“Listen motherfuckers to the song that should be heard!” bellows W. Axl Rose, cocky as ever.
Guns N’ Roses like to drop bombshells and they did this week when “Silkworms” returned to the setlist after an absence of almost two decades. It had been reworked and retitled “Absurd”, now augmented with Slash n’ Duff’s involvement. In another surprise bombshell, they just released a studio version. The first new Guns N’ Roses music since Chinese Democracy and first with Slash and Duff since 1994.
“Silkworms” is am interesting choice to release as the first new song with the old legends back in the band. It’s always going to be associated with the Chi-Dem era. The version I knew had Robin Finck and Buckethead on guitar. Brain on drums. Tommy Stinson on bass. A lot has changed! Slash is audible but more Slash-y sounds would be have appreciated. Duff sounds brilliant. Why not an actual new song? I don’t know…but at the same time, I’m glad “Silkworms” finally got a release as “Absurd”. It was always deserving of a proper studio release.
Axl sings in that punky “Down on the Farm” character, and the lyrics are as venomous as they were in 2001. “Parasitic demons sucking acid through your heart!” He sounds quite good; better than the concert versions we’ve heard thus far. The vocal is mixed to sound like a megaphone because, hey, it was the Chi-Dem era. There’s a disorienting quiet section in the middle that also hearkens back to that quaint time.
Good tune, but those of us who have craved “Silkworms” for 20 years are biased to a good impression. Those who didn’t like it won’t be turned, and those who want something more like Appetite and Illusions won’t get it this time. If you love Chinese Democracy, add a mark to my score. If you hate it, subtract one or two based on your level of venom.
“I don’t think Styx will ever topThe Mission.” — Me
“I think Styx just topped The Mission.” — Also me
STYX – Crash of the Crown (2021 Universal)
Remarkable! 49 years old, and still putting out some truly superlative records. What’s the secret?
Like their contemporaries Journey and Whitesnake, Styx have expanded to a seven-member band including new guitarist/songwriter/producer Will Evankovich. With just as many songwriting credits on the new album Crash of the Crown as Tommy Shaw has, this addition feels appropriate. James “JY” Young and Chuck Panozzo (original bassist, now part time) are the only links to the distant past. Styx have not always been the most focused on new music (14 year gap between Cyclorama and The Mission) but it seems like Evankovich has sparked their creativity. Two albums in a row, Styx have risen to high-water marks, pleasing fans and stunning critics.
If there’s a blatant concept this time it’s not as obvious, but recurring musical themes hint that there might be more going on than just 15 new tracks. Crash of the Crown is assembled from smaller chunks of music that flow together in one seamless whole, but the individual songs are all under four minutes, including two brief interludes.
Opening with a wicked Lawrence Gowan keyboard bit, “The Fight of Our Lives” is a powerful and catchy intro to this distinguished album. Tommy Shaw: lead vocals, backed by the increasingly thick Styx choir. Pay attention to the main guitar theme as it’ll be back. Beatles-y chords are another recurring affair. (The Fab Four sound like a major influence on both Crash of the Crown, and the new Dennis DeYoung album 26 East Vol. 2.)
A progressive guitar/keyboard riff brings us to “A Monster”. If anything it’s a song about the last two years. “Here’s to the prisoners trapped in their cages,” could certainly be about the current time, “a monster chasing its tail”. Big guitar solos and hooks make this an unorthodox and complex little winner.
Acoustics ring on “Reveries”, the first Gowan lead vocal. It has a big powerful chorus and the acoustic base is reminiscent of classic 70s Styx. But before too long, Tommy Shaw and JY rise up for a massive tandem electric guitar break. Stuff like this is why they need a third guitarist now, so the rhythm doesn’t drop out live. “Reveries” flows seamlessly into the dull rain of “Hold Back the Darkness”. The foreboding tune, like clouds warning to stay ashore, is spare with piano and acoustics forming the basis.
Winston Churchill’s words form a part of “Save Us From Ourselves”, always a nice touch in a rock song. It possesses a more upbeat pulse, but no less powerful. The Tommy Shaw refrain in the chorus is typically bright and rhapsodic. It builds into something stageworthy, and leads into the title track and single “Crash of the Crown”. Individually, this song impresses less on the radio. It belongs on the album, flowing in and out. It’s a component of a larger piece. Incidentally it’s the first Styx song with three lead singers. In order: JY, Shaw and Gowan, each with completely unique sections. Stick with it, and a riff from “Fight Of Our Lives” returns to knock you back in your seat. Then there’s some instrumental wickedness and robot vocoder madness. It is like three or four songs crammed into one and it’s boggling why it was chosen as a single. Except to impress the fact that Styx aren’t playing around.
