RE-REVIEW: Def Leppard – On Through the Night (The Early Years Disc 1)

Part One of the Def Leppard Review Series

No matter how I do this, I’m doing something out of order.  So here goes.  Hi!  Welcome to the DEF LEPPARD REVIEW SERIES where we will attempt to cover in some way everything Def Leppard here at LeBrain HQ.  Some of these articles will be re-reviews.  Some will be beefed up, some will be streamlined.  

What about order?  Deciding to start with The Early Years box set, we could go in two ways.  We could run through Discs One through Five, starting with On Through the Night.  Or, we could go chronologically and begin on Disc Four, Too Many Jitterbugs, which has the first EP and early demos pre-dating the album.  Obviously, we’ve decided to to go in disc order, and worry about chronology later.  So let’s get, let’s get, let’s get, let’s get rocked.

Original review: On Through the Night (1980)

DEF LEPPARD – On Through the Night (The Early Years Disc 1) (Originally 1980, 2019 remaster)

The obscenely young quintet from Sheffield were starstruck.  Drummer Rick Allen was just 16 years of age. There Def Leppard were in Tittenhurst Park, Ringo Starr’s home formerly owned by John Lennon, with Judas Priest producer Tom Allom, laying down tracks for their debut LP.  Signed to Vertigo, the band was filled with awe to be on the same label as their heroes Thin Lizzy.  Recording nine songs from their live set and two newly written tracks, the band took just three weeks to get the job done.  Unfortunately, so much time was spent on Steve Clark and Pete Willis’ guitar overdubs, that Joe Elliott only had two days left to record all his vocals.  This can be heard on the final product.  At least Joe got to sleep in Lennon’s bedroom for the duration of the recording!

On Through the Night is a beefy 11 tracks, written mostly by Clark and Elliott with seven Rick Savage co-writes and seven by Pete Willis.  It showcases ambition, promise, and raw talent.  In a word:  potential.  One of its major strengths is the dual guitar team of Clark and Willis.  Clark tends to be thoughtful and compositional in his solos, while Willis effectively jumps on the wah-wah.

“Rock Brigade” wastes no time getting cranked, 16 year old drummer Rick Allen going wild on the big tom rolls.  An adrenalized band gets to work on a serious riff, while Clark and Willis dart in and out with curt fills.  The handclaps sound lifted from a Judas Priest anthem, but this song burns it up.  Joe’s vocals are set back in the mix a bit more than we’re used to, but there are hints of the kind of backing vocals that Def Leppard would endevour for in the future.  In short, “Rock Brigade” kicks ass.

A strange layered vocal mix fails to hit the mark that Leppard would do with regularity later on, but it does serve to introduce “Hello America” uniquely.  This naive rocker even has a little bit of synth to accent the sugary chorus, but otherwise sticks to the driving riff.  Clark comes in with a wicked solo, showing off some of the creative technique he’d be famous for. A strange video clip for “Hello America” was filmed, with the drum kit featured at the front of the stage and everybody else behind. Rick Savage got stuck at the very back.

The acoustic guitars are out for “Sorrow is a Woman”, too heavy to be called a power ballad.  The choruses rock heavy as anything else, though the verses remain quiet.  This is one of the tunes that Joe could have used some more time refining.  For fans of the early solo work of Clark and Willis, get ready for some pretty epic guitar constructions.  They tell their own stories within the song.

One of the two songs written in the studio was “It Could Be You”:  Fast choppy metal, with a Priest-like riff and unusually high Elliott vocals.  Cool riff but more refinement time needed.  Its energy is remarkable and as with all the tracks on On Through the Night, Rick Allen burns it up on the drums as a supernovic ball of nuclear combustion.

Taking it back to a metallic city groove, “Satellite” is the first use of one of Joe’s favourite astronomical objects in a Def Leppard song.  This is a great car tune.  Cool and classy staccato guitar picking on the second verse.  Takes an unexpected acoustic detour midway, showing the ambition and ability that these five kids had in their blood.  Then it breaks into another unique guitar section after the Willis guitar solo.  Clearly, not the commercial techniques later employed by the band, but more an effort to emulate some of their heroes like Page and Lynott, as best they could.

Talking of ambition, “When the Walls Came Tumbling Down” closes side one with nothing but.  A pretentious Joe Elliott monologue introduces the track cheesily enough.

In the first day of the first month, in some distant year,
The whole sky froze gold.
Some said it was the aftermath of the Radium bomb,
And others told of a final retribution.
A terrible revenge, from the gods.

The post-apocalyptic settings is a metal niche unto itself, launched by Black Sabbath and maintained by Aerosmith, Queensryche and Judas Priest.  This is not one of Def Leppard’s more successful attempts at getting serious, but you have to marvel at their cohones for trying.

