Alright, to be fair, with 20/20 hindsight now we all know that Rik Emmett wanted to be a jazzbo. Back in 1990, those of us that weren’t expecting the second coming of Triumph were at least hoping for something with some balls. Either alternative would have been acceptable, but Absolutely is so middle of the road, so directionless, so antiseptic, so horridly contrived and ill-conceived, that we just had no idea where the man’s head was at.
Absolutely is purportedly a rock album, but the sterile cover reveals the terrible secret within. Absolutely is glossy and clean; overloaded with ballads and lite-rock dreck. You’re left with only a couple real rock songs. “Drive Time,” which deceptively opens the album, is a Van Halen speed boogie. (Drummer Randy Cooke is frickin’ amazing.) “Big Lie,” the second song, has a bit of that latter day pop-Triumph sound. It also has decent lyrics which are more relevant than ever today. On side two, there’s a song called “Heaven Only Knows” that has some hard rock trappings. But that’s where it ends.
“The disappearing forests should be no cause for alarm, the greenhouse effect won’t do you any harm.”
The single “When a Heart Breaks” is sappy crappy, the kind of boring ballad that was too common at the beginning of the 90’s. The rest of the album is just shamelessly pop rock. That’s not always a bad thing, I enjoy quite a bit of pop in my life, but this isn’t even good pop rock. “World of Wonder” makes me want to retch. I mean, wait until you get to “Smart, Fast, Mean & Lucky”. Think that title sucks? Wait till Rik starts rapping. When Rik raps, it’s like the Bartman. Hey, at least it was current for the time, but why did rock bands think they had to start rapping in the early 90’s? (Kip Winger, I’m looking at you.)
For fans of Rik’s guitar, there’s just not enough. A song like “Stand and Deliver” has some smoking guitar work, but it’s drowned out by claptrap and clutter. It’s a shame. I’m glad that Rik is now doing what he loves, and even found time to do a mini-Triumph reunion. Anything to forget this misguided solo project.
My pal Craig Feehas returned from Jerry’s Records in Pittsburgh with a bag full of goodies for me!
Craig strongly recommended a two to three day stay at Jerry’s Records should I ever find myself in Pittsburgh. That’s how much vinyl they have. He also told me that they had a whack of old Van Halen picture sleeves. I said cool, bring ’em back to me! So he did, every single one that they had. He also picked up a promo Helix 12″ single for “Wild in the Streets” on red vinyl! That and some Triumph 12″ promos, plus a surprise that I think tops them up. I think the real treasure may be David Lee Roth’s “Stand Up”, from Skyscraper — a 12″ remix vinyl single that I was previously unaware of! Pretty exciting huh? Additionally, the Van Halen “Best of Both Worlds” contains the live version from the Live Without A Net video on the B-side.
Total expenditure? $45 bones. Craig is a great shopper. Thanks man!
All of these will come in handy in the future, because they coincide with a couple different series ideas that I was already going to work on. Now, those series will be even cooler. Stay tuned.
I was very impressed with the “new” Greatest Hits Remixed by Triumph. Normally I don’t go much for remixes, as 9 times out of 10 the original versions are superior. Greatest Hits Remixed however was done by none other than Rich Chycki (ex-Winter Rose) whose credits include remixing work with Rush, particularly on Retrospective III. He did the first remixes of the Vapor Trails material, leading to the band remixing the whole album today. Chycki’s work elevated those songs to a new level, likewise with Triumph.
The drums are louder and harder (read: modern sounding). The guitars more aggressive. The rolling, grooving basslines are now in your face. (I may have underrated Mike Levine in the past.) Keyboards have been toned down. Vocals have been stripped dry and place high in the mix. In the case of “Just One Night”, the entire song sounds re-recorded, particularly the lead vocal. Gil sounds older on this version. Even the hokey cheese of “Somebody’s Out There” has been replaced with a new edge, drowning out the formerly keyboard-heavy leanings. My only complaint is that some vocals are a little heavy on echo.