You need a bit of a break after a workout like “Crash of the Crown” and so the folksy “Our Wonderful Lives” is the ideal tonic. A huge singalong chorus is backed by simple kick drums, acoustics, and accordion. It’s a beam of hope on an album born from dark times. Sounding a bit like “39” by Queen, and completed with a blast of Beatles-y horns.
The dark growl of a Hammond B3 transitions into “Common Ground”, slower and thick with the modern Styx harmonies. It has some very different parts, one pounding with heavy drums and one light and flighty. While it stands as a song to itself, it also works to transition into “Sound the Alarm”, an RSD single and album highlight. This handsome Shaw ballad is reminiscent of some of his past best and serves as a bit of a hippy-like anthem. “There is no future in the way it was,” Shaw sings correctly. All at once, it has ingredients similar to “Show Me with Way”, “Mr. Roboto”, “High Enough” and “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)”. There’s sorrow, there’s hope, there’s bombast and a digital pulse.
The digital pulse leads directly into the drum-heavy “Long Live the King”. It’s also the most Queen-like, with an absolutely May-ish solo. Imagine if you tried to build a Queen song on top of the drum beat from Guns N’ Roses’ “You Could Be Mine”.
Gowan has a brief piano segue called “Lost At Sea” before the proper song “Coming Out the Other Side”. This calm ballad has a taste of India with the tabla, but manages not to sound like the Beatles this time. It recalls rebirth, and there’s a killer solo to go on top. “To Those” goes full-blown upbeat triumphant Styx, a brilliant refrain brimming with adrenaline. “For those who do survive, find beauty in your lives. Don’t be afraid of love, stand up and rise above.”
Instrumental segue “Another Farewell” steers into the final track “Stream”, which sounds and reads like an ending to a story. Whether the band intended to or not, it seems they’ve made another concept album in Crash of the Crown. “We’ve never been a protest band,” insists Shaw, “We’re more like a gospel caravan trying to send out positive messages wherever we go.” If that’s the case, then “Stream” must be the happy musical ending, an upbeat drift into the fade.
Perhaps there’s a clue to Styx’s meaning in the packaging. Morse code hidden in the CD tray reveals the words “WHOS GONNA SAVE US FROM OURSELVES”.
According to the lengthy liner notes, Styx went into Crash of the Crown with no compromises and came out of it with the album they wanted. With a diverse set of instruments at hand, they clearly had no inhibitions. The end result is an album less direct the The Mission, but dense with ideas compacted into mere minutes of songs. Fortunately most of those ideas were really excellent. Any time a band like Styx makes an album, there’s a fear it will be the last one. It sounds like this band has plenty more fuel left in the solid rocket boosters. Whatever the future holds, Crash of the Crown is the kind of triumph any young band would hold as their magnum opus. With Styx, there is so much history it’s futile to compare.
When I was a kid, I wanted to collect “all” the Def Leppard music videos. Hysteria was pretty much my favourite album for two years. Their videos were ubiquitous. Any time MuchMusic had a new one to debut, you could count on it being a hit. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” was the anthem of the summer of ’88 and the video was on all the time. But some Def Leppard videos were played far less frequently.
The 1988 VHS Historia collected all Def Leppard’s music videos up to “Love Bites”, along with some rare television performances that never aired over here. They were introduced by quaint title cards, and each video was presented in full — no edits.
“Hello America” with Pete Willis was the first one we’d never seen before. Why was the drum kit out front? Nobody knew, but this cool song sounded like a lost hit. The “fake live” trio of “Let It Go”, “High ‘N’ Dry”, and “Bringing on the Heartbreak” ended the Willis era of music videos. These three were seen on TV here, but only rarely. “Heartbreak” was the original album mix.
The big three Pyromania videos by David Mallet were up next, “Photograph” in its uncensored version. Then there’s a TV performance (lip syncing of course) of “Too Late For Love”. This includes a neat set up with Steve Clark and Phil Collen coming down these hydraulic staircases. When spending the money to buy a VHS tape of music videos you can see on TV, it’s nice to get real rarities like this.
“Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)” is another serious rarity from Japanese TV. With Union Jacks draped behind, Leppard rarely looked this cool. It’s no shirt required for Rick Allen, and a mop-topped Joe Elliot screams behind his hair into the microphone cupped in his hands. Unfortunately, during the guitar solo the director chose to focus everywhere but on Phil for most of it.
After Pyromania blew up all over the world, Leppard reissued Hign ‘N’ Dry with two bonus tracks. Music videos were made for each: The remixed versions of “Bringing on the Heartbreak” and “Me and My Wine”. The DVD release is mucked up and includes the wrong audio instead of the remix of “Heartbreak” but the VHS has everything right. These two videos are exact opposites. “Heartbreak” is a high budget extravaganza with the two guitarists playing on massive silos, smoke all around. Then there’s Joe crucified on a barge for some reason. The performance stuff is pretty cool at least. But “Me and My Wine” is a total contrast, just Leppard jamming it up in a cheap flat, wrecking stuff and playing in the showing.
And then finally it’s the Hysteria era, the big big hits with the million dollar videos. “Women” was cool, with that Def Leppard comic book theme. “Animal” and “Hysteria” had a lot of mainstream play. There’s also the original UK version of “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, with Leppard playing in a house in the midst of demolition. The “fake live” US version is also included, with the familiar extended remixed intro that was actually unreleased in audio form at that time. It is paired with “Armageddon It”, made from the same batch of concert footage.
Finally, in the days before hidden CD tracks were all that common, Leppard hit you with an unlisted bonus video. It’s “Love Bites”, the brand new video that shortly took over the world for them once more.
Videos weren’t cheap to buy — they were $25 to $30 for something like Historia. What you wanted was value for your money (stuff you didn’t see on TV) and rewatchability. Historia was constantly in our VCR, often for a full play-through. It more than earned its share of my allowance.
With a long career travelling landscapes of rock, jazz and metal, Lee Aaron has returned on CD with 12 new tracks that represent some of her best work to date. It’s called Radio On! and it’s an apt title. These are radio-ready tunes built for summer purposes. For best results, roll down those windows and hit the highway with Lee Aaron on your deck, loud.
Lee’s band with whom she wrote and recorded Radio On! include Sean Kelly on guitar, Dave Reimer on bass, and John Cody on drums. With a guy like Kelly contributing licks, you know you can count on some smokin’ guitar hooks and that’s exactly what you get on opener “Vampin'”. Hard hitting, but constructed with melody in mind. Lee is one of those artists for whom time has not passed. As she’s explored genres other than rock, she’s only gotten better and that shows on “Vampin'”. It belies the jazz records in her discography, but make no mistake, this is rock! Kelly’s solo break ensures it.
A collection of vintage-sounding riffs on the mid-tempo “Soul Breaker” lend it a melodic base. Lee uses that to springboard into hook after hook. Future classic potential. A memorable solo is like a maraschino cherry on top. Things turn slightly pop-punk on “C’Mon”, a brilliant single that will be lighting up stereos all summer long. Check out John Cody’s cool drum pattern and the jabbing stun-gun melodies that Lee delivers.
A diverse album this is, with “Mama Don’t Remember” sounding like a rocked-up roadhouse blues. You can picture a band playing this number in a seedy bar with dusty beams of light leaking through the walls. Then it’s the title track and the memorable hook “I wanna die with the radio on”. Me too, Lee!
“Soho Crawl”, backed by bouncy piano, rocks pretty hard in a different direction. Another road is explored on the dark “Devil’s Road”, with bass leading the way. Burning slow, laden with some of Lee’s finest words, “Devil’s Road” has the potential to be the kind of song that makes an album immortal, like a “Black Velvet”.
Picking up the pace, “Russian Doll” has the “Radar Love” rocking boogie, while Lee belts line after line of sticky sweet vocal candy. Kelly dives right into parts unknown for the wicked solo. Live, this is the song that will get people up and dancing. But this album doesn’t linger in the same places too long, and so the mid-tempo “Great Big Love” takes a different road. Opposites attract in the lyrics, and the music leaves lots of room for Lee to do her thang. Her lyrics just keep getting better. “It all comes down to chemistry, the science is in babe and science don’t lie.” There’s a swing and a country feel to it.
