Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
After their breakthrough on the superb odds and ends album Self Destruction Blues (see review) ‘The Strange Ones’ as they were oft known in some quarters, released the commerical highlight of their career with Back to Mystery City. This is without doubt an album that is highly synonymous with the early days of glam metal in every aspect and it’s also an album that I always remember from right back then. When I first saw the album cover back in 1983 or 1984, I remembered seeing a guy with his arm around a stunning blonde who I thought looked similar to Kim Wilde……….. it wasn’t long after this that I found out that this sexy blonde was actually a man called Michael Monroe! The band had also tinkered with their line-up and added to their ranks British drummer Razzle from the Isle of Wight, who had replaced Gyp Casino in the band. The appointment of Razzle was seen by many as the perfect fit, in order to give the band that extra oomph in the drumming department that was possibly not there before. The British connection to the band was also strengthened with the services of Dale Griffin and Peter “Overend” Watts from Mott the Hoople on production duty, giving Back to Mystery City that truly authentic British glam rock vibe. The heavily glam, punk and late 1970s art rock sound that so influenced the band, often leaves me thinking whether this band should be in this journal at all sometimes, but given the fact that their lighter musical sound and heavy glam image, are so often revered in glam metal circles, as well as being on all kinds of hard rock and heavy metal must listen to lists, always decides me that they should be and so once again they are here. As with previous efforts the album is dominated by ‘The Muddy Twins’ Michael Monroe who harangues his way through proceedings and Andy McCoy the band’s psychedelic axe-slinger solely writes all the album’s tunes minus one and that one track is shared with Michael Monroe. The album’s ten songs start with the appropriately named “Strange Boys Play Weird Openings” a 43 second acoustic ditty and an odd choice to open up with, considering that the first song proper the single “Malibu Beach Nightmare” is a world away from it with its sax accompaniment. Then there is the groovy Clash sounding “Mental Beat” easily one of the best on the album. “Tooting Bec Wreck” a song inspired about a somewhat naff area of London where the band lived for a time and the song makes use of a chant like drum approach by Razzle and it's also the longest song on the album. The band cross into Motley Crue territory on "Until I Get You" and show that they can do this type of addictive track just as well and the title track to "Back to Mystery City" is certainly worthy of being a title track with its anthemic approach. "Ice Cream Summer" is another great driving song about summer love. I also like tracks like "Lick Summer Love" and "Beating Gets Faster" which despite coming across as slightly weaker material, still have a intensity factor about them, but the weakest effort overall is probably "Sailing Down the Tears". I suppose the great asset of the band that is most evident here on these songs, is the fact that nearly all their great driving tunes, often sound like any number of addictive punk and new wave songs from the 1970s, but as with any great band, it’s usually quite hard to locate where these original songs first came from and Hanoi Rocks were pretty adept at melding their inspirations into their own repertoire in an almost incognito fashion. The band’s Hollywood success would be short lived though, as drummer Razzle would die the following year in a ‘rock star car crash’ involving Motley Crue’s Vince Neil, a setback that the band would never truly recover from.

Michael Monroe- Vocals/Sax
Andy McCoy- Guitar
Nasty Suicide- Guitar
Sam Yaffa- Bass
Razzle - Drums

Production- Del Griffin/Peter Watts

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