This CD-DVD 2 disc set comes with a wealth of interesting extras. The DVD here is a great package on its own, and would have been worth buying in the $10 range alone. Every major Triumph video is here, now backed by the remixed tracks. In addition, there’s some bonus features, such as the “Child of the City” music video by the “v2.0” version of Triumph with Phil X. There’s some early fan-cam footage (“Blinding Light Show”) and perhaps best of all, Triumph inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. They are inducted by Tom Cochrane, introducing Gil Moore as one of his closest friends. Who knew? Additionally, the set is housed in a nice double digipack, with lots of photos (a couple recent ones too) and lots of text to read. On the whole, a well made and timely package.
If you’re a new fan who hasn’t got their first Triumph CD yet, this package is a pretty good buy. You might really get into the more modern sound. If you’re an old fan, I think it’s fun to enjoy the memories and the harder rocking sounds.
Part 2 of a 2 part series. Today we look at the final album by the original Triumph. For the first installment,The Sport of Kings, click here!
TRIUMPH – Surveillance (1987 MCA, 2003 TML)
Triumph bassist Mike Levine once called this album your proverbial “contractual obligation” record. What he meant by that, was that Rik and the boys were barely on good terms anymore, the end was near, but the band needed to crank out one more album (plus a “greatest hits” record entitled Classics) before they could call it a day.
And who can forget that awkward interview on MuchMusic’s Power Hour, when Erica Ehm unwittingly asked Rik, “Have you ever thought of going solo? Wait a second, I have the chance to break up Triumph with this question!” Rik mumbled something about how the guys in the band always gave him the freedom to do whatever he wanted, and there was no need to go solo. Then a couple months later, WHAM! The headline was all over the Toronto Sun — RIK QUITS TRIUMPH.
With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, this sounds like the last album by a once powerful band. It sounds like a band out of ideas, a tired band, a band who doesn’t care anymore. It has an atmosphere of “let’s see if this one will stick to the wall.”
Yes, Rik Emmett was and remains a genius guitar player. Mike and Gil, God bless ’em, were the average backing band, given a tremendous boost in our native land due to the fact that they are Canucks. There’s a certain Canadian mediocrity to Triumph — not quite as good as Rush, but similar. A loyal fanbase, but with not nearly the treasure-rich back catalogue that Max Webster has. A talented guitar playing frontman, but as a vocalist a bit shrill even by Geddy standards. A T-shirt-and-jeans type image, maple leaf proudly emblazoned on their hockey jerseys, but an image just too bland for anybody but us hosers by the late 1980’s.
Surveillance struck me from the start as Rik taking control of the machine for one last spin. It treads the progressive tendencies, with two instrumental intro tracks, a guest shot by Steve Morse, and some lyrically interesting pieces (“All The King’s Horses”). This is tempered by Rik’s increasing interest in pop — “Let The Light (Shine On Me)”, and “On and On”. On Gil Moore’s side, we have nothing but terrible filler tracks, the worst of which is “Rock You Down”. This is perhaps the worst song Gil’s ever foisted upon us. At some points trying to be R&B, at others hopelessly lost in a morass of bad lyrics and muddy mix, it is a bit of a train wreck. The whole album suffers from this muddy mix and too many odd crashing keyboard samples.
Dark Helmet.
The best tune was the lead single, “Never Say Never” (co-written by Rik’s new protege Sil Simone). Unfortunately this is a video that Rik soon found embarrassing to watch. The bouffant hairdo (or as Rik referred to it, “good hair production”), the fancy wardrobe…what was wrong with jeans and jerseys? It was 1987. That’s what was wrong with it.
I wanted to give this album one star, as I believe it truly has some of the worst songs of Triumph’s career. Upon reflection I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t because lyrically, I like some of this album, and musically there are a couple good moments here and there that save the album from being a total torpedo. The guitar playing, like on “Carry on the Flame”, is absolutely fiery. You know a guitar player like Rik Emmett isn’t going to lay a turd. There are a couple interesting riffs. And, as a Power Hour nerd, I loved the voice cameo by J.D. Roberts (now known as CNN’s John Roberts).