“Wasted” goes to dark territory. Serious subject matter, but wrapped gently in some of the most beautiful music Lee Aaron’s ever sung. All before it explodes punkily in the middle for a rousing chorus. Shifting into a funk groove, “Had Me at Hello” has some wicked rhythm. Lee’s playful words are an instrument to their own as the band jams on.
Finally closing on a piano ballad, Radio On! feels like a journey. The last leg is “Twenty One” which is likely to take you back in time. “Always in my mind, I’m 21.” It’s a vocal tour-de-force, ending an album full of ’em.
It’s worth celebrating any time a beloved artist from our past puts out a truly great album these days. For it to be one of the best albums of their career, that’s something very special. Respect to Mike Fraser for another perfect mix. Summer 2021 just gained another mainstay for its soundtrack.
RECORD STORE TALES #920: Wild in the Streets Helix – Center in the Square, Kitchener, 1987
We simply could not wait to see our first real concert.
As soon as the date was announced, we got tickets: Helix with a band called Haywire opening. Center in the Square, downtown Kitchener. We were second row mezzanine. Bob and I were so psyched to finally see our first real rock concert.
We wanted to bring a banner that said “HOMETOWN HELIX”. We dreamed big.
Helix were hot on the road for their new album, Wild in the Streets. We’d seen the video and knew what their stage show was going to look like. The stage set played on the brick wall artwork from the album cover, with two ramps on the sides, that resembled the “fangs” in the Helix logo. We thought those ramps were absolutely badass. We couldn’t wait to see Brian Vollmer slide down mid-song,
We were not interested in Haywire — too pop. The two girls in front of us were obviously Haywire fans. They had the shirts and were going nuts for singer Paul MacAusland. Bob and I didn’t think much of him, especially when he laid down flat on his face on the stage. “That’s his stage move?” we questioned. Bob liked the guitarist, but I wanted to hear some “real” rock, not this.
A kid from our school, Brian Knight, was there in the loges on the side. He boasted the next day at school that Helix were not that good; he had seen better. Ironically he later went on to roadie for Helix. He could be seen in the 1991 MuchMusic special Waltzing with Helix. He was also acknowledged in Brian Vollmer’s book Gimme An R, albeit his name was misspelled “McKnight”. Sadly, Brian passed away this year.
What Brian claimed was simply untrue. It might have been our first real rock concert, but it was a hell of a first. We didn’t know a lot of the songs but we knew the hits and some of the deep cuts from Walkin’ the Razor’s Edge. They certainly played everything we wanted to hear, including the new single “Dream On”, “Wild in the Streets”, “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'”, “Rock You”, “Heavy Metal Love”, “(Make Me Do) Anything You Want”, “Kids are all Shakin'”, and “Deep Cuts the Knife”. They also played a new tune that we found amusing. It went, “Bend over and kiss your ass goodbye” (“Kiss It Goodbye”). Fritz Hinz took a drum solo, and turned around and shockingly revealed his bare bottom with nothing but a jock strap. We laughed – we were easily entertained!
The highlight of the show was when Vollmer climbed the loges, and then ran all the way across the mezzanine, right past our noses! We could hardly believe it. Bob reached out his hand but Brian didn’t slap it. I simply made a fist, like “right on man”! It was amazing how we’d been watching this guy climb up, and then make his way in our direction…and then he ran past and it was over in a second! Before we knew it he was on the other side, and climbing back down to the stage again. We knew he had a reputation for climbing on top of things and doing somersaults, but we sure didn’t know that was going to happen when we bought our tickets!
Helix didn’t make as much use of the side ramps as I thought they would, but they did put on a hell of a show. Doctor Doerner played that big doubleneck that we wanted to see so bad, and of course the “Wild in the Streets” guitar. We got to see all their stage moves and tricks, and yes, the women in the audience were unlike any we’d ever seen before outside of a video.
We got all the songs we wanted, plus a few we didn’t know like “Dirty Dog”. They put on one of the most energetic shows that I’m ever likely to see. It was the MTV/MuchMusic era and all we had seen before were music videos. The quick cut-and-paste editing of a music video is hard to compete with. Helix had to work hard on stage, and they went above and beyond that night.
Not a bad “first”. What I did notice was that Vollmer’s voice sounded thinner than on album. I wondered if all concerts were like that? I couldn’t believe how deaf I was afterwards! Both of us were experiencing this for the first time. It was a strange sensation and we must have been yelling in the car the whole way home, when my dad came to pick us up.
