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There's no doubt that generally, when a band are out on stage, they pull out all the stops, with the result being that very often, live versions of studio songs take on a whole new life, get a totally different treatment, and sound often much better. In some cases, the live version becomes the definitive one, the one we're used to hearing, the one we want to hear.

I'm not talking about concert footage here, per se, as I'm quite aware (as I'm sure you are) that a certain song can be changed from tour to tour, even night to night, sounding subtly (or not so subtly) different each time it's played. Those versions are to be treasured, for those who are lucky enough to attend the gig and hear them, perhaps for the only time in that format. But what I'm referring to is a live version of a song that is released, perhaps charts, but at any rate, becomes popular, so popular in fact that it eclipses the original studio version.

To illustrate this, look at our first example in this new section. We all know the live version of Bob Marley's famous “No woman no cry”, even those of us who are not fans. But how does it compare to the original? Or perhaps I should say really, how does the original compare to the live version, if that's not a contradiction in terms! Here are the two versions, original first, for you to judge for yourself.

Corridors of power --- Gary Moore --- 1982 (Virgin)
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One of Gary Moore's best ever albums, this one has it all. It was the first of his albums to bring him any sort of commercial success, but is in fact his third solo effort. He drafts in a lot of top-flight talent to help him out on this recording, though notably not Phil Lynott, although he did duet with him later on the single “Out in the fields”. The album is a mix of great rockers and lush ballads, with a cover version thrown in too, and as a whole it works really well, with hardly a bad track to be found.

It kicks off with a great rocker, the headshakin' “Don't take me for a loser”, with powerful drumming from Deep Purple's legendary Ian Paice, and naturally Gary handles all guitar duties himself. A good singer too, he was a pretty rounded package. He also wrote all except one of the tracks on this album, apart of course from the cover version. As you might expect, there are plenty of guitar solos, and this is no exception with a great one halfway through. Things settle down into a nice relaxed groove then for the first of three ballads on the album, and one of the standout tracks.

“Always gonna love you” is a desperate, heartfelt promise to a lover, and starts off with lovely piano courtesy of Tommy Eyre, who is perhaps most famous for his contribution to Gerry Rafferty's career-defining smash “Baker Street”. Nevertheless, like all of the songs on this album, the ballad is driven by Moore's expressive guitar, giving it perhaps a harder edge than it would have had, had he just played it as a piano song. It always seems to be on the verge of becoming a hard rocker, but then slips back into its smooth mood with more restrained guitar, and of course there's a great and evocative solo near the end.

The cover version is next, and it's a retreading of Free's classic “Wishing well”. It's a great song, but hard to mess up, which Moore does not do. His version is good, though I think I perhaps prefer Blackfoot's version off their 1979 album “Strikes”. Things stay heavy then for the superb “Gonna break my heart again”, with truly amazing guitar from this much-missed master of the axe. It's powerful from the start, opening with a great guitar break and angry vocals as Gary sings ”I don't care what you say to me/ From the things that I've been hearin' now/ It's plain to see/ You're gonna break my heart again.../ Just like you broke my heart before.”

Then we're into the second ballad, with a great guitar intro, a real blues track called “Falling in love with you”. Lovely solid keyboard backing here, this time thanks to guest keysman Don Airey, with perfectly-paced (no pun intended!) percussion. Gary Moore does the blues so well, he's in his natural element when doing so, and here this really comes across on a fine, fine track. It's followed by a real epic, starting on low synth and ominous guitar, “End of the world” features perhaps the best guitar solo on the album, close to, but not quite, shredding. Moore could certainly have taught some of the young pups a thing or two!

Two minutes out of the almost seven of the track are given over to Moore's guitar histrionics, and it's time well spent. The rest of the track is a powerful, emotional cautionary tale, in the mould of “Nuclear attack” from his “Dirty fingers” album released the following year, and also “Murder in the skies” from “Victims of the future”. It's a great track with some killer vocals, including a guest appearance by the great Jack Bruce, and an urgent beat, great bass playing from the legendary Mo Foster, and featuring some messing around on the guitar too, like where Gary makes the sound of an ambulance siren on his fretboard.

The next track is a straight-ahead, no-frills rocker, but then, with a title like “Rockin' every night”, what would you expect? It has a certain resemblance to Purple's “Highway star”, not surprising since it's the only track on which Paice collaborates with Moore in the writing. It's a fun track, but a little formulaic, which is something you certainly can't say about “Cold hearted”, a big, dirty, snarling slice of cold hard rock, a real cruncher in which Moore spits out the lyric: ”Every hungry woman has tried/ To make a fool out of me/ Every hungry woman/ Stick around and baby you'll see/ I'm cold hearted.” It's a real heavy blues number, like BB King after he's had ten whiskeys and is feelin' MEAN!

The best is, however, yet to come, and the album closes on one amazing song, the longest on the album and a terrific finale. Clocking in at just under eight minutes, “I can't wait until tomorrow” begins on a slow, bluesy organ melody, the vocals sung in a relaxed sort of way so as to fool you into thinking this is a ballad. Well, maybe it is. It's hard to be sure. The song is balladic up to about the three-quarter-way point, then it changes. Ian Paice's drums kick in on about a minute and a half and add a power and tension to the track as the keys get more strident and the guitar, up to now, has had a very minor role in the song.

Until about three minutes in, that is, when Gary rips off a fine, emotional solo and the song gets more solid, all the instruments beginning to mesh perfectly. Four and a half minutes in, Moore's guitar starts to really speak, and the whole shape of the song changes, getting more powerful, punchy and heavy to the fadeout end. Brilliant closer.

The world of music lost yet another fantastic talent this year when Gary Moore was taken from us. Like many of the rock legends who have gone before their time, thankfully we can console ourselves that he left a large body of work behind for us to remember him by. “Corridors of power” stands as as fitting a testimonial to the genius and talent of the man as any other album I can think of.

TRACKLISTING

1. Don't take me for a loser
2. Always gonna love you
3. Wishing well
4. Gonna break my heart again
5. Falling in love with you
6. End of the world
7. Rockin' every night
8. Cold hearted
9. I can't wait until tomorrow

Suggested further listening: “Victims of the future”, “Wild frontier”, “Still got the blues”, “Run for cover”, "Back to the blues", "After the war", "Dark days in Paradise", "After hours", "Close as you get", "Bad for you baby", "A different beat", "Power of the blues"

Random Track of the Day
Friday, September 23 2011
TGIF! Well, not me. I don't really care, as I don't have to go into an office/warehouse/shop etc.; although I do work, it's my home that's my workplace, and I guess as such I don't ever really get to “go home”, or even have a weekend, but enough of my moaning. For those of you who have had a hard week working, Friday is always welcome as the weekend is ushered in.

Taking us there, today's RTOTD is from Symphony X, and is in fact the first I have heard from them. It's the closing, and longest track on their last-but-one album, “Paradise lost”.

“Revelation (Divus pennae ex tragodeia)” --- Symphony X --- from "Paradise lost" on InsideOut
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This is a real slice of proto-prog rock, with heavy classical influences --- you could probably tell that was going to be the case from the somewhat pretentious title, and don't ask me what it means. Sounding something in the mould of I think Dream Theater, Symphony X have been going for seventeen years now, so by the standards of some prog bands they're just starting out! But they have an impressive catalogue of albums, this being from their ninth of ten. It's a long song, going through some changes along the way, with some really good instrumentation.

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The worm is sad today, on hearing the news that mega-band REM are to break up. Not an actual fan of the guys, the worm nevertheless mourns the passing of any good band --- these days, there are so few genuine bands around, the loss of one diminishes us all, to quote someone. The Earworm isn't sure who: you'd have to ask his brother the Bookworm. But it's still true.

So, in a mark of respect for the passing of REM, here they are featured today with one of their huge hits, this is “Losing my religion.” Well done guys: you'll be missed....

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The idea of a live person singing with a dead person is, on the face of it, intrinsically creepy, there's no doubt, seeming just a stunt to sell records. However, this particular team-up “beyond the grave”, as it were, could not be further from that idea. There's a heartbreaking sense of rightness about a loving and famous daughter singing with her famous and well-loved late father, as Natalie Cole proved in 1992 when she sang a duet with her dad onstage.
Natalie Cole and Nat "King" Cole --- Unforgettable
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Nat “King” Cole has been long established as one of the kings (sorry) of smooth jazz, with hits like “When I fall in love”, “Embraceable you” and “Mona Lisa” etched into the consciousness of the world and forever enshrined in the halls of music. But it's for one song in particular that he's most remembered, and that is “Unforgettable”, both in name and in content. Although not written by him (I don't believe he was a songwriter), the song was and is forever inextricably linked with the man and his legend, so it was only fitting that it be the one chosen by his famous daughter to inject new life into.

Remixed and edited by Joe Guercio, most famous for being Elvis' musical director, the song was performed at a special tribute to Nat “King” Cole, aired by PBS in 1992. With a videoscreen behind her showing her father, in his youth, singing the song, she joined with him and together the two performed one incredible, and, yes, unforgettable duet. The performance won three Grammys, as well as other awards, and was a huge hit when later released as a single.

The thing that makes this duet stand out --- other than the fact that it's the only one I can recall of its type --- is that you can see quite clearly that it was not a publicity stunt, a moneymaking venture or a cheap shot. The pure love and respect in Natalie's eyes as she gazes at the image of her father on the videoscreen, the passion in her voice, and the beautiful melding of the two performances make it obvious that this is, as the concert was billed, a tribute to Nat “King” Cole, and something that his daughter, had her father lived long enough and been able to perform live with her onstage, would have loved to do while he was alive.

This was the next best thing. It's unique, it's heartfelt, it's honest and it tears at your heartstrings, unless you have a brick there in your chest.

And it is, without doubt, a marriage made in Heaven.

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Time to go deep into the history and music of another of my favourite rock icons, give you a flavour of what they're about. As these profiles are as in-depth and complete as I can make them, they usually exceed the character count allowed for one post, and this one is a monster! So it's split up into four parts, which in fact mirror the four incarnations, as it were, of the band in question.
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Though there will be few who will not at least know the name Iron Maiden, it's possible that some of you younger 'uns may not realise that the “classic” lineup we see today is not how it always was, Indeed, of the current band members, only Steve Harris and Dave Murray were there at the beginning.

Part One: Killers runnin' free on the Rue Morgue: Formation and the Di'Anno years
Formed in 1975 by bass player Harris, Iron Maiden went through a few guitarists, singers and drummers before they came up with what would be their first “real” lineup, under which they would record and release their first ever recording, an EP called “The Soundhouse Tapes”, which rapidly sold out. Two of the tracks on that EP, “Prowler” and the eponymous “Iron Maiden”, would later feature on their first album, which they would also self-title. In 1979 Maiden signed to the huge label EMI, and had two other tracks included on a heavy metal compilation album called “Metal for muthas”. These were “Sanctuary” and “Wrathchild”, the latter of which would again feature on their debut album for the label.

In 1980 Maiden had the following lineup: Steve Harris (bass), Dave Murray (guitar), Clive Burr (drums) Paul Di'Anno (vocals) and Dennis Stratton (guitar), though Stratton left the band a few months later, to be replaced by Adrian Smith, who remains with them to this day. The album was a huge hit, with its raw power and yet melodic tracks, and Iron Maiden became one of the bands to spearhead the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) which signalled a renaissance of the heavy metal movement in the UK and led to the formation of some major bands.

The debut album featured a scary creature on the cover, a half-skeletal, half-humanoid monster with long spiky hair, who would become the band's mascot and sigil, and would feature, in different guises, on most Iron Maiden album covers. They called him Eddie the 'ead, though he was usually just known as Eddie. In keeping with the theme/layout of each album Eddie would take on different characteristics. For “Powerslave”, for instance, with its mystical and eastern themes and its title track written about an Egyptian god, Eddie was a pharaoh on the cover, while for “Somewhere in time”, with its futuristic setting, he was an alien hunter. Here, he is just seen looking out at you from the cover, standing in a street at night and looking very evil and scary. He looks like he's ready to kill.

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Eddie was the creation of artist Derek Riggs, who would go on to illustrate all the Maiden sleeves and bring his often warped sense of creativity to each new one. One thing was certain: a Maiden cover was never boring! But what about the music? Well, as mentioned, it was raw and powerful, with a double guitar attack that would become the trademark of Iron Maiden, but I personally found the production very shoddy. Notable tracks from the album are “Phantom of the opera”, with its instantly recognisable guitar intro, which found fame when it was used for a Lucozade ad in the 80s. At the time, it was also their longest and most ambitious song, clocking in at over seven minutes and with distinct sections, or movements within it.

Also on the album is “Transylvania”, an instrumental, one of very few that Maiden ever wrote. It's punchy, powerful and very much part of the Iron Maiden sound. They also included a ballad on the album, which again would be few and far between as Maiden reached for the heavy metal stardom that would be theirs. “Strange world” features some really nice echo guitar work from Murray and is almost prog rock in its theme of a world without laughter. It's also a very good vehicle for the softer side of Di'Anno's vocals, which apart from this song always seem to be a snarl. “Remember tomorrow” actually fools you into thinking it's a ballad, but you're soon disabused of that notion as it kicks into top gear and Di'Anno starts screaming.

The album also features, as mentioned, “Prowler” from “The Soundhouse Tapes” and also the title track, which would become something of an anthem for the band. Their second album, “Killers” was released the following year, and this time Eddie is seen as a homicidal maniac on the cover, sporting a bloodstained hatchet, and indeed referred to generally in the lyric to the title track. Another old song, the one featured on the compilation album, is included on this album, and indeed after the short opening instrumental “The ides of March”, it's “Wrathchild” that opens the album proper.

