1118. The End Machine / Phase 2. 2021. 3.5/5

Back in the 1980’s, when hair metal was at its peak, US band Dokken had dominated sales and airwaves with albums such as Tooth and Nail, Under Lock and Key and Back for the Attack. While Don Dokken was lead vocalist, they had George Lynch on guitar, Jeff Pilson on bass and Mich Brown on drums, all of whom were also invested in the writing of the material. When the band broke up or went on hiatus or whatever you wish to term their split as being, Lynch and brown went on to form the band Lynch Mob who released two successful albums of their own. For Lynch Mob, they recruited a singer named Oni Logan, who for the second album was replaced by Robert Mason. For all of those years between 1989 and 2018 there were several reunions and disassembling of line ups of both Dokken and Lynch Mob, with varying degrees of success.In 2019, the three band members of Dokken whose surname was not Dokken – ie, Lynch, Pilson and Brown – and three members of Lynch Mob – ie, Lynch and Brown, along with Mason – formed a new band called The End Machine. They released their debut album with the eponymous title in 2019, which received good reviews. When you listen to that album, while the songs are fine and well written, it is only natural to compare them to that bygone era, to subject them to a comparison to the great Dokken and Lynch Mob albums of the past. And as far as that debut album went, it had no semblance of anything from that era. It is a good album but to be fair nothing really stands out as amazing on it.

Here on Phase2, Mick Brown has moved into retirement and has been replaced on drums by his brother Steve, keeping everything nicely in house for The End Machine. And there is an immediately noticeable difference to the songs on Phase2 than there was on the debut album. There is that immediate sound of something Dokkeny going on. But don’t get me wrong, this isn’t Dokken and it isn’t Lynch Mob. Recreating a sound from those albums would be a one way ticket to disaster. It isn’t 1987 anymore, and no one wants to hear another The Final Countdown, for instance, do they? But, whereas the first album felt like it was trying to avoid any comparison to that long bygone age, Phase2 doesn’t appear to be doing that. The melodic hard rock sound that was a hallmark of those two bands is definitely here, not with the 80’s poppy vibe perhaps, but in a more mature form that befits the 30 odd years that these gentlemen have since those days of spandex and hairspray and the like.

As you can hear from the opening, Phase2 has a familiar sound to it without trying to recreate that era. From the very beginning it is great to hear the tight combination of Brown and Pilson in the rhythm section, giving Lynch’s guitar the base to make his magic happen, while the vocals from Mason jump straight in and grab you. This is followed up on “We Walk Alone”, another great track where Mason and Pilson’s vocals strike a great anthemic chord to get the listener involved.
“Dark Divide” is perhaps the best example of the mature sound of the past greatness of the band’s previous incarnations. A free-flowing guitar and bass riff held in check by a perfect rolling beat and wonderful vocal melodies from Mason and Pilson. It has a terrific groove and has all of the hallmarks and talents that this foursome bring to the table. There are plenty of what I call ‘comfort songs’ on this album, and what I mean by that is that the songs themselves aren’t frenetic or super guitar driven or have technical drum or bass patterns throughout. They are songs that sit into a comfortable groove, one where you nod your head along in time rather than thrashing hard or crooning in a balladeer way. “Plastic Heroes”, “Shine Your Light”, “Born of Fire” and especially the closing track “Destiny” do this in a most effective way. There is no high speed tempo in these tracks, but they just oooooze along, lulling you in with Mason’s wonderful vocals and the smooth rhythm that folds around everything.
On the other hand there is the ballad that all bands in this style of genre MUST produce for every album, and in this instance it is “Scars”. This actually comes closest to reminding me of a Dokken song, one of their most famous power ballads “Heaven Sent”. This has a very similar tone to that song. This isn’t a poor song but its very makeup makes me want to reach for the skip button immediately.
Of course, then you have a song like “Crack the Sky”, which showcases the style that George Lynch contributes, upping the tempo and energy in Mason’s vocals, and with Lynch’s guitar tricks punctuating throughout the song.

I came across The End Machine completely by accident, actually learning about it on an interview with Jeff Pilson on a podcast where they spoke of, amongst other things, about the imminent release of this album. So I looked it up and checked it out, as well as its predecessor. And while I enjoyed the first album, this is the one that I actually found I had more in common with. It grabbed my attention in a way the debut album did not, and my belief is that it has more to do with the greater influence of their melodic roots of metal than anything else.

Phase2 probably isn’t modern enough to catch the ear of the kids today, but for those of us old enough to remember the heady days of hair metal through the 1980’s, even though this ISN’T that, it is a much more mature version of that, you will feel comfort enough in the song structure and melodic harmony tones of this album.
I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy this album. It’s always a difficult thing to find out about a new band or release and come into it with any pre-conceived ideas about how it should sound and what you expect it to be like. With so much music out there in the world now, the ability to come up with something that will appeal to old fans and yet not be just a rehash or copy of the music that they know you for is a pretty difficult balancing act. What I eventually loved most about this album was the fact that it didn’t try to be anything that it wasn’t. It is an album by 55-65 year old guys whose experience allows them to fall comfortably into the music they have written, and perform it so well that you can’t help but like it. It is anything but a hard rock album, but it has songs that fit that profile. It is not an easy listening album, but it has moments that drift into comfort listening. More than anything else, it sounds great, and each of the members of the band do their job wonderfully well, and that makes it great to listen to.

Rating: "We walk alone". 3.5/5

1117. Sunbomb / Evil and Divine. 2021. 4/5

It is hard to go past a collaboration between two artists well known throughout the industry, but on slightly different parts of the music spectrum. Tracii Guns is best known for his work with his band L.A. Guns, a part of the LA hair metal scene of the late 80’s and early 90’s in particular, as well as Brides of Destruction with Nikki Sixx in the early 2000’s. Michael Sweet also emerged in the mid to late 1980’s as the guitarist and front man for the Christian metal band Stryper, and has also sung for mega band Boston and been in other projects such as with George Lynch.Now though both of the bands that these two are best known for hail from the same era of music and could rightly claim to be well entrenched in that 80’s hard rock and hair metal scene, and that their music genre would be in a similar category, they still seem like unlikely music partners. Michael Sweet is a Christian, and the majority of his music has been Christian related, at least lyrically, while Tracii Guns... is not... Christian, and the majority of his music lyrically would seem to have been the opposite of that... well, the tongue in cheek girl meets boy kinda lyric stuff. So on the face of it, this seems like a strange collaboration.

