By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

JOHN GORKA – OUT OF THE VALLEY (1994)

It isn’t very often that I go to a concert these days where I don’t know anything about the bands on the bill. Thanks to the Internet, even if I haven’t heard of a band beforehand, I can just hop on the information superhighway and listen to the band in order to familiarize myself before the actual show.

But back in 1994, it was a lot different. So when I went to see Mary Chapin Carpenter in concert at the Wang Center in Boston (Yes, I happen to like some country music!), I had zero idea who the hell the opening act, folk singer John Gorka, was at the time.
But boy that changed pretty quickly. In his opening set, he was quick witted with his humorous storytelling and I kid you not, his songs really struck a chord with me. At the time, he was touring in support of his fifth studio album, Out of the Valley, and while he played songs from other albums he’d done (the song “I’m From New Jersey” was particularly great AND funny), I ran out to buy the Out of the Valley album as soon as I could after the show. And to this day, I still own that same cassette.

I know that the majority of the articles in my series The Cassette Chronicles revolve around hard rock and heavy metal, but I do like to mix it up a bit sometimes and write about other styles of music I like.
I like stories and when singer-songwriters craft songs that tell great stories, that makes me sit up and take notice. When I first heard the Out of the Valley album, I was hooked and that set me off on a three decades-long fandom for John Gorka’s work. I went back and got the albums that came beforehand and ever since 1994 I’ve bought each of his albums since. And I’ve always been vastly entertained and impressed with Gorka’s work on those albums.

But let’s now shift the focus to the Out of the Valley album itself, shall we?

The first side of the cassette opens with the song “Good Noise” and for some strange reason, I never realized there was actually a video made for the song at the time of the album’s release. That oversight was corrected through researching for this article. While I saw John Gorka performing as a solo performer, the video for the song has him fronting a full band.

One of the things I liked right away was Gorka’s deep voice and his facility with language in his lyrics. It reminds me of the same kind of ability that Warren Zevon demonstrated so adeptly in his work.

The song has an uptempo beat to it that his further enhanced by the use of both backing and “testifying” vocals (I’m not exactly sure what that term means) from singer Jonnell Mosser. I was reading about the whole album online and it was noted that this song (and the majority of the album’s material) is a lot more optimistic sounding than Gorka’s previous albums. I don’t know how that went over with his already established fanbase but I’ve never had any divided feelings about any of the style choices in his music myself.

I mentioned singer Jonnell Mosser, but the album is packed with a ton of guest performers who are both big names (Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kathy Mattea) or prolific musical contributors like keyboardist Matt Rollings (whose worked with a varied list of artists like Dolly Parton, Blues Traveler and Queensryche, to name just a few). You should check out the liner notes for the full list of all the contributors, it is pretty impressive.

The album was produced by John Jennings who was a longtime collaborator with Mary Chapin Carpenter. He also played on a number of the tracks on this album.

I should note that John Gorka wrote all of the songs on this album, sharing just a single co-write on the song “Mystery To Me”.

The second song on Side One is called “That’s Why”. It’s never explicitly stated in the song but the lyrics clearly show that it is a song about Elvis Presley. The song is deliberately slower where the focus is mainly on Gorka’s voice and the guitar playing which features Leo Kottke on lead guitar and Gorka on the acoustic. It also has a great backing vocal from country music legend Kathy Mattea.

I remember the first time I heard the song “Carnival Knowledge (Second Hand Face)” and being just blown away by the story as it unfolded in the song. It’s got a sad overtone but with a bit of hope thrown in about a circus clown and it has always left me wanting to know what happens “next” after the song ends.

For “Talk About Love”, you get a return to the more uptempo driving beat to Gorka’s music. The drums come from Fairport Convention drummer Dave Mattacks. It’s a great little love song that isn’t syrupy or overly sweet. I loved the guitar solo in the song and the verse that goes like this:

“You know that bees they go for honey
And the grapes they go for wine
I did too until I tasted you
And then I nearly lost my mind”

And that’s just one of the great pieces of lyrical content in the song. It’s a love song I can actually stand behind as one that was great when I heard it that first time and still holds up 30 plus years later.

The song “Bigtime Lonesome” features just a guitar and bass musical score behind John Gorka’s vocals. It’s the longest track on the album at five-and-a-half minutes. And in direct contrast to the subject of “Talk About Love”, this song deals with the aftermath of a love that’s ended. It’s quite the tonal shift between the two songs but for some reason, I dig this track (for different reasons) as much as “Talk About Love”.

The track “Furniture” is billed (on the album’s Wikipedia page) as being a song about “critical self-examination without self-pity”. I don’t know that I ever got that deep into the meaning behind the song myself. There’s a moody vibe to the musical score which I found incredibly intriguing. The first lines of the song are incredible, “What good am I / If I leave you lonely / What good am I / If I’m lonely too” and further serve to draw me into the track. Kathy Mattea makes a second backing vocal appearance with this song and her work provides further depth to the vocals. As I listened to the song for this article, I realized that I never really got what Gorka was singing about until just now. I loved the song but now that I have an idea of what was behind the song’s creation, it gives me a renewed appreciation for the song.

The first side of the album closes out with the song “Mystery To Me” and it is a nice showcase for yet more of Gorka’s brilliant lyricism and some fantastic humor woven into those words. One thing I noticed about the liner notes is that the tambourine that is used in the song is credited to “Mystery Man”. As a confirmed lover of mysteries, now I want to know who that actually is.