The “Wasted” riff, a Steve Clark creation, is one of Leppard’s most legendary.  This simple steamer is pure power set to music.  That riff, what a riff!  Just a few chugs and then a unified resolution.  But what a riff!   No wonder the band had to resurrect it in recent years.  The fans wouldn’t let it stay buried.  “Wasted” is a centerpiece gem, and itself contains a certerpiece of a guitar solo by Clark, skillfully constructed by the young protege.

“Rocks Off” contains the annoying crowd noise overdubs, clearly artificial, but you can’t stop this little one from launching.  Once again it’s all about the riff, and the Clark era of Def Leppard do not get enough recognition for their riffs.  The song is disrupted by a solo section that harshly pans the guitars from right to left in distracting fashion.

The other song that was written in the studio is the surprisingly strong “It Don’t Matter”.  Some very rich guitars, properly spaced in the mix, make for some cool riffs and licks.  There’s a laid back chorus and good backing vocals.  The cowbell is also effective except it’s not a cowbell.  The band didn’t have one so they used the house tea kettle for which they were properly scolded by the housekeeper Ruth.  Thing is — it sounds OK!

Moving on to the penultimate track, “Answer To the Master” has a verse that is stronger than its chorus, which is really more about the riff.  Rick Allen gets the spotlight for a brief moment before the band break into an AeroZeppelin-like funk.  “Whole Lotta Walk”?  Then there’s a startling guitar solo section more influenced by the likes of Lizzy.

Finally Leppard decided to go with a big epic as their album closer, “Overture”, which also closed their debut EP (which is on Disc Four of The Early Years).  It’s another post-apocalyptic soundtrack, a multi-parted manufacture.  Some truly great guitar parts are buried within, but this track is an example of overreach.  The kind of truly epic recording they were striving for could not be achieved in the time they had, but you can hear frequent shots of brilliance.  Each riff and lick has its own unique hook.

On Through the Night went to #15 in the UK but failed to crack the top 50 in the US, charting at #51.  It did not go Platinum until 1989, well after Hysteria made Def Leppard into demigods.  If anything it planted the seed and made the band more focused on what they wanted to achieve when they had a second chance.  And it wouldn’t be long before fate hooked them up with Robert John “Mutt” Lange, which would alter their course forever.  On Through the Night stands today as a Polaroid of an innocent past, when Def Leppard caked on riff after riff in an effort to reach the heights of the bands they adored.  It lacks focus, both within the songs and on Leppard’s collective strengths.  Focus that they would soon gain in spades, and later in excess!

An innocent but earnest beginning.

3.5/5 stars

Next:  The Early Years Disc Two –  High N’ Dry

Introduction to the Def Leppard Review Series

First of all, to call this strictly a “review series” is a misnomer.  Much like the previous Kiss series, the story of Def Leppard will be enhanced by Record Store Tales and reviews alike.  We’ll also stray off the Leppard track ever so slightly to look at a side project or two.  But here it comes, like hell in the night, the all-new Mike Ladano Reviews Def Leppard Series!  I can already tell you, it’s going to be good.

The trick for me was this.  I’ve already reviewed a number of Def Leppard releases, particularly singles.  Many of them are quite old and easily improved upon.  Others are already comprehensively detailed and don’t need to be changed.  In the interests of being complete, every Def Leppard album will be looked at in depth, including re-reviews.  In cases where previous reviews are already sufficiently detailed, we’ll look at the album in a different slant.  Previously reviewed singles will be folded into reviews of box sets.  We’ll always link back to the older reviews so you get the complete picture no matter what.

It may look like we’ve already reviewed a lot, but there are plenty of albums we never touched before.  Numerous live albums, singles, EPs, box sets, compilations, and studio records like Euphoria, Yeah! and Def Leppard 2018.

Beginning with The Early Years box set, the plan is to give you a serving of Leppard every week until we’re at the present day.  That would be the 2021 set The Collection: Volume Three at present.  The emphasis will be on audio releases, to the backdrop of the incredible story of Def Leppard.  It’s a monumental project and we get started Monday November 29 at MikeLadano.com!