Much to my surprise (and delight, because I didn’t like it when bands broke up), Triumph carried on with one more album (Edge of Excess) and a new guitar player. Phil X (ex-Frozen Ghost and currently on tour with Bon Jovi) joined the band, while Toronto’s Mladen Zarron wrote on played on the majority of the album. Sound wise, they rocked it up several notches before calling it a day.
This album serves as a reminder of what a terminally ill band sounds like. You can hear the tension and lack of cohesion. Despite that, there are still a couple interesting tracks and melodies here for the Triumph fan, some of which have not yet resurfaced on a compilation CD. Check it out if you’re a fan, avoid like the plague if you are not.
2/5 stars
Also worth noting: The guy on the cover of Surveillance is the same dude from the Never Surrender album!
TRIUMPH – The Sport of Kings (1986, remastered 2003, TML Entertainment)
And the award for Worst Album Cover of 1986 goes to…Triumph!
Seriously, can anybody tell me what the hell this is supposed to be? Methinks the band just didn’t care anymore, and the music contained herein bears me out.
The Sport Of Kings, following the double live Stages, was a total about-face for Triumph. Starting off with a turgid sequencer riff, the album shifts immediately into “coast” on “Tears In The Rain”. Keyboards, bad sounding drum samples, coupled with a sappy almost guitarless song, and that is the opening track! (I hereby trademark the word “guitarless” as my own creation.) Post-split, Gil Moore and Mike Levine were pretty adamant in their blaming up Rik Emmett for the change in direction. Certainly, the early part of Rik’s solo career backs up that claim.
I’ll admit to being into “Somebody’s Out There” at the time, but it is hard to listen to now in the car with the windows down. Wouldn’t want anybody to see me. (The remixed version from the recent Greatest Hits Remixed CD is better.) This song is just pure pop, way further into that direction than anything Bon Jovi was doing at that time. But not in a good way.
The sad thing is, I really used to dig this album to the point that I wore out my original cassette. Now, on CD, I once every few years. I’ll claim that I didn’t know better at the time. When I owned this the first time, I’d never heard a single Led Zeppelin studio recording; not one. I had never heard of “Smoke On The Water”, and I’d never heard a Rush album. Perspective changes even if the songs remain the same. The problem is that Sport Of Kings is too pop: not enough guitar, not enough rock, not enough Triumph, too many keyboards! Hell there are three keyboard players on this album (one being Kitchener’s own Scott Humphrey).
I’m trying to pick out some non-embarrassing highlights. I kind of like “If Only” for the lyrics and chorus. “Play With the Fire” is Triumph trying to be progressive again, but the song isn’t any good. I like “Take A Stand”, and I’ll admit to still enjoying “Just One Night” (an old Eric Martin demo, co-written by Martin and Neal Schon). I only wish the video remix was on an album of some kind. The superior original remixed version used in the music video has never been released on any music format that I own. I’ll have to use Audacity to rip it from a DVD.
This is not the remixed video, unfortunately — they’ve replaced the remix with the album version
I used to enjoy “Don’t Love Anybody Else But Me”, and I think the melody is still OK, but man, those lyrics. Gradeschool stuff. Of course, I was in gradeschool at the time! To me in 1986, these lyrics were probably pretty profound. There’s nothing wrong with admitting that your tastes have changed and some music you just don’t dig anymore. In this particular case, the tastes of the entire world have changed. Richard Marx does not make top-ten albums anymore. This album lacks spark of any kind, it’s just a keyboard-ridden embarrassment. If you played anything on this album side by side with “Blinding Light Show” or “It Takes Time”, you’d never guess it was the same three guys.
But it is, and they had only one more “contractual obligation” record left in them after this. The end was nigh.
1.5/5 stars
Come back in a few days, and we will be discussing that very contractual obligation record!
Today, I was listening to some old-school Dio, and I had a thought. A sudden thought that I wanted to explore:
“My taste in music was 100% solidified by that month in 1986 that I had mono!”
Yeah! I think it’s true! I was sick at home for a month (at least) too tired to do anything except record videos on the Pepsi Power Hour! I was inundated with a steady intake of incredible songs, in many cases for the first time. And because I still have the old VHS tapes, I know exactly what’s on them. This brief but intense period of my life was rocked by this soundtrack, over and over again:
Spinal Tap – “Hell Hole”, the theme song that my sister and I dedicated to our old Catholic grade school!
These songs were first impressed upon me during that period, the visuals always cool and intriguing to me. Especially Lee Aaron. Ahem. Anyway. I watched these videos over and over again. I recorded the audio (in mono) (…hah, I made a pun!) to a cassette so I could listen to them on my Walkman. This came in handy at the cottage. We didn’t have a VCR or cable there, so the only way to bring my songs was to tape them from the TV.
That one intense period of being stuck at home with nothing but heavy metal heroes might have made me the LeBrain I am today. I’m glad something good came out of it! I couldn’t even go swimming that entire summer!
A treat for you boys & girls today! A guest shot, a vintage concert review, and a significant one at that. Remember when Metallica was just an opening act for mediocre bands? Meat does. And he’s back to tell you the story. Enjoy the first guest shot of 2013, by Meat!
W.A.S.P. w/ METALLICA and ARMORED SAINT – January 19, 1985
By Meat
I was lucky at a young age to have the opportunity to see some great concerts. The first concert of my life was at The Center in the Square in Kitchener, Ontario. It was The Monks (remember “Drugs in my Pocket”?) and I went with my childhood friend, Scott Hunter, and his mother. I also saw the almighty Black Sabbath play the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, three days before my 12th birthday, on the Mob Rules tour on November 19, 1981. I saw Triumph on the Allied Forces tour play the Center in the Square, with my father not long after that. But really my early concert experiences were mostly, and most memorably, with the aforementioned Scott Hunter. I believe it was his uncle who had connections with a concert promotion at the time called CPI. He would leave free tickets at Will Call for us at Maple Leaf Gardens or wherever the show was. We saw the last Kiss tour with makeup at the time (Creatures of the Night tour) on January 14, 1983 with The Headpins opening. Also saw the first ever Kiss tour without makeup (Lick it Up tour) on March 15, 1984 with Accept as the opening act. As well as Motley Crue on the Shout at the Devil tour on June 10, 1984, at what is now the Ricoh Coliseum, also with Accept as support. Many of these shows are quite memorable and monumental, but none so much as the first time I saw Metallica live.
I remember the first time Scott and I heard Metallica. We would have a sleepover at his place every Friday night specifically because Toronto radio station Q107 had their “Midnight Metal Hour” on that night. We would have first heard Metallica (“Seek and Destroy”) either late 1982 or early 1983, before Kill ‘Em All was even released. Obviously it was an instant shot of Metal Up Our Ass! Kill ‘Em All was released on vinyl and cassette on July 25, 1983. I specifically remember (but not exactly when) walking into a record store downtown Kitchener called Records on Wheels and buying that album, Anthrax’s Fistful of Metal and Van Halen’s 1984 on vinyl, all during the same visit. I also remember buying Metallica’s second album, Ride the Lightning, the day it was released. Thanks to the World Wide Web, I know now that date was July 27, 1984. Starting grade ten that September, I was pushing Metallica on anyone that would be open to it at my high school. There were a very select few of us who were die-hards and would have Sony Walkmans stuck to our heads at every opportunity possible. Now I cannot recall if we got free tickets for this particular show, but I do remember how pumped I was when I knew I was gonna see Metallica live.
The bill was as follows: Armored Saint (with Anthrax’s John Bush on vocals), Metallica and W.A.S.P. Yes you read that right. Metallica was opening up for W.A.S.P. I do know that further along on the tour, Metallica and W.A.S.P. would trade headlining sets due to the obvious buzz around Metallica at the time. Here is a picture of an actual ticket stub of this show. Note the price ($15.00) and Armored Saint being spelled wrong on the ticket.