As for the actual song itself, there’s just a killer set of lyrics as Gorka wonders just what attracts people to each other, particularly when they are such opposites. The humor in the lyrics is both overt and subtle at times throughout the song. I particularly enjoyed the flow of this lyrical stanza but the whole song is pretty damn funny.

“Maybe she’s a saint who took some pity on your soul
She had too much compassion then just went out of control
Now you’re walking hand in hand, I would have said no way
I do believe in miracles, ’cause I’ve seen one today”

When you flip the cassette over for Side Two of the album, you get the album’s title track which comes from Gorka’s life when he lived in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. It is a more methodically paced song as he ruminates about life in the valley combined with the desire to leave and how it both happens and doesn’t happen for people.

“I went off in the cruel world / like a gun in a crowded room” is the first line in the song “Thoughtless Behavior”. It is a pretty stark opening line and it captures your attention for sure. The song is interesting for its use of just guitar and bass for the music. The pacing isn’t quite as slow as the “Out of the Valley” song but it doesn’t burst out of your speakers either. Again, when you combine Gorka’s vocals with the words he’s written, you get magic. I also liked the way the backing vocals from John Jennings were used in the song.

The song “Always Going Home” really struck a chord with me when I first heard it. While it is kind of serious in nature, the song gets lightened up from being overly dramatic with the way Gorka constructs the lyrics. I don’t know if it was appropriate or not, but there were a couple of times in the song where I kind of chuckled at the lyrical wordplay. Part of what drew me to this song was not just the sheer quality of the track, but the fact that I knew a couple of people I knew at the time the album came out who could conceivably fit the narrative description of the song lyrics. This is not just a favorite track from the album, but one of my favorite John Gorka tracks, period. I loved the instrumentation on the song and how the uptempo pacing gives you a bit of breathlessness as the lyrics come firing out.

If you want a great example of lyrical imagination being responsible for crafting a great story song, check out the song “Flying Red Horse”. In the song, Gorka imagines the winged red horse logo from the Mobil gas station jumping off the sign and flying to the sky. What makes the song especially appealing is how he takes what would be a kind of silly concept and delivers it with such sincerity that you find yourself believing it might actually be possible. At the same time, there are some lyrics that reflect Gorka’s subtle sense of humor as well. The song also features one of two guest vocal appearances from Mary Chapin Carpenter, who I remain a big fan of to this day.

The Out of the Valley album closes out with the song “Up Until Then”. It’s a rocking tour-de-force from John Gorka. Hell, even the extended song outro is amazing all by itself. A tale of a woman constantly done wrong and what happens when she finally has had enough of being treated badly. This is another absolutely stunning track and another of my all-time favorites from John Gorka. Seriously, you should check this one out yourself because it is just purely awesome.

I went into a concert in 1994 with no idea who John Gorka was. And I came out with a new fandom that has stretched over the course of more than three decades. And it was cemented by the sheer musical mastery of his Out of the Valley album, which remains a favorite of album of mine, regardless of musical genre.

You might be wondering why I chose to write about the album here and now and there’s a small story behind that. As I mentioned, I first “discovered” John Gorka in 1994. And yet other than that one time I saw him live, I’ve never been able to see him in concert again. This despite having numerous chances to do so. It’s been a case of not being able to go due to work schedules sometimes combined with the laziness of not wanting to drive a long distance to where some shows have been.

But that’s changing this summer. Because John Gorka is going to be playing a show in Harwich, MA at a concert series called Cranfest in the Courtyard. And guess who got a ticket? Yep, it is me! And while I don’t usually get super excited about the prospect of going to a concert, I have to say that I’m quite looking forward to seeing John Gorka again. Time has passed, he’s gone from dark hair to plenty of silvery gray hair, and of course, I’ve gotten fat. But the power of his music and my love of it will finally be in the same place once again come late August. I definitely can’t wait!

NOTES OF INTEREST: According to the album’s Wikipedia page, the Out of the Valley album is the only one that ever appeared on any Billboard chart, reaching #26 on their “Heatseekers” chart. The album was the first of Gorka’s to be recorded outside of the Northeast U.S., being done in Nashville, TN.

The song “Good Noise” was covered by Scottish folk group The John Wright Band in 2001 for their album Language of the Heart.

By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

ILLUSORY – POLYSYLLABIC (2016)

The day this article is originally published (May 21st, 2026) is a pretty important anniversary in the timeline of my life as a music fan. It was five years ago to the day that the metal band Illusory officially released their third album. Entitled Crimson Wreath, I actually received a download link to listen to the album a few weeks ahead of the official release date.

I admit it, I was in my “grumpy old man, get off my lawn” phase of musical fandom. What could a metal band from Greece that I’d never heard of before offer me that would let them stand amongst all my favorite bands. The doubt was real but the hype line in the press sheet saying that the band was for fans of three of my favorite bands (including Savatage and Fates Warning) at least had me intrigued.

Little did I know what was to come the first time I clicked play on that download link. Crimson Wreath is a 75-minute musical masterpiece that has become such a part of my life that it is one of my all-time favorite releases EVER! Yes, it stands alongside albums such as Queensryche’s Operation: mindcrime and Savatage’s Streets: A Rock Opera. 

I’ve managed to lose count of how many times I’ve listened to the album. I’ve hyped it up to a number of people over the past five years. I’ve practically worn out the first CD copy of the album I ordered soon after listening to the download link. I’ve got T-shirts, copies of the album on vinyl and cassette and it was indeed my #1 album of 2021. Hell, I even did an interview with the band!