From all reports, Guns and Sweet bumped into each other a few years ago, and got on well, becoming friends of a sort. Guns apparently tried to get a co-tour happening with LA guns and Stryper a couple of years ago, but by all accounts the record companies didn’t feel it was a good match. Go figure. So we come to Tracii deciding to write a new album, a new project, and he decided, in his own words, to do an album like what he was listening to as a teenager, and that had been closer to doom metal than what he played in LA Guns particularly. And so he did. It was an experiment, but one he was happy with. Guns wrote all the music, and when it came time to think of a vocalist, he came to Michael Sweet. It wasn’t such a stretch as you might imagine, as there is no doubt that Sweet’s writing and playing has been getting progressively heavier over the last few Stryper albums, as well as the two albums he had collaborated on with George Lynch. So musically, we have Tracii Guns writing doom metal songs, sung on by the high range melodic vocals of Michael Sweet in what is described in some quarters as a modern take on doom metal. Melodic doom metal? Well, probably not, but that’s where it heads, so it’s best to get your head around that from the start.
Tracii Guns is quoted as saying, “Sunbomb was an idea, then an experiment. When I heard the first vocal completed I was blown away by Michael’s voice. It’s an exciting album!”
Michael Sweet is quoted, “Hard to believe that I met Tracii for the first time just a few years ago. We hit it off right away and we obviously share the same love for metal. Traci sent me a song and I loved the vibe and then he eventually asked me to sing on the entire album. What I love about it is it’s definitely different not only for me, but for Tracii as well. I think fans will love this album”.

This is an album that will divide fans and critics alike, and sometimes that can be a good thing because it means that a band is pushing the boundaries of what people think of those musicians involved – and of course sometimes it isn’t a good thing. Evil and Divine is definitely heavier, darker, and more of a more modern metal sound than most fans will expect. There’s no doubt that, for both of the main artists here, the music is much heavier than either has ever produced before in their long and storied careers. But it is different, and it does take some getting used to. No happy go lucky praising of the Lord of chatting up sleazy rock chicks on this album, this is the real metal deal. But the style is variant depending on which song you are listening to, and that can be challenging. Sweet’s vocals come at you in a much different fashion than you will be used to. He spends a lot of top in his high register with trademark high pitched screams but also some with some real venom and force behind them that are not his typical way. At time he is almost raging, really getting into the songs with gusto, and again this takes some getting used to.
On the other side, Tracii really digs deep into his past love of doom metal, and not only pulls it off in a traditional way but also gives it a modern texture that overall works superbly. When he plays songs in that old time doom metal time signature, being kept in check with the slow tempo drums, you can almost imagine early Sabbath, Candlemass, Witchfinder General and Type O Negative playing on the album.

And honestly, the more you listen to the album, the better it gets, mainly because you begin to get used to what Tracii was trying to create with this album. In general it is the faster paced songs that sound best and will probably survive inquiry the longest because they keep the momentum up and drive the album along. “Life”, the opening track of the album, is fast paced with a great guitar riff and vocals, and an excellent solo from Tracii. “Better End” and “Born to Win” are in a similar category to these. And “No Tomorrows” also keeps the vibe up. There are other fairly obvious influences here, none more so than the slower track “Been Said and Done”, that has a bassline straight out of an Alice in Chains album, gutteral and dominating the track.
Some of it doesn’t quite work the way it probably should. In “Worlds Gone Wrong” it feels to me that Sweet’s vocals don’t fit the song the way it is written, and that as one of several true doom metal tracks on the album, it isn’t quite as good or well done as others. On the other hand, take a listen to the second song on the album, “Take Me Away”. This is the perfect example of the doom obsession Tracii has tried to create, and I think it is a ripper. The timing and tempo of the track is perfect, and Tracii has beautifully recreated his own version of that Iommi-like sound on his guitar, from the main riff and through into the solo. I think this song is a work of art.

In all of the reviews that I have read of this album, all of them have been ambivalent over almost everything on it. All seem to be able to pick out one or two songs that they can stomach, and then cast aside the rest as too different for their tastes. And it doesn’t surprise me, because it took me quite a long time to get it myself. There is a real range and mixture of sounds on Evil and Divine. Every song has a different feel and energy, and that takes some getting used to. If you just put this album on and listened to it two or three times, and then gave up on it, then you would probably feel the same way as these reviewers do.

But me? I had it on at work over a four-week period with several other albums on the same playlist that I was listening to, and gave it a lot of time, with albums of a different sound in order to gain some context. And then I finally put it on at home and everything magically fell into place. I found what I loved about the album, and what I didn’t.
And – I really do enjoy it. Because the band is and sounds great. Adam Hamilton on drums and Mitch Davis on bass are terrific, not just making up the numbers but really contributing, especially on the slower and moodier tracks. Tracii’s guitar sound is perfect for the album, not only in his rhythm riffs but also his classic metal solos. And Michael’s vocals are still the equal of anyone in the music business, and here he not only shows us what we know he can do, he also has some surprises. It is a fantastic compilation.

Will this be a one-off? I hope not, because if this is what this group can produce in a covid year of lockdown and isolation, imagine what they could do in a year of some semblance of returned normality!

Rating: "Is the future closer than the end". 4/5

1116. Adrian Smith & Richie Kotzen / Smith/Kotzen. 2021. 3.5/5

By all accounts, Richie Kotzen and Adrian Smith have been friends for some years, and have often spoken about doing some sort of project together. And all it took for it to happen was a worldwide pandemic that halted all live tours and essentially anything to do with people congregating together any time soon, for it to happen. Now, blues and blues rock are not at the top of my listening list. Obviously, many heavy metal and hard rock bands have had blues influences interwoven through their songs and albums over the last 50 years. A lot of early AC/DC songs is the best example of this. And being a great Gary Moore fan there was a lot of blues to listen to in his final twenty years, and at least his first two blues-only albums are still great to listen to. And Jeff Healey was another blues artist who I admired greatly, especially for his debut album.

So, coming into this album, once you know that the basis of all the songs is blues rock, then you can appreciate it for what it is and not for what you might have been hoping for. And let’s face it, Richie Kotzen’s greatest claim to fame is as a riffing blues hard rock guitarist. And while Adrian Smith may have spent the majority of his career in one of the greatest heavy metal bands of all time, he has shown a penchant for various styles of music outside of his Maiden hours, with the soft rock project ASaP album Silver and Gold, the differing hard rock project Psycho Motel albums State of Mind and Welcome to the World and the frenzied extreme project Primal Rock Rebellion album Awoken Broken. So, when the first teaser single was released, entitled “Take My Chances,” I always knew that we were not going to be getting a Bruce Dickinson's The Chemical Wedding or Paul Stanley’s Live to Win.
The reason we all came to the album was for the guitars, and in that respect there is no disappointment. Both men have shown themselves throughout their careers to be terrific guitarists, and they deliver fantastically throughout. Even when, in my humble opinion, a song is a little on the over-zealous or predictable side – yes, you can read ‘boring’ in there if you like and you wouldn’t be far off the mark – that is not the case with the traded guitar solo breaks. They are the highlight of each song and of the album overall. I don’t even think there is any element of one-upmanship going on. I just think they both genuinely enjoyed the challenge of playing with each other, and rather than try and outdo each other they played solos that complemented each other, and in a project like this, that must be a difficult thing to do at times. And this is best shown on the songs that have that little bit more momentum than the others.