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This album was very much a Steve Harris project, as he wrote every song on it bar the title track, which was co-written with Paul Di'Anno. The album also features “Murders in the Rue Morgue”, based loosely on the Edgar Allan Poe horror short story, and another ballad, the superlative “Prodigal son”, but the title track is the crux of the album, and features Di'Anno in full madman mode, revelling in his narrative as the shadowy killer who ”Walks in the subway/ His eyes burn a hole in your back!/ A footstep behind you/ He lunges, prepared for attack!” The guitars on this song need to be heard to be believed. Di'Anno goes out in a blaze of glory, roaring his lungs out on the closer “Drifter”, and in fact his scream is the last sound on the album, bar the final guitar chord.

Part Two: No prayer for the powerslaves, somewhere in time: Bruce Dickinson and global domination

After “Killers” Di'Anno was asked to leave the band due to various disputed reasons, and they hooked up with Bruce Dickinson, who had been singing with Samson. It was with him at the mike that they recorded their ultra-successful 1982 album, “The number of the Beast”, which shot straight to number one and is recommended as one of the “1001 albums you must hear before you die” in the book of the same name by Robert Dimery. The whole style of the album is different, perhaps due to songwriting being shared, perhaps due to the presence and charisma of Dickinson, or perhaps it was just a natural evolution of the band. But the overall feel of “The Beast” is of polished production, excellent songwriting, powerful and technically-proficient playing and indeed a band who are all on the same page. Possibly the conflicts with first Dennis Stratton and then Paul Di'Anno may have strained the atmosphere during the recording of the first two albums, but there is no such tension evident here.

Featuring songs like “22 Acacia Avenue” (subtitled “The continuing adventures of Charlotte the harlot”, who is seen in a song titled with her name on the first Maiden album), “The Prisoner”, for which the band had to gain permission from Patrick McGoohan to use audio clips from the cult TV series in the intro, and of course the two singles, “Run to the hills” and the title track, this was, in all ways possible, a monster album. “Run to the hills” shot to number seven in the charts, and is a powerful indictment of the treatment by the White Man of the Native Americans, featuring a killer guitar solo from Dave Murray and some singing which would earn Bruce his nickname of “Air-raid Siren”! The title track, and indeed the album title and artwork, earned Maiden the tag of Satanists, and true to form, the Religious Right in America sought to ban the sale of the album (and all Iron Maiden records, extended of course to other “questionable” metal bands), boycotted the gigs and burned their albums. What was that they said: “Where they burn books (or albums), they will later burn people.”
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Laughing at this accusation, but nevertheless hurting from the adverse publicity and the boycotts of and protests at gigs, Steve Harris, as the face of the band, declared that far from being an anthem or prayer to the Devil, “The number of the Beast” was based on a nightmare he had after watching one of the Omen films, and the track even has a passage from the bible preceding it. But you can't tell the Moral Majority they've got it wrong, and the mud stuck.

Nevertheless, fans and heavy metal pundits alike loved the album, and it still stands as Iron Maiden's best. It also contains one of my own favourites from them, the epic “Hallowed be thy name”, which closes the album and runs to just over seven minutes. It tells the story of a man about to be hanged, and his thoughts as they lead him out to the gallows. It's quite an introspective piece for such a heavy song, starting off with doomy church bells (actually referred to in the lyric when he says ”I'm waiting in my cold cell/ When the bells begin to chime.”) and featuring some great guitar work from both Adrian Smith and Dave Murray.

For the next decade Iron Maiden were prolific in their releases, a new album usually being no more than two years from the previous. In between they of course toured extensively and released some live albums, of which “Live after death”, released in 1984, is regarded as their best. 1983 however saw the emergence of their fourth studio album, “Piece of mind”, with the obvious play on words in the title. It features this time Eddie in a straitjacket and imprisoned in a “rubber room”, with part of his brain missing, ergo the title. Despite the obvious imagery of madness, however, the album did not deal with the subject of insanity: rather, the songs were mostly influenced by or about books or films the lads enjoyed.

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“Piece of mind” was the first album to feature new drummer Nicko McBrain, ex-Trust, who is still with Maiden to this day. It only featured two singles, but they were both very successful, just missing getting into the top ten. “The trooper” is a powerful, rollicking story of the Charge of the Light Brigade, while “Flight of Icarus”, with its heavy guitar intro, tells the legend of Icarus. Other good tracks on the album include “Die with your boots on”, “Where eagles dare” (based on the WWII movie) and “Sun and steel”, loosely based around the sword-and-sorcery heroes of fantasy literature like Conan and Kull. There's another epic on the album, again closing it, this time taking as its subject matter the Frank Herbert sci-fi series “Dune”. Called “To tame a land” it runs for nearly seven and a half minutes, and is again evidence of Maiden's dabbling in prog metal, towards which they were sliding closer with every album.

Only one year later and they released perhaps their most openly prog album to date, 1984's “Powerslave”. While it included “boys-own”-type adventures songs like “Aces high” and “Flash of the blade”, and a return to “The Prisoner” from “Number of the Beast” in the song “Back in the Village”, it was the two closing tracks that really characterised this album. The first being the title track, written from the point of view of an Egyptian god or pharaoh, and evidenced on the sleeve of the album with Eddie depicted as a huge stone statue like the Sphinx, being worshipped as a god. The lyric tells of the pharaoh/god's reluctance to give up life, as he moans ”Tell me why I have to be a powerslave?/ I don't wanna die/ I'm a god, why can't I live on?” but he realises at the song's conclusion that he has no more sway over life than the lowliest of his worshippers, as he accepts ”In my last hours I'm a slave/ To the power of death.” Not surprisingly, the music is eastern-tinged, to give the effect of being in Egypt.
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The other standout track is their longest to date, the epic in every way “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, based on the epic poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It features a great bass solo halfway through that really gives the feeling of isolation and fear, and quotes much of the famous poem in the lyrics. There must have been some trepidation on the part of the band that metallers would listen to a song which runs to thirteen and a half minutes, and moreover, is based on a poem over a century and a half old, but it went down a storm thanks to the heavy riffs, powerful singing and, to be fair, gripping lyric, even if they were half-inched from the poem.

1986 and “Somewhere in time” hit the shelves. Different to previous albums, mostly due to the writing of Adrian Smith, it features more long compositions, like “The loneliness of the long-distance runner” (6:31), “Heaven can wait” (7:21) and the title track, “Caught somewhere in time” (7:26). In fact, the shortest track on the album is “Deja vu”, at 4:56, and even at 7:26 the title track is not the longest: that honour goes, once again, to the closer, this time called “Alexander the Great”, and clocking it at a massive 8:36! Again, despite the cover art depicting Eddie as a futuristic bounty-hunter/cyborg killer, the themes on the album range from madness to history to reflections on life. There are two sci-fi/future themed songs, in the title track and “Stranger in a strange land”, based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein. With the comparitive lengths of the tracks, there end up only being eight in total.
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You could I suppose say that this was also a very prog metal album, with its long compositions and its varied themes, and very few of the “rock till I drop” songs --- although even on their earlier recordings Maiden tended to eschew the generic metal themes like beer, women, fighting and who's the loudest. Some of these would find their way into later releases, though Maiden would more or less continue on the road towards total prog metal with each new album. “Somewhere in time” also pioneered their use of the guitar synth, belying a legend that had once appeared on the back cover of “Number of the Beast” --- “No synthesisers or ulterior motives”. With the move towards prog metal, it was perhaps inevitable that Iron Maiden would need to introduce some sort of keyboard sound, and this was how they went about it.

This culminated in what became the pinnacle of their progressive metal leanings, 1988's “Seventh son of a seventh son”, on which the guitar synths were swapped for actual keyboards, played by one Michael Kinney. This album also featured only eight tracks, although the longest, the title track, came in at just under ten minutes, with the next longest, “Infinite dreams”, a mere six minutes. The power and energy was still there, the great melodies and the hooks, and the interesting themes, though many of them were linked or semi-linked in a kind of a fairytale. Some of the better tracks on it, for me, are “Moonchild”, the title track, “The evil that men do” and “Only the good die young”. It's the first album since “Number” not to feature an epic closer, with “Only the good” clocking in at a mere 4:42.

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It was also the last album to feature Adrian Smith, who left the band to return in 2000 for their triumphant “Brave new world”, an album I look on as their “comeback” album after years in the metal wilderness, of which more later. “Seventh son” also gave Maiden some of their highest-charting singles, with “Can I play with madness” going to number 3, the highest they had ever achieved.

Rather ironically, Smith had left the band because he was unhappy with the prog-metal direction Maiden were going in, but as soon as he left the next album, 1990's “No prayer for the dying” changed the musical direction and returned to a more hard-edged, rock/metal sound, with shorter songs and more of them. Despite the fact that it was panned by critics, it did yield Maiden their only ever number one single, in the Bruce Dickinson-penned “Bring your daugher... to the slaughter”. There are no songs over five minutes on the album, the longest being again the closer, “Mother Russia” being a paltry 4:45.

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“No prayer” is probably the first Maiden album to feature a whole host of sub-standard songs. The likes of “Public enema number one”, “The assassin”, “Fate's warning” and the aforementioned “Mother Russia” just don't cut it for me, and although there are good tracks in “Tailgunner” (basically “Aces high” from “Powerslave” revisited) and “Holy Smoke”, with its stab-back at the Christian Right, and of course “Bring your daughter...”, there's a lot of dross on this album, probably the least impressive of any Maiden album --- at least, under the Dickinson regime --- I have ever heard. Maybe they needed Adrian Smith's songwriting abilities more than they realised! On guitar, Smith was replaced by Janick Gers, and there were more changes to come in the years ahead.

Things came to a head in 1992, with the release of their ninth album. “Fear of the dark”, although superior to its predecessor, was still not a patch on previous opuses. Retaining the short-song format, and eschewing the prog-metal epics for more basic rock fodder, it nevertheless featured themes like the Gulf War, on the Steve Harris-penned “Afraid to shoot strangers”, a great track which begins slowly and gets into high gear halfway through, as well as the cowboy-themed “Be quick or be dead”, which opens the album, but the vast majority of the tracks are still sub-standard, and if I listen to this album at all, it's very much a cherry-picking operation, and there are a LOT of tracks I skip over.

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“Fear is the key” and “Childhood's end” are decent enough tracks, though both “The fugitive” and “The apparition” fail to impress, recalling “The assassin” from the previous album, and although this is the first Maiden album in some time to feature an actual ballad, “Wasted love” is, well, wasted really: not a very good song, and adds nothing to the album except a slowing-down of the general mayhem. The best track for me is “Judas be my guide”, with its soaraway guitar, and the closer, the only long track on the album, and indeed the title track, again written by Harris, and coming in at 7:45. The album is also the first not to feature cover art by longtime illustrator Derek Riggs, and the last produced by Martin Birch, who had been with the band from “Killers”.

Shortly after the recording of the album, Bruce Dickinson decided he had had enough, and left the band to pursue a short-lived solo career. He would not return until 2000,and in between the band would go through some changes, most bad, and risk losing a large part of their fanbase, before the "return of the king" would take place and sort everything out.

Part three: The Virtual X Factor: Blaze and the wilderness years

Following the departure of Bruce Dickinson, Maiden were left with the job of finding a replacement for the charismatic frontman. This was no mean feat: Dickinson had helmed the band for ten years, and fans had got used to his powerful presence, and voice, so it was really no great surprise that the idea of someone taking over from him was greeted with mostly scepticism and in some cases outright anger by the faithful. Nonetheless, on October 2 1995, three years after Bruce's departure, Iron Maiden released their tenth studio album, the aptly-named “X-factor”, featuring new singer Blaze Bayley, recently of Wolfsbane.
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The album was quite a departure from standard Iron Maiden fare, and much different to the last few releases. It was, for a start, a lot darker, something that might be expected given Dickinson's mostly unexpected departure, and Harris returned to writing most of the material, with input from the new guy and the “other new guy”, guitarist Janick Gers. I found most of it not to be up to scratch, and whereas “Fear of the dark” had suffered from its share of problems, I could find few songs on this album I liked.

It probably doesn't help that the guys turned their usual practice upside-down, having the longest track at the opening of the album rather than closing it, and the eleven-minute “Sign of the cross” just didn't pique my interest, leaving me with a long time to wait, getting more and more frustrated as the song went on, and on, and on, before the next track up hit my ears. That was “Lord of the flies”, and to be fair, I really liked that, more like the Iron Maiden I knew. Following that was “Man on the edge”, the first single from the album, and to be fair it's not bad: kind of reminds me of “Back in the Village” from Powerslave.

It's not that the album is terrible, but given the heights Maiden were capable of reaching (and had reached), this just felt like a very lacklustre album. I also personally felt (and I wasn't the only one by any means) that Blaze Bayley was no replacement for Bruce Dickinson. Oh, he could sing, sure, but to replace THE voice of Iron Maiden they were going to have had to come up with someone very special indeed, and he wasn't it. Always felt to me like he was constantly dealing with (as he probably was) the stigma of being Dickinson's successor, and trying to live up to that. I would not have wanted to have been in his place, that's for sure.
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It was three years later before Maiden tried again, with the release of “Virtual XI”, the last album they would record with Bayley. To give him credit, the guy seemed by now to have found his place in the band: he sounded more confident, more sure of himself and probably felt like he belonged. Rather ironic then that after this album he would leave the band. My problem with the “Blaze” Iron Maiden was twofold: first, there's no Bruce Dickinson. I only really got into Maiden via “Number of the Beast”, and then backtracked, and whereas I could tolerate Paul Di'Anno, he wasn't a patch on Bruce. The second problem I have is that in a very real way they seemed to be retreading old ground, taking bits from previous songs and recycling them into new ones.