What’s been even cooler for me is I’ve managed to keep in contact with Illusory singer Dee Theodoru over the years. It’s allowed me to keep abreast of the band as they work on a new album (reportedly due out sometime this year, I think). I’ve also been Facebook friends with guitarists Greg Bakos and George Papantonis for a while now. I like to joke that I’m the unofficial president of Illusory’s North American fan club. Hell, Greece is on my travel bucket list now. Not because I want to see all the ruins and such the tourism industry brings you to. Instead, I want to go simply so I can see the band live and get to visit their recording studio, the iCave! 

When Illusory reissued their first album The Ivory Tower, guess who got to review it for the other website I write for? And I was blown away by that one too. And the band was kind enough to send me a rare copy of a CD that was released when they were still known as “Ivory Tower”. That one was so rare that I couldn’t even find a photo of the album art online when I first received the disc.

But in spite of that, there’s been something missing. The band’s second album Polysyllabic. I’ve owned the album on cassette and CD for a good long while now but I’ve been looking for the perfect time to actually write about it. Because it is an older album, I can’t review it for the KNAC.COM website that I also write for but as I mentioned, I own it on cassette. Yes it is just a bit outside my usual target range for cassettes to write about in this series but I’ve been known to range far afield from that usual timeframe on occasion. And what better way to mark the fifth anniversary of Illusory’s Crimson Wreath shaking me out of musical doldrums than to take you on the journey of discovery that is the Polysyllabic album.

I remember Dee Theodoru mentioning the styles of the first two albums varying one from the other, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what exactly I was told. Blame my poor memory for that one.

So as I listened to the album for this article, it kind of became almost like a new discovery for me…all over again. What would this album bring to the table? Could Illusory make a perfect three-for-three? Three masterpiece albums in a row would be amazing, no? Or would I be building up my anticipation level to heights impossible for anyone to match or even surpass.

Instead of worrying about that, why don’t we get into the music instead?

I should mention that the Polysyllabic album was originally released on November 11th, 2016 via 7hard Records. This means that the album is a few months away from its official tenth anniversary. I also noticed is that at the time the album was recorded Illusory’s lineup was just a bit different. Instead of current (and awesome) keyboardist Makis Vandoros, the keyboardist who recorded Polysyllabic was George Konstantakelos. I’m pretty sure I remember learning that back when I first did a deep dive on the band after listening to Crimson Wreath, but I was reminded of that when I was looking up information for this article on the band’s website.

The first thing to notice is the rather eye-catching album artwork. Once I started looking into Illusory after hearing the Crimson Wreath album, I was definitely struck by this cover art even separate from listening to the music.

The first side of the album features eight of the thirteen tracks (stay tuned later in the article for more about that point). The album opens with an instrumental entitled “In the Beginning…”. I know most instrumentals that start off an album are just kind of setting the table for what is to come but for an introductory piece that was less than ninety seconds, this is a humdinger of a track. The band mixes a classical orchestral sound with some perfectly timed metal music and right at the beginning I noticed a brief piece of music that sounded like it would’ve been right at home on a 1980s science fiction movie score. However you want to phrase it, this was a damn cool way to kick things off as it leads into the first “regular” song.

And that song, “A New Beginning” was ripping! The music is soaring and powerful, but what really hooked me was the vocals. I loved how Dee Theodoru’s voice starts out with a deeper somewhat more gravelly aspect to it. That’s how it struck me in the main lyrical passages and then when you hit the chorus, the more high in the sky (and vocal register) vocal style comes more to the forefront. The combination of Dee’s vocals and the band’s musical score had me rocking out as I listened!

I should mention that while listening to the album for this article, I found myself on the band’s website where all the lyrics for each song on the album are helpfully posted so that I could read along with each track so as to not miss anything and for me to discover particular lyric lines that really captured my ear and imagination.

The song “Bleak” has a soundtrack that is anything but. However, the lyrical content is where the song’s title comes more into play. Pretty dark lyrics. And yet at the same time, this was a freaking cool performance. “Ordering death for my pleasure won’t save me”…that is a heavy impactful line both on its own and in the course of the full song itself. Very dark, very heavy and very cool! I love the way the song just cuts right out after the last lyric line. The song hits you hard and fast and when it is done, it’s done. 

“Dreamshade” is something extraordinary. It starts with a mournful sounding cello at the intro which is then joined by an acoustic guitar and a bevy of choirs as it builds your anticipation. The start of the lyrics finds the music still moving along as those vocals in the first lyric verse are done with a methodically paced delivery. 

Then suddenly, everything that came before cuts out and Illusory in full bursts out of your speakers. George Papantonis, Greg Bakos, Niki Danos, Costas Koulis and the aforementioned George Kostantakelos are on fire with their individual performances and blend effortlessly together to make the song a fully realized masterwork.

And then when you just about get to the six-minute mark of the song, the song gets even cooler when the use of a choir for the section leading into the guitar solo makes me think that it is the first time the use of a choir doesn’t slow a song down. Usually in the use of a choir, the music falls back and the choir comes in with a dramatic performance where speed is sacrificed. It doesn’t hurt the song but on “Dreamshade”, Illusory might just have the first heavy metal choir because when they come in, the song doesn’t really slow down. Instead, it delivers a rather powerful performance but at a speed that both accompanies and enhances what you’ve already heard without sacrificing speed. The choir is rocking out and it is fantastic!