List of Previous Def Leppard Content

  1. Def Leppard E.P. (1979)
  2. “Wasted” / “Hello America” (1979 single)
  3. On Through the Night (1980)
  4. “Hello America” / “Good Morning Freedom” (1980 single)
  5. High ‘N’ Dry (1981)
  6. “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak” (1981 single)
  7. Pyromania (1983)
  8. Hysteria (1987)
  9. Hysteria (30th Anniversary edition) – will not be re-reviewed
  10. Classic Albums – Hysteria (DVD) – will not be re-reviewed
  11. Historia (1988 VHS) – will not be re-reviewed
  12. Pour Some Sugar On ’88 – Record Store Tales #930
  13. Adrenalize (1992)
  14. “Let’s Get Rocked” (1992 single)
  15. “Make Love Like a Man” (1992 single)
  16. “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad” (1992 single)
  17. Los Angeles 1992 (Bootleg)
  18. “Heaven Is” (1993 single)
  19. “Tonight” (1993 single)
  20. “Two Steps Behind” (1993 single)
  21. Slang (1996 2 CD with Acoustic In Singapore)
  22. Slang (Deluxe edition)
  23. “Slang” (1996 single)
  24. “Work It Out” (1996 single)
  25. “All I Want Is Everything” (1996 single)
  26. “Breathe A Sigh” (1996 single)
  27. Official live mp3 collection (2001)
  28. X (2002 Japanese import)
  29. Songs From the Sparkle Lounge (2008 Japanese import)
  30. “C’mon C’mon” (2008 single)
  31. CMT Crossroads – with Taylor Swift (2009 DVD) – will not be re-reviewed
  32. Mirrorball (2011 Japanese import)
  33. Dreamin’ With Def Leppard (Lullabies, 2011) – will not be re-reviewed
  34. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” / “Rock of Ages” (2012 re-recordings)
  35. “Acoustic Medley” (2012 re-recording)
  36. “Hysteria” (2013 re-recording)
  37. The Lost Session (2018)

 

#956: MY ENEMY

STOPARRETPotentially triggering material ahead. 

RECORD STORE TALES #956: MY ENEMY

It started in second grade, and for no reason that anyone knows.  There was a kid in my class named Steve.  My enemy.  A born bully, he had his radar locked onto me the very first year we met.  Because he was the classic bully, needing to project strength to the other kids, he sensed that I was the only one he could go after and wouldn’t fight back.  That’s how bullies operate.  Picking on me in class, in the school yard, in gym.  He always had someone else nearby, and I was always alone.  The teachers did not care.  Catholic school was the worst, because the teachers preferred to ignore these things or blame both parties.  They thought that teaming me up with Steve in gym was a way to make us get along.  Teaming up the abused with abuser.   Real smart.  We had to do stretches together and support each other as we stretched back and forth.  The thought of touching that bastard’s skin made me feel sick.  Needless to say, I hated him just as much afterwards as before.  Well done, Catholic school teachers!

The torment went on for a couple years until I finally had enough.  In grade four he went one step too far and I fought him at recess one day — our first actual fight.  I lost it and pummeled him.  He later claimed that I broke his tooth, which I doubt, but I took it as bragging rights.  I remember a bigger kid lifting me up off of Steve and dragging me away.   “He started it!” I screamed.  “He started it!”  As usual, the victim got in as much shit as the perpetrator.  That’s just how bullying works.  We both had to go to the library for detention after school, but I don’t think either of us actually went and I don’t think any teachers noticed.  I could care less — I knew I was in the right.  When you push someone relentlessly eventually they push back.  Half of the thrill for the bully is finding out how much they have to push to get to that breaking point.  It took him two years.  Shithead Steve got what he deserved that time, and there was no way I was accepting a punishment for it.

Steve wasn’t in my class for grade five which was a reprieve.  It was not to last.  Grade six was bad.  He was back at it, but I had an idea.  The Catholic and public schools had March break on different weeks, and when Shithead was going at me hard that month, I asked my friend Bob to show up at school to intimidate him.  Bob was off for the break, was two years older, and towered over everyone else.  He didn’t show up on the Wednesday, and the bullying intensified that afternoon.  When he did come on the Thursday, I introduced him to Steve, who fell over backwards in fear.  It was awesome.  Bob didn’t have to do anything.  He did just stood there and smiled.  His imposing size did the rest and Shithead left me alone for a while again.  But not forever.

Grade eight was the worst year for bullying.  It was the year of the Mount Mary retreat.  But it was also the year I got Steven off my back, permanently.

In September ’85 he started at me right away, and I wasn’t taking it.  Bob was trying to teach me to stand up for myself.  So, this was going to end.  I was done taking his shit.  I challenged him to fight and finish this.  After he no-showed the first appointed date, I insisted — absolutely insisted — that we do this on my turf.  No unfair advantages for him.  So we met at the baseball diamond at Stanley Park School.  He brought a bunch of his friends.  All I had was Ian Johnson and Kevin Kirby, who weren’t really my friends at all.  They sure didn’t seem like they were on my side.  They made it clear they just there for the show.  I was saddened but not surprised that my “backup” was just there to watch a fight.