There was a third problem, although personally I didn't see it as such, but it was something of a surprise to see the sudden emergence, even dominance of keyboards on Maiden albums. You can hear this very clearly on “The angel and the gambler”, where the guitars are pushed very firmly into the background, with the result that what you get is a very commercial-sounding song, but then Maiden had had great commercial success with singles like “Flight of Icarus”, “The Trooper” and “Run to the hills”, to mention but a few. And they had never had to compromise on their sound. Here, they begin to sound more like a seventies prog band than a hard-hitting veteram heavy metal legend.

This album was also the shortest, in terms of tracks, since 1988's “Seventh son of a seventh son”, with only eight tracks, although on overall length it was well up there with the best, at just over fifty-three minutes, yet still nearly twenty minutes shorter than its predecessor. Still, every album to follow it (so far) would be much longer. There's also another point: listening now to the almost ten-minute “Angel and the gambler”, I notice that of those ten minutes, the closing THREE are taken up with the same refrain, with a few guitar solo bits in there, but come on! Did it need to be that long, if all they were going to do was repeat the same line to the end? Like I say, lack of imagination and originality, which had never previously been a problem for the boys.

It's probably quite possible that I'm doing “Virtual XI” a disservice, as I only really listened to it the once, didn't like it, and am only listening to it for the second time now for this piece, so maybe my opinion would change on repeated listens. The fact remains, however, that every album, from “Iron Maiden” to “Fear of the dark”, I was able to get into on the first listen. That did not happen with either of these, which is why I was overjoyed to hear the announcement in 1999 that Blaze was out, and Bruce was back!

Part four: The return of the King: Dancing in the brave new world

I've written extensively about Bruce Dickinson's comeback Iron Maiden album, 2000's “Brave new world”, so I won't go into it in any more detail here (if you want to read my review it's on page one of my journal), but the return of both Bruce and longtime guitarist and founder member (almost) Adrian Smith breathed new life into what was in some ways becoming a tired band who seemed unsure of the direction they were heading in. Janick Gers remained, so that Maiden now had three guitarists, and the new sound was a joy to behold.
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“Brave new world” was well-titled (although it is of course the title of Aldous Huxley's novel), being released in the first months of the new millennium, and with most of the original Maiden lineup back in the fold. The fans reacted as expected, and sellout tours resulted. The album was critically acclaimed as one of Maiden's best ever, ranking up there with “Number of the Beast”, “Powerslave” and “Seventh son”: high praise indeed!
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2003 saw the release of “Dance of death”, which while retaining the heavy classic sound of Maiden, expanded on “Brave new world”'s leaning towards longer, more epic songs and complex structures, tipping the scales towards progressive metal rather than outright metal. Although this came as something of a shock to some, it serves to underline and address the problem I laid out earlier, that the Blaze-era Maiden had little in the way of new, original songs and seemed to be falling back on older melodies and ideas, which served to make both the albums he recorded with Maiden seem a little stale and unimaginative.

Now, to be fair to Blaze, there was definitely a need for a change: “Fear of the dark” was largely an unremarkable album, and Dickinson's time away seemed to only have done him, and the band, good, giving them a new zest for their music and a whole host of new ideas. It's sad in a way to see Blaze Bayley as a “placeholder”, marking time for the return of Dickinson, but the truth of it is that that's how it turned out, even if that wasn't the original intention. Whatever, the re-energised Iron Maiden were going from strength to strength, and “Dance of death” was another step along that path to regained glory, with some excellent tracks in “Rainmaker”, “Montsegur” and of course the title track.

The guitars are back in charge! Steve Harris plays keyboards on the album, but they're nowhere near as much in evidence as they were on the previous album. A track like “The angel and the gambler” from that album was basically built on the keyboard melody: here, the keys are very much ancillary, a backup instrument to enhance, not take over or change, the sound. As it should be. Even the longer tracks, like “No more lies”, “Paschendale” and the title track, which could have been filled out with synth and keyboard, are instead crammed with guitar. And why not, with three great axemen?

Let there be no doubt however: Iron Maiden were moving, and continue to move, in a more progressive metal direction, away from the harder, “pure” heavy metal of their early days. They added to their sound, expanding upon it and writing longer and more complicated songs, like the title track, and “Paschendale”, both over eight minutes long. Of course, Maiden have never been a stranger to epic songs --- “Rime of the Ancient Mariner" still stands as their longest ever, at just over thirteen minutes, but whereas albums prior to the Blaze era had generally tended to have shorter, snappier, more commercial songs --- the last really long track before “X Factor” was the title to 1988's “Seventh son of a seventh son”. Since the departure, and return of Bruce Dickinson, Maiden tended to shy away from the shorter songs, with seven out of ten of the songs from “Brave new world” being over six minutes, and six, almost seven of those on this album being of that length (“Montsegur” is 5:50). In fairness, the Blaze albums produced a total of 5/11 for “X factor” and 5/8 for “Virtual XI”, whereas “Fear of the dark” boasted a mere 2/12, while not one of “No prayer for the dying”'s eleven tracks were over that length, so there has been a definite progression into longer tracks since 1995.

“Dance of death” also distinguishes itself from other Maiden albums in being the first album of theirs in twenty years to feature a totally acoustic number, the closer, “Journeyman”, very much a departure from form for Maiden, but it works exceptionally well, the more for the fact that it's so unexpected. I think the last acoustic song they did was “Prodigal son” on 1981's “Killers”, but don't quote me!

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Another three years later saw the release of “A matter of life and death”, with a somewhat similar title to the previous album, and no doubt a nod back to the live opus “Live after death”. No matter what criticism is levelled at them, no-one can deny that Maiden remain the potent force in British Heavy Metal that they always have been, and despite ageing (as we all do), their music is still relevant and powerful, as opener “Different world” shows in spades. Recent Maiden albums have all tended, if not to be actual concept albums, to have a certain theme running through them, and here it's the horrors of war, driven home powerfully by the artwork on the album cover, showing an army of dead marching before a tank, like a modern version of Brueghel's El triunfo de la muerte.

This album maintains the high ratio of long-to-short songs, with songs over six minutes coming in at 7/11, three of these being over eight minutes, with five, almost six over seven minutes. The song structures became more complex and intricate over the last few albums, and here you can certainly see that in tracks like “Brighter than a thousand suns”, “The longest day” and the closer, and longest (at over nine minutes long) “The legacy”, but even the shorter, snappier songs have their place. “The pilgrim” is a great little song, although in my own nitpicking opinion Maiden write too many songs with the word “the” in the title!

“Out of the shadows” revisits one of their favourite themes, that of prophecies and chosen ones, and “The reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg” features some of Dave Murray's best work since “Powerslave”. The album is certainly dark, though to be fair so was the previous one, with its obsession with and examination of the process of death, but it's also an angry album, and there's nowhere the vitriol comes to the fore more than in “For the greater good of God”, where writer Steve Harris spits out his contempt for the idea of religious wars. This is also the longest track on the album, beating out closer “The legacy” by two seconds!

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Last year, 2010, Iron Maiden released their fifteenth, and to date, most recent album, the critically acclaimed “Final frontier”. This is also their longest ever album, clocking in at an amazing seventy-six minutes thirty-six seconds, with the opening track almost nine minutes long and the closer one second off eleven. Not surprisingly then, the ratio is again 7/10, almost 8, as “Coming home” runs for 5:52. It's also their best effort since “Brave new world”, perhaps even since “Number of the Beast”. Yeah, it's that good!

Opener and almost-title track “Satellite 15... the final frontier” lays down the gauntlet, with a multi-layered, complex and intricate composition, introduced on a lengthy instrumental passage more expected of a prog-rock band. It's actually quite understated and restrained, taking almost four and a half minutes before it finally takes off. “El Dorado”, on the other hand, kicks right off from the start, with a very familiar guitar riff (from “Wasted years”, I think) and a great vibe.

The more complex arrangements shine through on tracks like “Isle of Avalon” (which has definite echoes of the title track to “Powerslave”), “The talisman” and the epic closer, “When the wild wind blows”. There's definitely a sense of Maiden maturing, growing and learning new tricks over the course of the last three or four albums. You can of course hear the common themes leaking in, but there's more than enough new ideas there to make every song stand out on its own merits.

All through their career Iron Maiden have led the field, turning out classic album after classic album, building on their fanbase, playing bigger and bigger venues and opening up the world of heavy metal to successive younger generations. There are few metal bands around today who would not admit to owing at least a little of their success to the venerable elder statesmen of heavy metal, whether it's that they listened to them when younger, or they influenced their style, or even just showed that a bunch of guys from London can scale the heights of worldwide fame with nothing more than their innate talent and some perserverance.

It would be wrong to say Iron Maiden created heavy metal --- of course, it was around, though mostly known as hard rock at the time --- for decades prior to their arrival. But what is in no doubt is that they were one of the shaping forces behind metal, indeed behind rock, and remain so to this day. After over thirty years together, Iron Maiden show no signs of slowing down. They've had their problems, they've been through their changes, btu they've come out the other side stronger and more potent than ever before. They've innovated, moved with but not been shaped by the changing trends, and have always remained true to themselves, their fans and their own unique sound.

What was it Ozzy Osbourne said? You can't kill rock and roll? Truer words were never said, and Maiden go from strength to strength, proving that good old-fashioned honesty and hard work is sometimes all you need to make it in this world. Lessons some other bands would do well to take to heart.

Long live the Beast!

Random Track of the Day
Saturday, September 24 2011
Ah, not long now before the noise of rockets and bangers starts shaking the neighbourhood, as we edge closer to my least favourite evening of all, Halloween! Hang on, I think I hear the first explosions in the distance...

Anyway, today's Random Track of the Day comes from another album already reviewed by me, some little time ago. It's Australian band Icehouse, with a track from their “Man of colours” album, which you really should make a point of listening to.

Nothing too serious --- Icehouse --- from "Man of colours" on Chrysalis
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It's a good poppy rocker from the album, with an interesting lyric. “Nothing too serious” is probably one of the fastest, most manic tracks on the album. It's good fun.

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A song guaranteed to make you grin and want to dance and make a fool of yourself, today it's Mr. Dave Lee Roth with Van Halen, from the album and year of 1984, with a pretty massive hit single for them, this is “Jump”.

GTR --- GTR --- 1986 (Arista)
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What do you get when you put Yes/Asia's Steve Howe and Genesis' Steve Hackett together? Well, they're both guitarists, and songwriters, but primarily guitarists, so you get GTR, short for guitar, a short-lived “supergroup” from the late eighties who released only the one studio album, their self-titled debut. It did well, but tended to polarise opinion in both Yes and Genesis fans, and there were conflicts within the band itself. As a result, GTR disbanded a year later and went their separate ways.

Opener “When the heart rules the mind” was the first single from the album, and is very reminiscent of Asia's “Heat of the moment”. Although there are no keyboards on the album, the keyboard sound is recreated by the use of guitar synths, which both the Steves used. People have criticised vocalist Max Bacon's voice, but I see nothing wrong with it. Although both Hackett and Howe came from progressive rock backgrounds, this is not really a prog rock album, more like an AOR record. The opener is good, punchy and with a great melody, great backing vocals but strangely for a band whose name is GTR and which features two guitarists, both experts in their field, it's very keyboard-heavy (I know they're guitar synths, but even so), with little in the way of true guitar solos, which surely you would expect from these two?

All the songs are written either by one or both of the Steves, or in collaboration with others, apart from the second track, “The hunter”, which is a Geoff Downes composition. Downes, Howe's bandmate in both Asia and Yes, produced this album but he didn't play on it, strangely. “The hunter” has definite touches of Yes, and almost to try to accommodate this it would seem, Bacon tries to sing like Jon Anderson. It doesn't really work, but at least there's more guitar in this song.

“Here I wait” is a Hackett/Howe composition, and it's far rockier than either of the first two tracks, with a good solid beat and some nice angry guitars. “Sketches in the sun”, a Hackett original, is far more introspective, reflecting the ex-Genesis man's nature and musical style. It's an instrumental, and to be honest, goes a long way towards adding a real touch of class to the album, which it's kind of lacked up to now. Back to the hard rock then for “Jekyll and Hyde”, a powerful little track that allows the guys to stretch themselves on guitar, and features some pretty nifty backing vocals. This is the only song on which vocalist Max Bacon contibutes to the writing. Like most of the others that have gone before though, you can't help but be reminded of Yes, though Hackett's guitar playing does bring a certain flavour of mid-seventies Genesis to proceedings.

It's very repetitive though, with the same line mostly sung throughout, between bursts of guitar solos from the guys. The Yes clones continue with “You can still get through”, and at this point if you fell asleep (not totally unlikely: it's hardly a gripping album!) you might think, when you woke up, that you were listening to a Yes album. It's that similar. Very unoriginal, for a so-called supergroup. At least “Toe the line” is a little different, though I can still hear Anderson's voice singing this. Nice little ballad though, a step away from the dross they've been putting out up to now. At last we get a decent solo worthy of these two uber-guitarists! It's the first track apart from Steve Hackett's instrumental that I've actually enjoyed listening to, and we're near the end of the album!

Speaking of Hackett, it's another of his solo-penned songs next, in stark contrast to his gentle “Sketches in the sun”, although also an instrumental, “Hackett to bits” is more hard rock than folk ballad, and this really shows him to be the accomplished guitarist he is. It's a different sort of piece entirely to his other on the album, but stands out in the same way that one did, and in the same way the rest of the tracks fail to manage to. Closer “Imagining” is very Genesisesque in its opening, but then becomes another sub-Yes song to finish off what is essentially, and sadly, a sub-par album.