I mean check out the lyrics they get to sing: 

“A gentle sound, an awful light

Three angels bear the holy Grail

With folded feet, in stoles of white

On sleeping wings they sail

And, stricken by an angel’s hand

This mortal armor that I wear

This weight and size, this heart and eyes

Are touched, are turned to finest air

So pass I hostel, hall and grange

By bridge and ford, by park and pale

All armed I ride, whate’er betide

Until I find the holy Grail”

Then you get a phenomenal guitar solo before the final lyrical passage. It rocks right until the last bit where all the music disappears and you get just a brief little acoustic guitar accompanying Dee singing the final word of the song, “home.”

The song is EPIC, there’s just no other way to describe it!

There’s no let up in Illusory as the next track “Odd-Y-Sea” keeps the rocket-fueled and high adrenaline pacing going. You get this intro to the song in the liner notes: ““Straightway she cast into the wine of which they were drinking a drug to quiet all pain and strife, and bring forgetfulness of every ill.” (Odyssey, Book 4, v. 219–221)”

And that’s just the table setter for the actual lyrical content of the song. I love when literature is used to create a song from and this one is no different. The care and attention to crafting a song, using the source inspiration but not letting one overwhelm the other lets Illusory come up with a note perfect celebration. I also love how the vocals split themselves between a really heavy growl type delivery and the more soaring style you will be familiar with if you have listened to Illusory before now(and if not, why not?).

As rocking as the songs have been up until now, you get even more of a revved up metal attack on the song “Insangel”. Between the relentlessly paced delivery of the vocals and the crushingly powerful music, this is a song with no real let up in its makeup. And I’m really noticing more and more how much darker the lyrics seem for the Polysyllabic album. That’s not a bad thing but I think because I’m reading along as I listen, I’m noticing the darker imagery a bit more than with the band’s other two albums. Maybe that’s just me, but I found it rather cool that the band can do that and still turn out songs that make my ears prick up in audio excitement.

There’s a spoken word intro to the song “Polysyllabic Thoughts” and it is a great way to start off the song. Stiver Graunne, who does the voiceover performance, does a great job and after he fades out, the song kicks off in earnest and you get a hard rocking driving rhythm for the first half of the song. There’s a cool solo and loved the way the drums from Costas Koulis came through on this song. I noticed that I was really picking out his playing a lot in this song. The mid-section of the song slows the pace down for a more dramatic vocal turn from Theodoru but the music ramps back up again for the latter half of the track. And did I mention how much I thought the song’s chorus was radically dark and strangely addictive at the same time? I mean, “Innocence is my sinful excuse / Paid all dues in clock ticking abuse /Est a levis regnum /Cold asylum of gloom” just struck me in a way that I couldn’t help but get a bit of a electrical charge running through me each time I heard it. Yes, perhaps there’s something wrong with me, I know, but I just thought it was a great stanza. It is at this point that I should mention each song of the album on the band’s website has its own individual artwork and I thought the one that was for this song was particularly noteworthy.

The final song on Side One of the album is called “Last Fallen Angel”. The playing from Costas Koulis caught my ear in the song’s intro. The first verse finds the tempo slowing down but afterwards the song’s pacing ramps back up and the band as a whole is hitting all the right notes as it moves fast and yet with a poundingly rhythmic feel as well.

Before we head on to the second side of the album, there’s a few things I thought I’d share about my time being an Illusory fan. 

As I mentioned above, I’m a grumpy old man for the most part. But when I find something I love, I am usually about to become a big cheerleader for said “thing”. I constantly talk about my favorite mystery authors and when it comes to Illusory, I try to promote them however I can.

I’ve worn their shirts to shows to fly the flag for them and I’ve talked up the Crimson Wreath album to customers at my friend’s record shop. Heck at least a couple of them who have their own Youtube music reaction channels have done videos about the album.

I’ve been lucky enough to see the band live twice via livestream (including one show where they sent me the set list in advance and I have that printed out and saved in Jay’s Archive of Cool Music Stuff. As mentioned, I am Facebook friends with three of the guys in the band. I’ve watched as many of the videos there are online from not just the band, but some of the solo videos Dee has done and guest appearances at shows when I come across them on the band’s various social media posts.

The possibly coolest thing would’ve been meeting the band but they’re in Greece and here I am in the “Armpit of the Cape” (aka Wareham, MA). But I almost was able to meet Dee. Back in late 2024, he was going to be in DC and New York for a few days as part of an extended honeymoon with his wife. We had bare bones mentioned the possibility of me making my way to New York for a meet-up. Sadly it wasn’t something I could make happen due to work commitments but of course it only furthered my resolve to someday make the trip to Greece for a show and tour of the iCave studio where all the magic is made!

And now…back to the music!

Once you flip the cassette over to Side Two, you get the song “The Eyes of Hades”. Stiver Graunne returns a second time for a spoken word intro that sounds like it is setting up a dystopian sci-fi tale. As the voiceover ends, the music kicks off in full and Illusory is rocking from the start. As the song unfolds, I found that the speedy nature of the music and the way the lyrics are rolled out made for intriguing listening. There’s a gang vocal presence during the chorus and they slow fade outs and ins at various points in the song had me enthralled with the song as a whole.