We couldn’t stop talking about Helix for days. Weeks. They didn’t really have to win us over; they were hometown heroes to us. Instead Helix just cemented our loyalty. It is said that a great rock show can change a life. In this case, it simply affirmed everything we had hoped.
If you are looking for something classic but modern, with lyrics that matter, then cease your quest. Suicide Star’s debut called Isolation should be the salve that your soul is craving. From the ashes of former band Step Echo, with new lead singer Rob Barton, this band is ready to kick 2021’s ass.
CD buyers get a bonus that streamers and downloaders do not — an intro before the lead track “I Survive”. This intro, complete with air raid siren, explains the “suicide star” concept (with a shout-out to Neil DeGrasse Tyson). It’s an explosive astronomy lesson! Isolation is available now, just give the band a shout on social media and it’ll be in your hot little hands before you know it.
Opener “I Survive” is a positive start, with lyrics like “We’ve only just begun, this is the place where I wanna feel alive.” Rob Barton’s got the pipes and the band has the heft. Uptempo and heavy, this is the kind of rock we need right now. The riff by seven-stringer Les Serran kicks, and bassist Aki Maris has the groove locked with drummer Brian Hamilton (also of Storm Force). If you wanted something energetic and defiant this summer, here ya go.
The first video is for “Mercy”, another upbeat and catchy number. Each one of these songs has hooks, both vocal and guitar, and “Mercy” just doesn’t let up. “Have mercy on my anger,” sings Barton with intent. Lots going on here lyrically, but framed in such a way that you can relate to the words in whatever way suits you.
After two sledgehammer tunes, the track “Suicide Star” delivers melodies that are more on the pop side, but with the heavy backing intact. “Hold on, before you go too far, don’t you know who you are? You’re a suicide star.” Cannot get that chorus out of the skull!
The “power ballad” (if you will) is “Eye of the Storm”, but the emphasis is still on the “power” rather than the “ballad”. It has a majestic guitar riff, and lyrics with some serious heart. Barton sings ’em with passion, which is necessary when the band rocks this heavy behind.
Back to a tune with a classic metal vibe, “21 Guns” has kick and melody. “Just say you will,” goes the unforgettable chorus, with some killer chords in behind. Then comes the heavy “Follow” with a staggering riff, and Priest-like vibes. The lyrics are fascinating and open to multiple interpretations. It certainly could be about the last year! “When the lie becomes the truth…”
“Love Me Like You Mean It” has a Darkness kind of riff; tremendous hooks. This continues into “No Looking Back”, another lyric that could be about current times. “I just roll with the changes,” sings Barton. We can all relate to that. The hooks don’t let up on “Fractured”, a more plaintive yet still heavy rocker. The final track is appropriately titled “The Unknown” and concludes the album-length series of catchy vocals and guitar parts.
By the time you’re done the album, you’re still fresh to go in for a second listen. There is enough going on in terms of guitars and lyrics that you’ll want multiple listens to drink it all in.
4.5/5 stars
Check out this interview by Deke and I with Rob and Brian from Suicide Star. Get an appreciation for the album and what it took to make it.
STYX – The Grand Illusion / Pieces of Eight Live (2011 Eagle Records)
Although legacy bands like Styx may not write and record new music as often as they used to, there have been a couple interesting effects from this. Legendary discographies have been mined by a handful of classic bands, playing rare tracks live that haven’t been played on a stage in decades, if ever. Sometimes, bands play full albums. A few even play two! Styx chose The Grand Illusion and Pieces of Eight for live resurrection.
Dipping back to 1977 and 1978, Styx picked two of their best records to perform. Kind of the “sweet spot” between Tommy Shaw joining the band on Crystal Ball, and the drama with Dennis DeYoung on Cornerstone. There are numerous of songs they never played live with Lawrence Gowan on vocals before, if at all! They had to re-learn their own songs to put on this concert. You can’t accuse them of taking the easy way out!
Tommy even tells you where the side breaks come!
With Todd Sucherman on drums, the songs are naturally heavier here. Gowan’s voice lends a different sound to them too. Bassist Ricky Phillips is rock solid as always, but original bassist Chuck Panozzo still comes out to play bass on the odd track live. His rumble on “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)” is nice and prominent in the mix.
