Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
It had been two years since the band’s previous album Blackout in 1982 and in that time the Scorpions had become one of the biggest metal draws in the world, most notably in the USA where they regularly sold out venues. The band had achieved this worldwide status largely on the back of constant touring and of course through no shortage of musical talent, and therefore it was only fitting that Love at First Sting would be their biggest seller to date. The album would ultimately reach no.6 on the US Billboard album chart and go double-platinum by the end of 1984, before finally going triple-platinum several years later, making the album one of the big commercial metal sellers of its time. The album produced two hit singles in “Rock You Like a Hurricane” “Still Loving You” and to a lesser extent with “Big City Nights” all compositions on the album were by Klaus Meine lyrics and Rudolf Schenker music. This album was amongst the first batch of metal albums that I ever bought back in the mid 1980s and I remember buying this album along with albums from Def Leppard and Van Halen, and despite liking all three albums, this was the one that I adored largely because of its powerhouse tracks, mixed in with balladry and all tied together delightfully by that melancholic nasal style of Klaus Meine. I of course adored its album cover, an area where the band had always excelled with their seriously risqué/controversial covers over the years, in fact the previous album cover for Blackout had appeared quite normal by the band’s standards. The album cover for Love at First Sting which despite not being controversial, was certainly in your face as it were, with an attractive woman partially naked having a man wearing those swanky cowboy boots putting a tattoo on her thigh, this was extremely very forward thinking as this album cover comes from a time long before it was fashionable for women to have tattoos and the black and white approach is very slick as well. The album also came with what I call the ‘just in case album cover’ which was an alternate clean cover that featured the band dressed up in god knows how much £ or $ worth of leather and this finally appeared on the reverse of the album sleeve. Now any readers of this journal, will know that I not only think of the Scorpions as one of the finest bands to grace metal in the period of the late 1970s and early 1980s, but they also happen to be one of my favourites largely because they were able to tow that centric metal line without ever sounding generic, I guess being German and having a German feel to their sound helped in this respect as well and overall Love at First Sting ranks for me as their second best album after Lovedrive (see 1979 review) The album starts with that breathtaking spiralling shredding intro of “Bad Boys Running Wild” and then the muscle of the song hits and this track is a metal thoroughbred through and through and Klaus Meine’s tasty sounding vocals propel the song along on this definitive track. Next up is the seminal “Rock You Like a Hurricane” which needs little introduction and that ‘hushed’ vocal approach by Klaus Meine combined with the meat of the band is the stuff of legend, and by now the band have the best lyrics of this year’s list. “I’m Leaving You” is a breezy and blustery delight and the half-ballad half-powerhouse “Coming Home” shows that the band were very much at the top of their game and its two halves meld together perfectly. Side closer “The Same Thrill” is that typical speedy and tenacious album track from the time, that was often common on centric metal and AOR releases. “Big City Nights” turns the power back on and this is a slow burner that swaggers around like it owns the place. The melodic "As Soon as the Good Times Roll" is actually one of my favourite songs on the album and again like with most of the songs here I just love how Klaus Meine sings those lyrics. Marching drums lead us into the almost melancholic "Crossfire" a song that threatens to explode into something louder but the band do a great job by keeping the song on a leash. Final track is the band's second big hit from the album "Still Loving You" one of the best power-ballads from the time and again known by most listeners. Musically this album is a delight, the band don’t bring too much new to the table here and instead were contented to refine and polish up what they had brought to the table before. As over the years and in the post-Uli Jon Roth period from 1978 onwards, the band had long since established their core sound and even back then the typical Scorpions’ sound on Love at First Sting resonates on most of those albums. The Scorpions at this time were very much in the superheavyweight metal league and the band were still shrewd enough to know on Love at First Sting, just the type of album that was needed to ensure their lofty position. After this the band profited on their huge commercial success with the live double World Wide Live album in 1985, which came at a time when live albums despite being a highlight from the 1970s, still showed that they could go multi-platinum in the 1980s as well.

Klaus Meine- Vocals
Matthias Jabs- Guitar
Rudolf Schenker- Rhythm
Francis Buchholz- Bass
Hermann Rarebell- Drums

Production- Dieter Dierks

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