For “Solitary Nomad”, you get a brief musical flourish to open the song before the first two lyrical lines are played out in a slower fashion. But after those two lines the pacing picks up again and you are on the path to another full blown rocker. And yet, the song has many tempo changes that make it pretty cool to roll with the ebbs and flows of the track. I loved the way the slow and beautiful sound used for one passage of particularly dark lyrics served as a sort of point-counterpoint. Also, the guitar work is uniformly excellent on this track. The solos especially.

The artwork for the track “One Sad Moment of Existence” is another great piece and the song itself kicks off with a bassline from Niki Danos before the band bursts through your speakers as a unified whole. The track is explosive in spots but man what a performance from the band as a whole on this one. I love Dee’s vocal delivery a lot and the way the music ranges from full throttle metal to the momentary spots of a slowdown where the music is more dramatic is superb.

The funny thing for me was that the song title immediately made me think of a line from the TV show Babylon 5, but for the completely OPPOSITE reason. Where this title would seem to be from a depressive outlook, the line I was thinking of from the show was “One Moment of Perfect Beauty”. Strange how the mind makes connections to random thoughts that don’t really have anything in common.

“System’s Decay” gets off to an incredible start with a keyboard fueled intro. While I may not be a music expert in terms of songwriting, I thought that intro sounded fantastic. After that intro, the music is definitely more rocking, but there’s so much going on that it is a feast for your ears. There’s a guitar solo to die for in this song too.

The album comes to a close with the aptly named “Swan Song”. It’s a ten minute track that starts off in measured delivery, slowly unfurling itself. When the vocals cut in they also found a groove in slow methodical manner. After the first couple of stanzas, the music got a sudden burst of energetic and rocking music. The tempo rising but not quite exploding just yet. There’s musical thread running through the track and you can feel the song building piece by piece. There’s a growing burst of kinetic energy as the song progresses and when it does take time to go all in on the more speedy nature of Illusory’s music, they still put a nice little spin on that.

While its always a good idea to check out the lyrics for any song on this album, I thought reading along to the “Swan Song” lyrics paid great dividends so I knew what was going on and didn’t miss out on anything.

Wait, did I say that was the last song. Well, shhh…I lied. There’s a hidden track on the album called “The Story”. And man, does it set the stage for itself. A piano (keyboard?) is pretty much the only music you hear at the intro. Then you get a vocal showcase for Dee Theodoru. This is a powerful track that gets enhanced musically with some orchestration mixed into the soundtrack about two-and-a-half minutes into the track. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be an epilogue to the rest of the album or if it is just a standalone number. I’m sure it could work either way but damn, this is one incredible track.

So what’s my “final” verdict? Well, clearly if you’ve read the whole article, you can see just how much I love this album. It’s a bit heavier than The Ivory Tower and the lyrical content is definitely darker in a lot of ways. But you know what, that means you get to explore another facet of the band’s creativity. And I’m definitely all in for that.

With just three albums, Illusory has spent these last five years since I “discovered” them for myself becoming one of my all-time favorite artists. It’s been a fantastic and eye-opening wild ride bopping back and forth in the band’s history since I first heard Crimson Wreath five years ago. And with me finally taking the time to do a real and full accounting of this outstanding Polysyllabic album, my fandom for everything the band does has become, as the line in “The Story” says, ” …the story that was never meant to end”. Nor shall it while I have breath in my body!

If you haven’t listened to Illusory before now, you have missed out on what I feel is one of the best damn metal bands I’ve ever heard. These guys, quite simply, ROCK!

NOTES OF INTEREST: Three days before this article posts, I sent a birthday message to Illusory singer Dee Theodoru with the teaser that I would be doing this article in conjunction with the anniversary of the Crimson Wreath album release. Here’s hoping he and the band like the piece as much as I like the Polysyllabic album.

While there has been much joy in the time that I’ve been this massive fan of Illusory, there has been some sadness too. The band lost bassist Niki Danos. First he stepped down from the band, which would be sad enough seeing how much a part of the Ivories family that he was. His passing later in 2024 was even sadder and he will always remain a much-missed key aspect of the band. 

As Illusory continues to work on their next album, they did release one song that will appear on it as a tribute to Niki Danos. Entitled “Thread and Thrum”, you can find it on Youtube and it is a pretty damn good song if I do say so myself.

Speaking of the new album, no rush guys because we all want it to be as perfect as you decide to make it. But I think I speak for the entire Illusory fan base when I say, we can’t wait to hear it!

By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

I, NAPOLEON – I, NAPOLEON (1991)

These days it isn’t all that easy to find a band or an album that not only have I never heard in full, but a band that I don’t really recall ever hearing about much less having heard their music.

Such is the case with the band I, Napoleon. Fronted by singer Steve Napoleon (who also provided keyboards and some percussion as well as co-producing the album) and featuring Joe Fazio on bass, Dave Imondi on drums and Doug Stratton on guitar, the band released their self-titled album in 1991 and it apparently sank like a stone. 80s metal was on its way out, grunge was on its way in, and this one so completely bypassed my radar that I am not sure I ever heard of it before. I ended up not feeling too bad about me missing out back in 1991 when I discovered that there is apparently only a single video of the band playing live and that was on the Into the Night program hosted by Rick Dees.

But a few weeks back, I was watching a video on the Flipside Vinyl Community with JC Youtube channel and he mentioned this album. Oddly enough, I then found a copy of the album on cassette at my local record shop, Purchase Street Records, a few days after I watched the video. So I knew I had to give it a shot.