When there are bands like Yes and Genesis already around, doing this sort of thing much better, there seems no reason why two ex-members of those bands would try to recreate that sound on what is supposed to be their album, with their new group. It just doesn't make sense, and shows a lack of originality, commitment and ideas. It's frankly not surprising there was no follow-up. Perhaps if Yes and Genesis disbanded completely, there might be a market for this album, but as it stands, then and now, if you're a Yes fan you'll buy Yes records. If you're a Genesis fan you'll buy Genesis albums.

No true fan of either would bother buying this. One reviewer famously wrote the most succinct and yet appropriate review of the album, when he wrote “GTR: SHT”. Kind of says it all really.

TRACKLISTING

1. When the heart rules the mind
2. The hunter
3. Here I wait
4. Sketches in the sun
5. Jekyll and Hyde
6. You can still get through
7. Reach out (never say no)
8. Toe the line
9. Hackett to bits
10. Imagining

Holy diver --- Dio --- 1983 (Vertigo)
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Rarely does it happen that an artiste's debut album is their best, but this is widely accepted to be the case in this instance. Although, technically, this was not the first album for band leader and founder Ronnie James Dio, who had worked with Black Sabbath and Rainbow before, it was his first solo effort, or more correctly, the first album released with his own band. “Holy diver” is an impressive debut, and there's really very little, if anything, bad to say about it.

It's pure metal and rock all the way, from the headbanging opener “Stand up and shout”, with guitarist Vivian Campbell making a name for himself, Ronnie's distinctive voice grinding out the vocals with the enthusiasm and delight of a man who has finally achieved his lifelong dream. The lyric reflects this: ”You've got desire, so let it out/ You 've got the power/ Stand up and shout!” The first of many excellent solos from Campbell and thunderous drumming from veteran sticksman Vinnie Appice just pull this song along at a breakneck rate, and even though things slow down for the title track, it's in no way a ballad (there are none on this album) --- it's a slow, epic cruncher that starts off with keyboard and sounds of wind and thunder, an introduction that almost treads on prog rock territory before Campbell's insistent guitar dispels any such notions, and the track gets going.

Definitely one of the standout (among several) tracks on the album, “Holy diver” closest resembles Ozzy-era Sabbath, but very much updated from Sabs' somewhat doomy and plodding approach. The young guitarist keeps it fresh, while RJD's vocals are clear, sincere and powerful. This sort of beat, the aforementioned cruncher, would become something of a trademark for many of Dio's future songs, probably honed during his time with Sabbath.

Back up to fifth gear then for “Gypsy”, with a big yell from Ronnie and a powerful, stomping metal song replete with heavy guitar and some nice keys. Ronnie really stretches his voice on this one, mostly roaring the vocal, and things don't slow down for “Caught in the middle”, another fast rocker, but the real standout track comes with “Don't talk to strangers.” Built on a whispered intro and a jangly guitar line, it soon takes off and heads off into the stratosphere, courtesy of Appice and Campbell. Excellent track!

“Straight through the heart” is a great mid-paced rocker, with a terrific solo from Campbell, while “Invisible” is similar in pace, with an expansive guitar opening and a faux-balladic start before it takes off. Jimmy Bain's keyboards finally come properly to the fore when “Rainbow in the dark” kicks in, and it's another of the standout tracks. Much gentle fun has been poked at RJD over his seeming fascination with rainbows --- they crop up a lot in his lyrics, in addition to his being vocalist on the “Rainbow rising” album and also writing a song called “Catch the rainbow” for Rainbow. And here he is again, singing about rainbows. But it's a fantastic track, a real power metal song, with banks of keyboards carrying the sound while Vivian Campbell manages to stamp his own authority on the song with one hell of a solo.

After the majesty of “Rainbow in the dark”, the album closer feels like something of a footnote. It's no slight on the track, but “Shame on the night” just doesn't come close to the quality of the track that preceded it. It's a slowburner, starting off with the sound of wolves howling, then Campbell's bluesy guitar intro which turns into some heavy licks, and the song gets going in earnest, a real cruncher with a lovely little bassline from Bain.

I personally feel that Ronnie James Dio lost his way about four albums into his solo career, and with the exception of one or two, his last few albums did not impress me, and in fact one or two really disappointed me. This however is from his golden age, and for the next few years he could really do no wrong. “Holy diver” will always stand as the perfect Dio album: even its follow-up, “The last in line”, though almost as good, had one or two bad tracks on it, and as the albums went on they tended to have more sub-par tracks than good. But this is how I would prefer to remember the late Ronnie James Dio: slaying all before him with power metal in a class all of his own.

TRACKLISTING

1. Stand up and shout
2. Holy diver
3. Gypsy
4. Caught in the middle
5. Don't talk to strangers
6. Straight through the heart
7. Invisible
8. Rainbow in the dark
9. Shame on the night

Suggested further listening: “The last in line”, “Sacred heart”, “Killing the dragon”, “Magica”. Also Rainbow's “Rainbow rising” and “Long live rock and roll”, and Black Sabbath's “Heaven and Hell”.

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Ah yes, the fantasy of many a teenage boy in the tail-end of the seventies/early eighties, the worm reminds us of the smouldering power and almost casual charisma of the great Chrissie Hynde, here with her band the Pretenders, with their biggest hit single, “Brass in pocket”. Phwoar! :D

Random Track of the Day
Sunday, September 25 2011
Good-time bands, huh? Not enough of them these days, what with everyone being so “emo”, “dark” and “Gothic”. Lighten up guys! Music should be fun, for Chrissakes! You should take a leaf out of these fellahs' book! Before there was the Beautiful South of course, there was the Housemartins, and one thing they knew how to do was have fun. Perhaps comparable to Madness, in style if not in music, the Housemartins only released two albums before they split, some of them going on to form the Beautiful South, and of course Norman Cook famously reinventing himself as Fatboy Slim.

Happy hour --- The Housemartins --- from "London 0 Hull 4" on Go! Discs
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Probably their most famous and successful single, there's nothing bad you can say about “Happy hour”. It's short, snappy, catchy, happy and a lot of other words ending with “y”! You just can't listen to it without wanting to get up and dance --- infectious, but in a really good way.

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It's always bugged me that there is one Marillion album I could never get into, despite repeated listenings and some real effort on my part. You see, I've been a Marillion fan since 1982, and have followed them from their first release, “Script for a jester's tear” (which still ranks in my estimation as one of the best, if not the best debut albums ever), and have watched them go through lineup changes, changes in musical direction and changes in the way they sell their records. I have never, or had never, up to this album, been less than delighted with any of their releases, never mind satisfied. Disappointment was not a word I associated with Marillion, except in the case where there was to be no new album for a few years.

But their 2007 effort, “Somewhere else”, let me down bigtime. Especially as their last outing, the superlative double album “Marbles”, had been so good and perhaps set me up for a fall. In addition, we had had to wait three years between the release of “Marbles” and 2001's “Anaroknophobia”, with another three years wait for this one. So I was all set to once again revel in the delights of a new Marillion album. I was to find it a huge -- and very unexpected --- disappointment, and so here we are, in the Last Chance Saloon once again, to try to figure out if this album is as bad as I remember, or if it can be redeemed.

Somewhere else --- Marillion --- 2007 (Intact)
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I was somewhat disconcerted by the opener, “The other half”. It opens slowly and then builds in an okay way, but okay is not good enough when you're talking about this band. It felt like something was missing, and as I listen again, in a final attempt to get into this album and not have a big gap in my appreciation of Marillion, I feel the same. Followup track “See it like a baby” is pure pop, and not in any way worthy of Marillion, however the third track in is where they really get going, finally, with a lush ballad in “Thank you whoever you are”: great keys as ever from Mark Kelley --- which somehow had been absent, subsumed or muted on the previous two tracks. Excellent and introspective guitar from the ever-reliable Steve Rothery, and a passionate and bittersweet vocal from Steve Hogarth, or “H” as he prefers to be known, lift this track head and shoulders above everything that has come before, and really, it's the standout track. I know that's somewhat disconcerting, so early into the album, and that fear is sadly well founded.

Well, in fairness, there is another great track near the end, but come on! I shouldn't be saying this about Marillion! You may not be a fan, but if you are, you should know that they have had consistently perfect output since 1982, even with the shocking departure of frontman Fish, and the new, energised version, Marillion v 2.0, as it were. But after the sublimity of “Thank you”, we're hit with a truly awful track that can't even claim to qualify as filler: “Most toys” is just lazy, loud rock, with its admittedly interesting message almost completely lost in the cacophony of guitars that just throttles this track. About the only thing I can say about it is that it's short, mercifully short, at just under three minutes, the shortest on the album.

The title track is up next, and although it's a Marillion-respectable length, at just under eight minutes, and indeed a nice relaxing ambient number, I find it lacking in that it sort of comes and goes, without really making any impression on me. Perhaps it's the understated vocal from Hogarth, or the lack of a well-rounded and clear lyrical idea (I still don't really know what it's about), but it just passes me by, and for an eight-minute (almost) song, that's not good. To be totally equitable, I must admit that the playing on the song is up to the high standard I expect of Marillion, with lovely piano from Kelley and soulful guitar from Rothery, gentle percussion from Ian Mosley, but I just don't feel it goes anywhere.

Now, as a dyed-in-the-wool Marillion fan, I feel I should point out that I don't hate this album: there is no Marillion album I hate. But if you asked me to choose my least favourite of their catalogue, there would be no hesitation on my part in pointing to this 2007 album. It leaves a great hole of longing in me, musically. I had waited three long years for new Marillion output, and to be this let down was a huge blow, so much so that I seriously considered not getting the next album. Luckily that did not happen, and I only had a year to fret and chew my fingernails until “Happiness is the road” appeared on the horizon, and although it was not the opus I had hoped, it was far better than this, and went a long way towards re-establishing my faith in the band. You can read my review of it on the first page of my journal, if you're so inclined.

You know, on reflection, the album sleeve is quite appropriate, as I do sort of feel like I'm staring through one of those seaside telescope/binocular things, searching for the band I know and love, looking for the music I want to hear, and finding that I am, in a very real way, somewhere else. Somewhere I don't want to be.

Another long track is next up, “A voice from the past” is again a low-key, understated number, with some really nice instrumentation, but once more I feel it's a little empty. I think one of the main things that upsets me about this album is that it's so laid-back! With the exception of “See it like a baby” and the hateful “Most toys”, the band rarely seem to break a sweat, turning this into almost an easy-listening album more than a rock one, or even a pop one. I'm all for relaxing tunes, but unless the band is known for producing such content, I think a whole album of lounge music is not a good idea. There are some good concepts in the tracks, the playing is as ever excellent; I just feel that it's an album where the band are holding themselves back, not realising their true potential. I mean, compare this to the previous “Marbles”, or even albums before that, like “Radiation” and “Marillion.com” --- there's just no comparison.

“No such thing” is basically the same idea repeated over and over for almost four minutes, while “The wound” does its best to get things going in a harder vein, and to its credit it is a lot closer to the sort of Marillion I prefer, and expect, to hear, not a bad track at all, but again a little lacking in direction. Rothery is right on form here, it must be said. However I think the problem here is that the song is overlong: it doesn't need seven minutes to get its message across, and in overextending itself that message tends to get lost, or at least a little confused.

There are, thankfully, no such problems with the penultimate track, sensibly cut down to less than six minutes (though only ten seconds less). “The last century for Man” is a powerful yet underplayed indictment of the state of the world, almost, but not quite, recalling Marillion's Magnum opus “Forgotten sons”, perhaps more reminscent of “When I meet God” from “Anoraknophobia”. But it's a well-crafted --- almost perfectly so --- song, starting slow and low-key, building in intensity and power to the denoument and then fading away as it began, but this song at least leaves an indelible mark on the mind, and on the heart, and remains in the ears long after the album has finished.

The closer, then, is a mid-paced number that rocks along gently, not quite a ballad but no rocker either, “Faith” starts off with a Simon and Garfunkel-esque acoustic guitar, which accompanies and complements Hogarth's voice perfectly. When the rest of the band come in, near the end, there's a sense of the sort of song that Marillion can write, and that there definitely should have been more of throughout this album. A nice sort of horn piece closes the track and brings the album to an end. It's perhaps ironic that the closing track should be so titled, as this album has sorely tested ny faith in Marillion.

Listening back to “Somewhere else” now, and not for the first time either --- I've tried to get into this album so many times! --- I still feel that it is without question the weakest in Marillion's catalogue. I can perhaps appreciate some of the songs a bit better now (though I still hate “Most toys”!), and perhaps even get to like one or two I previously didn't rate. However, that's not the point.

With a Marillion album, and on the strength of everything I've heard from them prior and since, I expect to be if not blown away then at least have my faith in them vindicated, album after album. Perhaps that's a lot to ask from a band, but up until they released this, I had had no reason to even hesitate in rushing out and buying the new Marillion album. There was no decision to be made: this was Marillion! But then “Somewhere else” hove into view, and shook my belief in the constant excellence of the band.

Since then, as mentioned, I've regained that faith, and of course I will always buy a new Marillion release as it comes out. But even now, and in the future, that little woodpecker of doubt will be tapping at my mind, the niggling, tiny fear that at some point, Marillion will again fall short of the greatness I expect them to achieve, and that they have achieved, consistently. There's a shadow of unease over my appreciation of my favourite band since 2007, and for that reason, I will never quite accept “Somewhere else” as an album to be listened to. It's the black sheep, the orphan child of the Marillion family, and although orphans need as much love as any other child, sometimes it's hard to give that love.

TRACKLISTING

1. The other half
2. See it like a baby
3. Thank you, whoever you are
4. Most toys
5. Somewhere else
6. A voice from the past
7. No such thing
8. The wound
9. The last century for Man
10. Faith

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Sometimes stars are born, sometimes made, but mostly you only discover them when they burst onto the scene. Occasionally, an artiste you've been following makes it big, and you can grin and say “told you so!” --- a friend of mine was well into Michael Bolton years before he made the big time. But it's rare that you get advance warning that a new star is due to shine, and that you had better look out for them.