One thing I will add before I go on. Of all the concerts and bands I have seen multiple times live, it is kinda strange I only saw Metallica live twice ever. One of the reasons for this is quite obviously that after their album Load (otherwise known as Mighty Load of Shit), I never really had a great interest in seeing the band live again. But it is worthwhile noting that I have seen Metallica live twice and BOTH TIMES they were opening for someone else. (The second time being the strange bill of The Black Crowes / Warrant / Metallica / Aerosmith on June 29, 1990 at CNE Exhibition Stadium in Toronto) Again, note the ticket price for this. This was before The Eagles ruined ticket prices for all acts with the ridiculous prices for their shows. To quote “The Dude” I hate the fuckin’ Eagles.
So there we were, January 19th 1985 standing in line in front of the late great Toronto concert venue named The Concert Hall. It was freezing cold out, and windy too. So since this was a General Admission event, standing in line braving at least -15 Celsius weather, you can imagine how cold and bitchy people were. I recall the rush of metalheads being ushered quickly into the venue. The second I got in there I went straight for the merch booth and bought a Ride the Lightning tour shirt for me and a high school friend named Joe DeLeo. After that, like seemingly everybody, I had to take a wicked piss. After doing that, I was horrified when I tried to zip my probably really tight jeans back up, and couldn’t because my hands were numb from the cold. My embarrassed horror turned to laughter as I turned my head to see dozens of much older and much larger long-haired headbangers all having the same problem. Only in Canada I guess eh?
Sometime later, Armored Saint took the stage. I remember them being great and how loud it was in there. They were received well and that venue was filling up. While enjoying their set my buddy Scott gets my attention and points to the much-shorter person beside me. Immediately I recognized him as Russell Dwarf from the Toronto band Killer Dwarfs. Their name was very apropos considering this band consisted of nothing but short dudes with long hair. I can only imagine how this band got together. Wonder if an ad went out that said. “Metal musicians needed. Must not be over 5 foot 6 inches tall and have long hair”. I loved that first album. If you don’t know of them, here is their first single and video.
It was time for the Mighty Metallica. They started out with the first track off Ride The Lightning, the classic riff-monster “Fight Fire With Fire”. At this point I was probably about mid-way to the stage in a sea of metalheads. This was before the days of the “moshpit”. This was more of a Hair Swarm packed with long-haired sardines covered in denim and leather. It would have been about half-way through the show that I wormed my way to the front of the stage. This was no easy task as I am sure you can imagine, however being only 15 and much smaller than the masses (with the exception of the Killer Dwarfs of course), there I was literally feet from what would become the best-selling metal band of all-time. This brings me to a memory I will cherish forever. The seemingly monstrous Cliff Burton was right in front of me. I reached out and had in my hand, the bottom leg of his ragged bell-bottom jeans. He tried to kick me in the face, and thankfully missed. Can’t blame him either for trying to kick my head off, and honestly it was the first thing I thought of when said legend died in a bus accident a year and a half later in Sweden on September 27, 1986. R.I.P. Clifford Lee Burton. Check out this YouTube audio clip I found of Metallica playing “Seek and Destroy” from this exact show. Gotta love YouTube.
Check out this set list of the show the next night in Buffalo at some place called the Salty Dog Saloon. (I couldn’t find the Toronto set list online but I am sure it is identical)
“Fight Fire With Fire”
“Ride the Lightning”
“Phantom Lord”
“(Anethesia) Pulling Teeth”
“For Whom the Bell Tolls”
“No Remorse”
“The Call of Ktulu”
“Seek & Destroy”
“Whiplash”
Encores:
“Creeping Death”
Guitar solo
“Am I Evil?”
“Motorbreath”
Which brings me to winding down this novel of a concert review. How could W.A.S.P. possibly follow Metallica? Well, I do remember chants of “you suck”. I remember that the front was nowhere near as packed as it was for Metallica. Maybe Blackie thought he could follow them by drinking fake blood out of a skull (which he did). Here is a quote from Mr. Blackie Lawless comparing separate tours with both Slayer and Metallica and musing about this particular tour.