We tangled.  A lot of me chasing him around.  I landed a punch in to the head — I’d never hit someone in the head with my fist before.  I dragged him down on the ground and just beat the piss out of him.  Then he got up and started running in circles.  I  nailed a few painful kicks on him, grabbed his shirt and got him on the ground again.  I didn’t want to injure him.  Just wanted him to cry.  I stayed away from the head and face and laid a beating on his upper body.  My watch broke, a fragile Transformers watch that I wish I still had.  Steve cried and screamed.  His scream was ungodly, but the truth is, like a sadist, I savoured every one.  I wanted more.  Heinous?  Then this is my confessional.  Over the last seven years, how many times did that bastard make me cry?  He had this coming — and far more than I was willing to deliver.  I just wanted to hear him scream again.

I let him up and then he started running around again, taunting me.  This went on several times.  Me getting him on the ground for a beating until he cried, then I’d let him up and he’d start running around again.   He grabbed my hair a lot but I don’t remember him landing any hits.

Finally I’d had it with him.  He obviously wasn’t going to concede, and I wasn’t going to damage his face.  I decided to bring the evening to an close with a final humiliation.  One more time, I got the little bastard on the ground and gave him a sound beating.  Then I got up and gave my speech.  It was a verbal tirade on the Art of Being a Loser.  As he lay in the dirt, I declared Steven to be nothing more than a malodorous piece of shit, and the absolute loser of the day.  It was pretty epic; I just improvised but it was Shakespearean thunder to me.  I ended my little speech by proclaiming that everyone already knew that he was a loser.

“That’s all you are, and that’s all you’ll always be.”

I got on my bike and rode off alone, to the deafening silence behind me.

Home again, I went into the kitchen and told my mom I broke my watch in a fight.  I burst into tears because I thought she’d be so disappointed in me.

I was also worried what the reaction would be the next day at school.  After all, I declared myself the winner and departed alone on my bike.  Would Shithead accept his defeat?  Apparently so.  He left me alone for the rest of the year.  Either Kevin or Ian came up to talk to me later.  “I was thinking about what you said about Steve.  You were totally right.  He IS a loser, and he’s always going to be one.”  The validation didn’t matter as much to me as the fact that Shithead Steve was scared off.  And he was.  He kept his distance from then on.

At the end of the year he made some half-hearted comments about a rematch, but it was not to be.  I caught Mono and was home sick for the rest of the school year.  And that was the end of my enemy.  He tried to make a comeback in grade nine, but his bullying powers were gone.

A loser for life.  My predictions were correct.  Today he is a pathetic antivaxxer, an angry drunk, and still a total piece of shit.  He lived up to the full potential that we all saw that night on the baseball diamond in 1985.  Well done.

#955: Music Enjoyed Alone

RECORD STORE TALES #955: Music Enjoyed Alone

I’ve always had a solitary side.  Music is a fascinating hobby because it unites introverts and extroverts alike.  Everyone has their own preferred environments to enjoy music.  Whether you like to go out and rock it at a show with your buds, or whether you like to listen to a record alone with the headphones on, music unites us.

There is a certain amount of joy in both ways of life.  Ultimately, most people experience music in a mixture of both settings.

Some of my happiest memories were spent with music, by myself, with nothing but my thoughts and feelings.  When I’d get a new album, typically the first thing I’d do was go up to my room, close the door, and rip off the cellophane.  Hit “play”!  I’d read the lyrics, the liner notes, and study the artwork.  Then, after a heavy dose of rocking, I’d emerge to tell anyone who’d listen how awesome the album was.  That would often be my sister (usually uninterested).  Or, if it was a special occasion like Christmas, and the album was a gift, I would go downstairs to tell my gift-giver how much I loved it.  That’s how many first listens went down in my house.

I liked to keep my brain occupied while listening to music.  If I wasn’t studying the lyrics or artwork, perhaps I was reading a book.  Or doing homework.  Or drawing.  Or going through my growing stack of Hit Parader magazines, looking for pictures and info.

I’d allow myself a few minutes of air guitar when a favourite song came on.  Just drop what I was doing, and hit those air-strings.  Give it my all; burn off some energy.  Or perhaps I’d pretend I was Bruce Dickinson, fronting Iron Maiden at Long Beach Arena.

I was generally left alone.  Sometimes my sister would have a comment about the music blasting from behind my closed door.  “There was one really good song,” she might say if I was playing Poison or Warrant.  If it were Priest or Maiden she’d complain, “All I could hear is screaming”.

In 1988 I got my first guitar.  Periodically I would attempt to pick along to songs, but that was a futile endeavour.  I may as well have been playing air guitar.  A few years later, my sister got a pair of drum sticks with her VHS copy of Wayne’s World.  I would steal them and attempt to drum along to albums.  Poorly.

The kind of experiences that I had with music in solitude in my room were rarely equalled in a group setting.  My best friend Bob and I would play music and discuss it, while drawing pictures or writing stories.  That was the kind of thing I enjoyed most.  “Listen to this cool part, I wonder how he does that,” one of us would say mid-song.  “What did he say there?” was one common remark.  “I have no idea,” was usually the answer.