But such is how the nascent career of one Charlie Sexton was foreshadowed, and with good reason. Part of Bob Dylan's band from 1999 to 2002, and having toured with the Rolling Stones, learned guitar from some of the greats in the field, especially Joe Ely and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, Sexton was marked for greatness. He was a pretty phenomenal guitar player, could sing like a pro from an early age, and had cut his teeth and paid his dues where it mattered, on the road. He would have big names to recommend his work and to call upon if needed, and associations with such heavyweights could only add clout to his grab for the big time.

But amazingly, that big break never arrived. Which is not to say that Sexton did not make it as a musician. In fact, he has had a fairly stellar career, working with even more giant talents like Ron Wood, Jimmy Barnes, Don Henley, Keith Richards, Clapton and Bowie, and has produced albums for the likes of Lucinda Williams, Double Trouble (Stevie Ray's band), Edie Brickell and Shawn Colvin. He has been hailed as a major talent, and is in great demand as a session musician, even playing the guitar on Justin Timberlake's version of “Hallelujah”.

But despite all that, the glittering solo career and superstardom that was foretold in his stars has not come to pass, and it's even odder when you consider his debut album, his first proper introduction to the world as a solo artiste.

Pictures for pleasure --- Charlie Sexton --- 1985 (MCA)
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Even from the photo on the sleeve you could guess this guy was going to make it big. Hell, you'd have put your house on it! The broody, James Dean-esque teenager staring out of the picture, his hair in a quiff, his eyes dark and mysterious, rather a lot of heavy makeup on his face and a leather jackt pulled casually around his shoulders would perhaps put you in mind of one of those X-Factor/American Idol wannabe “stars” who think they're a rocker. But you can't ignore or deny the image: this is a guy with the face record companies and producers kill for, the sort of face that can sell records on its own.

The difference here is that Sexton can rock, and does on his debut album. “Pictures for pleasure”. He has the kind of voice Cowell would kill for, and the sort of stage presence only gained through years on the road with bands who are the masters of their craft. And he's not just a pretty face either: he plays guitar, bass, piano and keyboards, sings and indeed writes or has a hand in writing some of the songs on the album. The full package, indeed.

So where did it all go wrong? Why was this album not a huge, chart-topping smash that launched Charlie Sexton on the road to superstar nirvana? I really can't answer that. The first single from the album is excellent, so much so that it pushed me to buy the album, and that's damn good too. Yet his next album seems to have sold very badly, and he only released two more solo albums after that, in total four, six and ten years between the last. Obviously, as detailed above he was very busy, either playing with other bands or producing albums, and he probably hadn't time to record much of his own solo work, but after the single I heard nothing more from him, and I had so much expected to.

The album opens with “Impressed”, a good hard rocker in the vein of John Cougar Mellencamp, and you can already hear the talent of this guy, not only on vocals but on guitar too. It's a good opener, with a great hook, and would have made a good single, but it's the next track that was the single, and deservedly so. “Beat's so lonely” is a fantastic slice of fast power-rock, melodic to the max, with a great lyrical theme about how it's lonely at the top and how things look different from there. Charlie cuts loose with his first proper guitar solo here, and it's a doozy!

This is also one of the songs he helps write, with producer Keith Forsey, and it's a real slice of Americana. Charlie's often relaxed, southern Texas drawl puts me in mind of the late Stevie Ray: the man's influence has certainly rubbed off! “Restless” is another track which Charlie co-writes, this time it's a more electronica/funk type with lots of fiddly keyboard and some very bright piano, still retaining the rock shell the album is built upon.

Perhaps surprisingly, given his pedigree, Sexton eschews the idea of calling in famous names to play on his album, perhaps afraid that such “guests” might misrepresent his music to the masses, or perhaps he just wanted to make it on his own, after years of playing in the shadow of titans, standing, as it were, on the shoulders of giants. The only recognisable name on his crewlist is that of guitarist and producer extraordinaire, Richie Zito.

A strange choice for a cover version next, the 1933 semi-classic “Hold me”, which Charlie gives the full eighties rock treatment, updating the old love song for 1985. Another great little solo in this song, and some truly exceptional playing from Charlie, and the song is instantly his. It seems everything this boy puts his hand to, no matter how obscure or old, or seemingly inappropriate, turns to pure rock gold.

The title track is next, and again Sexton has a hand in its penning. “Pictures for pleasure” is a boppy, keyboard-led slice of eighties AOR, with a certain Cars vibe about it, probably the most laid-back track on the album so far, although nowhere near a ballad. It should also be remembered that at the time of this album's release, Charlie Sexton was a mere slip of a lad at only sixteen. Displaying a maturity way beyond his tender years, he then launches into “Tell me”, one of two tracks solely written by him. A real hard rocker, it combines the best of his keys work with heavy, snarly guitar, conjuring up visions of Survivor after a particularly hard day at the studio meeting up with Ric Ocasek and heading off for a drinking session with John Parr. Another super solo marks this track out as special, and it's on to his second attempt at writing a song on his own.

“Attractions” is a far different beast to its predecessor, with somewhat confused melody and a darker, more ominous vocal with nevertheless great backing vocals, and more guitar-driven than the previous “Tell me”. I find the singing a little muddy on this track --- I would say possibly due to production, but then Keith Forsey is acknowledged as a great producer, so I'd have to say it's down to Charlie's singing style, at least on this track. I have to admit, I'm not as fond of this as the previous, in fact, this goes down as my least favourite track so far.

“You don't belong here” gets things back on track after the somewhat unexpected “curve ball” (don't you just hate those American phrases?) thrown by “Attractions”, with another good rocker with tons of hooks and some great guitar work from Charlie. Sort of mid-paced, it's not as frenetic as the likes of “Restless” or “Impressed”, but it holds its own, with a strange sort of Pretenders/Bryan Adams guitar riff running through it. Closer “Space” is written by those stalwarts of the rock song, Holly Knight and Mike Chapman, and it shows.

The song reeks of commerciality, but I really feel it does not suit either Sexton's voice or his style, and as such it seems incongruous here. Perhaps the decision to take this song was a bad move: virtually everything up to that had been good, but as a closer this just feels like it was written for someone like Go West or Eurythmics. Just doesn't sit well here, and finishes the album in the wrong vein for me. I feel perhaps a decent ballad might not only have closed the album better, but might also have given Sexton a chance at a real hit single, but for whatever reason there are no ballads on this album at all.

Having heard “Beat's so lonely”, I bought this album fully expecting it to be loaded with filler, and was more than surprised to find it really is a good listen. Having read about Charlie Sexton in the musical press of the day, I totally expected this album to be the springboard to launch him to worldwide fame and success. I'm amazed that it didn't happen, and though “Pictures for pleasure” is not a classic album, and does suffer from some deficiencies, remembering that it's the debut effort from a guy sixteen years old, this is good stuff! As mentioned, Charlie did experience a lot of success, with other bands and other avenues, and he'll always make a living as a session muso. He's in demand, and will most likely continue to be, and certainly he'll never starve.

But superstardom, it would appear, for reasons that remain unclear to me, seems to have eluded him. On the strength of this album, it's one of the mysteries of the rock universe, and one that I fear will not be solved any time soon, if ever. Steve Lukather, Danny Kortchmar, Mike Landau, are all names we know well. They're accomplished and famous session musicians (Lukather not so much now, having joined Toto and made a name for himself), and do well, but would we go to see any of them if they were in concert? Charlie Sexton deserved to become a household name, but sadly, and unaccountably, the likely response you'll get when mentioning his name now, outside of musical circles, is “Charlie who?”

TRACKLISTING

1. Impressed
2. Beat's so lonely
3. Restless
4. Hold me
5. Pictures for pleasure
6. Tell me
7. Attractions
8. You don't belong here
9. Space

Random Track of the Day
Monday, September 26 2011
And so another week begins, Monday we all hate (even me, who doesn't have to go to work), but once it's gone we can start looking towards the weekend. It's also the last week in September, so just get ready for those Christmas songs on the radio not too far from now!

When I began Random Track of the Day, the first or at least one of the first bands featured was this one, Epica, and here they are again, this time from a compilation album called “The road to Paradiso”.

Quietus --- Epica --- from "The road to Paradiso" on Transmission
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Driven almost entirely on violin and string section, “Quietus” is almost an instrumental, with just choral backing vocals and some whispered/gutteral words accompanying it. It's quite something to listen to.

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One of those tracks you just can't get out of your head once heard, it's what the worm is all about. And here it is, the Cardigans, with that song, “My favourite game” --- DA-dada, DA-dada!

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When I started this section I pointed out that there are some songs which really stand out from the rest, lyrically, where the writer(s) has/have made a real effort to tackle some unusual subject, or indeed a well-covered theme from a different angle, or have just written a song which is so different that it draws your attention and shows how the lyricist has really honed their craft. Of course there are many --- thousands, probably more --- of these types of songs, but it's the ones that speak to me which I end up featuring here.

This time round it's Australian singer/songwriter Kevin Johnson, with his only hit from 1973, and the very antithesis of rock star worship. The rather long-titled “Rock and roll I gave you the best years of my life” chronicles the struggles of a young man to make it in the world of music, and how difficult that proves. Semi-autobiographical, the song channels Johnson's frustration at the lack of help from his record label at the time to break him beyond his native Australia, and is a moving cautionary tale that sometimes, just wanting something hard enough is not enough to ensure that you will get it.
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Rock and roll I gave you the best years of my life (Kevin Johnson) from “Rock and roll I gave you the best years of my life”, 1973.
Music and lyrics by Kevin Johnson
The polar opposite to such throwaway “we're-gonna-make-it” songs as Gary Moore's pretty awful “Teenage idol” (“He dumped his chick and sold his car/ Bought himself a hot guitar/ He joined a band and they cut some tracks/ They hit the road and they've never looked back!”) Yeah, if only life were that easy, Gary, we'd all be doing it. But set diametrically against this tale of easy money, hot chicks and instant fame, Johnson's song takes a totally different, and realistic, if somewhat depressing look at how hard it is to make it in the music biz.

The song starts off recalling the youth of the young man, as he gets his first guitar and learns to play it, through his adolescence as he joins a band and has some minor success, then just when it looks like they're about to make it, the sixties end and a new wave of cynicism and rebellion sweep over the world, punk comes to the fore and no-one wants to hear their music anymore. So he goes off to try to make it as a solo artist, but no matter where he goes, record companies are not interested.

Finally, he meets the girl he's destined to marry, and after she helps him try to shop his demos around London, she finally convinces him that this is not to be. He will never be a star, and in resignation he sells his guitar. It's a sad ending, but a brutally realistic one, and there is a note of hope, as the song is not only one of trying and failing, but of dedication, perserverance and finally acceptance. The man realises he has been chasing a pipe-dream which will never be his, and instead settles down with the girl, trading fame and glory for love and a stable relationship.

The first time I heard the song I was, probably like most people, rooting for the guy and fully expecting him to make it, and it's quite sobering to realise, as the song draws to its conclusion, that the good guy doesn't win. He never reaches his dream of becoming a rock star, and yet, behind the disappointment is a certain joy that he experienced music, in some form, and was able to be part of it, if only for a short time. He does lament the time spent in pursuit of his goal (“All those dreamy sunny Sundays/ Moonlight summer nights”), but has plenty to be thankful for, and he is after all glad he tried. His story surely resonates in the hearts of thousands upon thousands of men and women the world over who have tried, and failed, to make it in the often heartless world of music.

It's a pretty powerful song, which you can hear below, with the all-important lyric to follow.



I can still remember/ When I bought my first guitar/
Remember just how good the feeling was /Put it proudly in my car,
And my family listened fifty times/ To my two song repertoire
And I told my mum her only son /Was gonna be a star.
Bought all the Beatle records/ Sounded just like Paul;
Bought all the old Chuck Berrys / 78`s and all,
And I sat by my record player /Playin` every note they played,
And I watched them all on TV /Makin' every move they made.

Rock and roll, I gave you all the best years of my life:
All the dreamy sunny Sundays, /All the moonlit summer nights.
I was so busy in the back room/ Writin` love songs to you
While you were changin` your direction/ And you never even knew
That I was always/ Just one step behind you.

`66 seemed like the year/ I was really goin` somewhere:
We were living in San Francisco /With flowers in our hair,
Singing songs of kindness/ So the world would understand;
But the guys and me were something /More than just another band.
And then `69 in LA/ Came around so soon;
We were really making headway /And writing lots of tunes,
And we must have played the wildest stuff /We had ever played:
The way the crowds cried out for us/We thought we had it made.

Rock and roll, I gave you all the best years of my life:
All the crazy lazy young days /All the magic moonlit nights.
I was so busy on the road /Singin` love songs to you
While you were changin` your direction /And you never even knew
That I was always /Just one step behind you.

`71 in Soho /When I saw Suzanne:
I was trying to go it solo /With someone else`s band.
And she came up to me later/ And I took her by the hand,
And I told her all my troubles /And she seemed to understand.
And she followed me through London, /Through a hundred hotel rooms,
Through a hundred record companies /Who didn`t like my tunes;
And she followed me when, finally, /I sold my old guitar:
And she tried to help me understand/ I`d never be a star.

Rock and roll, I gave you all the best years of my life:
All the dreamy sunny Sundays,/All the moonlit summer nights.
And though I never knew the magic/ Of makin` it with you
Thank the Lord for giving me /The little bit I knew.
And I will always be /One step behind you.

Rock and roll, I gave you all the best years of my life:
Singing out my love songs/ In the brightly flashing lights.
And though I never knew the magic/ Of makin` it with you,
Thank the Lord for giving me /The little bit I knew.