The first thing I noticed is that the cover art is pretty striking. At least for me, it really grabs the attention. The next thing of note was discovering that the album has eleven tracks on the cassette, yet  the CD edition (which is apparently available through the French record label Bad Reputation Records) has a twelfth track entitled “My Backyard”. In the interest of providing as full a look back on the album as I could, I went online to listen to that song, which I’ll talk about later in the article.

I’ve seen the band’s sound compared to Extreme, Saigon Kick, Kik Tracee and Shark Island. But for me to really form an opinion, I have to lock in and check out the album for myself.

The first side of the album (Side Day) opens with the song “Perfect Absolution”. The track begins with a brief acoustic guitar run through and then Steve Napoleon’s slightly rough and gritty vocals cut in. Once the first verse finishes, the song blows up into much more of a full rocker, though the tempo still feels a little restrained.

The song “Go to Pieces” finds the vocals feeling a bit plaintive with what seemed to me as having some extra bit of emotion dripping from the performance despite the song being more of a rocker than any kind of ballad track.

“Don’t Wanna Sleep Alone” rocks pretty hard, but I think what made me like this song a bit more was the way the drums got way more of a featured spotlight with the song. There’s a continual solid thump to the song’s rhythm and I really liked it.

The way “Come Back Soon” opens, I have to say I didn’t really care for it. I felt it was just a bit out of place in a rocker type track. When that same vocal affectation returns as the song closes out, it just made me cringe. If you eliminated that from the song, I would’ve like this one so much more.

The song “Everytime I See Your Picture” was originally a Top-40 hit in Canada by the singer Luba that was released in 1983. A power ballad, the song is actually pretty good, holding up better than I would’ve thought it might. I didn’t listen to the original song for comparison’s sake but I do like the way this version came out.

The second side of the album is listed as “Side Night” and it opens with the song “Love / Hate”. There’s a strong drumbeat running throughout this song straight from the opening where it pretty much powers the intro, but you can hear it threaded into the music of the entire song as well.

Much like the song “Perfect Absolution”, even when “Love / Hate” is rocking an uptempo driving tempo, there are still moments in the track where it still feels like they aren’t quite putting the pacing peddle to the meddle. At that point in my listening session, I was beginning to wonder if this just what I was hearing or if it was done with specific intent from those making the music.

Some comments I read online mentioned “Whipped Silly” as one of the stronger tracks on the album, but when I listened to it, I found it to be merely “okay”. I thought it lacked something and just didn’t feel like it was anywhere near being one of the better tracks on the album.

Another thing my research let me discover is that people felt the band’s vibrant sound also had a darker tone to it. And if you look at the titles on the second side of the album, you’d be hard pressed to argue. “Feels Like Suicide”, “I am the Idiot” and “Sweet Cyanide” are song titles that don’t exactly scream “Party Time!” to the general audience. Not that I mind a darker lyrical tone to various songs, but damn…

“Feels Like Suicide” opens with that smooth and quick acoustic guitar intro that I thought was going to fade into some kind of explosive rocker, but for the most part this track kept the pacing and instrumentation uniform throughout. Instead, the song serves more as a showcase for the song’s lyrics and the almost venomous delivery that Steve Napoleon employs for his performance.

“I Am the Idiot” is a full bore rocker. The pacing is fast and furious and the various instruments performing on the track all get their moment to shine in the song’s progression. I really dug everything about how this song was done.

Meanwhile, I liked the way the guitars built to a crescendo in “Sweet Cyanide”. It gave that rising sense of anticipation leading into a rather cool guitar solo for the track. The vocals had a grand intensity throughout but there were moments where Steve Napoleon seemed to bring a bigger sense of the grandiose to certain lines in the lyrics.

“Concerto in D Minor” is technically the end of the album on the cassette. When the instrumental ends, so does the cassette. But as I mentioned above, there is another song on the CD version of the album. I don’t know if it was always there on the CD or if it was added as a bonus track in any reissue from a reissue label. But I went to YouTube and check out the song. That song, “My Backyard” has a keyboard “riff” that plays through the song as its most identifiable component. It’s a solid enough song until the end where another vocal affectation kind of annoyed the hell out of me.

Usually when I listen to an album that I’ve never heard of before I come away wondering what happened to make me miss out on the release. But if I’m being honest, I don’t get the notion of calling the I, Napoleon album some kind of underrated gem of an album. Sure it’s a GOOD album but I wasn’t blown so much away that I would call it a great album. There’s some fantastic guitar moments and you can’t say that Steve Napoleon doesn’t leave a mark with his vocals. But a lost classic or underrated gem? I just don’t agree. Still, with the album marking its 35th anniversary this year, I am glad that I’ve finally been able to give the album a good listen.

NOTES OF INTEREST: Steve Napoleon (aka Steve Batky) was the drummer for the much heavier band Witchkiller.

While Doug Stratton is credited as the guitarist for the band, John Dillabough is credited with playing guitar on the album as well. Some sources I saw said that he was majorly involved in the creation of the album playing a lot of the instruments not just guitar but I haven’t seen any firm confirmation either way.

By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

SCORPIONS – LOVE AT FIRST STING (1984)

It must be a hell of a thing. To write a song with the simple idea to have a song on an album. With no idea that it will go on to become one of the most recognizable anthems in the history of rock and metal music.

But that’s pretty much what happened for the Scorpions, now isn’t it. I doubt the band had any idea what they had on their hands when they completed the writing and recording of “Rock You Like a Hurricane”. And yet, from 1984 until this very day, the song remains as resolutely powerful and anthemic as the first time you heard it.