Treasured memories.  But a lot of that time with Bob was actually enhanced by our separate listening times alone.  When we met up on weekends, we were ready to show each other something cool we had heard, or had drawn.  Perhaps I had some new theories about Iron Maiden’s Seventh Son of a Seventh Son concept that I had to share with him.  The times we spent alone in our bedrooms listening to albums prepared us for the times listening together.  We had specific things we liked and wanted to share.  It was always nice when one of us got the other into a band.  He got me into so many, the last of which was probably Extreme.

When the CD began supplanting the cassette in my life, I added another activity to my solo listening sessions.  I still liked to have a cassette copy for portability once I started buying CDs.  So I made cassette copies of all my CDs, so I could listen to them in the car or on a Walkman.  (I did not get a Discman for quite a few years, as I did not trust them to keep my discs unscratched.)  Many happy hours were spent making cassette covers for my CD dubs.  I got better and better at it over the years, but sometimes making the cover was as simple as sketching a logo and neatly writing all the song titles down.

While I have had some amazing times singing at the top of my lungs gathered with best friends and associated buddies, some of the best times were spent listening alone!

 

 

GUEST REVIEW: Anthem – Ultimate Best Of Nexus Years (2012) by Thunder Blackmore

By Thunder Blackmore

ANTHEM – Ultimate Best Of Nexus Years (2012 King Record Co.)

In the world of metal, there is no short list of underrated bands from every corner and country of the world. Specially with long-standing bands that are still going strong to this day. Would it be bands like E-Z-O from Japan, Pretty Maids from Denmark, Thor from Canada, or Helloween from Germany, everyone regardless of nationality has a favorite band, who did well for themselves, but could’ve, would’ve and should’ve gone big. And while my choice for most underrated metal band ever would go to my fellow countrymen Pretty Maids (national bias has its moments), Japanese metal legends Anthem earns the runner-up spot, easily.

The band, led by bassist Naoto Shibata, who are perhaps more famous for his work with Loudness and Crush 40 in the 90’s, had a tough time in the 80’s with success in their homeland and even a small US tour in ’87, but also with internal struggles which prevented the band to go beyond like their fellow and more successful countrymen, Loudness. Ultimately the band would be disbanded in 1992 until they reunited in 2001 and have been going strong since then. A band considered by many to be part of the big four of Japanese Metal (with X Japan, Loudness and Flatbacker/E-Z-O) with mostly consistent excellent releases throughout the years, who just now are getting released to the west on streaming services and (hopefully) physically by Nuclear Blast. So far, there’s two options for getting into Anthem’s discography, which just so happen to be compilations. For their new era, there is Nucleus, released by the aforementioned Nuclear Blast. But as for their classic period, the import to buy is this one. Ultimate Best Of Nexus Years.

Japanese releases has a reputation of not being a very cheap options, so getting this compilation is definitely a good starter point. It collects songs from the band’s initial 80’s era, starting with the self-titled debut and ending with their final album before their hiatus, Domestic Booty (you’ll be the judge for the supposed meaning of “booty”). Given that the compilation is split into two cd’s, it also reflects the times with the singers Eizo Sakamoto and Yukio Morikawa representing disc 1 and 2, respectively. This decision, coupled with the track list being in chronological order, can be difficult at first listen. Not necessarily with the tracks themselves but more with the unevenness with the production, as the first Anthem albums sound pretty rough. Granted, that’s not a problem exclusive to the band, but that also means that you’ll have to skip to track 13, “Bound to Break”, if you are somewhat put off by the roughness.

If you can hang with it, you are in for 2 hours of kickass catchy melodic metal majesty from glorious Nippon with no noteworthy duds. Even with my nitpicky desire to swap out some tracks for others, I’m still absolutely happy with this purchase. Standouts have to be “Venom Strike”, “Shadow Walk”, “Bound to Break”, “Hunting Time”, “Night After Night” and “Show Must Go On”. The latter being their first original song with English lyrics (courtesy of the late Chris Tsangarides) and being their first to be featured in the Anime OVA, Devilman.

Until Anthem can finally release their back-catalog on physical media for a much more affordable price (CD, vinyl or otherwise), this one will do wonders in the meantime.

4.95/5 stars

Thanks to Thunder Blackmore for this awesome review.

 

 

REVIEW: Suicide Star – “The Day that Christmas Comes” (2021)

SUICIDE STAR – “The Day that Christmas Comes” (2021)

Suicide Star recorded a Christmas song?  Then you know it’s going to rock heavy!  To make it even more interesting, this is not some overplayed Christmas pop hit from years past.  It’s a brand new original song, and the first new single since their excellent debut album Isolation.  Let’s celebrate!