Random Track of the Day
Tuesday, September 26 2011
Good rockin' ahead! Today's spin on the random-o-meter brings us the king of the blues (well, recent anyway), Gary Moore, from his album “Back to the blues”, this is “You upset me baby”.

You upset me baby --- Gary Moore --- from "Back to the blues" on CMC International
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Recently we celebrated the softer side of the late Mr. Moore, running through his ballads and blues songs. This is him in opposite mode, in full flight with a rocking, stomping tune more representative of the great BB King at his most lively, a timely reminder that the Irish axeman could not only play the most heartbreaking and introspective blues, but rock like a lunatic too!

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Let's keep it rockin' for today, suggests the worm, and who would argue with him? One of the best timeless classics around, this is Eric Clapton, under the name of Derek and the Dominoes, and the excellent “Layla” --- the original, rocky version, not the plodding, boring acoustic one that tended to take over in recent times.

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Some more themed songs seems to be in order, so this time I'm looking at songs that are about, or have to do with, members of the animal kingdom. There aren't as many as you would think, you know! At least, I had to struggle to think of enough for this section. Here at any rate are the best of the ones I came up with.

Taking wing first (see what I did there?) with Prince's number one smash, “When doves cry”.


Staying with our feathered friends for the moment, here's Snowy White, he of ex-Thin Lizzy, with what I believe was his only solo hit, the lovely “Bird of Paradise”.


It's so cool it just HAS to be included! Theme to the cartoon about the most suave and pink cat on telly, it's of course Henry Mancini's theme to the “Pink Panther”.


And keeping with the felines, here's Al Stewart with a seventies classic, “The year of the cat”.


Not a huge fan of Duran Duran, but I did like “Hungry like the wolf”, and it fits in with today's theme, so...


Another from the seventies, this is the Sweet, with “Fox on the run”.


Coming right up to date now, with a track from Robbie Williams' “Escapology”, the often hilarious “Me and my monkey”.


And we couldn't forget Bob Marley. This is “Buffalo soldier”.


Great song from Geldof before he got all mega-famous and preachy, and when the only “sir” he knew was his teacher at school, the wonderful “Rat trap”.


And let's finish up with the mega-smooth Hall and Oates, maybe stretching it a little, but hell, “Maneater” is a great song!


Hey, that wasn't so hard! Next “Variations” will be for Halloween, when I'll be featuring songs all about supernatural beings, ghosties and things that go bump in the night! BOO! Watch for it...

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No. 4: “Face the music” by Electric Light Orchestra
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Been a while since we deconstructed an album cover, so let's do that now. Taking as our subject the 1975 album from the Electric Light Orchestra, “Face the music”, the first thing that strikes you is the sombre, even macabre nature of the sleeve. Your eye is drawn immediately to the figure in the centre of the picture, “Old Sparky” hisself, the electric chair (Fig. 1). Brrr! From there your gaze wanders upwards, and it's directed thus, because the album cover is mostly in darkness, the only thing relieving the blackness of the top half of the picture being three huge metal structures which hang down, as if from the roof, and are spaced across the top of the album cover (Fig. 5). Each is carved into a letter: an “E”, an “L” and an “O”, to spell out the acronym of the band, and also each letter has the full word carved into it, so that the “E” has “electric” carved down its side, the “L” “light” and the “O” “orchestra”. The huge metal letters look very imposing, and heighten the sense of dread of the cover.

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That's about as much as you can see clearly without looking more closely, but if we zoom in on the electric chair, a few things become apparent about it. First, in Fig. 2, we see that there is a cushion placed on the seat. Now, generally the comfort of those about to be executed is not uppermost in the minds of the prison staff, so why is there a cushion there? If not for comfort, is it to raise the condemned man (or woman, but let's assume it's a man) to the proper height? Is he short, or indeed is he a young man, perhaps even a child? The mind boggles.

Then in Fig. 3 we can see what appears to be a pair of headphones. This, of course, links to the double-entendre title of the album. Beside the chair is a long stand of some sort, looking a little like a microphone stand (Fig. 10), yet on top of it looks to be a pipe (Fig. 4)! Who would go to “the Chair” smoking a pipe, unless of course it was their last request? But even so, would it be allowed? I mean, actually IN the chair?

Near the top of the chair, to one side there appears to be a hole burned in the wall, though on closer inspection it could be interpreted as a dark figure (the shadow of Death?) leaning over the condemned man (Fig 6), while on the floor on either side of the chair, shadows of its frame do indeed look like cowled and hooded figures awaiting the passing of sentence (Fig. 7).

Finally, there are a few places where the letter “E” seems to have formed, indeed in the way it is used in ELO's logo. Once along the wall at the left of the chair (as we look at it), in the coils of the wires that lead up to it (Fig. 8) and again in the arching rheostats that run along the top of the back of the chair, carrying the current, though in this case it's on its side (Fig. 9). Oh yes, and even the pedestal of the microphone stand bears more than a passing resemblance to the ELO logo (Fig. 11)!

All of which makes for a pretty macabre album sleeve. Whether all that's noted above was intended, or whether that's just my ghoulish imagination seeing things that are not there, I don't know, but it's certainly an interesting, provocative and unsettling album sleeve, from a band not noted for such displays.

"May God be between you and all harm, in all the dark places in which you must walk"
 

An ancient Egyptian blessing, and I'll certainly need it!
Taking a very small leaf out of Jackhammer's book, I've decided to try to experience music other than that with which I'm familiar, not necessarily to get into it, as I pretty much know it won't suit me, but just to have a more informed opinion when people ask me why I don't like it.

Seems odd, perhaps? Well maybe, but at least I won't be speaking out of ignorance when I say how I don't like this or that sort of music. I suppose there could be a shock conversion, it's always possible: where is the road to Damascus, anyway? ;)

This new section I will be titling Stranger in a strange land, but it won't be starting up for a while, as I have to immerse myself in the first of the styles I normally wouldn't touch with a ten-foot bargepole --- I don't even own a barge --- and this will be (ugh)... Boybands!

Yes, I'm going to take the plunge and see what is so attractive, apparently, about the music of bands like Blue, Boyzone, Westlife, Five and their ilk. Of course, I'm fully aware that probably about eighty percent of the attraction is the pretty boys, but is that all there is to it, or is there any decent or semi-decent music lurking in there? Or is it, as I expect, nothing but empty, soulless drivel designed to make money for the record label and sell concert tickets?

If you have the stomach for it, join me when Stranger in a strange land premiers in a few weeks' time, but be warned: it ain't gonna be an easy ride!

I'm off to make out my will now, just in case...

Random Track of the Day
Wednesday, September 28 2011
Unbelievably, it's Epica again! Just shows that these picks really are random! Monday we had a track from their album “The road to Paradiso”, but today it's again from the album which heralded the first Random Track of the Day, back in August, “The divine conspiracy”. Guess you just can't keep a good band down!

Indigo (prologue) --- Epica --- from "The divine conspiracy" on Nuclear Blast
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It's subtitled “Prologue”, and such it is, and therefore not too long, at just over two minutes. It's an instrumental, very dramatic, orchestral and film-score-sounding, with nice choral vocals to presumably lead into the track “The obessesive devotion”, which is over seven minutes long.

NOW that's what I call music!
(Volume III)

Feel like throwing together another non-linked series of some music I enjoy listening to, so here we go!

I like Fleetwood Mac songs best when Stevie's singin' 'em. This is from their last album, “Say you will”, and a great little track called “Running through the garden.”


I feel this gets across the true, doomy nature of early Sabs, and indeed showcases Ozzy at his very best, it's the song that takes their name, from the album that, eh, also takes their name. Yeah, it's “Black Sabbath”!


One of my favourite tracks from the Jadis album “Fanatic”, this is “What kind of reason”.


I went through a Jennifer Rush phase in the eighties, and bought all her albums, but the only one that really blew me away was “Heart over mind”, with hardly a single bad track. This is from that album, and it's “Down to you”.


The first It Bites track I ever heard, and I knew it was going to be huge (it was)! Unfortunately the album was less inspiring, but this is the hit single that put them on the map, “Calling all the heroes”.


A lot of what John Cougar Mellencamp does passes me by, but I do like this one, “Pink houses”.


Another great American singer/songwriter with another great track, the acerbic “For America”.


Who remembers Foreigner before they became forever inextricably linked with that damn song? This is “Urgent”, from the excellent “4” album.


And a great rocker from the album “Into the fire”, it's Bryan Adams with “Only the strong survive”.


And let's finish up with a real cracker. I'm not crazy about Evanescence, but I do love this one! “Bring me to life”.

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Anyone remember Squeeze? The worm does, and loves this classic hit of theirs from the late seventies, although much of the slang used in the lyric would be incomprehensible to today's generation, innit? ;)

I used to love that song actually. I used to hear it on the radio sometimes when I was a bit younger and the lyrics really fascinated me, I sometimes wondered what the hell he was actually singing about. It's still a good fun song though.

Cool for Cats is truly quite epic. :bowdown:

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One of the worm's favourite tunes from Simple Minds, it's of course a rearrangement of the old traditional song “She moved through the fair”, (see All About Eve's debut album for a haunting version, by the way) but they released it, and had great success with it as “Belfast child”.

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Let's take a look at some more tracks that start albums off well. Always important, I feel, to grab the listener's attention from the first moments.

That's certainly true of the first of today's selections! I know I've touched on it before, but really, is there a more powerful opening track on any album? Title track to Meat Loaf's mega-successful “Bat out of Hell”.


You truly never know what you're going to get with Tom Waits, but without question the oddest, and I guess in that sense the most effective opener to one of his albums has to be “Blue valentine”, with his brilliantly croaked rendition of “Somewhere”, from “West Side Story”. Is this man class or what?


A powerful opener to Journey's “Frontiers”, this is “Separate ways (worlds apart)”.


A great song that opens a great album, the title track to “Spanish train” by Chris de Burgh.


And to finish up, the opening track from what was, essentially, the last really great Genesis album, “And then there were three”, this is “Down and out”.

Random Track of the Day
Thursday, September 29 2011
We've done a big feature on Bon Jovi previously, but today's RTOTD comes from his solo work, indeed his first real solo album, the previous being more a soundtrack to the movie “Young guns II”. This is from “Destination anywhere”, to date his only solo album, but I doubt it's likely to stay that way!

Learning how to fall --- Jon Bon Jovi --- from "Destination anywhere" on Mercury
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“Learning how to fall” is a jaunty little half-ballad, kind of bittersweet with typical Bon Jovi lyric. There are some great tracks on this album; this doesn't quite measure up, but it's not the worst of them either.

Pyramid --- The Alan Parsons Project --- 1978 (Arista)
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One of my favourite Alan Parsons Project albums, “Pyramid” is only their third album and is a concept based on --- anyone? --- yeah, pyramids. There's a lot of spacey instrumental work on it, some really good songs and two excellent ballads. It's also got a really cool sleeve, designed by those supremos of cover art, Hipgnosis. Like most APP albums, the man himself does not take part, other than produce the album and write or co-write all the songs.

It opens with a suitably enigmatic and weird instrumental, called “Voyager”, which basically consists of a guitar intro, then some spacey keyboards and a guitar section joined by bass and light percussion, which ends up forming the intro to “What goes up”, the first song proper on the album. With vocals by David Paton, it's a mid-paced, slightly jazzy number with great bass (also from Paton, as he's the bass player), which asks the question “If all things must fall/ Why build a miracle at all? / If all things must pass/ Even a miracle won't last.” The song seems to pay tribute to the millennia that the Pyramids have lasted, but notes that what goes up, must (eventually) come down.

This then fades into the first of two great ballads on the album. “The eagle will rise again” is one of the Alan Parsons Project's great ballads. With lovely string arrangements and evocative guitar from Ian Bairnson, the vocal this time taken by Colin Blunstone, who you may recognise as the voice on APP's big hit “Old and wise”. The Alan Parsons Project are rather unique in that they use a lot of different vocalists on every album, and this is no exception.

Great backing vocals on this song, with some great lyrics: ”Many words are spoken/ When there's nothing to say/ They fall upon the ears of those/ Who don't know the way/ To read between the lines...” Bairnson's guitar melody is the main lynchpin of the track though, underpinning the whole song with its simple phrasing.

Things get a little rocky then for “One more river”, this time sung by Lenny Zakatek. It's jarring, unless you know the APP well, to keep hearing different voices on every song, but you soon get used to it. “One more river” is a fast, bouncy rock song with great guitars and some nice synth adding flavour, and something that sounds like horns. Nice lazy guitar solo in there, and a great sax solo. “Can't take it with you” is one of my favourite tracks on the album, with its tale of the man who is dead but wants to remain on Earth, and is trying to convince Charon, the Boatman of the Dead, to let him stay.

”I sympathise completely” Charon tells the dead man ”But there's nothing I can do/ I am just obeying orders/ I'm a simple soul like you.” The song is carried on a bouncy, rocky beat with great “whistling” keyboard and cracking guitar. With Dean Ford this time on vocal duty, Charon smiles ”Well you really are persuasive/ But I've heard it all before.” The song alternates between boppy rocker and somewhat slower, almost bluesy sections. About a minute to the end there's a great guitar solo very reminiscent of Dave Gilmour --- he's not guesting on this, is he? Just like I could have sworn it was Gerry Rafferty on backing vocals at the end, but neither are credited, so I guess not.

Another weird track follows this, an instrumental called “In the lap of the gods”, starting off with tolling bells in the distance, and an Egyptian kind of melody, then the synths get heavy and the drums come in, creating what has since become pretty much the signature Alan Parsons Project theme. Something like a sitar or dulcimer is used then, with choral vocals. Due credit must be given here to the two keyboard wizards, Duncan Mackay and the other founder member of the APP, Eric Woolfson, who do a great job here of creating and building up the atmosphere and tone of the piece.

