2024 Hard Rock Journal Vol. 3 - Complete

The Michael Schenker Group - Assault Attack. 1982 Chrysalis (LP). From the Colorado Springs Record Show (Nov). I've enjoyed a nice reunion with MSG. Their debut is now locked deep into the collection, based on a strong nostalgic pull. The second album I was familiar with due to an old tape recording, and I enjoyed revisiting that as well. I did decide to part with it eventually only because it was largely a rewrite of the debut. Anything after that, though, will be new to me. And to Schenker's credit he did mix it up a bit on Assault Attack. Bringing hard rock veteran vocalist Graham Bonnet gave the sound a new tenor. The keyboards are in the background, but it's mostly organ which is curious. The production is solid, giving it a real oomph that hard rock as a genre calls for. The question remains - is it unique enough for collection space? No.

Uriah Heep - Abominog. 1982 Mercury (LP). Thrift shop find (Oct). The album prior to Head First and similar sounding. Many apologists out there proclaiming Abominog was a return to form. Not really. It does still have some of that trusty and dusty organ, but also plenty of period synths and a strong try for MTV airplay. Good for its era, but not at the next level like Saga (as but one example) were at this stage. More tracks like A1 and B4 would have helped its legacy.

*Badger - One Live Badger. 1973 ATCO (LP). Collection revisit (Sep). The biggest challenge this album faces is that of expectation. Tony Kaye of Yes + Roger Dean gatefold cover will do that. But it's not a prog album, rather a good jamming hard rocker. Kaye's organ and mellotron contrast nicely against Brian Parrish's lead guitar. Even Peter Banks took a lot of Yes with him to Flash, but no such luck with Kaye. With five of the six tracks totaling between exactly seven and eight minutes, this allows the group to flesh out their jams without exhausting them. Not exactly a unique sound for the era, yet had this been an obscure UK or German band, the album would sell for hundreds today. The hidden star here is Parrish (real last name Morris), who had bounced around the Swingin' London scene throughout the 60s and early 70s. Badger would appear to have been his big break but it wasn't meant to be. He tried for solo stardom in the mid 70s and then basically disappeared for about 20 years. I'm sure there's a story there. 

Def Leppard - Adrenalize. 1992 Mercury (MC). Back to my buddy's garage sale here in town who had all the tapes for a buck (Sep). Admittedly I was a bit of an apologist for Pyromania, preferring nostalgia over quality. Adrenalize is two albums on from that and oh boy, is this bad. We're talking crawling around on the floor hoping to find a few pennies to ultimately buy a bottle of cheap whiskey. They want the middle 80s back so bad. That time was in the rearview mirror and so was this kind of tired pop music guised as hard rock. Pathetic.

* - Keeping for the collection

Def Leppard - On Through the Night. 1980 England

As mentioned very recently on the High 'N' Dry post, I tell my Def Leppard story on the Pyromania review. And that story revolves all around this album actually. I won't cover that again, but will say that I truly enjoyed this +1 revisit. On Through the Night is easily my favorite Def Leppard album, and really the only one that could legitimately be called heavy metal. They were for certain a charter member of the NWOBHM movement. They left that for a more radio friendly hard rock sound, a most lucrative decision. In the short run anyway. Had they the wherewithal, they could have challenged Iron Maiden as kings of the movement. And 42 years later one band is known as an 80s relic, the other are eternal stars. I'll let you guess where Def Leppard falls. But back to this album. So many great tracks, especially 'Rock Brigade', 'Hello America', 'Sorrow is a Woman', 'Wasted', and the almost proggy 'Overture'. This album and style is not the Def Leppard most Americans remember. But I most certainly do.

Ownership: LP: 1980 Mercury. Single sleeve missing the lyric inner. Paid retail at a store in Denver (2022), but it's proven to be elusive in the wilds. 

MC: 1986 Mercury. Garage sale pickup (2024).

1980; 8/26/22 (new entry)

Def Leppard - High 'N' Dry. 1981 England

I spoke about my history with Def Leppard in the Pyromania CD review. In that overview I said this about the album in today's post: "One year later, during the summer of 1981, out came High 'N' Dry which I purchased on the spot. Had you asked me on Day 1 what I thought of the album, I would have told you it was great. But I knew it wasn't. Over the next year, my interest in the album had started to wane. As did my interest in the group in general. I was looking for heavier material, and more bands were cropping up to offer just that."