The funny thing is that I never realized that it was the band’s drummer at the time, Herman Rarebell who co-wrote the lyrics for the song with singer Klaus Meine. I only learned that as I wrote this piece, somehow never looking at the songwriting credits for the album until now.

What struck me even funnier is that despite the song’s standing as one of the great rock anthems, when it was released as the lead single for the album, it only rose to #25 on the singles chart. And yet, more than four decades later it remains such a recognizable track that you wonder how it didn’t go even higher back in the day.

So what can I say about the song that hasn’t been said ad nauseum all these years? Well…not much. If you ever heard the song (and if you are reading this article, I think the chances of that are high), you know how the song captures everything you could ask for in a rock anthem. Killer guitars, fists-in-the-air chorus and an overall vibe that gets your heart racing from start to finish.

Of course, “Rock You Like a Hurricane” wasn’t the only single released from Love at First Sting. In fact, there were three other songs that got the single treatment. But none of them had the same impact on the charts. Heck, the fourth single “I’m Leaving You” is one that I never even knew had been a single.

As for the other two singles, the power ballad “Still Loving You” was the second single while “Big City Nights” was the third single. Both songs, despite a lack of chart success, are still two of the biggest hits for the Scorpions. 

“Still Loving You” has a cool vibe at the beginning with the almost haunting melody and then the breathy vocal from Klaus Meine at the start. Once the full band kicks in, the vocals become more powerfully focused and the “power” side of the “power ballad” description kicks in. It’s a ballad that actually holds up over the years because while the lyrics deal with the topic of love, they don’t quite go for the sugary sappy direction of a Hallmark movie. 

Meanwhile, “Big City Nights” has the rocking and fiery guitar riffs you’d expect from a full on rocker type track. I love the way you get both the lead and rhythm tracks and can clearly hear both of them as you listen to the song. The song’s chorus gets you pumped up even if the song isn’t quite a full on anthem number.

I mentioned the song “I’m Leaving You” at the start of this part of the article and not only did I not know that it had been released as a single in the first place, but I didn’t know they’d shot a video for it as well. An utterly preposterous but completely in tune with the 1980s era of music videos. The song itself has a great rocking vibe to it but I think it gets completely overlooked with all the other songs on Love at First Sting.

That’s the songs from the album that got single releases, but what about the rest of the album tracks? Well, on Side One there are three songs left to talk about and it all starts with the opening track “Bad Boys Running Wild”. While it does a magnificent job as the kickstarter for the whole album, I think the boat was missed not having this be a single. You’ve got a killer riff in the intro, a powerful rhythmic foundation that has a feast of guitar work built on top of it. The chorus has a great gang vocal and the overall hook to the song just works for me. For me at least, it’s one of my favorite tracks not just on this album but from across their catalog.

On “Coming Home”, the ballad intro slowly fades in at the start and then you get the somewhat slight or rather understated vocals. The entirety of the first verse is just a master class in setting a mood. And then as the verse comes to an end, so does the balladry. It gets absolutely annihilated by a full force burst of metallic energy. High stepping and fast moving, the guitar work is frantic and suddenly Meine’s vocals go from the soft tones of the song’s start to this far more speedy and gritty delivery. Throughout the track, the music moves so fast that it just might be one of the fastest musical soundtracks for any Scorpions song over the years.

That same kind of frantic pacing continues on the Side One closer “The Same Thrill”. The guitar work remains impressively fast. The drumming from Herman Rarebell is poundingly intense and you are rocked back on  your heels from the get-go. And yet, I have to say that this is one of the songs that I completely overlook whenever I listen to the album. Which is a shame because it has pretty much everything I could want in a Scorpions rocker type track. I’m only just realizing this as I listen to the album for the article but I’m really going to have to re-evaluate my appreciation for this track I think.

As for the rest of the songs on Side Two of Love at First Sting, the song “As Soon as the Good Times Roll”, is an interesting track. It’s got an uptempo pacing to it, but I liked the way you get a bit of that breathiness from Klaus Meine’s vocal delivery. It fades in an out to a more aggressive delivery depending on what point you are at in the song but that mix does make for an interesting performance on his part. This is another song from the album that gets overlooked but I found myself enjoying it anew on this listen. Also, I dug the way the chorus gets delivered. There’s some kind of a hook in the way that vocal phrasing comes out that I really enjoyed.

The song “Crossfire” is yet another “album” track that probably doesn’t get as much recognition as perhaps it should. While the vocals and music are decent what really makes this song stand out is the crisp drumming from Herman Rarebell. The drumming goes nearly the entire song sounding like a military march or something akin to that. Rarebell really gets the lion’s share of the spotlight on this track and I was again surprised to find myself enjoying the song more than I had in the past.

It’s not some out of the box thought process to proclaim Love at First Sting one of, if not, the most successful album in the Scorpions discography. It is certainly that. But I love how strongly the album has held up over the decades. It was a great album back in 1984 and the passage of time has not dampened my love and enthusiasm for the album in the slightest.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The Love at First Sting album has been certified triple platinum. It peaked at #6 on the album chart. The album got reissued in 2015 as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the band’s founding. That reissue included five demos as bonus tracks as well as a second disc containing a live concert from New York City in 1984.

The classic album artwork is not the only version for the album. According to the album’s Wikipedia page, the US retailer Walmart complained about the original cover AFTER it had been released. This complaint prompted the record company to release what is termed a “clean” alternate cover for what I am terming “cowardly” department stores.