Blackie: I’ll tell you what was worse – us and Metallica. It was our first or second U.S. tour. It was us, Metallica, and Armored Saint. When they (Slayer) went out with us, they were still an up n’ coming band, didn’t have a lot of fans, so there was a pocket of division every night. With Metallica, I kid you not, it was like an invisible line was drawn right down the middle of the room, and half was theirs and half was ours. It didn’t matter what we were doing on stage. It looked like two opposing armies. Sometimes we just stopped what we were doing and watched. It was a war.
I realize that the merit of music is subjective and it is all in the Ear Of The Beholder. But lets face it. W.A.S.P. really does kinda suck. Some good moments but really not much to speak of. During their set myself and others that with us were just kind of mulling about as most others were really. It was during this time that a guy we were with named Kevin B. (nicknamed Little Dude) said that he saw Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson leaving out a side door during their set. Now to give some perspective on this, this person was a known bull-shitter. None of us believed him. True story: Kevin years later had trans-gender surgery and now is known as Treva. But anyways, we shrugged this off as yet another lie from Little Dude. It was months later reading a Blackie Lawless interview in Circus magazine that I read this quote. “Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson were actually at one of our shows in Toronto last year…. But they were not there to see us.” A classic example of the Little Dude who cried wolf.
In the early 2000’s, somebody thought it would be a good idea to spend money on some company cars. Now, I’m no accountant. I’m no expert on finances. But I would have thought it would make more sense to pay mileage cheques on time than to buy a mini-fleet of cars!
They were Azteks. They were painted in our store colours and had G-I-A-N-T store logos plastered all over them. It was like driving a giant logo board. They were hideous. I only rode in one, once. They tried to get me to lease one though.
“Hey Mike. How would you like to drive one of these babies?”
Wha? Why would I want to when I had my own car that I bought, that wasn’t a big ugly moving billboard? Let me tell you something people. They weren’t just ugly, they were fugly!
I guess the idea here was advertizing; mobile advertizing. I’m not too sure if that worked. I don’t know how many people driving down the street would see a car like that and go, “Quick honey, write down that phone number — I need some CDs!”
Coincidentally, GM slashed the price of the Aztek right around the time we got ours…
I think two or three people drove the Azteks. I heard they weren’t that great. I think we even got a phone call complaining about somebody’s driving. Like, “Hey, that idiot in the CD Car cut me off! I’m phoning their boss.” I’d hate to own one of those and somebody see it in my driveway. “Hey, that’s the guy who only gave me $1 for my Mellencamp! Let’s go egg his house!”
So, I happily drove my own car instead of one of those ugly RockSuckmobiles. They were phased out a couple years later. The great experiment had presumably failed, because the Azteks were no more. Never to be seen again. Thank God.
TRIUMPH – Live At Sweden Rock Festival (2012 CD/DVD, Universal)
In 2008, after over 20 years apart, Rik Emmett joined Mike Levine and Gil Moore on stage. The original Triumph was back, as if time stood still. All that animosity, gone, poof! and in its place is a stellar live album.
They only played that one gig, but at least it was smokin’. What’s incredible is that Rik Emmett retains most of his range, even if Gil Moore’s is more limited. It was always Rik that sang the high parts, and most singers just can’t do it 20 years later. Rik can! And of course I don’t need to tell you anything about his guitar playing. Some consider him to the be the greatest that Canada ever produced, and his playful but solid axework here helps to show why.
He even throws a bit of the “Hocus Pocus” (by Focus!) riff in the middle of “Rock & Roll Machine”! Rik hasn’t forgotten to rock, and as usual Triumph is backed up by a second guitar player (Dave Dunlop) for some extra heaviness to the riffs.
But Rik also plays a lot of licks that are more along the lines of the jazz stuff he does today, a great mixture of his old style and his modern style. Gil and Mike are still Gil and Mike, they’ve barely changed at all. Their playing is as good as they’ve ever been. I wonder how much the band rehearsed for this show? They sound as tight as they did on Stages. (Mike says they practiced a lot!)
Setlist is below. Let me point out two things: No ballads! The closest you get is “Magic Power”. Second…”Blinding Light Show”! ‘Nuff said!
