Unknown Soldier

See I like John Deverill's style of vocals, so that's always going to grab me.

A good observation there and worth noting at this time that MCA was known as the graveyard by a lot of bands around this time, due to their ability to screw things up for the band. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were a prime example.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Overview
The Allied Forces album culminates the golden commercial era of Triumph in superb fashion and saw the band release their most cohesive album overall. In general Allied Forces comes across as a kind of heavy metal, hard rock, AOR and bluesy rock melange in an effort to draw all the band’s styles under just one recording. At this time the Ontario based band were probably only bettered by their even more famous Canadian counterparts Rush, when it came to shifting records by the million as far as Canadian bands went. This all of course happened in an age where album orientated rock which was very much a prime feature of the late 1970s and early 1980s was still a dominant force as far as the US scene went. The band’s previous quality releases of 1979’s Just a Game and 1980’s Progressions of Power had raised the band’s AOR flavoured hard rock yardstick in terms of both quality and sales, and Allied Forces would now be the icing on the cake. The band also had a dynamic stage show in which to showcase their attractive wares in a live setting and were well known for their dynamic stage shows and it was on Allied Forces that the band pushed their envelope even further in what they were capable of putting out. Prior to Allied Forces and one of the reasons why Triumph had been a great band, was that its two frontmen Rik Emmett guitar/vocals and Gil Moore drums/vocals had constantly been at loggerheads with each other and this edgy friction certainly brought both men to their creative fore on the band’s previous albums. On Just a Game Rik Emmett had won out, but on Progressions of Power Gil Moore probably had the last laugh and through this internal strife it had largely been left to bass player and producer Mike Levine to offer the olive branch in times of turmoil. By the time though of Allied Forces, both Rik Emmett and Gil Moore had put aside their differences and were now collaborating better than ever, hence the album name ‘allied forces’ a name to demonstrate the greater cohesion between the band members and the end result would be an album that would be the band’s tightest yet and and a great example of AOR/hard rock at its finest. The keyboard and synthesizer dabblings on their previous albums would again be evident and this time it would be bassist/producer Mike Levine who seemed to have an even more dominant role on the album anyway, who covers this additional musical role. The album’s overtly guitar-orientated album cover on a black surrounding, seemed destined to be a great rock t-shirt to have circa 1980, despite the fact that it comes across as extremely cheesy today. Commerically the album would crack the US Billboard top 30 album chart and its two lead singles the ballad “Magic Power” and the signature “Fight the Good Fight” got plenty of airplay. The album would prove to be a product of its time and the perfect meeting ground for the US AOR and metal scene back in 1981.

Verdict
What’s great about the Allied Forces album, is that not a minute of it seems to be wasted and that actually includes the brief 1 minute instrumentals that certain people see as throwaways and these are “Air Raid” and “Petite Etude” which are really just intros to the title track and the album closer, but they both resonate well to be considered great intros to the two tracks following them, so overall almost all the album’s 39 minutes just seems to fly by especially if you’re a fan of this sound. Of the two frontmen Gil Moore again rocks out hard with the album opener the clicky “Fool for Your Love” and then he’s at his best on the blistering title track “Allied Forces” a song which displays just so much excitement and urgency and is easily one of the best songs of the of the year regardless of genre, and certainly amongst the band’s very best efforts ever. As for Rik Emmett he opens up with the obvious single and ballad “Magic Power” then there is the surprising powered up bluesy rock ‘n’ roll of “Hot Time (In This City Tonight)” and most interestingly he can be heard on the proggy Rush style of the excellent “Fight the Good Fight” one of the album’s singles and one of the band’s best know tracks. He even manages to draw out the pedestrian “Ordinary Man” to great effect as well and turns it into a strong song. Personally though I think he could’ve done better on the album closer “Say Goodbye” despite the high opinions certain reviewers have of it, but the song does benefit from a neat acoustic strumming style which probably makes the song. But some of his best work is on his first priority and that is his screaming firestorm guitar which is impressive throughout the album, especially on the killer “Allied Forces” the title track and it contains some of the best guitar work of the year without a shadow of a doubt. Overall Triumph and Allied Forces rock consistently harder than most AOR bands dared to go, but their radio friendly heavy rock might just be too pastiche for a lot of metal fans. Also another bone of contention, could well be vocalist Rik Emmett’s voice which probably comes across as too thin for most metal tastes, even though he’s not exactly a world away from Burke Shelley of Budgie or the even better known Geddy Lee of Rush. Make no mistake Allied Forces is an album based around a big commercial sound and punching production to match that sound, this would be a formula that a number of 1980s metal bands would soon be pumping out to varying degrees of success as the decade went on, but few could get it as right as Triumph did right here.

Rik Emmett-Guitar/Vocals
Gil Moore- Drums/Vocals
Mike Levine- Bass/Keyboards

Production- Mike Levine

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

I just realized that you snubbed Girlschool last year. Will they get snubbed this year as well? If so...

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Plankton

Good Triumph write-up! Such a great album. Personally, when I used to listen to it I had the mindset of their sound being unattainable. It was just too perfect, and one had to be from another planet in order to be able to achieve that type of perfection.

Plus Emmets' work in 'Guitar Player Magazine' kept me busy in the 80's, trying to learn the nuggets he'd throw to us peasants.

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Unknown Soldier

That's because I could never really get into them or see the fuss musically, I'll admit though that they were pretty groundbreaking as a band (even though it had been done before)

They're on the shortlist for the 1982 list, but then again as are so many others.