Francis Buchholz, who was the bassist for the Scorpions between 1973 – 1992, passed away in January 2026 after a cancer battle.

By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

BAD COMPANY – FAME AND FORTUNE  (1986)

“A high-tech clunker”.

That’s what one original review said about the Bad Company album Fame and Fortune. But was it?

I didn’t listen to the album when it was first put out back in 1986. I didn’t even know about it until I heard the follow-up album Dangerous Age.

The Fame and Fortune album is the seventh studio album from the band, but it was the first one after the band’s original run of releases. It featured Brian Howe stepping into the vocalist spot with Paul Rodgers having vacated the position.

Having enjoyed the Dangerous Age album, I was looking forward to hearing this one when I found a copy way back in the day. Which is why I was struck by the descriptor at the top of this article about the quality of the album.

The first side of the album opens with the song “Burning Up”. And while those expecting the bluesier vocal tones that came from Rodgers were sure to be surprised, I know that I was enjoying Brian Howe’s vocal style as well.

The song is a pretty lively rocker for the most part. Fully uptempo, there’s a nice melodic sensibility to the music and I am still wondering why this one wasn’t released as a single back in 1986. It’s a killer track and I think it would’ve done extremely well. And I love the guitar solo in the song.

Instead, the first of three singles from the album was the album’s second track “This Love”. Don’t get me wrong, I think the song is really good but it definitely feels a bit lighter in comparison to “Burning Up”. The chorus of the song is more rocking in tempo but their is definitely more of a nod or perhaps musical bent in the main lyrical passages before the chorus. As the song goes on, it does continue on a harder rocking level but that saxophone sound that threads itself in the music leaves no doubt that this one was pop chart aimed. Not a bad thing in my book overall, but I definitely liked “Burning Up” more as a potential single. Not that my perspective four decades on really matters but still.

The album’s title track is the sole creation of guitarist Mick Ralphs and it definitely has a harder edge to it throughout. The weird thing is that you can also hear the 1980s production style at the same time. But this is a damn fine song. It was the third and final song released as a single but that was only in the UK. I know Bad Company as a band doesn’t really like to acknowledge the Brian Howe era if they can avoid it, but this is a track that I would’ve love to hear Paul Rodgers sing when he rejoined the band because it really has a solid thump to it musically but the phrasing used for the vocals would’ve been just as good for him as it was for Brian Howe.

Meanwhile, the song “That Girl” was the second single from the album (at least in the US) and it was another solid track. It’s more restrained vocally in the initial verses but the song gets revved up in the chorus.

The first side of the album ends with the song “Tell It Like It Is” and there’s not much in the way of restraint on this track. Fully uptempo with a kind of swinging rock and roll beat to the song, I think this is another song that should’ve been a single. Even the saxophone used in the song sounds like a blaring rocking soundtrack all by itself.

When you flip over to Side Two of the album, the album gets off to a slightly slower start with the song “Long Walk”. It’s a mid-tempo track in the first verse but you can easily hear the song ramp up a bit in between the first and second verses. After that the song splits itself between the more sedate tone and the more upbeat sound until it just goes full uptempo towards the end.

The song “Hold On My Heart” is one of my favorite tracks on the album. I’m not sure I know exactly why but I just found that I always liked this song. And while the song title might conjure up the notion that it is a ballad, it is definitely more of a rocking song than you might expect. But at the same time, there’s this hook that gets me every time I heard the song. 

By the way, with the appearance of the saxophone in this song as well, I found myself looking up who might’ve played the instrument for the album. There’s no credit in the liner notes and searching online yielded no true definitive answer either.

The song “Valerie” is another killer rocking track. It was co-written by Brian Howe and Mick Ralphs and while you can definitely hear the polished 80s production sound, this song just rocks start to finish. And Ralphs has a pretty cool solo on this track as well.

The one true ballad track on the album comes in the form of “When We Made Love”. If I’m being honest, it is probably the one track that I don’t get all that buzzed about when I hear it. Sure, my lack of love for a lot of ballads plays a part in this but overall, I just didn’t find myself able to get into the song all that much. I find that a bit sad given that it was the only writing credit that Simon Kirke had one the album.

Smartly enough, the Fame and Fortune album comes to a close with the rocker “If I’m Sleeping”. Musically, the song has a strong guitar vibe that is threaded throughout the entire track. But at times it is lower in the mix, especially when the chorus is being sung. At that point, the keyboard gets much more of the musical spotlight. Which is fine since both instruments balance out the music equally. Beyond that, the song just flows nicely and I thought it did a great job not only as a song standing on its own but as the song that put a bow on the album.

The Brian Howe era of Bad Company didn’t really take off until the Dangerous Age album but the Fame and Fortune album certainly gave music fans a damn solid foundation for where the band was taking their sound. Some may not like the album but the notion that Fame and Fortune is a clunker of an album is just flat out wrong.

NOTES OF INTEREST: While original bassist Boz Burrell is credited on the album as being part of the band, he didn’t actually play on the album. The bass parts were performed by session player Steve Price. Meanwhile, Paul Rodgers might not have been in the band anymore but he got a thank you in the liner notes.

Foreigner’s Mick Jones was listed as the executive producer of the album and two songs on the album.

The keyboardist on the album was Gregg Dechert. He co-wrote three of the songs on the album. He also recorded and toured with both Uriah Heep and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour.