Welcome, welcome, welcome! Welcome back to WTF Search Terms, one and all! Yes, it’s another batch of 10 search terms that somehow led people to my site. Some terms are simple typos, others are more chaotic, but they all have one thing in common: They all led people here. Enjoy!
This first one is a simple typo, but I like it so much, I might have to change the spelling of my last name!
Fantastic interview by Erica Ehm once again, with Reb Beach and Kip Winger. Lengthy session too, 23 minutes in total! Starting with some country riffs (Reb on 6-string, Kip on 12-string), the boys defied the expectations of the early 90s and proved they could really play — and how! For the Winger guys, it was already “first thing in the morning”, otherwise known as “mid-afternoon” to us; Kip had his cup of coffee ready! (Really good coffee, according to Erica.)
Sad observation: We’ve seen past interviews with groups like Bon Jovi, where throngs of fans were banging on the big MuchMusic windows. Winger only got a couple curious onlookers pulling faces. Too bad.
Songs played:
“Can’t Get Enuff” (at the 5:30 mark)
“Who’s The One” (17:30 in)
Topics covered:
Why were Winger not as big in Canada as they were at home?
Playing for musicians
Videos / “the image”
The art of songwriting / lyrics
Why was the new album called Pull?
Reb’s instructional guitar video
Chris Robinson, Lars Ulrich, Beavis and Butt-head, and other critics
Playgirl magazine!
Being “rock stars”
Winger ends the session with a blues jam.
Awesome acoustic tunes and a fantastic interview. Check it out below.
SMOKE ON THE WATER – A Tribute (1994 Shrapnel cassette – tribute to Deep Purple)
This baby can be expensive to acquire on CD, so let’s give ye olde cassette tape a spin. It’s not been played in over 20 years. This review is with fresh ears.
The backing band on this tribute to Deep Purple consists of: Deen Castronovo (Hardline/Journey – drums), Jens Johansson (Yngwie Malmsteen – keys), Todd Jenson (Hardline/David Lee Roth – bass) and Russ Parish (Fight/Steel Panther – rhythm guitar). Each track has a featured singer and lead soloist. Let’s dig in.
First up: “Speed King” by Yngwie J. Malmsteen with Kelly Keeling on vocals. Keeling is on the sandpapery side of Joe Lynn Turner here, while Yngwie gets to jizz fanboy style all over the fretboard. The star might actually be Jens Johansson’s keyboards but this is an unfortunately very cheesy version of “Speed King”. Woah, Keeling just nailed an Ian Gillan scream! Nice.
Kip Winger and Tony MacAlpine team up for “Space Truckin'”. Tony goes his own way with the solos, innovating as he goes. This is…pleasant? There’s some kind of spark that’s missing, and when you’re playing “Space Truckin'” you need to put accelerant in the tank or you’ll fall flat. Studio sterility has replaced spontaneity.
You gotta hope Glenn Hughes and John Norum can shock some life into “Stormbringer”. They can! Of the guitarists so far, John Norum (Europe) is the one who has the right feel for Deep Purple. Glenn’s great, but doesn’t get to play bass, and here’s part of the problem. You can hear that the backing band recorded the songs and then the featured players recorded their parts over them. In a perfect world you’d have Glenn plotting the way on bass too, gelling with the backing band in a united groove. That can’t happen when you record this way.
One guy who manages to inject his song with personality is Richie Kotzen. He’s got the funky “Rat Bat Blue” and is granted both the lead vocals and guitars. Yngwie returns on “Lazy” and he’s teamed with former Deep Purple singer and his own former bandmate, Joe Lynn Turner! Yngwie plays appropriately on this strong but fairly bland track. And that’s the cue to flip the tape over.
Paul Gilbert (Mr. Big) gets the vocal and guitar honours on “Maybe I’m a Leo”, which frankly is too slow and lacks groove. Paul’s vocals, however, absolutely nail Gillan’s on the original. Things turn stale quickly when it’s time for “Smoke on the Water”. Russ Parish takes the guitar slot while Robert Mason (Lynch Mob/Warrant) sings. Far more interesting is “Fireball” with Don Dokken and his future Dokken bandmate Reb Beach. Don sounds a bit overwhelmed by the demanding song, but hits all the requisite notes. The brilliant Jeff Scott Soto takes the driver’s seat on Mk I’s “Hush”. This veteran vocalist (Yngwie/Journey/man more) makes mincemeat of your ears, absolutely killing it. Soto is absolutely the vocal star on this album (one that includes Glenn Hughes)! The final song goes to Tony Harnell (TNT) and Vinnie Moore (UFO). They busy-up “Woman From Tokyo” a bit too much with unnecessary fills, but Moore does some really cool picking during the quiet section.
Though interesting, Smoke on the Water is far from an essential addition to your Purple collection. There are already so many tributes out there. The most interesting was T.M. Stevens’ Black Night which re-interpreted Deep Purple according to his New York sensibilities. He had Joe Lynn Turner, Vinnie Moore and Richie Kotzen on his album too! Then there is the more recent Re-Machined, featuring Iron Maiden, Metallica, and more Glenn Hughes. Considering the CD prices these days, place Smoke on the Water fairly low on your priority lists.
Kip Winger and Reb Beach were on MuchWest with Dixie Dregs fan Terry David Mulligan to talk about their second album In The Heart of the Young. It’s kind of sad, really. Kip says that Winger are pretty close to being a headlining band, not foreseeing the turning tide of the 1990s.
Check out this interview on location in lovely Vancouver.
Winger broke up in ’94, but reunited in 2001. Part of the reunion entailed new music. Before they finally released a new album (Winger IV), they tested the waters with one new song on The Very Best of Winger. Yes indeed, you had to buy a “greatest hits” to get the new song. At least Winger also gave you a Japanese bonus track for your money too.
New tune “On the Inside” was written for Pull (their third album and last before breakup) but recorded for Very Best Of. It’s a chunky, heavy tune with splashes of anthemic keyboard in the chorus. It really underlines that Winger could write and play with integrity when they wanted to. Reb Beach’s solo is unorthodox and outside the box. “Hell to Pay” is listed as an outtake, but it was actually released as a Japanese bonus track to Pull. Stuff like this saves collectors for shelling out mucho dinero for a Japanese import. Good sassy tune, and listen for that scorching outro.
Pull was a record that never got a shot, so it’s OK that the first chunk of tunes are from that album. It deserved a second chance. These are standout songs: “Blind Revolution Mad” smokes white hot, and with depth. “Down Incognito” has a bright, memorable chorus contrasted with groovy verses. 90s-style riffing worked perfectly on the track “Junkyard Dog”, a seven-minute thrill ride through different textures. Winger were not playing it simple. Even their ballads from that era have more heft. “Spell I’m Under” has edge under those layered melodies. Few songs are as starkly lovely as “Who’s the One”.
The Very Best of Winger takes a dive after the Pull material. The CD is in reverse chronological order, which almost never works. Yes, it highlights the most current sounding music, but at the cost of consistency. Winger II: In the Heart of the Young was, let’s be honest, not good. The ballads were sappier and the rockers too cheesy. Only “Rainbow in the Rose” really fits on this set. Past the dreck, the four singles from album #1 are included. This means the CD at least ends on an up, though the ballad “Headed for a Heartbreak” is a bit anti-climatic.
A highschool guy named Rob Petersen recommended Winger to me. Rob was one of the only kids with long hair. I was so jealous of him. He had the Rick Allen curls and everything. Girls thought he was cute. I thought maybe some of his cool could rub off on me. Luckily I sat next to him in Mr. Lightfoot’s history class.
I recorded the music video for “Seventeen”, which was OK, but didn’t particularly stand out. Kip Winger’s abs did. Towards the end of the video, he did this weird thrusty-dance with his bass. This is memorable to me because the tape that “Seventeen” was on, was also used for a school video project. I made a music video for “Nothing But A Good Time” by Poison with friends, for a school award. I recorded my copy on the same tape as “Seventeen” — immediately after it, actually. When we presented the video to the film teacher, she caught the tail end of “Seventeen”, and Kip’s thrust. “Oh,” I heard her comment, and I sensed it was more disgust than titillation.
Kip Winger mid-thrust
Despite their image, Winger possessed a rare rock pedigree. Classically trained bassist and singer Charles “Kip” Winger was fresh from Alice Cooper’s band, as was keyboardist Paul Taylor. Kip also performed on Twisted Sister’s Love is for Suckers LP in 1987, with future bandmate Reb Beach. Most impressively, drummer Rod Morgenstein was an alumnus of Steve Morse’s Dixie Dregs. Yet all these massive players went and made a commercial hard rock album with, let’s face it, pretty juvenile lyrics at times.
It’s hard not to be critical of Winger for this. Knowing what these guys are capable of, the debut album Winger seems like pandering. They did sneak in a few progressive hints, such as a string quartet on “Hungry”, but the impression was that they were just another hard rock band with big hair and candycane hooks. They were underachieving, from a certain point of view.
Winger was in the batch of the first CDs I ever got, for Christmas of 1989. This was based almost entirely on Rob Petersen’s raving. Another reason I chose it was the “CD bonus track”! One of the incentives for buying a CD player was to finally get songs that were only on the CD release. I had mixed impressions. The first “side” was decent but the second was a little filler-heavy.
I’m sad to admit this, but Winger’s version of “Purple Haze” was the first time I ever heard the song. Ozzy’s version was the second. Go ahead, judge me.
Winger could have taken it further on their second album. In a way, they did: progressive songs and complex rhythms stood alongside the pop rock tracks. While they advanced in that regard, they took a step backwards in another. Some songs were even dumber: “Can’t Get Enough” for example, was a transparent re-write of “Seventeen”, and the ballads were dreck. Worst of all was Kip’s very unnecessary rapping on “Baptized by Fire”.
Two songs, “Rainbow in the Rose” and “In the Heart of the Young” (the title track) were so far above and beyond the pack, they could have come from a different album. These two epics drip of the kind of progressive rock you know these guys can play. Yet they kept it radio accessible, somehow, even while Rod Morgenstein is playing rhythms my brain can barely compute.
While Winger II charted higher and sold as well as the first, 12 months later it was hopelessly outdated by the birth of grunge. Winger then fell victim to two of the 90s greatest antiheroes, Beavis and Butt-Head. A black Winger shirt was worn by nerd character Stewart, and the band were repeatedly mocked. This eventually killed Winger off as a business. Gigs dried up. Fortunately for fans, Kip Winger and Mike Judge of Beavis and Butt-Head recently had a make-up session. Even Kip admitted, “Winger was a band that was popular for some of the wrong reasons, man.”
The third album, Pull, is a reference to skeet shooting. Kip knew that for all the chances they had, they may as well throw the album into the air and take shots at it. “Pull!”
It was a lose-lose situation and both Winger and the public lost by Pull‘s commercial failure. Keyboardist Paul Taylor had left, and so Pull features less of the instrument and a far heavier sound. Taylor was eventually replaced by John Roth, a guitarist. The message was pretty clear. Pull featured some of Winger’s best tracks: “Down Incognito”, “Blind Revolution Mad”, “Junkyard Dog”, and “Who’s the One”. Had Pull come out in 1990 instead of 1993, things would have gone very differently. Instead, Winger broke up.
The happy news is that like many bands, Winger reunited (the John Roth lineup occasionally with Paul Taylor as a fifth member), and started putting out albums again. Good ones, too. Their last Better Days Comin’ is pretty great.
As further proof of Winger’s greatness, Reb Beach went from there to Alice Cooper, completing the circle. Winger, after all, was originally founded by two ex-Cooper players. He was then picked to replace George Lynch in Dokken. And Kip? His 30 minute symphony “Ghosts” should speak for itself.
Those who are curious but sceptical should check out Winger’s Pull, and the albums that followed. Go ahead and wing it!
WINGER – II – In the Heart of the Young (1990 Atlantic)
Another awful album cover; another Winger album! The ambitious follow-up, still sonically mutilated by producer Beau Hill, was several steps forward and a few steps backwards at the same time. The year was 1990, and while most bands were starting to toughen things up and go a little heavier, Winger turned on the tap marked “syrup”.
Truly awful is “Can’t Get Enuff”, which Winger admitted took about five minutes to write, when he decided they needed to “make a video about sex”. Because that’s never been done before. Nor has a song called “Can’t Get Enough” (spelled correctly). There is nothing new or necessary here; the talented band are neutered by programmed rhythms and cheesey, generic lyrics. Not good enuff, although the second tune “Loosen Up” is better. There could have been some rock and roll groove with “Loosen Up”, but the plastic and thin production removes its teeth.
Keyboardist Paul Taylor, who left the band after this tour, wrote the ballad “Miles Away” by himself and it hits all the bases that a power ballad needed to hit: Big chorus, sad keyboards, and sappy lyrics! “Miles Away” never quite felt like it fit on the album stylistically, but it’s actually a decent ballad. It’s well written and arranged, but so pigeonholed to its time.
I hate synth horns, therefore I hate the single “Easy Come Easy Go”. There is no substitute for real horns. Keyboards are quicker and easier, but there is no comparison to the real thing. Thankfully Winger did utilise real horns on “Rainbow in the Rose”, the first of two epics on the album. Where “Can’t Get Enuff” was written in minutes, “Rainbow in the Rose” took a year to compose and arrange. Its complexity is admirable, but a better producer could have given it the finish it deserved. It’s a shame that with a complicated track like this, you can barely hear what drummer Rod Morgenstein is doing. He’s one of the best in the world, but he’s buried under keyboards. When you do listen to what he’s doing, it’s quite incredible work. As for the song? The chorus kills!
The second side was more of the same, including another epic at the end. “In the Day We’ll Never See” was Winger’s attempt to write more serious lyrics, and that’s all well and good. With a peppy riff and serious tone, it’s a good enough song for a car tape. Reb Beach’s anthemic guitars are the highlight. Another side; another ballad — “Under One Condition” sounds like a Warrant song, although that’s probably being unfair. Warrant could never play like Winger.
Side two has a slew of annoying songs in the middle. “Little Dirty Blonde” is as putrid as it sounds, but let’s face it folks, it’s not as bad as Kip Winger rapping. The story goes that they wanted to get Tone Lōc to do his thing over “Baptized By Fire”, but that didn’t happen so Kip rapped it himself. It’s as annoying as you expect. One of the most impressive moments on the album is just a short instrumental break, sounding like speedily tapped guitar and bass, right before “Baptised By Fire”, but it’s over too soon before MC Kip takes over. “You Are the Saint, I Am the Sinner” improves the outlook mildly, annoying title aside. That leads to the final epic track, “In the Heart of the Young”. Like “Rainbow in the Rose”, this is a more ambitious arrangement, done with skill and care. Once again, focusing on Rod Morgenstein allows you to hear the complexities within. The melodies are strong and Kip’s singing is under-appreciated.
Winger were on to something with the more progressive material. Where they lost fans was with the dumbed down sounds of songs like “Can’t Get Enuff”, and they paid for it during the grunge onslaught down the road.
When Winger started out, they really played down to their audience. Kip Winger was a classically trained musician. Reb Beach was already a virtuoso guitar player whose talent can’t be under-stressed. Keyboardist Paul Taylor had been around the block a number of times, including a stint with Kip Winger in the Alice Cooper band. Most impressively, drummer Rod Morgenstein is best respected for the rock fusion combo Dixie Dregs. To hear guys with that background singing a song that goes, “She’s only seventeen, Dad says she’s too young but she’s old enough for me,”…well it’s just embarrassing.
I call bullshit, Mr. Clarence R. Winger. He’d been studying classical music since the age of sixteen. You know he could do better if he wasn’t trying to write cliche rock lyrics.
Musically, Winger (the debut album) isn’t half bad. In fact it’s more than half good! The opener “Madalaine” is cheesey rock, but it’s above the bar due to the intense guitar shreddery of Mr. Beach. It was an era when it was OK to just get up there and tap tap tap away. There is some musical integrity contained herein, but it’s not in the lyrical department. The single “Hungry” begins with a string quartet (only 22 seconds’ worth), arranged by Kip. See? Flashes of the talent within, but cloaked behind a typical rock power ballad with one of the most overused titles in the genre. Good songs both…but written down to a specific audience by guys who can do better.
Chief offender “Seventeen” wouldn’t be half bad if it had a different title; any title. Call it “Buttermilk”. Instead of:
“She’s only seventeen (seventeen), I’ll show you love like you’ve never seen, She’s only seventeen (seventeen), Dad says she’s too young but she’s old enough for me.”
Change that to:
“I love my buttermilk (buttermilk), Makes my pancakes as smooth as silk, I love my buttermilk (buttermilk), Mom says it’ll make me fat, stop that buttermilk!”
See? My lyric had depth that theirs doesn’t. It’s light and shade. Yes, buttermilk will make your pancakes extra tasty, but what of the health costs? I could go on and on about the brilliance of my lyric vs. Kip Winger’s. But I won’t. You get the point.
Shredding musicianship aside, “Seventeen” is not a good song.
“Without the Night” works well enough as a Bon Jovi-esque power ballad. What should have been deleted, because they already had enough original material, is a cover of Jimi’s “Purple Haze”. This is dreadful, overplayed, oversexed, with the only saving grace being a guitar battle with Reb Beach on one side and Dweezil Zappa on the other. Two monster players going at it is right on. Kip Winger “ooh ahh-ing” all over “Purple Haze” is blech. Just focus on Reb and Dweezil, and try your best to ignore Clarence.
The original LP had a side break here, and I think that’s a good idea. I need to take a moment to get some fresh air. Something stinks in here….
“State of Emergency” has a little progressive complexity to it, some chops and lyrics that are not about seventeen year old girls, so that is good. “Time to Surrender” shreds impressively over a slow Ratt-like riff. All considered, “Time to Surrender” is one of the strongest tracks on the album. Sadly, “Poison Angel” is the worst. This one could have been dropped. “Hangin’ On” is good enough, again boasting some impressive playing from Reb Beach. The key to listening to Winger is to focus on the instrumentation.
The most impressive track is the ballad “Headed for a Heartbreak”. Cheesey, yes. But listen for a moment, to the arrangement, and to the playing. It’s a hit power ballad, yes…but there are progressive complexities to the arrangement. Listen to Rod Morgenstein’s drumming. His patterns are not simple rock cliches. Too bad it’s so hard to hear what he’s doing. Winger has a brittle production, thanks to schlock-meister Beau Hill, ruiner of many an album. Over-processing and harsh gating on Rod’s drum sound gives the album a plastic feel. Some tracks such as “State of Emergency” should have more heft, but it is lost. “Time to Surrender” needs less gloss. The album has hardly any bass, and the thing about that is that Kip Winger is actually a pretty good bassist (not to mention singer).
The CD only bonus track (oh 1988, I miss you so) is a short rocker called “Higher and Higher”. It’s a better track than the similar-paced “Poison Angel” and should have swapped places with it. There’s also one other interesting little track to be found. Another short rocker called “Out for the Count” made an appearance on the soundtrack to Karate Kid III. I picked that up at a Zellers store, I think, on a clearance sale around 1992. It was an odd find, but being a collector I grabbed it for the one track. (Also on the CD is “48 Hours” by a band called PBF, better known as Pretty Boy Floyd!) Swap “Out for the Count” for “Purple Haze”, and the Winger album would have been far stronger.
It’s really hard to boil this down to a simple number rating. I’ve come up with an equation based on your valuing of playing and songcraft,
Where x = a scale from 0-5 on how much you value shredding,
and y = a scale from 0-5 on your importance of song craft,
ALICE COOPER – Freedom for Frankenstein – Hits & Pieces 1984-91(1998 Raven, Australian import)
After a productive spurt of activity in the late 80’s and early 90’s, Alice Cooper laid low for a while. A fun live album called A Fistful of Alice in 1997 was his first such release in 20 years. There was then a long wait for the next Cooper studio album (Brutal Planet, 2000). In the meantime, fans got to snack on interim treats such as the Australian release, Freedom for Frankenstein.
There are already a number of compilations that cover similar periods to Freedom for Frankenstein. Prince of Darkness (1989) tackled the two MCA albums Constrictor (1986) and Raise Your First and Yell (1987) plus one single B-side. 1995’s Classicks summed up the Epic albums Trash (1989), Hey Stoopid (1991) and The Last Temptation (1994), with the bonus of rare live tracks from the 1989 live home video Alice Cooper Trashes the World, plus the Hendrix cover B-side “Fire”! With those releases already on the market, does Freedom for Frankenstein offer anything unique?
Hell yeah!
1. “I Got a Line on You”. Spirit wrote this one in 1968 and Alice Cooper covered it in 1988 for the Iron Eagle II soundtrack. Alice’s version was released as a cool music video and stands as one of his best tracks from the era. (You can also get this on the Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper box set.) Here is an easy way to get the song, a must-own for fans of 80’s Alice. This was our first look at Alice’s new musical direction: commercial hard rock! He dropped the splatter horror direction and went full-on for radio and video hits.
2. Four-count-’em-four rare live single B-sides. These are “Go to Hell”, “Ballad of Dwight Fry”, “Sick Things” and “Only Women Bleed/Wind Up Toy”. None overlap with the other two compilations. “Wind Up Toy” was only played on the Hey Stoopid tour.
3. “It Rained All Night”. It is absolutely inexplicable how this song wasn’t included on the Life and Crimes box set. An original Alice Cooper/Desmond Child composition, “It Rained All Night” was also too good to be just another B-side. It backed the single for “Hey Stoopid” but stood as a better track than some on the album. Perhaps it was nixed for being too ballady on an album that didn’t need any more. You can get it most easily now by buying the Hey Stoopid 2013 reissue…but if you get Freedom for Frankenstein instead, you won’t need that reissue at all.
By getting this, you will also acquire “Fire”, and a good number of the best songs from this period. “He’s Back”, “Teenage Frankenstein”, “Freedom”, “Poison”, “House of Fire”, “Hey Stoopid”, and “Feed My Frankenstein” were the big singles, all on one CD. Then there’s “Side Show”, the incredible opener from Alice’s 1994 concept album The Last Temptation. In fact, the only weakness with this CD is that there is only one song from The Last Temptation. Classicks has three — but none of them are “Side Show”.
Freedom for Frankenstein was compiled with the help of Andrew Carpenter, “Australia’s biggest Alice Cooper fan” and archivist. Full points are awarded for the interesting booklet and rarities in the tracklist. I think the running order could be slightly tweaked for a smoother ride, but at over 78 minutes long, these hits and pieces provide value for your bucks.
Even though Alice hadn’t produced anything as timeless as “School’s Out” during his 1980’s comeback, his profile rose greatly. Clean, sober and focused, Alice Cooper was very active in the last part of the decade. The same year as his final MCA album Raise Your Fist and Yell, he had memorable appearance at Wrestlemania III. In the corner of “good guy” Jake the Snake Roberts, Cooper had the honour of draping Roberts’ snake named Damien all over the Honky Tonk Man. After that, even my dad knew who Alice Cooper was.
Cooper only had a two record deal with MCA: Constrictor was the first in ’86; also the first album in the comeback period. Having re-established himself with MCA, Alice then signed with Epic and had a genuine smash success with 1989’s Trash. With a dream team of writers and collaborators (including hitsmiths Desmond Child, Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and many more), Alice scored a platinum album.
While Trash was still charting and producing singles, MCA put out a competing record: Prince of Darkness, a 10 track compilation of Cooper’s material for that label. Normally these kinds of releases are throw-aways, but Prince of Darkness is not and this review will tell you all about it.
It is not unfair to state that Constrictor and Raise Your First were mixed affairs. You had to wade through a significant amount of filler to reach a disproportionate amount of modern classics. Prince of Darkness does a great service by collecting some of the best material together on one CD. It is well sequenced and even includes one rare track, an exclusive on compact disc.
A grand opening is the dark and metallic “Prince of Darkness”, a theme song from a movie of the same name. This ominous and menacing track is one of the more memorable from this era, a heavy monument. It works amazingly well as an opening track, and “Roses on White Lace” follows by going faster and heavier. It was surprising to hear Alice creep this close to thrash metal, but what a track! A distorted vocal adds to the creep factor, making this one of the better samples of Cooper’s music during his “splatter horror” period. The 1986 single “Teenage Frankenstein” would be a must-own for any fan, and there it is in the #3 position. The big single from this era was “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)”, a synthpop classic quite unlike the prior metal material. Right here is an easy and simple way to get this classic track, without having to buy Constrictor. Same with “Teenage Frankenstein”.
A nice little track here is a 1976 live recording of “Billion Dollar Babies”! This was a B-side from the “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)” single, but Prince of Darkness is the only CD with it. The track itself sounds heavily remixed (remixing is credited to Garth Richardson) but it is indeed a B-side that is easy to acquire by getting this disc. Ignore the annoying, screaming overdubbed crowd and just dig the vintage performance of one of Alice Cooper’s most timeless numbers.
There are a few filler tracks on side two. “Lock Me Up” was fun, but not particularly memorable. Feel free to skip “Simple Disobedience” and “Thrill My Gorilla”, and go straight to “Life and Death of the Party”. Alice steps back into the shadows for a chilling horror number, mid-tempo and overcast. We are over and out with “Freedom”, another great single and dangerously close to thrash metal again. Prince of Darkness serves as the most effective way to get this one.
That’s why I recommend Prince of Darkness to any fan who wants to get a slice of Alice in the late 80’s — but just a slice. The whole cake is for diehards.
mikeladano.com 