I'm not a guitarist or know that much about what makes a great guitarist, but I still really enjoy how Emmett plays, he was of course from an era where technical excellence was expected.

Out of interest who else do you consider great guitarists from this era?

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

**** your childhood toys. Girlschool are the ****. Like a poppier, hella catchy version of Motorhead. There's no way you can deny the awesomeness of "Yeah Right" at least. I mean, come on.

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Unknown Soldier

Musically yes, but the singing on that song to be honest is pretty naff, they actually sound more like the Go-Go's than a metal band.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Overview
No the name MSG doesn’t mean ‘Metal Gear Solid’ as in the video game series, but it does mean the name of the second album from the lengthy sounding Michael Schenker Group. The Michael Schenker Group who having struck gold the previous year with their eponymous debut, now looked to follow up proceedings in much the same style on their sophomore set. The core duo of vocalist Gary Barden and of course Michael Schenker had changed the rest of the band’s rhythm section and brought in such noteworthy musicians as bassist Chris Glen ex-The Sensational Alex Harvey Band and John Martyn. Keyboardist Paul Raymond who of course was well known to Michael Schenker from their time together in UFO and of course on drums the illustrious Cozy Powell who had worked with most of the people that mattered and was one of the best in the business. Roger Glover on production would be replaced by American producer Ron Nevison who was well known for his big production values and was very much in the mould of ‘Matt’ Lange when it came to production excellence and like a lot of top quality producers from this time, he had worked his way up from being a sound engineer where he had worked on albums by bands such as Led Zeppelin, Bad Company and the Who. In fact with Ron Nevison the recording of MSG well and truly went overboard as far as budget constraints and time were concerned, but the end result is an album that is usually regarded as being the best by Michael Schenker fans especially if you like things polished, despite the band’s own reservations about the album. The album would crack the Billboard Top 100 Chart and the opening track “Ready to Rock” would be the album’s single. Most of the album would be penned by the Michael Schenker and Gary Barden partnership, but there are also some sensible additions by the other band members jointly as well and Paul Raymond with the ballad “Never Trust a Stranger” gets a solo writing credit. Unlike the debut album which just featured Michael Schenker in a chair, this album cover demonstrates that the album is a group effort, as all the members of the band are on the album cover. Finally I’ve often tried not to be too biased when selecting these albums, but I have to say the Michael Schenker as a guitarist has always been a strong favourite of mine as his guitar skills have always grabbed me where it mattered and MSG serves as a perfect example of that ability. There is also a 2009 reissue of the album which features an additional seven tracks, but most of these are actually UFO recordings rather than more tracks by the Michael Schenker Group. Also in 1981 the band would release the sprawling double live album One Night at Budokan which combines the best of the band's first two albums.

Verdict
MSG as an album or some cases referred to as MSG 2, was a more polished variant of its predecessor album that came out the previous year (see review) which is no surprise given the fact that Ron Nevison is the producer here. The album is a tight piece of work by accomplished musicians and Michael Schenker displays that he is very much the master of the Gibson Flying V in all its glory! There’s nothing overly original about MSG in terms of its songs, but what we do get is a tight and competent recording designed for those that like their hard rock with a commercial tinge and this approach is perfectly summed up on the album opener the heavily arena focused “Ready to Rock” and the album closer “Secondary Motion” two songs with strong commercial tinges. The album though does have a few tricks up its sleeve, like the clever vocal approach of Gary Barden on the clichéd titled “Attack of the Mad Axeman” and to be fair the song overall comes across as a very accomplished effort both vocally and musically anyway. Across the album the keyboards of Paul Raymond are used to great atmospherical effect and really highlight a song like “But I Want More” which also happens to be the longest track on the album where it clocks in at just under 7 minutes. The killer track on the album is surely the keyboard led “On and On” where Gary Barden does a job that not even the majestical Dio could outdo (well maybe he could given the vocal lapses of Gary Barden now and again) The weakest track might be the Paul Raymond penned ballad “Never Trust a Stranger” as this is the type of song that really should’ve stayed in the UFO repertoire. Another possible weak link is the group penned “Let Sleeping Dogs Lie” where strangely enough the voice of Gary Barden seems to break down and comes across as quite reedy. This is a drawback as the song is good and is designed for a voice with a stronger presence to carry it all off. I’ve seen certain fingers pointed at “Looking for Love” where Gary Barden is cited as being weak link, but I don’t think Gary Barden’s voice is a problem on that song at all. Stangely enough a number of fan reviews that despite seeing this as the band’s best overall album, actually put vocalist Gary Barden as the weak link on the album, which is somewhat surprising given the appeal that his gruff voice can provide on this and the debut album, but I guess fans would soon be spoilt when Graham Bonnet appeared the following year on the band’s third album, hindsight can often be a hindrance at times.

Gary Barden- Vocals
Michael Schenker- Guitar
Chris Glen- Bass
Paul Raymond- Keyboards
Cozy Powell- Drums

Production- Ron Nevison

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Sane Psycho

This is an awesome journal! Imma have to read some more of it.

Plankton

Well, you answered that question with the last entry.

Rudy Schenker, Mathias Jabs, and Uli Jon Roth were others from that circle, as well as all the usual suspects... Rhoads, Blackmore, Adrian Smith, Dave Murray...

...and don't forget Lifeson.

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