The songs have other notable differences, like more guitar solos. James Young does Dennis’ old spoken word part on “Superstars”. Some might wonder, “Why listen to this, when you can play the original albums with the original members any time you want?” It would be unwise to compare the talents of Gowan and Dennis, but why can’t you just be a fan of both? Some people want to hear Gowan singing “Come Sail Away”, and especially “Castle Walls” which was only played once before in 1978 and a handful of times in 1997. There are many such songs on this recording. “I’m OK” (which Gowan sings) was dropped after 1979, until this tour. “Lords of the Rings” (James Young on vocals) was only played once in 1978.
There are stories, and songs for the diehards. This isn’t a package for someone looking for greatest hits. It’s also not the same as listening to an old album. This is for the Styx fan who loves the past and present equally.
JOE SATRIANI – Joe Satriani (1984 Rubina EP, 2014 Relative Record Store Day 180 gram reissue)
In 1984, The Squares guitarist Joe Satriani quietly put out a low-key instrumental EP on his own label, Rubina records. How limited was the release? An exact figure is hard to find, but original copies today run about $500. Four of the five tracks were reissued on Joe’s Time Machine album, but the fifth track’s master tape was damaged.
This is a release most people assumed they’d never own without parting with some serious dough. Then in 2014, for the 30th anniversary, the original Joe Satriani EP was reissued for Record Store Day. Unfortunately, due to the lack of liner notes, we don’t know how this was accomplished. The damaged track, “Talk To Me” is intact and sounds just fine. Was it sourced from an original vinyl? Was it restored? You can now experience a 180 gram “replication” of the original 1984 EP that started it all.
Guitar Player magazine went nuts for the EP, which is remarkably performed entirely on guitar. Every instrument you hear is a guitar. The “drums” are Joe tapping on his pickups. The “bass” is a detuned six string. The sound effects and other “instruments” are Joe wringing every sound he could think of from his instrument. It’s truly innovative. It’s even pretty listenable.
The record opens with “Talk To Me”, which could be seen as a precursor to Joe’s uptempo guitar anthems like “One Big Rush”. In fact, there’s a familiar lick in this track that Joe used as a main hook on Flying in a Blue Dream‘s “Back to Shalla-Bal”. This track, thought long lost, is probably the best of the five and most indicative of where Joe was headed.
“Dreaming Number Eleven” is an interesting song, with a suitably dream-like opening that soon gives way to a funky beat complete with “slap bass”. The experimental side of Joe manifests in the sound of a roaring train, all performed on guitar.
Side two commences with the light and tropical “Banana Mango”, a breezy track with blazing speed laid overtop. This contrasts with the nuclear “I Am Become Death”, a gothic dirge. There is a middle section that sounds like the wind blowing through a wasteland. Then, a backwards guitar section that foreshadows part of Flying in a Blue Dream. Finally, “Saying Goodbye” is a brief but tender ballad as Joe is known to do. It is constructed from gentle volume swells.
It’s clear from this record that Joe was going to be a formidable composer, let alone player. Just as interesting as the guitar work are the arrangements. They are all meticulously constructed, and though some tracks are more listenable than others, they all make up a snapshot of who Joe Satriani would become. Within three years of its release, Joe would change rock history by Surfing With the Alien, his talents now fully expressing themselves. The Joe Satriani EP is an experimental prototype to the genius to come.
Had this album come out 30 years ago, it might have been called Smith/Curran. According to our good pal Andy Curran from Coney Hatch, Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith has been looking for a project like this for quite some time. The right partner arrived with soulful singer/songwriter/shredder Richie Kotzen. As heard on the nine-track debut, everything clicked. It was Smith’s wife Nathalie that introduced the two. Friendship turned to jamming, and jamming turned to writing and recording. We owe Nathalie a huge debt of rocking’ gratitude.
Fans of Kotzen, either via his solo work or the Winery Dogs, won’t be shocked by what they hear. It is the Maiden fans who are in for an adjustment. Not that Smith/Kotzen is wimpy — it isn’t at all — but it is vastly different from the traditional metal that Maiden peddle in. This is a soul/blues/rock fusion from the heart.
None of the nine songs should earn a “skip” in your player. Each one boasts a wicked blend of guitars and voices. Who would have thought that two players and singers, so different in style, would mix so naturally? You can usually pick out who is playing what, but it all works as one monolithic gestalt. The whole thing is brilliant. You can choose your own peaks, because everyone will have their own favourites.