As soon as singer Rob Barton opens his mouth, you know it’s Suicide Star.  He makes the band easy to identify even on shuffle.  Anchored by a melodic guitar line from Les Serran, “The Day that Christmas Comes” relays the bright hopeful feeling of the Christmas season.

There will be presents underneath the tree…
But the only thing I need, is you and me.

Lyrically the song captures the spirit and magic of Christmas.  Most importantly, the melodic tune (complete with jingle bells) makes it a delight to rock out to.  Production is stellar – up there with the album or even exceeding it.  There is even a fun and hilarious music video that really nails the Christmas vibe.  Well done, Suicide Star, and may your trees be overloaded with joy this Christmas!

Get in on yer iTunes or Spotify!

5/5 stars

REVIEW: Vandenberg (1982)

VANDENBERG – Vandenberg (Originally 1982, 2011 Rock Candy remaster)

I must the only person in the world who doesn’t care about the first Vandenberg album.

There’s nothing wrong with it. I can’t say anything too critical about it. A track or two aside, it just fails to click.

Of course the standout is “Burning Heart”, the song that Whitesnake rehearsed but never released on Slip of the Tongue as they should have. This hot ballad would have been a hit for the ‘Snake, had Adrian Vandenberg not got hurt and replaced on album by Steve Vai. It’s a truly remarkable song that, honestly, deserved the Coverdale treatment. (Fortunately, you can get a rough version of the song by Whitesnake.) It was good enough to use as an effective side one closer.

On another highlight, Adrian plays some stunning classical acoustic stuff on “Wait”. It transforms into a slow, cool dark rocker but has the unfortunate chorus of “Wait, wait, wait, ’til the shit hits the fan.”

“Your Love Is In Vain” is fine, B-level hard rock, akin to Helix, or Talas, or any band of that nature. Bert Heerink is a somewhat generic singer who doesn’t help elevate the track higher. Kind of a Derek St. Holmes style singer. “Back On My Feet” sounds like a Quiet Riot B-side, right down to the high notes that the bass occasionally hits. “Ready For You” could have been a Van Halen-like speed rocker but lacks the teeth that superior production can bring. “Too Late” has a cool riff and boogie, also recalling Van Halen. Wicked neoclassical, finger-tappin’ solo work too. “Nothing to Lose” is a decent song, with a good chorus that sounds like Talas. “Lost in a City” and “Out in the Streets” are not memorable at all and the production does them no favours.

Let’s say three keepers:

  • “Burning Heart”
  • “Wait”
  • “Nothing to Lose”

Whitesnake should have re-recorded “Burning Heart” properly on the road, when Adrian returned to the band after his injury. They blew a huge opportunity for a timeless hit by not doing so.

The best thing about this album is the guitar work. The songs are secondary.

2.5/5 stars

#954/REVIEW: A Day at the Matinee – Eternals (2021) [SPOILER-Y]

The last time I went to see a movie, it was a V.I.P. experience and I had never heard the word “coronavirus” in my life.  This time was starkly different but enjoyable in its own way.

I’ve been wanting to see a movie in this pandemic ever since Tenet hit theaters in 2020, but that was before vaccines and many people were not ready to be back in cinemas yet.  2021 is different, and I’ve been enjoying stores and dinners out once again.  Time to go see a movie!  Eternals it is!  Now I’m completely caught up in the MCU, just in time for Spiderman:  No Way Home!

Eternals hasn’t been doing well, and for a Sunday matinee all that was available was the standard 2D showing.  (I could identify scenes that looked like important bits were cropped out from the Imax aspect ratio.)  My original intent was to see the movie with our friend Vu, but he’s a busy pharmacist and at the last minute, could not get away.  I was already at the theater, so I went ahead and bought my ticket.  Morning show:  less than eight bucks!  Occupany:  I was one of five people total!

I got comfortable in my seat; with the nearest person many rows away, I felt more comfortable than I’ve ever felt in a movie theater.  Not a sound from the others (not even a laugh at the funny scenes) and absolutely no distractions.  I don’t think I’ve ever had that experience in the cinemas before.  As per cinema rules, I was also masked for two and a half hours with no difficulty whatsoever.  In fact my usually cold nose was very happy to be masked.

I usually look forward to the trailers, but all I saw was shit.  Morbius looks awful and the fan-service trailer feels like a promotional clip for more than one movie.   I grew impatient.  Bring on the Eternals.

ETERNALS (2021 Marvel)
Directed By Chloé Zhao

I really wanted to like the Eternals.  Just days ago I acquired the last Eternals action figure of the ten:  Ajak, Salma Hayek’s character, healer and leader of the team.  She was a Walmart exclusive.  More like Walmart “elusive”!   The designs of the costumes, with unique colours for each character, were intriguing.  With all ten characters in hand, I was familiar with all their names and powers.