1. When The Lights Go Down
2. Lay It On The Line
3. Allied Forces
4. Never Surrender
5. I Live For The Weekend
6. Blinding Light Show / Moon Child
7. Rocky Mountain Way
8. Magic Power
9. Rock & Roll Machine
10. Fight The Good Fight
The included DVD duplicates the show, but for your eyes and ears! There’s also some cool behind the scenes footage (fans, soundchecks, etc.) and a press conference. Basically, everything you’d want out of a package like this.
I don’t want to understate how much I like this album. Prior to this, my favourite Triumph album was always Stages, their first live album from 1985. Live At Sweden Rock is now my #2 Triumph album. No overdubs, no fixes, this is just pure live Triumph, all killer no filler (or ballads), and they are as good as they ever were, I swear to God.
“When The Lights Go Down”, Canada’s Triumph hits the stage. This album, recorded before their descent into mediocrity, is one of the first double live albums I ever got and is still one of my favourites. The band are tight, there’s a hot guitar solo and just about every hit the band ever had. The band are both singing and playing great, and as icing on the cake, they threw in two new studio tracks (one decent, the other bland).
The decent: “Mind Games” — Gil sings, but does not play drums due to his “annual arm injury”. Gary McCracken, ex-Max Webster, on drums! Can’t get much better than that. This is a great song with a fantastic double-tracked guitar hook.
The bland: “Empty Inside” — pure filler with Rik on vocals. No drummer, as this is a drum machine. Slow, slow, slow. Terrible song, terrible way to end an otherwise fine album. Hints of what was to come.
Live highlights for me included “Never Surrender”, an explosive “Fight The Good Fight”, and the double-whammy of “Spellbound” and “Follow Your Heart” (both singles from Thunder Seven). I think “Hold On” is a bit sappy, although here it is stripped down to a purely acoustic arrangement.
There’s a bonus track on the vinyl, not included on any CD edition of the album. Therefore, buy the CD at your own discretion. It’s “Allied Forces” – a wicked version, too. Gil’s drum solo, “Druh Mer Selbo” (Get it?) is on the CD, but not listed — it’s tacked onto “A World of Fantasy”. On the LP it was a separate track. The annoying thing is that there is enough room on a CD for “Allied Forces”, it still comes in under 80 minutes. I made a CD myself with the entire track list and it fit just fine.
This live album was culled from various shows ’81-’84, so you get a great cross section of key tracks and performances. Yet it is very even sounding, and you can’t really tell that the sources are years apart. It is well mixed and mastered, and it is the Triumph album I play the most.
4/5 stars.
Side 1 LP 1
“When the Lights Go Down” (Gil Moore, Michael Levine, Rik Emmett) – 6:00
“Never Surrender” (Rik Emmett, Michael Levine, Gil Moore) – 6:43
“Allied Forces” (Gil Moore, Michael Levine, Rik Emmett) – 5:07
“Hold On” (Rik Emmett) – 4:21
Side 2 LP 1
“Magic Power” (Rik Emmett, Michael Levine, Gil Moore) – 6:12
“Rock & Roll Machine” (Gil Moore) – 10:20
“Lay it on the Line” (Rik Emmett) – 5:03
Side 1 LP 2
“A World of Fantasy” (Rik Emmett, Michael Levine, Gil Moore, Tam Patrick) – 4:18
“Druh Mer Selbo” (Gil Moore) – 4:12
“Midsummer’s Daydream” (Rik Emmett) – 2:42
“Spellbound” (Gil Moore, Michael Levine, Rik Emmett) – 3:56
“Follow Your Heart” (Gil Moore, Michael Levine, Rik Emmett) – 3:37
Side 2 LP 2
“Fight the Good Fight” (Rik Emmett, Michael Levine, Gil Moore) – 7:36
“Mind Games” (Gil Moore, Michael Levine, Rik Emmett) – 4:49
“Empty Inside” (Rik Emmett, Michael Levine, Gil Moore) – 4:04
mikeladano.com 