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 under-appreciated 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.

THE SCREAM – LET IT SCREAM (1991)

The Scream is a band that could be seen as a bit of a cautionary tale about missed opportunities.

When the band was originally formed in 1989, they were known as Saints or Sinners. The lineup featured John Corabi on vocals teaming up with three former Racer X members: guitarist Bruce Bouillet, bassist Juan Alderete and drummer Scott Travis. 

However, by the time the band got to recording what would become the Let It Scream album, Scott Travis had left to join Judas Priest. Call it a case of taking advantage of a much bigger opportunity. Considering Travis is still the drummer for Priest, it seems to have worked out well for him.

The band changed their name, brought in Walt Woodward III as their new drummer and the album got recorded. But in yet another example of seizing the bigger (or golden) opportunity, soon after Let It Scream was released, John Corabi left The Scream to take over as the new singer for Motley Crue.

I guess it was just never meant to be for The Scream. I’ve long known most of this story but like any number of other music fans I’m sure, I never actually got around to checking out the album itself. But just a few days ago, I was perusing a newly acquired collection at the local record shop and found a damn near pristine cassette edition of Let It Scream. I couldn’t let this opportunity pass me by yet again, so I bought it and jumped into listening to the album.

What did I think? Well, holy cow! I should’ve  followed Travis and Corabi’s example and seized the opportunity I had to listen to this album more than three decades ago.

The album opens up with the song “Outlaw” and it is made pretty clear from the outset that the band had everything going for it in the songwriting and performance departments. “Outlaw” is a keyed up hard charging rock and roller track from the start of the song. Corabi sounds incredible hear and the rest of the band is just on fire.

But as I would soon discover, there were a lot of different facets to the material The Scream had to offer here. Sure, most of the material was high energy rock but when the band switched things up here and there, they did it with great aplomb.

You’ve got pure straight up rockers like “Give It Up” on Side One. But then you have a song like “I Believe in Me” that blows the roof off the place and features a saxophone solo that deepened the song’s sound to my ears. 

Rounding out the first side of the album, you’ve got a couple tracks that incorporate far more of a blues rock style. “Man in the Moon” starts off slow, its bluesy drawl seeping into your brain through the song’s first verse, before the band comes on much stronger and you are hit with a solid ball of head-on rock. The side-closing “Never Loved Her Anyway” gives listeners a down home groove thanks to the track being fueled mostly by a superb acoustic guitar line threaded throughout the song. Add in a great vocal turn from Corabi and you’ve got a killer track. 

I loved all that uptempo rock but I found myself quite struck by the song “Father, Mother, Son”. It’s pretty much a slow moving track up until the guitar solo, but the deliberate nature of the music lets the lyrics shine through this song that serves as a reflection and thank you to departed parents. Perhaps because my own parents are gone serves as the reason why this song was such a stand out.

When the second side of the album kicks off, there’s kind of a funky style to the song “Tell Me Why”. It’s mixed in amongst the more hot rocking portions of the music but it sure caught the ear when I listened.

On the song “Tell Me Why”, I swear there’s a female vocal accompanying John Corabi’s vocal take but damn if I can find any info on the liner notes as to who it may be. But I liked how the two vocals played off each other. That song and “Every Inch a Woman” are both white hot rockers. The song “I Don’t Care” is also a lively number that will get your heart racing. 

The song “You Are All I Need” is the one track on Let It Scream that didn’t quite do it for me totally but that was mainly due to how repetitious it sounded towards the end of the track. Before that point, I thought the song was pretty good. It first focused on just the vocal performance with a light musical touch to accompany Corabi. As the song’s chorus hits you get more of an instrumental flourish. The backing vocals include Ray Gillen and Jeff Martin who were both in the band Badlands at the time. Martin was also a former member of Racer X.

The album closes with the song “Catch Me If You Can”. It has an extended instrumental intro that went on just long enough that I wondered if it was going to be a full on instrumental track before the vocals kicked in. The band plays this song like their was a fire under their collective butts. It’s got a lightning fast delivery that in some ways reminded me of what little I remember from listening to a Racer X album way back when. But there’s a killer driving tempo to the song that is undeniable and I found this song particularly enjoyable. You get musical fireworks and then comes a rollicking vocal performance that tied everything together.

While not having listened to this album before makes me just as guilty as everyone else, I can’t help feel that had the music world not “conspired” to take and take from The Scream, they might just have had a chance to be something really special. I say this because the Let It Scream album is chock full of great songs and performances. It’s a stunningly self-assured album that shows The Scream deserves to be remembered for far more than as a launching pad for it’s members going on to bigger opportunities.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The band recorded a 2nd album with featuring Corabi’s replacement Billy Fogarty. It was called Takin’ It to the Next Level but it was never released as the band was dropped the record label.

According to the album’s Wikipedia page, there is a bonus track on Let It Scream called “Young & Dumb” but it must only be on the CD version of the album because it isn’t on the cassette. That song was used in the movie Encino Man in 1992.

Drummer Walt Woodward III died in 2010. While he never played on the Let It Scream album, drummer Scott Travis does have a co-writing credit on the song “I Don’t Care”.

I saw John Corabi during his first stint with The Dead Daisies when the band opened for a Kiss tour. I got to meet him after the set.