place you can hear the songs “The Manimal” and “Harder Faster” is on this live album. And some people might find that to be unfortunate, but I’ve always enjoyed this fact. Both are your atypical W.A.S.P. songs of the era, and are good fun in the bargain. And, on top of that, make it essential to buy this album if you want to have the entire W.A.S.P. collection of songs, so that probably doesn’t hurt either. Topping it off is the addition of the song “Scream Until You Like It”, the theme songs for the movie “Ghoulies II”. The band didn’t write the song, it was written by those involved in the soundtrack for the movie, but the boys certainly make it their own in the recording process.

In my first year of University in 1988, I used to spend my five hour break between lectures on a Wednesday in town, strolling through the record stores. My favourite was Illawarra Books & Records, where there was plenty of used vinyl on offer at a price that a poor student could almost afford. On one magical day during the first semester, I walked into this shop, and found all three of WA.S.P’s first albums, along with this album, all sitting there, waiting for me to purchase them. And I did. 20 bucks for the lot, worth more back then than it is now, but still so much cheaper than they should have been. And I played them all to death, blunting the needle on my stereo in my bedroom several times. And they all got the same amount of listening, often back to back to back.
I always loved this back in the day, and I still do now in the present. It has a great vibe around it, and it still gives off the energy that I imagine the band did in those live shows of the day. More importantly, there is no backtracking or dubs to be heard, what you hear is what you get, which is not quite true of the band in the modern day. And it is still an interesting piece, because it is surprising how much work goes in to those early W.A.S.P. studio albums, and in some ways how difficult it is to represent them well in the live environment – especially in the vocals. But everything here is good, and it is an enjoyable album to listen to. And as a historical record of the first phase of the W.A.S.P. story it acts as a suitable conclusion. W.A.S.P’s sound began to mature in a different direction following this album, and the band itself blurred in many realities following this. But that’s a story for another day.