Both Smith and Kotzen share all the duties between themselves throughout the album - guitars, bass, vocals, composing and production. No mean feat, but something that no doubt made writing and recording during a pandemic an easier and necessary thing to do. Kotzen also plays drums on five tracks and his touring partner Tal Bergman, Richie’s longstanding friend and touring partner, plays drums on the songs "You Don’t Know Me", "I Wanna Stay" and "'Til Tomorrow". The album also features a special guest performance from Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain on "Solar Fire", which may have something to do with me thinking it is the best overall song on the album.

Blues rock has always been something that I can listen to, but probably choose not to on most occasions when it comes to looking for an album to listen to. And that doesn’t preclude the albums and artists I mentioned at the top of the episode. At work, having this album on has been great. It blends into the background and is really enjoyable when it comes to that office environment. However, I do not mind admitting that when I get home, I want something a bit more aggressive, a bit heavier, and bit more fist pumping. And while there will always be times in that environment that it will be good to put on, I fear that won’t be the case on a regular basis. For those that are fans of the genre, I think you will find this is an excellent album full of great guitar highlights. Richie is the main vocalist and is as good as ever, and Adrian’s additions along the way are also enjoyable. Some of the songs for me extend longer than they need to, or feel they need to at least. This isn’t what you would classify as an ‘easy listening’ album, but it is an album that in the right mood will slip comfortably into the background and enhance whatever it is you are doing. The skills of these two gentlemen are not in doubt, and by bringing them together in this project they have again shown their brilliant skills and musical versatility, and it is more than worth your while in giving it a listen.

Rating: "Well, they told me in school not to mess with the rules" 3.5/5

1115. The Offspring / Let the Bad Times Roll. 2021. 3.5/5

Any time that a band that is as universally admired and loved as The Offspring was during the 1990’s and through the 2000’s that then finds itself in a lull of some years in regards to new material being released, will necessarily have questions asked of it. Even when you look at the story, and discover the legal problems that required fixing, the loss of their recording contract, the change of personnel within and around the band, and finally a pandemic that delayed the eventual release of their new material by almost 18 months, it is hard to fathom that there was a nine year wait between albums. That’s Metallica-like, though with the depreciating returns from album sales to artists it is becoming a more routine thing. Eventually though, after various writing and recording spurts and a final waiting call due to Covid19, we have the new Offspring album in our hands, titled Let the Bad Times Roll.

From the outset this is an album that lyrically is following a similar pattern to voicing how the world was witnessing the mood within the United States in particular over the past four years, if not longer. The vocals may not be as belligerently hostile as they were with the band 25 years ago, but there’s little doubt in the words exactly what they are saying. Lyrics such as these from the opening track, “This is Not Utopia” - “These dying streets are bruised and beaten, and riot flags are waving, poor and weak, we extend this streak, these lives we could be saving”. Even the title gives away the band’s thoughts on their home country – and this was recorded BEFORE what happened in the US during 2020. There’s a lot more material there just from those 12 months. This then leads into the title track, “Let the Bad Times Roll” – which musically at least to me is so much like a Fall Out Boy song. Lyrically and visually however it continues down the same path as the album opener, this time focusing on the fevered supporters of the former US President, with hard-hitting and relevant lyrics such as “Mexicans and blacks and Jews, got it all figured out for you, gonna build a wall let you decide, apathy or suicide”. No holds barred there, from the lead single released from the album a few weeks ago.

The songs become a bit more melancholy with “Behind Your Walls” and into “Army of One”. The Offspring have done these kinds of songs before (see “Self Esteem” and “Gone Away”), but “Behind Your Walls” lacks the same kind of massive angst and powerful music behind it that other songs of the genre hold. “Army of One” has much more in common with typical Offspring tracks, a great up-tempo push with positive spin on the lyrics, closer to what they are renown for. “Breaking These Bones” comes with an even more morbid observation on break ups... I mean, I know Taylor Swift has made a career out of writing songs on break ups, but is an angsty song by a band with members in their mid-50's just pushing that a little too far? Maybe it is me that is just too old, and songs like these aren’t aimed at me at all (no kidding Grandpa...).
“Coming to You” is one of the older songs appearing here, having first been played live back in 2015. If you are looking for the atypical Offspring song on this album, then this is where you come to. A jiving beat, lyrics that are alternately spitting yet amusing, and all with that great vocal quality of fun yet drive.
I still don’t know how to take “We Never Have Sex Anymore”. Is it comedy or serious or pisstake? The horns section comes in throughout, giving this a completely different feel to every other song on the album – that “big band” feeling with the trombones and trumpets and clarinet and saxophone. Does anyone else remember Helloween doing a brass version of their great song “Dr Stein” for their best of album “Unarmed”? Yeah, that’s how awkward I feel about this song. It’s the pisstake song of the album, the one that comes closest to being the track you sing like “Pretty Fly for a White Guy” and “Why Don’t You Get a Job”, but without the real fun usually involved. Though teenagers may get a kick out of it.

“The Opioid Diaries” and “Hassan Chop” are the two songs that should have combined as the album closers, and are as bombastic lyrically as the opening two tracks. “The Opioid Diaries” is where the band opens up and channels their finer alt punk moments, fast and furious musically and lyrically and hard hitting at the pharmaceutical companies. This is one of the best songs on the album. And then “Hassan Chop” continues the drilling pace and flows without favour on religious wars being waged, with both sides claiming that their God helps them win. Once again, both of these songs lyrics leave nothing to the imagination, fear no favour, and give their fans listening something to consider beyond the songs themselves.
While that should have been the close of the album, it is instead completed by a piano ballad version of their hit song “Gone Away”, followed by the acoustic “Lullaby”, which acts as a reprise of the chorus of the title track. Perhaps everyone involved felt it best to finish on this quiet note after the hard core of what preceded it, but personally I feel it acts as a slight letdown to the thoughtful songs that came before it.

When I first listened to the album, I was not overly enamoured. The kind of fast paced and in-your-face attitude that the band’s music gave us on albums such as Smash and Ixnay on the Hombre has been toned down, doubtless in the main because they were 25 years ago and musicians and bands and individuals all change over that lengthy period of time. But in many ways even the energy that flowed through Americana and Conspiracy of One isn’t quite as apparent here on Let the Bad Times Roll. And as I can appreciate with all bands with such a lengthy time span, that is a similar story. There is also the problem that nine years have passed since the release of Days Go By, and with the problems that have met the band at every turn during that time, it isn’t such a surprise that things get changed up, and that maybe some of the spark gets lost in the mix. And no band can ever be condemned for wanting to try some different ideas in their song writing.

But I shouldn’t focus on the past, I should be looking at the present. And in a world that would appear ready to explode with new recorded material, all composed and recorded during a year when there was little else to do but to observe the world as it is and write about it, Let the Bad Times Roll may well be at the forefront of that movement. The fact that these songs were composed before 2020 started is interesting, because most of the subjects the songs here are about were probably more relevant last year than before that. In essence, this album actually shows that of all the political and activism problems that blew up in 2020, they all had a base well before the year of the pandemic arrived. In a current historical sense, that could be seen to be eye opening.
For all of its less exciting moments, all mostly within the middle of the album, they are bookended by some excellent ripostes by a band that, although they had never gone away, still managed to release what may yet be considered as the comeback album of the year by the time we get to December 2021. And in the current world of music, that’s not a bad thing at all.