There’s Thena, Angelina Jolie’s goddess of war who can manifest blades and shields.  Gilgamesh (Don Lee), the powerhouse with a mighty punch.  Sprite (Lia McHugh), the master of illusions and storytelling, trapped in a child’s body.  Druig (Barry Keoghan), the brooding controller of minds.  Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), a star of the silver screen who can fire bursts of energy from his hands.  The master of technology, Phastos (Bryan Tyree Henry), can create devices of great power and ingenuity with his mind.  Makkari (Lauren Ridloff) is the speedster and seemingly much faster than Quicksilver himself.  She’s also deaf and signs with her teammates.  Ikaris (Richard Madden), upon whom the legend of Icarus is based, is perhaps the most powerful, with strength, flight, and cosmic energy eyebeams.  Finally there is Sersi (Gemma Chan), the actual central hero of the film, who can convert any non-sentient matter into anything else.  Air to water, earth to wood, her choice.  They have been here for 7000 years, shaping our history and becoming our heroes of ancient legend.

That’s a lot of characters, and doesn’t include the underused Dane Whitman (Kit Harrington), Sersi’s boyfriend and spinoff setup device.  Kingo’s valet Karun (Harish Patel) has more screentime than the future Black Knight.  Dane’s lineage is briefly hinted at, and the Ebony Blade mentioned, before being revealed in a post-credit scene that we’ll discuss later.  The point is, Whitman is not important to the story.  He begins as the “regular person” perspective character that we can relate to, as the strangeness unfolds.  But then he disappears and only at the end do we cynically realize his true purpose:  MCU world building.

It wouldn’t be a Marvel movie without some deus ex machina to boot — or maybe characters just like to wait until the last possible minute before revealing their presence?  That said, Ikaris does know how to make an entrance.

Many of the characters are quite delightful.  One feels for the relationship between Thena and Gilgamesh; one the sick and one the caretaker.  Poor Sprite feels cursed as a 7000 year old child who can never age, never to know love or even what it feels like to be treated as an equal.  Phastos, the master of technology, is haunted by his past.  He thought aiding humans to develop new sources of energy would help their society advance.  As he stood in the ashes of Hiroshima, he realized how wrong he was.  He has retreated to an anonymous family life with a husband and a son.  Thena, wonderfully portrayed by Jolie, has the equivalent of Space Alzheimers, lashing out in violence in fitful rages of memory loss.

Other characters go undeveloped.  I loved watching the speedy heroics of Makkari (Mercury), the girl with attitude, but never get a feel for her character otherwise.  Kingo is the entertainer, loving the spotlight and admiration of humans.  He displays wisdom, insight and his own unique perspective on events, but we never really get a feeling for what makes him tick.

Then there is Druig, the intriguing Eternal who can control minds.  With a thought, he could end all war on Earth, but he is forbidden from interfering.  Forbidden by who?

The complex story of love, deception, legend, history and family takes two and a half hours to unfold.  It is told in the form of flashbacks and exposition, lots of exposition.  The initial cover story is that the Eternals were sent to Earth to protect intelligent life from predators called Deviants.  That turned out to be a lie, but they are forbidden from interfering in human affairs unless Deviants are involved.  This comes right down from those that created both Eternals and Deviants:  the Celestials.  The Deviants were their mistake, and the Eternals are the correction.

Again, a lot to sort out in under one movie.  So in sum:  11 new characters (including Whitman), and three new factions.  Sort of new.

We’ve seen Celestials before in the Marvel universe:  giant beings of immense power.  Peter Quill’s dad Ego the Living Planet said he was a Celestial.  The space colony of Knowhere was built in the severed head of a giant Celestial.  The ultimate villain of Eternals is Arishem, a planet-sized Celestial who helps creation continue in the universe.  Celestials create new suns and life in the universe.  meanwhile, new Celestials are born in the heart of planets and feed on the life energy of intelligent beings like humans.  And it just so happens that a new Celestial named Tiamut is about to be born right in the middle of our Earth.  We die so that the Celestials can continue to create new life.  It’s a cycle.

And it also turns out that the Eternals are not the protectors of humans that we assumed.  They were only to protect them until such time as the new Celestial growing inside Earth had absorbed enough life energy.  This happened after the “Blip”, the moment in Avengers: Endgame when half of life in the universe was restored with the Infinity Stones.  Now some of the Eternals have grown so attached to humanity that they don’t want to fulfill their purpose.  They want to stop the destruction of the Earth.  Others cannot imagine disobeying their Celestial masters.  As you can imagine, this boils down to an Eternal vs. Eternal showdown at the end.