I had really no intention of buying this album again, but when a mintish copy was offered very cheaply, the decision was made easy for me. I'm not sure I've heard this album since the 80s decade closed off, but I recognized most of it by memory. That's how much I used to play records back then. I had less to do in general - and not very many albums to listen to. Hearing this again raised the rating +2, but it's pure nostalgia for me. I don't think I can objectively push this album on anybody. Def Leppard were clearly shedding whatever metal roots they had and going for a more radio friendly hard rock sound. And they were good at it. Some tracks are still part of American culture's 80s obsession, especially 'Bringin' On the Heartbreak' and 'You Got Me Runnin''. There are a couple of hidden gems in here, both close off the sides: 'Switch 625' and 'No No No'. My original assessment as a teenager was spot on. But I have room for it in the collection now.

Ownership: LP: 1981 Vertigo (Germany). Single sleeve with picture inner. Got this dirt cheap directly from a local "offline" seller, that I'm certainly going to be buying a lot from going forward (or I hope to anyway...). I'll be referencing him quite a bit. I also bought a lot from him a few months ago.

8/21/22 (new entry)

Def Leppard - Pyromania. 1983 England

My history with Def Leppard goes back to the very beginning. Not the EP, but On Through the Night. Drummer Rick Allen is only one year older than me, so we were both young teens then. I was still a freshman in high school when this album came out. How I even heard about it was interesting. As with many schools, we always received a one week break in the spring. Back then (in Texas) it was still called an "Easter break" (even in the public schools), then they separated the religious dates and event to the more secular "Spring break". I'm not quite sure when that happened, but I bring it up because the date of release for On Through the night is March 14, 1980. So right about the same time. Because of this yearly break, my Mom and I would join my Dad on his business trips. He was the consummate travelling salesman, working in the industrial uniform business. And he controlled his schedule, so San Antonio would be one of our favorites choices as a destination. He had a favorite motel (yes, that's mo-tel - old days here), that had a nice swimming pool and good places to eat. And my parents even had a social set down there, all related to the business. Anyway...

If you're wondering why I'm offering this background, think a bit deeper of what's happening. San Antonio, 1980. For those who know their metal history, San Antonio was ground zero for the metal movement in the USA (look it up). They had DJ's (Joe Anthony being the most famous) who played the newest albums by hard rock and metal groups. Coming from Dallas, it was much more scarce to hear anything like Def Leppard and Iron Maiden (actually we didn't - not back then anyway). So at age 15, listening to the radio was the new highlight of going south to San Antonio. I was at an age where playing in the pool wasn't so exciting anymore. Hearing Def Leppard for the first time, now that was eventful. Of course, upon arrival back home, I arm squeezed my Dad to stop at a record store so I could buy the album (now that I think about it - I was driving then on a permit. I made him wait in the car lol). Which I subsequently listened to 100's of times afterward. And, as luck would have it, I saw them open up for the Scorpions and Ted Nugent in the summer (at the new Reunion Arena), just a few months after first discovering them. It was one of the first concerts I ever attended. So yea, I was a bona fide Def Leppard fan.

One year later, during the summer of 1981, out came High 'N' Dry which I purchased on the spot. Had you asked me on Day 1 what I thought of the album, I would have told you it was great. But I knew it wasn't. Over the next year, my interest in the album had started to wane. As did my interest in the group in general. I was looking for heavier material, and more bands were cropping up to offer just that. Finding these albums were more the issue.

This is my personal setup for Pyromania. Instincts told me it was going to blow. And the fact that now the radio was all about Def Leppard, I knew something had gone awry. After hearing the album, played in full on its radio debut night, I about puked. Kiddie, pop metal. Music for wimps. I was a grizzled tough guy from the streets. I knew real metal... bla bla bla. We all have to be 17 at some point...

Of course MTV was now a thing, so Pyromania was inescapable. I went from a fan to now hating them. There were new "metal shows" popping up on the radio everywhere, and they all played this kind of crap. Where's Iron Maiden? And people wonder how Metallica was able to scorch the earth so quickly in 1983. Us hardened metal dudes were all starving for just that!

Are you actually going to listen to this CD now? Haha, yes, I'm getting there. 38 years on from my complete disdain of Def Leppard, I'm sitting down for an objective listen to Pyromania. Disc one of the set is the album proper. In hearing this, it's truly amazing how the band were able to tap into the psyche of the era. Hit after hit after hit. All the songs are very well crafted, and quite varied really. It's definitely pandering for a large audience, which they obviously succeeded at doing. Hard to blame a group for wanting to be megastars. And they most certainly did that. Overall, of course, my low rating for this album was not warranted. It was an emotional scoring from my late teen years. It's not something I would keep on its own, but yea, it's certainly good.