Rating: "Because our God is righteous, and yours the one to blame". 3.5/5

1114. Blaze Bayley / War Within Me. 2021. 3.5/5

Since coming to prominence as the lead singer in the British band Wolfsbane, before going on to greater things with Iron Maiden in the mid-to-late 1990’s, Blaze Bayley has constructed his own career over the past 20+ years, dutifully curating his career to survive in times where the music business has changed so much. His production line of album releases, totalling 9 studio albums, 6 live albums and various other performances with other entities, as well as a hectic line of live shows only slowed by last year’s pandemic, has kept him at the forefront of the metal showcase. Now, Blaze has released his tenth studio album, one where he has obviously spent the year of the pandemic in an inward observation of himself given the album title, War Within Me.

Blaze and his band have got their own groove, one that has developed over the past decade especially through the album trilogy of the Infinite Entanglement series, and it comes across in spades in the opening track. The title track sets the scene for the album, opening with a great set of riffs and vocal work to set the album off on the right foot. This is followed by the excellent “303”, short sharp and sweet. It has a good sounding rhythm and back beat and is written about the story of the 303 squadron that fought in the Battle of Britain and then throughout World War II. Hey, the lyrics are no Dickinson/Smith combination, but the song is a good one.
“Warrior” and “Pull Yourself Up” are both songs from the same recording plane, with what sounds to me at least like Blaze has had some serious soul searching within himself and has dragged up some personal feelings about his own perceived weaknesses. Both musically and lyrically, “Warrior” comes across as the better song though somewhat cheesily, at least the song moves along enjoyably, whereas “Pull Yourself Up” overstates what Blaze is trying to put out there, and the staccato chorus tends to get boring after a while. “Witches Night” has similar pieces to it to some earlier Blaze songs, such as “Tenth Dimension” and “Identity”, and while I enjoy the song those similarities to those songs do haunt me every time I listen to it and has me singing the lyrics of those other songs over the top instead.
“18 Flights” is similar, in that it has those hints of Iron Maiden and Helloween in them especially in the guitar solo break, and as much as it would be preferable not to compare any of Blaze’s music to Iron Maiden, in this instance it is difficult to do. The fact that it is the music without the way the lyrics are being sung that shows similarities, rather than is the case in “Witches Night” perhaps allows it to escape from any further roasting. The second half of “18 Flights” in particular is excellent.

The trilogy of songs that follow this have their moments, and to be fair they are actually quite good and enjoyable to listen to. It’s just that... they feel as though they are missing a certain quality that could perhaps push them from being enjoyable songs into being GREAT songs! Blaze in his own way pays tribute to three trailblazers in “The Dream of Alan Turing”, “The Power of Nikola Tesla” and “The Unstoppable Stephen Hawking”, and those three songs are enjoyable but within the confines of the musical style that Blaze and his band has built for itself. And in many ways it is the rod that they have built for themselves. The basic song chords and rhythm does seem to become repeatable, and this does seem to create a similar feeling when listening to any of his last few albums. The solo sections do break out and create a more interesting part of each song (and Chris Appleton throughout is excellent), but if the basic structure of the songs is this similar then it makes it hard to find that growth and change that is preferable when listening to your favourite artists.
“Every Storm Ends” is the attempt at the epic closing track, the one that will invoke and evoke the kind of emotion that the track’s lyrics are looking to draw out. And sure, why not give it a go if you think it’s going to work. But I guess for me it doesn’t work because it is trying a bit too hard to be that specific kind of track, and sometimes by doing that it falls a bit flat. Yes, for me that’s what happens.

I don’t mind admitting I have a soft spot for Blaze. I thought the majority of his work with Iron Maiden was admirable and is still great listening. I then made sure I supported his career from the point that the two parties moved on, and continue to give albums such as Silicon Messiah, Tenth Dimension, Blood & Belief and The Man Who Would Not Die spins on regular occasions. But there is little doubt that the era since those albums does come at a price. While each album since then has some songs that are inspired, energetic and full of great riffs and vocals, there are just as many songs that seem to lack that inspiration in which to make them great rather than average. His work with Absolva the band and in particular Chris Appleton continues to bear fruit, but the pickings are probably not as great as previous years. And yet this is true of most bands. The trick is to make sur you don’t make the mistake of thinking another Silicon Messiah is just going to come around and get the most that you can from what the band is offering in the moment. On that scale of economy, much like the Infinite Entanglement trilogy, there is some great stuff here to like immensely, and some other stuff to bear through.

Rating: “Eighteen flights and fifteen shows, six countries away we go.” 3.5/5

1113. Rainbow / Rising. 1976. 5/5

Back in those long-ago days of high school when I was first discovering the so-called dark arts of heavy metal music, the mixture of bands that were sampled during that time ranged from mainstream to hard rock to metal. Players switched bands, which brought about more music to be searched for to listen to. One particular friend had a penchant for the guitaring of Ritchie Blackmore – and why not, he is a legend – and one day brought to school the album Rising by a band called Rainbow. It was not the first material I had heard with Ronnie James Dio on vocals, but it was probably the first time I actually realised just what a powerhouse he was. And in no way was I ready for the change in style of music that came here from what had been Ritchie Blackmore’s forte in Deep Purple. What I found was the start of a new chapter in my love of music.

This has been considered a great album pretty much since its release, a defining album, an album that is influential to so much that followed. All of this is true, but there is always a question over the relative ‘greatness’ of all of the songs on an album, and whether that brings down where the album ranks amongst the greats of any genre or era. That is also true here, as of the six songs that comprise Rising I would consider three to be at the top of the tree, one to be a high standard, and two that are above average but without the qualities of those ranked higher. Thus, the rating of this album for some is a stretch.
The two songs in question for me are “Run with the Wolf” and “Do You Close Your Eyes”. The use of the term ‘filler’ is too harsh for these songs, as aside from the fact that it is difficult to have filler on a six-song album, they both also have their charm. Perhaps the lyrics aren’t what you generally expect from Dio, indeed one could say that they are unexpected given his output from this point on. “Run with the Wolf” does deal with the supernatural and has its flight through this, whereas “Do You Close Your Eyes” falls a bit too close to pop lyrics which is an unexpected left turn considering the opening salvo. Certainly, to me this is the case with “Do You Close Your Eyes”, but was this the Ritchie Blackmore influence, looking for that track that would get radio airplay? Once Dio moved on from Rainbow there was a much great effort to make the band radio friendly, and these are the kinds of lyrics that Joe Lynn Turner was happy to go with in his tenure with the band. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. It’s a jaunty enough track but it just doesn’t have the claws of the other songs that trigger those emotional ties.
“Starstruck” too is an upbeat hard to heavy song, and one that gets the mood moving. The chorus is a crowd pleaser and the overall vibe of the song has always given the middle of the album a kickstart. No doubt there are those out there that rate this as highly as the gold tracks of the album. I don’t think it quite reaches that level but I still enjoy the song.
The other half of this album is pure joy. The album opener “Tarot Woman” is one of my favourite songs of all time, and has everything you could ever want from a high voltage song. The beautiful 90 second opening synth prelude from Tony Carey sets the tone up beautifully, wreaking the emotive beginning into the Ritchie’s guitar and Cozy Powell’s drums and underscored by Jimmy Bain’s bass line, crashing into the powerhouse of the song as Ronnie lets loose with his amazing vocals. It also showcases Ritchie’s amazing soloing on guitar, which here is perfectly supported by the keyboards before Dio’s vocals soar for the concluding verse and chorus, and the song then fades out to Carey’s keyboard solo. Still brilliant all these years later.
Most count “Stargazer” as the star attraction of the album, and while I lean to the opening track in this regard that doesn’t make this any less brilliant. It is again full of everything that makes this incarnation of the band its finest. The opening drum solo from Cozy is just awesome, creating the perfect entrance to Ritchie’s guitar riff to start the song. Dio’s brilliant lyrics that are then perfectly performed in telling the story are superb, and then the middle stanza including Ritchie’s best guitar work again make this a perfect work of art. Then we are treated to the joy of “A Light in the Black”, the fastest song on the album where the band again blend superbly. The joyful solo break in the middle of the song is surrounded by Dio’s hard soaring vocals pushing the song to its limits. It is the perfect way to conclude the album with two eight-minute-plus songs that hold your attention all the way to the end.
The performances here by the three major contributors – Dio, Blackmore and Powell – are extraordinary. That is not to ignore the contribution of either Carey or Bain, but these three went on to record the follow up Long Live Rock 'n' Roll which somewhat amazingly outstrips this album. But their perfection in their art – vocals, guitar and drums – on this album is brilliant. Cozy’s hard-hitting drumming is perfect on these songs, Ritchie’s guitar is a shining light and Ronnie’s vocals both here and on the following album are probably his most pure and electrifying of any other project he was involved in. If only Ritchie had not felt compelled to find commercial success, who knows what this trio could have produced.

Whether or not you consider this one of the great ‘heavy metal’ albums of all time, there is little doubt that the influence of Rising on future generations of musicians and bands is enormous. It showed once and for all that Ritchie Blackmore had more to his repertoire than what he did in Deep Purple, and it rose Ronnie James Dio to a prominence that he never fell from again. “Tarot Woman”, “Stargazer” and “A Light in the Black” set the band and its members on to greater glory. The album and its songs sound as great today as they must have when they were first released. To me, it is a triumph and still a joy to put on at any time.

Best songs: “Tarot Woman”, “Starstruck”, “Stargazer”, “A Light in the Black”.

Rating: “Her love is like a knife, she’ll carve away your life”. 5/5

1112. Anthrax / State of Euphoria. 1988. 4/5

Anthrax’s path over the previous five years had been one where they were on the rise, from the raw opening of their debut album, to the more refined passage of their next two albums. The hiring of Joey Belladonna as lead vocalist after the first album had proved a success, and the piecing together of the quartet of Charlie Benante on drums, Scott Ian and Dan Spitz on guitars and Frank Bello on bass had put together two outstanding thrash metal albums. They had also blown up stages across the US and Europe, supporting some of the biggest bands and losing nothing in comparison.
What sort of changes do you make to a winning formula, especially when you have reached this crux in your career. The band was trending upwards, but what elements do you use going forward? The band had already dabbled in a crossover with the shared love they had with rap and hip hop from their New York roots, producing the single “I’m the Man” which had been well received, and playing the song in concerts with Joey filling in on drums while Charlie, Frank and Scott bounced around the stage singing. Charlie and Scott had also released the Stormtroopers of Death side project album “Speak English or Die” a couple of years earlier with former bandmate Dan Lilker, which was one of the original crossover thrash albums. Both of these releases were aside from the normal Anthrax releases, but it felt as though there were those elements that wanted to filter into the Anthrax core sound as well.
Once the album was completed, and in interviews on the subject since, both Charlie and Scott have spoken about the fact that they feel that the album was ‘unfinished’, that perhaps it was rushed, and not enough time was taken to iron out the kinks and to make it the best album they could. Retrospect is often a powerful tool that has no use in the real world. What you hear on this album is what the band was feeling at the time, and it remains as one of the jewels of the Anthrax catalogue. In many ways it is surprising to Anthrax fans that there are negative things spoken about “State of Euphoria” at all. Why then would the composers of the album feel this way over a release that contains a few of their most memorable performances?

There are few better album opening tracks on an album than “Be All, End All” a song which is a sign of their growing maturity as a band. The opening and closing of the song with the cello is inspirational, and the building throughout is magnificent. Joey’s anthemic delivery of the lyrics is perfect, the emotion and feeling of each line felt by the listener as they were meant to be as a result. Just a terrific song, one that has lasted the test of time. The cover of Trust’s fantastic “Antisocial” is brilliant roof raiser, and still as powerful today as it was when they first played it. It stands out here on this album because it is a different timing and different melody, that it isn’t quite as frantic as the songs around it are, which comes from it being a cover version. And “Finale” is a great closing track, bringing all of the power and aggression that has come before it and compacts into those final few minutes such that the album is completed in style.
The band continues to make statements about events that are occurring around them, and also write songs that come from books and movies that inspire them. “Make Me Laugh” is the band’s put down of televangelism that was prominent at the time, and was the subject of many songs by several bands around this period. “Misery Loves Company” continues Scott Ian’s in particular love affair with Stephen King, with the song based on the novel “Misery”. And “Now It’s Dark” comes from the film ‘Blue Velvet’, based around the character of Frank Booth played so maniacally well by Dennis Hopper.
Despite this, there is something about the songs on State of Euphoria that doesn't always feel as though they gel together, and it is this reason that I think it is a little maligned by the band in comparison to other albums. Why is this the case? Personally, I think the band got a little bit ‘funky’ with their sound on this album. What you end up getting here is an album that is somewhere between their original thrash metal sound, the hip-hop hard-core sound that came with their single “I'm the Man”, and the more mature metal sound that came with the following album. While the thrash elements are still here for all to hear, the subtle change in song structure and the similarity in which some songs follow the same pattern does feel as though it comes back to haunt this album to a degree.
Listening to the album with a critical ear, there is a case to be made that many of the songs are too similar in structure and sound. That may tend to over-simplify the argument, but it is what comes across to me. There is a case to be made that the songs on “State of Euphoria” just roll into one another and share too much time together. I can sing the choruses of a number of the songs over other songs on the album, and it all fits in to place too neatly. Is this a reason why some people find it difficult to get into the album? Perhaps.
But even those songs that could be accused of being similar still have great powerful chanting lines in the best traditions of Anthrax, lines like “Now it’s dark but I can see, don’t you fuckin’ look at me!” (“Now It’s Dark”), and “You know me, and I can be, a very, very vicious critic” (“Misery Loves Company”), and “Invisible could be my name, your excuses are so lame” (“Who Cares Wins”) just to name a few. And this is the main crux of any argument – for me, I love these songs and this album through weight of having grown up with it and listening to it a thousand times or more. And even for me, I sometimes find myself wandering while listening to the album and come back trying to decipher which song I’m listening to.

It’s hard to believe as I think back now that I missed Anthrax during my high school years. There were the couple of music videos that floated around – the one for “Madhouse” from “Spreading the Disease” being the most memorable one – but as for actually coming around and getting into the band, well that just didn’t happen until later on. Indeed, it wasn’t until I walked into Kiama Sight & Sound one day and saw this shiny album cover staring at me from the “A” rack that I finally purchased an Anthrax album, and I haven’t looked back since.
For me, of those first four albums of Joey Belladonna’s first stint in the band, this is the one that I still have confusion over how much I enjoy it. The debut was rough and mottled with its own charms but certainly not of legendary performance. Each of the other three albums to me are perfectly formed, filled to the brim with strong tracks and songs that are still just as brilliant today as they were when those albums were released. And I do love this album. But it is the one I have reservations about that love.
There are the occasional times when this album comes up in discussion, and I really have to consider how I feel about it. I did this recently with two long term friends, both of whom ranked this as the highest echelon of Anthrax’s discography. I was slightly incredulous. To me there are obvious stand outs in Anthrax’s great legacy, and I love this album, but not to the extent that I felt it was perhaps their best. But then I go home, I pull out my CD copy of the album, put it on the stereo, turn it up, and let it crush. And that it when you get this album at its best. Not in the car, not at work, not out and about on your portable music listening device. On the stereo, at home, and let the album do the work it has been designed to do. If I was to sit down and rank their albums, this wouldn’t be in the top four, but the variables are such a fine thing in this instance that ranking doesn’t really mean anything.
Having said all of that, I still love this album and I love the songs on it. That comes partly from having had this album for so many years and from having listened to it so much in those late teenage years when everything becomes a part of your psyche forever.
The hard bottom line for me is that “State of Euphoria” doesn’t quite stack up against those other three giants that the band was able to produce during this first stage of their career, and that’s okay because those are three pretty brilliant albums. But this isn’t that far behind, and anytime I put it on I am still enamoured by its overloaded ferocity and tongue firmly in cheek dark tones. I don’t know how I would react to this album if I was coming into it now, 35 years after it was released. No doubt a lot differently than I did when I did first get the album. Whereas Anthrax has other albums that are immediately lovable and relatable, I think ”State of Euphoria” probably needs a little bit more time to move beyond what could be seen as the similarity of the basic rhythm of songs like “Out of Sight, Out of Mind”, “Make Me Laugh”, “Who Cares Wins” and “Schism” in particular, to find the love that the album deserves.

1111. Dream Theater / Distance Over Time. 2019. 4.5/5

While many would disagree with me, my love of Dream Theater has run along two quite distinctive sections. Apart from one or two exceptions I love the era up to and including Train of Thought. These are the albums that I discovered in a short space of time and devoured them. Since then, I have found the albums a bit hit and miss in regards to my love of the music despite the still high level of musicianship. I still look forward to each album being released hoping for something that will reignite that true love of what the band can do. I think I’ve found that with Distance Over Time.

There are certainly two ways to take this album, and I guess in the long run I can only go with the way I have listened to it. From the very first time I put the CD on my stereo I was hooked. It had songs that were just songs, not pieces of a larger conglomerate of story interspersed with talky moments and interconnecting interludes. I could put this album on and just get ten songs coming at me that I either loved or didn’t - and loved them I did. Is it an attempt to reconnect with those fans who, like me, loved those albums from a different age? If indeed this was part of their package this time around, they succeeded with me from the outset.
While The Astonishing was a production and for me often a struggle to get through the whole double album in one sitting, Distance Over Time is a wonderful collection of the duelling keyboards of Jordan Rudess and the guitar of John Petrucci, the amazing bass lines of John Myung, the metronomic drumming of Mike Mangini and the silky vocals of James LaBrie. The combination here of the heavier guitar sound in many songs and the soaring vocalising of LaBrie is perhaps the winning direction. It differentiates itself from other recent releases by doing so. I love each member’s contribution to this album again. Mangini may not be Mike Portnoy but he does his job well. Petrucci’s guitaring is superb and continues to defy belief in sections. So too Johnny Myung’s bass playing, which is still so integral to Dream Theater’s sound.
Does it hold up though? Well, it has been a month now since its release and I still have it on my daily playlist, and that probably says that it has held up well. Having said that, I am not as ecstatic about it now as I was for the first couple of weeks. As the songs have become more familiar, I have found myself picking up on the similarities to other Dream Theater songs, just riff progressions or keyboard fills or even rhythm pieces that blend into other parts of the catalogue. That’s not meant to be a criticism as such, just that as with some other Dream Theater productions, some of it becomes a bit samey as the album progresses, and it is noticeable where the break out pieces that grab your attention more fully are placed on the album.
What will strike most old school fans is that the whole vibe of the album is more favourably directed towards the way those great early albums were written. None of the songs are as deliberately complicated or have 72 time changes every minute of every song however. In that way there is a more manageable way that they songs have been written to suit the course that sets this album apart from recent releases. What these songs do have are the perfect combination of having each member have their moment within each song. There are still those brilliant solo breaks where the musicians have their way and enhance the track, while when the vocals come in it is left to LaBrie to carry the song with his wonderful voice. No one person dominates on this album, every member contributes equally to each song, and this is what creates the best Dream Theater material.

I haven’t felt this way about a Dream Theater album since Train of Thought, and perhaps that comes from both albums having been focused on being heavier albums that the band’s usual output. It’s not all smash and bash, it is still Dream Theater doing what they do best, and revitalising that prog sound that they were such a big part of emphasising during the 1990’s. If you have quietly moved away from the band in recent years, then this would be a good album to come back into. It is a return to form.

Best songs: “Untethered Angel”, “Paralyzed”, “S2N”, “At Wit’s End”, “Pale Blue Dot”, “Viper King”

Rating:  “The world keeps turning as we latch on to the wheel”.  4.5/5

1110. Blaze Bayley / Live in France. 2019. 4/5

Having completed his Infinite Entanglement trilogy with the release of The Redemption of William Black: Infinite Entanglement Part III I guess it was only fitting that Blaze Bayley and his band released a live album to showcase the work they have been doing over those three albums, and how those songs would hold up in a live environment. As a result we have Blaze belting out two discs worth of songs on this release Live in France.