Any battle scene with the Eternals in this film has merit.  Since each character has their own power, they find creative ways to use them in concert together.  Unfortunately, the Deviants (who are being sold as the main villains but are really a just side threat) are not very interesting foes.  They look like Bayformers from one of the really bad Transformers films; all sinewy with tentacles that seem to defy physics.  Generic and uninteresting to look at.  One of the Deviants learns how to steal powers from Eternals and becomes a new threat.  We’re never really told why he can do this, but he does, and he evolves.

With the battle lines drawn, two groups of Eternals fight.  Needless to say the do-gooders trying to save the Earth, led by Sersi, are triumphant.  However the planet’s surface itself is scarred by the near-emergence of Tiamut the Celestial, and this will undoubtedly be referenced in Marvel movies and shows in Phase 4.  Our heroes and villains split up and go their separate ways.  A defeated Ikaris flies into the sun, almost like his mythical counterpart.  A small group take their triangular spaceship the Domo to go look for more Eternals.  And they find one almost immediately, in the mid-credit scene!  Patton Oswalt fans will like this, and what it could mean for the future.

In a clunky but hype-worthy post credit scene, Kit Harrington reveals his family’s cursed blade, but before touching it, is asked by an offscreen voice if he’s really ready for it.  Of course we know he will be, in whatever spinoff he appears.  But what really matters is who the offscreen voice is.  Thanks to director Chloé Zhao, we know it was a guy who’s kind of an expert on blades.  Welcome to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Blade (Mahershala Ali)!

Zhao’s knack for an outdoor scene made this Marvel movie seem bigger than any before it.  The cosmic themes with a grounded Earth setting helped the movie stay accessible.  At all times, our characters feel like humans.  Her direction provides a visual feast, as well as human characters.

But it’s congested.  While not fast paced, it feels like characters and concepts are rushed.  Who is Phastos, who is Kingo?  Let’s find out more about them.  What has Sprite been doing all these centuries?  Are Druig and Makkari ever going to hook up, and if so, why has it taken them 7000 years?  Seriously, you could do an entire film on Druig and what he could have been up to, building strange utopias in the jungle.  Makkari looks like she’s been on a hell of a lot of adventures, plus she can read a book in seconds.  Let’s find out more about her, please.

Nitpick:  in the film, Dane Whitman asks why the Eternals didn’t try to stop Thanos or anything else that’s happened in the MCU.  I would also ask where the other Marvel heroes are when a giant head and hand start to emerge from the ocean.  Where’s that beeper to Captain Marvel at a time like this?  (Granted, she had to go somewhere pretty urgently at the end of the last Marvel movie, perhaps excusing herself from helping out in this film.)

Following so closely behind the truly Marvel-ous Shang-Chi, Eternals feels like an unfortunate misfire.  The proof will be how it goes in rewatches.  Two or three years down the road, it might be better appreciated.  Or, it might be seen as an unfortunate corporate launchpad for new characters and concepts in the MCU.  Those who enjoy the cosmic side of the universe, as seen in Guardians of the Galaxy and Loki, will delight in the massive Celestials, very well executed on screen.  Could this all be priming our senses up for the eventual arrival of Galactus in Phase Five?  Just speculation of course, but it seems more than possible.

See Eternals, but maybe do some research on the characters first before you go in completely dry.

3/5 stars

On my way out, I said “screw it, I’m getting some popcorn”.  I didn’t have any during the film having just had an early lunch.  I buttered it extra heavy and brought it home with me.

That was what I’ll call a positive experience.

Take the LeBrain Train Time Machine back to 1981!

Won’t you take me back to school?
I need to learn the golden rule.
Won’t you lay it on the line?
I need to hear it just one more time.  — Justin Hayward

Truly awesome show tonight as we took our musical time machine back to 1981.  Thanks to the awesome panel:  Harrison the Australia Guy, Eric “Uncle Meat” Litwiller, and Dr. Dave Haslam.  Together we went deep on the following 12 albums from the year 1981 A.D.:

  • Oingo Boingo – Only a Lad
  • AC/DC – For Those About to Rock
  • The Who – Face Dances
  • Thin Lizzy – Renegade
  • Iron Maiden – Killers
  • Blue Oyster Cult – Fire of Unknown Origin
  • Genesis – Abacab
  • John Williams – Raiders of the Lost Ark soundtrack
  • The Moody Blues – Long Distance Voyager
  • Styx – Paradise Theater
  • ELO – Time
  • Rush – Moving Pictures

In addition, if you indulge yourself to watch the whole 3+ hour show you will also get:

  • an unboxing of the new Kiss Destroyer 45th Anniversary box set
  • history of the year 1981
  • a clip of Eric’s cinematic debut Raiders of the Lost Fart
  • lots of laughs
  • a list of virtually every noteworthy album of the year 1981

This show was a sequel to last year’s retrospective on the year 1980 with Deke and a spinoff of Deke’s excellent followup on albums from 1981.