Then comes the second, live CD. Recorded in Los Angeles in 1983. OK, now I can really see the allure here. The tracks from Pyromania are much rawer than the polished Mutt Lange produced album, and they come alive in this set. And of course there are live renditions of earlier material from their first 2 albums, bringing me all the way back to my 1980 experience with the band. Ah shoot - I like this, despite my emotional pleas to the contrary. Ha. Yea, I'm keeping Pyromania as part of the collection. Sacrilege I would have decried in 1983. Sigh.

Ownership: 2009 Mercury (USA). Deluxe Edition. The CD comes in a fine multi-foldout digi-pak (in a slipcase) with a full essay about the band and the time. Recent thrift shop pickup (2021).

3/2/21 (new entry)

2020 Hard Rock Journal Vol. 1 - Complete

Def Leppard - Love Bites / Billy's Got a Gun. 1987 Mercury (SP). Yet another surprise from RT. What's an early 60s folk collector doing with this? lol. Anyway - GOSH the A side sucks. It seems each band throughout the 80s was trying to top the other for pandering to a perceived feminine audience. Whatever, it's terrible. The flip is a live version of a track from Pyromania. No room for improv it would appear. Not a great song to begin with. Waste of 11 minutes overall. (Dec)

Aerosmith. 1973 Columbia (LP). Thrift shop find (Dec). At this point, Aerosmith were nothing more than a harder rocking bar band. Two exceptions - 'Movin' Out' is an excellent hard rock number. And then of course there's 'Dream On'. Even though I've heard it precisely one million times, I still find myself captivated by it. Steven Tyler has never been better. And a good thing he gave it his all here. Hard to imagine Aerosmith going much further if it weren't for the blockbuster hit. 

The following came from a local record store, all at 50 cents a pop! (Nov)

Stone Fury - Let Them Talk. 1986 MCA (LP). This is the second album by Stone Fury, before firing up Kingdom Come. The first one was a pleasant surprise and I decided to keep it (and it has its own post here). I should really hate this - from the cover to the obvious synthesized mid 80s styled AOR sound. But these guys have a good command of hard rock, and the songs are pretty decent. Even the synthesizer work is good, a bit Berlinish at times! I'm not keeping this one, but it's better than you would think.

Witness. 1988 Arista (LP). An Atlanta based group, Witness were a bit better than the ones below. They featured a tough female vocalist and even featured some Hammond organ, which was highly unusual for the day. In the end though, all the songs tend to blur together. It's a +1 on Will and the Kill but the genre is about the same. Not worth holding onto.

Victory. 1985 CBS Associated (LP). German group who more or less emulated same era Accept and Krokus. Started out with a couple of decent riffs, but deteriorated quickly. Just like the aforementioned bands. Dearth of material.

Will and the Kill. 1988 MCA (LP). From Austin, Texas, Will and the Kill played the stereotypical American hard rock of the day. Not sure what the allure was in those days for this sound. Not creative, no guitar hooks, and not even good solos. Annoying vocals. 

Kings of the Sun. 1988 RCA (LP). Great name for a band! Should be some weighty stuff here. Bzzt! Australian group with no imagination, and decide to sound like Rose Tattoo and AC/DC. I'm not fond of this type of boogie hard rock. What a waste of a good moniker.

---end of sale

Longtran - Everydays a Weekend. 1984 private (EP). From a Denver area record store (Nov). Presumably Los Angeles based metal / AOR hybrid. A bit like Bon Jovi I suppose. They have a good sound for the time and certainly had a chance to make it based on the quality here. The vocals are a bit overwrought though. Outside of my interest area, but a curious listen. Spine says Everydays a Weekend, so I think the discography sites out there have it wrong.

Bon Jovi - 7800° Fahrenheit. 1985 Epic (LP). Thrift shop find (Oct). What was it about the mid 80s that made these kind of albums popular? I hated them back then, and they've actually aged worse. Bon Jovi's debut was pretty decent actually (not enough to keep mind you...), but the well was already empty by this sophomore effort.

*Uriah Heep - Look at Yourself. 1971 Mercury (LP). From an LP buy in Monument (2019). Uriah Heep are the consummate hard rock band dabbling with progressive. To me, they exude cool. By 2020 standards that is. For those who have a copy of the Rolling Stone Record Guide under your pillow, then Uriah Heep represent everything they hate. History has been kind to these long time warriors. I said this in another Uriah Heep post, but it bears repeating: Seems every high school hard rock garage band of the late 70s used Uriah Heep as a blueprint. I never did own this on LP back in the day, the cheap CD being my introduction. LP wins. (Sep)

* - Keeping for the collection