I was certainly hesitant going into this album, not only for what I was going to hear but how it would be presented. Blaze has shown he loves playing live, and he carries just about everything he does well on stage, and his band has been pieced together for some time. I enjoyed the fact that the song list more or less covered the extent of the three albums that make up the trilogy as it fit with Blaze’s two previous live album releases, the first covering his first two solo albums and the second covering the albums in-between times. But this also concerned me because I wouldn’t get to hear those great songs from the first half of his solo career, the ones that had been so impressive to me at the time. I can always go back to those other live albums for that, but the fear for me was that if this album didn’t stand up it would be a relic if all it contained was songs from those three albums. Fortunately, I needn't have worried as despite the lack of older material this album is a beauty.
As mentioned, there are no less than six songs from Infinite Entanglement, four from Endure and Survive (Infinite Entanglement Part II) and five from The Redemption of William Black: Infinite Entanglement Part III. That’s fifteen of the total twenty tracks on the album from the Infinite Entanglement trilogy, and for the majority they sound better live than on the album. That in itself is not unusual as Blaze tends to be a dynamo on stage and brings out the best in everything he performs. The band sounds great and Blaze’s vocals are supreme. Of the other five songs, four are from his Iron Maiden days. The always brilliant “Futureal” is cracking once again, and comes in brilliantly after the opening of “Redeemer” segues beautifully into “Are You Here”. The always surprisingly good “Virus” closes out the first disc of this double set, while there is an absolutely scintillating version of “Man on the Edge” which almost steals the album by itself. The only downside is the choosing of “The Angel and the Gambler” as his fourth Maiden track. It really is one of the most average songs Maiden has ever done, and Blaze wasn’t even a co-writer of the song! There are so many other better songs he could have chosen to do, and this is a shame. Rounding this out is the title track from his first solo album, “Silicon Messiah” which always sounds great, but oh for just a few more tracks like “Ghost in the Machine”, “Kill and Destroy”, “Ten Seconds” and “The Man Who Would Not Die”. Next time perhaps.

Fans of Blaze Bayley will find this to be an excellent addition to their collection. In giving all of his trilogy songs a live atmosphere to be found in, Blaze has satisfactorily concluded this part of his career. What he moves onto now is anyone’s guess, though no doubt an extended tour with his Iron Maiden material (given his tenure in that band ended precisely 20 years ago this year) is likely. Those that have not heard any of Blaze’s solo material will still find this worthy of listening, but should then move back to his first few solo albums to discover his best stuff. As a live recording of this portion of his musical career, this does a more than adequate job.

Best songs: “Reedemer”, “Futureal”, “Are You Here”, “Man on the Edge”, “Endure and Survive”.

Rating:  “Do you think you deserve all the freedom you have?”  4/5

1109. Skid Row / Subhuman Race. 1995. 3/5

The first half of the 1990’s decade took such a significant turn from the way it started until the time it bloated that it is no surprise that so many bands who had begun their internship in the 1980’s had been either destroyed or dissolved or had had complete facelifts by the time 1995 came around. The intense change in the genre that flooded the music world, and the speed that occurred at, meant that so many bands were left floundering in its wake. And, even while living through that time, it was hard to accept what occurred to so many bands that you loved. Some of them broke up through the pressure of trying to compete with the new wave of grunge and then what followed, destroyed by a phenomenon where record companies suddenly wanted bands to ‘write an album like that Nirvana band, they seem to be popular!’ And when they found that they couldn’t, that they were unable to break out of their hair metal glam roots, they were dropped by those record companies like a stone. Those that gave it a crack found themselves being accused by their fans of selling out and were dropped by them like a stone. And there were those bands that made some necessary adjustments to their music tone and found themselves in purgatory.
Skid Row had been riding the crest of a wave since their arrival around 1988, jumping on the coattails of Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Ratt and Motley Crue, and finding an audience that was all about their hair metal sound with a bit of attitude. Their debut album brought them to prominence, before their sophomore effort blew people away with a heavier sound, songs that covered the gamut of emotions of heavy metal and drew in an even wider fan base. Their five track EP “B-Side Ourselves” kept that wave going as their touring schedule extended throughout the early years of the decade. All around them during this, the music world turned on a screw in a six month period, and by the time Skid Row’s touring schedule was over, heavy metal and hair metal and hard rock had suddenly transformed into a whole new beast. Indeed, with the tour to support the “Slave to the Grind” album finishing in Australia in February 1993, the manager Doc McGhee actually suggested to the band that they take an extended break, to wait for the grunge movement to fade away. While that suggestion wasn’t such a bad move, for Skid Row the problem was that following on from grunge came the alternative wave and the industrial wave, neither of which suited Skid Row’s sound either.
In retrospect, the band’s response to this when looking to write and record a new album perhaps had merit but, in many ways, backfired spectacularly. The band parted ways with Michael Wagener who had produced the band’s first two multi-million selling albums, and someone who was familiar with the band and their style and their eccentricities. In his place, they hired Bob Rock, who had a list as long as your arm of albums he had produced or engineering for big bands including Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, The Cult and of course Metallica. Here was someone who knew the industry and knew music trends. He had just come off producing the self-titled 1994 grunge-alt era albums of both The Cult and Motley Crue, and would soon begin on Metallica’s next album, which would be released in 1996 and titled “Load”. So if anyone could keep Skid Row on their current crest of a wave, it HAD to be Bob Rock. Right?