“Running” should be an uptempo high point in anyone’s scorebook. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the power ballad “Scars” (if you want to call it that). Over six minutes with heartfelt playing and harmonizing over a slow riff — pigeonhole it any way you like. The guitar tones on this album are rich and sometimes trippy. Fans of both guitarists are in for a tour-de-force of feel.
Another high water mark is “Glory Road” which may be a slower blues, but boasts a melodic power chorus that you can imagine Iron Maiden pulling off successfully. That gives way to a wicked series of solo trade-offs that blow the mind and punch the gut all at once. But if you really like Maiden, there is no way you will not recognize the one and only Nicko McBrain on the Purple-y “Solar Fire”. (The drums on the rest of the album are performed by Kotzen and Tal Bergman, which Richie and Adrian share bass duties.) Picture the Coverdale/Hughes/Blackmore vibe. An album highlight, “Solar Fire” is as hot as the stellar eruptions it’s named for.
Pick a song — “I Wanna Stay”, “Some People”, “Taking My Chances”, or “‘Til Tomorrow” — all are excellent choices. Smith/Kotzen has nine remarkable tracks to choose from. They’ve all been road tested, and given fair play at home and on the porch. Though they vary in tempo and direction, all nine promise excellent, memorable melodies and powerful playing. This is an album for the summer of 2021 — an album we need.
“And when the night comes to the city I say…I’m sleeping my day away.” – D.A.D.
D.A.D. – No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims (1989 Warner)
There we were sitting in Bob Schipper’s basement after school on some Thursday in late 1989. Suddenly Bob’s attention was caught by a music video. We always had our eyes open for unique guitars. Neither of us had ever seen a two string bass before. The neck was insanely thin. The song was called “Sleeping My Day Away”, and the band was D.A.D. — Disneyland After Dark. They already had two albums out in their native Denmark, but this was their first North American single.
It wasn’t just the bass. Even the song was unique. Anchored by a simple three-note lick played on a fat hollowbody guitar, the song had an edge we were unfamiliar with. The singer, Jesper Binzer, had a cool rasp. He wore a tie in the video and the bassist (Stig Pedersen) wore a medic’s helmet! Bob loved ’em. So did the music magazines. It’s a shame that didn’t translate into North American success.
When the bassist’s medic helmet erupted with fireworks during the guitar solo, I didn’t know what to think about D.A.D. Were they serious? Were they a joke? I should have just listened to the music, but it wasn’t easy to find their album.
D.A.D.’s No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims is made up of 12 sparky rock tunes. They range from 2:04 at the shortest to 4:36 at the longest. If guessed that punk rock must be an influence, you would be correct. No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims has that energy and sneer, crossed with the melodic sensibilities of classic hard rock. Also a knack for a memorable lyric; not the easiest task when English is your second language.
“Jihad! I’m gettin’ mad! And there’s no fuel left for the pilgrims,” sings Jesper, somehow stretching the word “mad” into two syllables. “Jihad” is an adrenaline-fueled blast, revealing the band’s punk rock roots. But they slow it down to a strong beat on “Point of View”, a melodic bright spot with more of that catchy hollowbody echoing hooks. “Rim of Hell” slows it down further, turning up the menace. “They throw the best damn parties at the rim of hell,” goes the hook, and you’ll be ready to jump in by the end.
“ZCMI” brings AC/DC to the table, adding to the stew of influences. Iggy is definitely in D.A.D.’s record collection too. “Girl Nation” is another catchy highlight, with Jesper imagining an interstellar “female civilization”. Elsewhere, the chorus “I win with a Siamese twin!” tells us where Jesper’s mind is. It’s certainly a unique lyrical theme in music. “Wild Talk” edges into Kiss territory; but it’s Kiss when Bob Kulick was secretly playing guitar! Closing on “Ill Will”, thrash metal is the final genre to be conquered!
No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims contains no duds, and has nothing to skip. Though “Sleeping My Day Away” is clearly the best song, it is among a very strong batch. D.A.D. have that punk rock sense of humour that runs through the album. A reckless, who-gives-a-shit attitude that hints this band will do anything so long as it’s fun to do. It’s a great little album that didn’t particularly fit in with any of their peers coming out of Hollywood.
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