A very dramatic and epic piece, almost film theme quality, “In the lap of the gods” is followed by the zaniest and most fun track on the album, “Pyramania”, where Jack Harris on vocals tries to explain his fascination, some might say obsession with pyramids. ”I've been told/ Someone in the know can be sure/ That his luck will be as good as gold/ Money in the bank/ And you don't even pay for it/ If you fold a dollar in the shape/ Of the pyramid that's printed on the back!” The music is boppy and suitably upbeat and breezy, then we're into the best instrumental on the album, “Hyper-gamma spaces”, with a driving beat reminiscent of Pink Floyd's “On the run” (well, Alan Parsons did work on “Dark side of the moon”!), great breathless keyboards and a sweet little guitar solo, with choral vocals or synth, I don't know which, probably the latter, to take us to the closer.

“Shadow of a lonely man” is the tragic tale of a man who has found fame, but lost his identity. It's played in a very epic, sweeping way with excellent emotional vocals from John Miles as he cries ”Look at me now/ A shadow of the man I used to be/ Look through my eyes/ And through the years of loneliness you'll see/ To the times in my life when I could not bear/ To lose a simple game.” It's opened on simple piano but gets very orchestral, turning into a real production piece with strings and full orchestral arrangement.

As the song nears its end, the singer remarks wryly ”But the sound of the crowd/ When they come to see me now/ Is not the same/ And the jest of it all/ Is I can't recall my name.” It's a powerful indictment of fame taking over your life, and losing sight of your goals, and in the end losing your happiness for the sake of being famous. It's a lovely ballad, if bitter, and it closes the album extremely well.

If you've never heard an Alan Parsons Project album before (shame on you!) the multiple vocalists may take a little getting used to, but it's a tribute to this album, and to the APP, that it sounds as good now, over thirty years after it was recorded, as it did back then. Quality is timeless, they say, and this album certainly proves that axiom.

TRACKLISTING

1. Voyager
2. What goes up
3. The eagle will rise again
4. One more river
5. Can't take it with you
6. In the lap of the gods
7. Pyramania
8. Hyper-gamma spaces
9. Shadow of a lonely man

Suggested further listening: “Eve”, “Eye in the sky”, “Ammonia Avenue”, “Vulture culture”, “Gaudi”, “Stereotomy”, “The turn of a friendly card”, “Try anything once”, “On air”.

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Hair metal ahoy! A nice bouncy track for a Friday, as the worm reminds us of the only real superhit Europe had, the infectiously catchy “The final countdown”! All together now... da-da-DA-DA-dadadadadada-dadaDADA...! :)

Random Track of the Day
Friday, September 30 2011
Bringing September to a rainy (at least, here) close, it's Savatage from the album that started them on a new musical direction and indirectly led to the formation of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, 1995's “Dead winter dead”.

Dead winter dead --- Savatage --- from "Dead winter dead" on Atlantic
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A concept album, “Dead winter dead” centres around the relationship between a Serb boy and a Muslim girl, and uses as its backdrop the Bosnian war. This is the title track, a hard rocker but with already some of the progressive elements evident that would come through in their next album, the already-reviewed “The wake of Magellan”, and of course later in the work of the TSO.

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As we begin a new month, I'm launching a “major new series”, as the TV ads would no doubt describe it, were this on TV, looking at the singular phenomenon of the rejuvenation of heavy metal that took place in the late seventies and early eighties in the UK, which became known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, or NWOBHM.

Although the phrase “heavy metal” has been around for a very long time, and its first usage in reference to music goes back to Steppenwolf's 1968 classic “Born to be wild”, the first heavy metal bands rarely referred to themselves as such, preferring the term “hard rock” or even “heavy rock”. It wasn't really until the end of the 1970s that the term began to get more common usage, and started to become linked with certain types of rock bands.

During the late 60s and 70s, the heavy metal scene, such as it was, was pretty much dominated by “the big three”: Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple, who would later split to become Rainbow. You also had the likes of of course Hendrix, Blue Oyster Cult, Cream, Kiss and some others, but in general few if any of these bands considered themselves heavy metal. Long established, they ruled the roost and there was little room for newcomers, with the heavy rock/metal scene growing increasingly jaded as these bands, by now seen by some as dinosaurs, lumbering behemoths out of step with the changing trends in modern music, churned out album after album and filled stadiums and sports arenas, becoming, in the eyes of some, further and further removed from their fans, increasingly disconnected from what was happening at grassroots level.

What was happening, was happening in the UK, mostly in London, at a small nightclub called “The Soundhouse”, where aspiring bands were taking the stage every night and beginning to make a name for themselves. Tired of the by now overblown and in some cases pompous albums being released by the old masters, the new young guns were trying it themselves, and finding not only that they liked it, but that others did too.

The New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) had been born.

This revolution in rock music would create, in the same way punk had a few years previous, some great bands, some okay bands and some truly awful bands, but it would shake up the heavy metal/heavy rock scene in a way it had never experienced before, and lead to a renaissance of the genre. As in any revolution, there were winners and there were losers; some bands thrived and grew in popularity, and indeed a few became nationally and then internationally famous, and are still around today. Others were not so lucky. They either had their day, enjoyed it while they could and then disbanded, either to go on to new things or to return to their day jobs, or in some cases just failed utterly to get off the ground.

In this series, I will be taking a look at some of the major, and minor, movers in this unprecedented turnaround in the fortunes of heavy metal and rock in general. I'm going to try to concentrate on three bands per segment, and the whole series I hope to run to ten parts in all. So crank up your air guitar, turn your amp to ten, and let's get rockin'! Or something...

Part the First, in which a band has many deaths and rebirths, another goes all American and a third is cruelly cut down before it has a chance at life...
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The first band I want to concentrate on, in this first part of the series, is in fact the oldest of the NWOBHM bands, actually predating the movement by a number of years. Praying Mantis were formed in 1974 by two brothers, Chris and Tino Troy, but it wasn't until new metal began to be taken seriously, with the onset of the NWOBHM, that the brothers were able to get their music recorded, and their profile began to prosper.

Carried along on the wave of enthusiasm and euphoria engendered by the NWOBHM, Praying Mantis, fleshed out by Andy Burgess (guitars), Benjy Reid (drums) and Mike Freeland (vocals) went on to support the band who would become the stars of the movement, and the biggest heavy metal band in the world, even today: Iron Maiden. This raised their profile considerably, and also won them their first recording contract with the Arista label, on which they put out their debut --- and acknowledged as their best --- album, “Time tells no lies”.

Although Mantis have released, up to this year, a total of eight albums, with a thirty-year-anniversary retrospective out this year, I'm constrained to review only two of their recordings here. The reasons for this are twofold: one, obviously, I don't have unlimited time not only to listen to, but review their entire catalogue, as this is not just an article on Praying Mantis, but on a selection of the bands that made the NWOBHM what it was. Secondly, as I like to use the sleeve as an image for each album review, this, coupled with the other images I'm using, restricts me as there are a maximum of ten allowed per post, and I don't really want to have to break this up into more than one part: as a series, it's already scheduled to be in ten parts!
Note: checks character count. Damn! No good: almost 10000 characters over! WILL have to split this into two parts! Or perhaps even three! Curse everything!

So hopefully I'll be able to give you a flavour and overall impression of a band I personally know nothing about in this short and restricted review. Of course, if your interest is piqued in this, or any of the other bands I'll be tackling, you're perfectly free to go get their other albums and listen to your heart's content. But brevity is not a thing that comes easily to me, so I'm doing my best not to overextend the articles here. Hey, I can try!

Time tells no lies --- Praying Mantis --- 1981 (Arista)
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The album opens up with “Cheated”, a track I feel reflects the style of recently-reviewed Stampede (although since their album didn't come out until two years later, I should say Stampede use influences from Praying Mantis!), and with some nice Thin Lizzyesque touches in the guitar work. For a debut it's very polished, really more in the AOR camp than heavy metal, with a very Yes or Asia-like sleeve created by Rodney Matthews, whose art was very popular at that time, particularly among metal and prog acts.

Next up is a cover version of the Kinks' classic “All day and all of the night”. Gets things rocking all right, but I've never been a fan of this song. Still, they do a good heavy version of it. “Running for tomorrow” returns to the AOR influences with a hefty slice of Yes-style prog rock in there too, while “Rich city kids” goes right back to rock basics, and must have engendered much headbanging when played on stage!

Things get serious though with the arrival of “Lovers to the grave”, and it's a whole new ball game! A tense, powerful ballad, the song reeks of Gilmour-style guitars and Waters vocals, so much so that you might (might!) be tempted to believe it WAS a Pink Floyd song. Very mature, very technically perfect, a true tour-de-force, and you suddenly realise this band has arrived! And then, in true Southern Rock fashion, the song speeds up as Tino shows just what he can do on guitar --- oh yes, this is a band who were destined to go big places and last a long time.

The song does, however, quite disappointingly end abruptly, and we're into “Panic in the streets”, a straight-ahead rocker, little tinges of nascent punk leaking in. Some great guitar solos on this album! Also a lot of exclamation marks in this review: sorry, that's just how I am... “Beads of ebony” starts off heavy, but soon becomes a very tuneful slice of AOR. One thing these guys have got right from the start is vocal harmonies: they're pitch perfect. “Flirting with suicide” is another fast rocker, again recalling Stampede (sorry, other way round!) and the rocking continues unabated for “Children of the earth”, an early eco-song from a metal band! Absolutely love the harmonies these guys put out! This song speeds up and slows down like a forgetful pensioner behind the wheel...

“Thirty pieces of silver” is another great rocker with a heart and a deep message, and the album ends with two live versions, “Flirting with suicide” and “Panic in the streets”. I probably could have lived without their inclusion, but then this is a debut album, and with the addition of these two tracks you get twelve altogether, so good value for the hard-pressed and often poor metal fan at the time!

As a debut, I have to say this stands head and shoulders above anything I've heard from this era. Even Iron Maiden's debut, good though it was, was a lot less polished and varied in styles than “Time tells no lies”. A great start, without question.

TRACKLISTING

1. Cheated
2. All day and all of the night
3. Running for tomorrow
4. Rich city kids
5. Lovers to the grave
6. Panic in the streets
7. Beads of ebony
8. Flirting with suicide
9. Children of the earth
10. Thirty pieces of silver
11. Flirting with suicide (live)
12. Panic in the streets (live)

As far as output during the era of the NWOBHM goes, that's it for Praying Mantis. They almost achieved glory in 1980, when they intended to cover Russ Ballard's “I surrender”, but unfortunately Rainbow had the same idea, and with their clout and muscle Blackmore's gang were able to have their way, releasing the single which charted and made them a household name. Mantis were left to lick their wounds, and dream of what might have been. Although they did release an EP --- under, for some reason, the name Stratus! --- in 1984 entitled “Throwing shapes”, they broke up soon after and only reformed in 1990 on the back of renewed interest in an anniversary album of NWOBHM artistes, and their constant and loyal following they had built up in, of all places, Japan. This led to the release of what was technically then their second album, 1991's “Predator in disguise”.

Predator in disguise --- Praying Mantis --- 1991 (Under One Flag)
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Information from hereon in is hard to get and sketchy when it is available, even from the Mantis' own website, but it would appear that Dennis Stratton, best known before this for his guitar work on Maiden's debut self-titled album, came back to the band, having been with them before they recorded the debut but left prior to that happening. There's a mention also of one Steve Carroll having left, but I can't see where he fits in. Wikipedia can only take you so far...

Anyway, this is as I say their second album, and the sound is a lot different to the debut, with more of an emphasis on keys and less on the powerful and evocative guitar solos of Tino Troy. In many ways, Praying Mantis seem to be moving even closer to the AOR likes of Asia and Yes, and away from other, “harder” NWOBHM bands like Raven, Fist and Iron Maiden.

The album kicks off with “Can't see the angels”, which is really quite Americanised, more in the vein of bands like Journey and REO, but a good track, well written and very tightly played. It certainly carries on their fascination with American forms, and it's very commercial. The hilariously embarrassing “She's hot” is pure Kiss, possibly picked up during Stratton's time supporting them on tour with Iron Maiden. You can hear the difference his vocals make on this album. I preferred Troy's, personally --- Stratton just sounds too West Coast, even though he is English.

“Can't wait forever” lifts the album in the same way “Lovers to the grave” did on the debut: a powerful, crunching, emotional puncher that just stands apart from the rest of the album, so far. I am amazed that “This time girl” didn't break them worldwide, as it's a fantastic slice of stadium rock, totally airplay-worthy, the guys channeling Journey at their most radio-friendly. I wonder, in fact, if the idea was to target America, as the sleeve does feature Lady Liberty herself? Guess it didn't work, but hey, the Japanese loved them!

“Time slipping away” is a faster rocker, more metal than previous tracks, but I still would put Praying Mantis firmly in the AOR/soft rock side of things. Okay, they don't have any annoyingly sugary ballads (yet!), but their music does seem like it would appeal more to fans of Styx, Journey, Asia or Boston than Metallica, Maiden or Motorhead. The overuse of keyboards probably contributes a lot to this, but it's no criticism of them: there were some very dodgy bands came out of the NWOBHM, and it's clear that Tino Troy can still rip off a hell of a guitar solo, as he does here. And what was that I said about ballads? Here comes one now, though in fairness “Listen to what your heart says” retains the soul of a rock song --- no digital piano or saxophone solos here, and not a choir in sight. Sounds a little Gary Moore, to me, specially the solo. No higher praise...