Skid Row’s debut self-titled album had opened with bright and breezy tracks, great riffs and excellent vocals which entertained you from the outset. Their sophomore album “Slave to the Grind” had begun with tuned down heavy riffing and hard drumming and spitting vocals that had your head banging from the start and dragged you delightedly into the album. In both cases, the opening tracks to the album were instrumental in getting you hooked. “Subhuman Race” did neither of these things, and it is perhaps the most damning judgement on the album from the very beginning.
Many may argue that this simply isn’t true. Many reviews at the time suggested that this was Skid Row’s heaviest offering to that point in time. I believe it is fair to say they were confusing heavy for what it was being compared to in the music scene at the time. “My Enemy” opens with a riff and drum beat that plays as though it is in that heavy range and perhaps it is, just in a slightly Pantera way. This is designed straight for the fan base of 1995, the sound is designed to reel in those changes in music of the time and channelling it straight into their quad boxes. The guitar solo is the dead giveaway, immediately heralding the arrival of Skid Row the alt-metal group, a transformation that has been brought to bear by the times and perhaps even the direction of the new producer. “Firesign” follows, and sounds similar to a Queensryche-written and performed song of the era. Given that that band was also in the throes of abandoning all of their ties to their 80’s metal roots it probably isn’t too much of a surprise that it sounds that way. It’s a washed-out alt-rock song offering very little to grab a hold of. No identifiable riffs with a hook, whining vocals and a squalling solo that doesn’t improve the song in any way. “Bonehead” finds a far better tempo, faster throughout and Snake’s solo is back to its best here, more in keeping of the band’s history that its present place in time. The opportunity does seem there for Seb to really unload on his vocals here and really give the song a kick, but he chooses not to. The pace of that song seems more natural for the band, which is surprising given the immediate fallback position of slow mid tempo for “Beat Yourself Blind”, where Seb does actually employ some of those high scream vocals he can provide but in a seemingly less helpful or enjoyable way. Definitely could have been utilised in the previous song and improved both songs.
“Eileen” channels the alt-rock grunge dreary vocal-pulling over a flavourless guitar melody backed by Affuso’s wilting drum beat. This is as difficult a song to listen to as there is on this album. It is completely and utterly anchored to this era of music and not in a good way. Five and a half minutes of Seb’s agonising vocals over an unenjoyable music base. If you had put a little more oomph in the guitar riff, you might almost have heard similarities to Bob Rock’s next album, Metallica’s “Load”. As it fades off to die somewhere in extreme agony, the album moves into “Remains to be Seen” where the same vocal technique is being used again, an agonising stretching out along the plane of the track. And then, somewhere about halfway into the track, the guitars kick in and give us a half decent solo section that helps to raise the profile of the song, which gives it a better conclusion than its beginning.
BUT THEN FINALLY! The band rediscovers its mojo. Not lyrically particularly, but at least musically we have a bit of a rise in tempo, and bit more power in the music, and Bach is almost singing normally rather than whining through the track. The title track “Subhuman Race” mightn’t be classic Skid Row but in the context of this album this is almost genius level music.
How much more can be said about this album at this point of the episode? Trying to find any positive aspects about “Subhuman Race” has been problematic for all of the thirty years since its release, and that isn’t proving to be any easier here. “Frozen” wants to be a Soundgarden song with the opening riff mimicking any number of their songs. Overall, the song sounds great, but it is the vague similarities across the songs here that are looking to replicate the era’s sound that can be a little difficult to come to terms with. Also, write more lyrics and don’t just repeat the same lines over and over again! “Into Another” suddenly reverts back to clear guitars and clean harmony vocals to express its lyrics in the most appealing way to attract that section of the audience that enjoy heartfelt songs such as this. “I Remember You” this isn’t, but it sounds like it wants to be 1995’s version of it. “Face Against My Soul” comes across as one of the heaviest tracks on the album, driven by Affuso’s frenetic drumbeat and again far better guitar solos to feast on, while Bach’s vocals are at their least annoying, at least until the last minute of the song when he ramps that up in overdrive. And “Medicine Jar” sits in the same areas musically which gives the album a little run of reasonable material.
“Breakin’ Down” acts as not the power ballad here as such, but the alt-metal ballad. It has all of the usual hallmarks that the power metal ballad has, but in an alternative music fashion. Bach’s soaring vocal range is more muted than would have been the case in a previous era, the guitar solo is less flowery and whiney while still leaving you in no doubt as to the style of the song, and it just brings no emotion except a touch of boredom to the table for the listener. Then comes the album closer, “Iron Will”. This is co-written by all members of the band except for Bach, and depending on how you want to read them, it could almost be about the dissention that surrounded the group at the time, Bach against the band. It most definitely isn’t, by the way, but as the last song the band did together with these five in the band, it could easily have been their epitaph.

It’s amazing how many metal bands released albums in or around the years 1990 and 1991 to high acclaim and praise, and then didn’t release another until 1994 or 1995 with an almost completely revamped sound that met wide panning and criticism. That period killed a lot of bands and changed others forever. Most of you listening to this podcast would have examples of your own. For me, Skid Row is at the top of that list. In 1992 they looked like a band that only had a future that was blazing bright and true, to carry the torch that came from those first two albums into their next and following albums on a never-ending rise. How wrong some thoughts can be.
While there can never be just one person to blame for such a fall from grace or a change in musical direction, to me one of the people heavily involved is producer Bob Rock. This is not a direct criticism of his work and his abilities, there are far too many great albums out there that have his name attached to them to do that. But in this era of 1994 to 1996, Rock was the producer of albums such as Motley Crue’s self-titled album with John Corabi on vocals, The Cult’s self-titled album, Metallica’s “Load” and then “Reload”, and of course this album. What do they have in common? An almost 270 degrees turn in genre and style of the music written and recorded on the album. And I’m sure there are people out there that will back themselves and say that they LOVE those albums. That’s a personal choice, one which I choose to simply smile sadly and knowingly at, and move on. My point here is simply that Rock was at the helm of albums by four bands who had had mega stardom in 1990, and then saw a career change in their very next album, of which he was producer. Coincidence? You be the judge.
The band themselves probably tell the real story. In an interview in 2004, Rachel Bolan said "That record was a nightmare. Internally the band had fallen apart but we were forced to go in and do another record and it was a nightmare with the recording, writing and producing. We worked with someone we had not worked with before after being so successful with Michael and we were used to the way he did things. I am not slighting Bob at all, he is a genius producer but it was bad timing. I did not have the greatest time, it was nobody's fault, it was just the way things were. Also the record absolutely sucks." Seb Bach even went as far as to call “Subhuman Race” Skid Row’s “St Anger”. That is a damning assessment indeed. Since the tour to promote the album, Skid Row, in their many forms, have never played any songs live again from this album, while Bach in his solo tours has occasionally brought one or two out for memory sake.
I bought this album soon after its release, one of few that I did purchase in the black hole year of 1995. And it didn’t help my mood in any shape or form. I was excited. I love those first two albums, and adored the EP as well. At a time when I was looking for something amazing to grab a hold onto, this is what I thought would be that life preserver. And I got shit. Absolute abomination rubbish. I hated every part of this album when I listened to it. Where was LITERALLY EVERYTHING that I loved about the “Slave to the Grind” album?! None of it appears here, not a single skerrick. I could not believe this was the same band that had released that album. This was generic boring crap, like someone had decided to take the ‘most popular’ parts of every big selling album from the past two years, and then tried to write an album out of it. This is like a rubbish AI version of a grunge slash alt-rock album of the era, and it fails on every level. I remember being so disappointed, so angry, that this is what they had produced. And it very quickly found itself on the CD shelves with almost no possibility of parole.
Flash forward thirty freaking years, and here I am again, putting myself through the torture of listening to this album. I have had the displeasure of doing this since those fateful days explained here. I reviewed this for my blog about ten years ago, and was convinced at one point about 15 years ago that I should give this another go because an acquaintance couldn’t believe I didn’t like the album. They were proven wrong at that time too. So I have done my due diligence here people. I have now listened to this album eight times over the last four days, mostly through gritted teeth. And no matter how many times I listen to it, I just cannot take anything positive out of it. It is a travesty of music, and a massive down point in the band’s career. And seriously – I can’t be wrong, because even the BAND THEMSELVES can’t listen to the album! That to me is final nail in the coffin.
While the writing appeared to be on the wall while this album was in the process of being created, Skid Row finally parted with lead singer Sebastian Bach at the end of 1996, reputedly after Bach had organised the band to support Kiss on their Makeup Reunion tour, which the rest of the band then cancelled because they felt they were too big to support any band. Bach left an expletive ridden message on Dave Sabo’s answering machine suggesting the opposite, and he was fired soon afterwards. While this was obviously the final straw for the band and their lead singer, and something that had been building for some time, it is ridiculous to note that in 1999, On Kiss’s ‘first’ Final World Tour, they were supported by... yep, you guessed it... Skid Row. Since then, while both Skid Row and Seb Bach have worked consistently, neither has gotten close to the success they had together prior to this album being released. In the long run, that is perhaps the saddest indictment on “Subhuman Race” than anything else I may have mentioned here.