The AOR style continues for “Still want you”, with some really good keyboard arpeggios, then “The horn” is the closest Praying Mantis come to out-and-out heavy metal; an instrumental, very reminscent of Iron Maiden indeed, leading into “Battle royale”, an odd title for what turns out to be a power ballad, and they manage to squeeze a lot into a song that runs for less than four minutes. Another great guitar solo, and why was this song not on the radio, twenty-four hours a day? Answer me that!

Penultimate track “Only you” is a rollicking rocker which puts me in mind of Bon Jovi circa “Keep the faith” (sorry for all the comparisons, but Mantis' music does invite them), and the album closes on “Borderline”, probably one of the weaker tracks unfortunately, with the vocals fuzzy and down in the mix, don't ask me why. An album that started so well ends as a bit of a damp squib.

TRACKLISTING

1. Can't see the angels
2. She's hot
3. Can't wait forever
4. This time girl
5. Time slipping away
6. Listen to what your heart says
7. Still want you
8. The horn
9. Battle royale
10. Only you
11. Borderline

I don't know if Praying Mantis ever lost that very American feel to their music. If they didn't, I'm sure it was no detriment to them, as the Japanese love that kind of American rock. So hopefully they're doing okay, and as they are, as previously mentioned, releasing a new album this year (well, an anniversary compilation) they are obviously still alive and kicking. As our first peek into the often dark and shady world of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, they're certainly not the heaviest nor the roughest, but as Rik Mayall once gleefully stated, “They could bash out a tune or two!”

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Next up, it's the band that had the most “deaths” and “rebirths” of any in the NWOBHM, perhaps appropriately, given its supernatural name. Formed in 1977 under the name Lucifer, the band went through some lineup changes, eventually ending up with founder members Kevin Heybourne (guitar and vocals) and Rob Downing (guitar), joined by Dave Hogg (drums) and Kevin Riddles (bass). They also changed their name to Angel Witch, under which name they recorded a single, their first, and this was included on the metal compilation album of the day, “Metal for Muthas”. The single, “Baphomet”, brought them some success and a recording deal with EMI, but this quickly soured and the label dropped them on foot of extremely disappointing chart performance (their single “Sweet danger” lasted just one solitary week in the charts).

In 1980 they were signed to Bronze records, and released their debut self-titled album, which was well-received and critically acclaimed. But internal problems within Angel Witch surfaced, and the band quickly fell apart, leading to the breakup and the first “death”. It wasn't till 1982 that they got back together again, although the lineup had changed considerably by now: Riddles and Hogg were gone, replaced by Jerry Cunningham and Ricky Bruce, Rob Downing having left prior even to the recording of the debut album. However the band did not gell and nothing happened on the recording front, leaving Angel Witch to suffer their second “death”, and the following year, their second “rebirth”.

With a lineup now consisting of Peter Gordellier (bass), Dave Tattum (vocals), and with Dave Hogg back behind the drumkit, Kevin Heybourne led the third incarnation of the band, who then recorded their second album, 1985's “Screamin' and bleedin'”, but once again the lineup failed and Hogg was again fired, replaced by Spencer Hollman, and in 1986 they released what was a much more melodic and AOR-styled album, “Frontal assault”. After the album was recorded, though, Tattum was sacked and Angel Witch performed as a trio, until the mid-nineties, when Heybourne decided to try to make it in the States.

None of the other band members were willing or able to uproot themselves and make the trip, so Heybourne went on his own and recruited new musicians to form a new Angel Witch, and brought about the third death and third rebirth of the band. In 1998 they released the appropriately titled “Resurrection”, but soon after Heybourne was arrested on issues of immigration violation in the US and deported, which brought about the fourth death of the band.

Back in the UK in 2000, Kevin Heybourne assembled yet another lineup, giving the band their fourth (and to date, final) rebirth. They don't seem to have an official website, but their MySpace page makes a reference to a Japan tour of 2009, so it's assumed they're still around, in one form or another.

So what about their body of work? Well, where else would we start but with the debut album?

Angel Witch --- Angel Witch --- 1980 (Bronze)
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Now this is more the kind of thing you expect from a band around that era! Fast, heavy and hard, with squealing guitars, somewhat hesitant it has to be said vocals, sort of amateur sounding, all of which describe the opening and title track. Not a keyboard in sight. Of course, the lack of keys does make the sound seem a little less polished, but it's a good opener. Not great, but good. The song features some sort of shouted group vocals, which no doubt were taken up by audiences when the band played live, and the track fades out on a pretty good guitar solo, to bring in “Atlantis”, another fast headshaker, the vocals on this a little clearer and better defined. Kind of punk elements to this one --- fast, furious, powerful, but with some good backing vocals.

Founder and guitarist/vocalist Kevin Heybourne takes songwriting duties for every song on this album, which is quite a feat, and none of them are epics. “White witch”, up next, is one of only two tracks just under five minutes, and one of five that are over four minutes. It's a bit of a cruncher, which speeds up and slows down as it goes on, a good rocker, solid. Shades of Iron Maiden in there. The rocking continues with “Confused”, but I have to admit, I'm not seeing much in the way of variation on this album, so far. I guess that's acceptable and understandable on a debut, but I would like to hear something different: we're now four tracks in, and most have sounded to me very similar. There's no doubting Heybourne's guitar prowess, though perhaps his songwriting skill needed to be honed a little at this early stage?

“Sorceress” starts things off in a slightly different way, with a spacy Iron Maiden intro to a Black Sabbath-inspired cruncher --- you can almost hear the doomy church bells tolling in the distance. But at least it's a step away from the heads-down rockers they've presented so far. To their artistic credit, it becomes something of a Southern Rock-fest towards the end, finishing well. It's followed by another slowburner, “Gorgon”, which suddenly explodes into guitar mayhem! Probably one of the best tracks on the album, so far.

More Maidenesque rocking in “Sweet danger” --- this was the single that EMI hated so much, that fell out of the charts after one week. It's not hard to see why: it really hasn't got anything special or unique going for it; good guitar solo, but even on their debut Iron Maiden were already doing this so much better. “Free man” starts off much more promisingly, with again a very Maiden-like guitar line, and reveals itself in fact as their first ballad. Doesn't stop Heybourne from piling on the heavy guitar, though!

Back to the hard rockin' for penultimate track, “Angel of death”, which sadly promises more than it delivers, but that's more than made up for with the closer, the sublime “Devil's tower”, with its lovely slide guitar intro which then punches you in the face and rocks all over the place. It's an instrumental, nothing more or less than a showcase for the considerable guitar talent of Mr. Heybourne, and a really cool way to close the album.

TRACKLISTING

1. Angel Witch
2. Atlantis
3. White witch
4. Confused
5. Sorceress
6. Gorgon
7. Sweet danger
8. Free man
9. Angel of death
10. Devil's tower

As detailed above, Angel Witch went through two “deaths” and two “rebirths” after this album, resulting along the way in their second release, “Screamin' & bleedin'”, however it's their third effort I want to concentrate on, as it is noted for being far more melodic and AOR than the previous two. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't that impressed with the debut (haven't listened to the second one), and wonder how this band figured so prominently in the NWOBHM movement, so perhaps their third album will shed some light on this, show me something that has heretofore been obscured about Angel Witch.

Frontal assault --- Angel Witch --- 1986 (Killerwatt)
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With a title like that, you should expect a hard and heavy, loud and fast, no-compromises metal album. Is that what we get? Let's see. Certainly the opener, and title track, is a heavy guitar-driven rocker, and the addition of David Tattum on vocals has given the band more of a voice: he seems, to be fair, a much better singer than Heybourne (maybe that's why he was fired after this album!). The rocking continues on “Dream world”, one of only three tracks on the album not penned exclusively by Heybourne. I can see the reason why this is considered more commercial, and more melodic than the debut: the songs are much more fleshed out, the playing tighter and with Tattum on vocals, Heybourne can concentrate on spitting out those solos he's become known for.

The music may have more melody, but there's no compromising on the heavy side of things! Angel Witch know how to rock, and rock they do --- this is no Journey album! “Rendezvous with the blade” is another hard rocker, galloping along to meet “Religion (born again)”, borrowing from the Dio songbook for a real slow-paced cruncher, the vocals on this seeming somehow distant, echoey, as if Tattum is singing in a tunnel. Weird. Speeds up near the end as it gets going with a good guitar solo; perhaps should have happened sooner in the song?

“Straight from Hell” opens with what sounds like keyboards, though none are credited on the album, a slow, atmospheric beginning which soon smashes into another hard rocker. Disappointing, in a way. More of the same, when it looked like they were trying something different. “She don't lie” is a little more towards the AOR end of the spectrum, while “Take to the wing” is another unremarkable rocker, but “Something wrong” opens on lovely piano (there have to be keyboards on this album, guess they're just not credited) and becomes a semi-ballad, with guitar crashing in, in a way I wish they didn't always feel they have to do: sometimes piano with just a little acoustic guitar can work wonders. This kind of loses its way halfway in though. Pity.

Closer “Underpants” --- sorry, “Undergods”! --- is no surprise, more of the same, which isn't bad but isn't original either. I see a certain progression in melody here, but “Frontal assault” is not that hugely different to “Angel Witch”, and there have been six years in between the albums, not to mention all the lineup changes. I would have expected a much more polished band at this stage, with a clear idea as to which direction they are heading in. I don't get that from this album, and maybe that's why Angel Witch went through so many incarnations.

TRACKLISTING

1. Frontal assault
2. Dream world
3. Rendezvous with the blade
4. Religion (born again)
5. Straight from Hell
6. She don't lie
7. Take to the wing
8. Something wrong
9. Undergods

I would not have placed Angel Witch at the top of the NWOBHM tree, but I guess they had some sort of appeal. Personally, I found their basic brand of heavy metal very derivative, as I have mentioned in the reviews, and frankly, a band that can't keep its lineup together for more than a year at a time has some major problems! The fact that Heybourne emigrated to the US to try to bring the music of Angel Witch to the Land of the Free must have meant that he knew he was getting, and would get, nowhere here on this side of the pond. I don't know what the “American” Angel Witch were like, but if they were anything like the UK version, then I really feel there would have been, at that time, hundreds of metal bands over there doing this far better than this somewhat ill-fated bunch of Brits.

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The last outfit I want to look at in this first part of the series is a band you probably have never heard of. They released no albums, had no hits and essentially faded away as the NWOBHM gained momentum, why is never clear. Information on Trespass is hard to find, not least due to the common use of the word, and of course the Genesis album of the same name, but it seems that they first recorded in 1979, and were broken up shortly after 1982. During that time they put out two singles, had two of their songs included on the rated metal compilation album “Metal for muthas, volume 2” --- which is where I heard their music, and never again --- but completely failed to make it. On the strength of their music I fail to see why, and I believe it's one of the great injustices of the NWOBHM time that a band like Angel Witch, above, who to me were vastly inferior in every way to Trespass, went on to record albums and gain something of a following, while Trespass faded into the mists of metal history.

Formed in 1979 by Mark and Paul Sutcliffe (Mark played guitar and sang, his brother drummed), with Dave Crawte on guitar and Richard Penny on bass, Trespass were never a viable band, all holding down day jobs. They never got any of the plum support gigs other bands did, and so were never exposed to a wider audience, and though they were promised an album deal it seems to have fallen through, though they did record a session for Tommy Vance's Friday Rock radio show, which saw them included on another compilation album, “Metal explosion”.

The two songs I heard from them were “One of these days”, which was their first single, and the vastly, vastly superior “Stormchild”, which seems to get ignored. Even when the compilation album “NWOBHM revisited” was put together, the former track was included as Trespass' only contribution, why I don't know: perhaps on the basis of it being their first single and therefore their most recognisable song.

At any rate, unlike the other two bands reviewed above, there are sadly no albums from Trespass to study or comment on, and it's only thanks to YouTube that we have any material at all for this section from them, but I feel it such an injustice that Trespass did not make it that I wanted to make sure they were included in this article, so below are the two songs from them which I know, plus two others I have not heard up to now. You make up your own mind if they should have been more successful than they were.




And that's it for our first look at some of the bands from the movement that shook up heavy metal in about the same way punk did to rock music, but with, I think, more a lasting impression left behind. If it hadn't been for some of these bands, and many others like them --- some of whom made it, some who did not --- many of the bigger UK and indeed US bands may not today have existed, never mind been successful and famous. Metallica famously attribute much of their raison d'etre to a reaction to the new sound that was coming from England's shores in the 1980s, and no doubt they are not the only ones who owe a huge debt to the trailblazers of the NewWave of British Heavy Metal.

Next time, I'll be looking at Cloven Hoof, Raven and (gasp!) Venom, who coined and indeed created not only the term, but the idea and theme known today as Black Metal. Leave your crucifixes at home...

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The tables have been turned on the worm! Last night he heard this on some telly programme, and hasn't been able to get it out of his head all day, so now he's passing it on to you guys. It's Moby, and that great song, “Natural blues”.

Random Track of the Day
Saturday, October 1 2011
A new month, and we move into the third month of Random Track of the Day. Shall we ease in slowly? Gently? Something nice and laid-back, relaxing on this pissy rainy weekend? Nah! Let's have some POWER METAL, why don't we? Cain's Dinasty (that's how it's spelled, though I expect they mean “dynasty”) are a metal band from Spain, only together since 2006, but on the strength of what I hear here they will be a major force in the power metal pantheon! This is from their second album, “Madmen, witches and vampires” (strangely appropriate for the month of Halloween!) and it's a headshaking rocker called “Breaking the bloodlines”.

Breaking the bloodlines --- Cain's Dinasty --- from "Madmen, witches and vampires" on Redrivet
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Don't worry: you won't have to know any Spanish. These guys sing in English, and the vocalist has one powerful set of pipes! Real heads-down, attack-and-destroy metal from a band I must check out further!