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.

IRON MAIDEN – POWERSLAVE (1984)

It’s funny how things work out sometimes. I had to delay this article by a week because of real life issues and I just couldn’t come up with a decent piece for the album I WAS planning on writing about originally. Frustrated that my writing was crap, I ended up choosing to write about Iron Maiden’s Powerslave album based on a couple of reasons. The first was I chose the album as driving music for one of the days I was out running errands. That was the CD edition I own of course, but since I also have the cassette version as well, I dug that out when reason #2 presented itself.

I was reading up on one of the music groups I belong to on Facebook and one of the other members commented on a post about the album saying how it was the last Iron Maiden album they had liked. I read that post and thought to myself, “forty years and they hadn’t liked anything else Iron Maiden had done?” I can understand not liking a particular song or even a particular album over four decades but the entire catalog over that time? So I wanted to check in again with the album to see if giving it a good listen could make me understand why that poster  was done with the band afterwards.

Oddly enough, despite featuring at least four all-time classic tracks in their catalog, for me Powerslave is not one of the band’s albums that I do full listens to all that often.

The first side of the album opens up with two of those classic tracks, “Aces High” and “2 Minutes to Midnight”. The two songs were also the ones chosen to be released as singles from the album. For “Aces High” which is about the “Battle of Britain”, which is credited as the first major military battle fought entirely with air forces. And the relentless pacing of the song certainly captures the feeling that must’ve been going on during all the battle. Pure adrenaline fueling the music and your heart rate! Of course, what helps make the song so memorable is the intro used for the video and in all their concert performances. Iron Maiden features a speech from Winston Churchill (“we shall fight on the beaches…”)and it is a perfect setup to launch into the song.

As for “2 Minutes To Midnight”, which is about the Doomsday Clock and how the Cold War tensions kept inching the clock forward. I love how in reading about the song I learned that guitarist Adrian Smith and singer Bruce Dickinson wrote the song, according to Smith, in about 20 minutes. Imagine being able to write a stone cold classic song in less time that it takes to watch an episode of a sitcom. The song kicks off pretty fast, burning its way through pretty much in the same fashion as “Aces High”. You get that killer musical pacing and the drop dead awesome vocal intonation from Dickinson. I remember the first time I heard the song and was blown away when the lyrical line “The body bags and little rags / of children torn in two” came through. First, the image it conjures is terrible but the way the point was driven home was how it was performed by Dickinson. There’s an extra bit of edge to his line delivery there and for some reason it always remains such a descriptively memorable part of the song for me.

Can I tell you the truth? The instrumental “Losfer Words (Big ‘Orra)” is not a song I really enjoy all that much. Sure it’s got a highly jaunty rocking pace to it but while the band may not have been able to come up with lyrics for the song (as originally intended when they wrote the piece), I really wanted to hear some vocals here and kind of zone out a bit when I hear this track.

While “Flash of the Blade” is probably considered a “lesser” track in Iron Maiden’s catalog of songs, I really love how they worked up a song that talked about Bruce Dickinson’s love of fencing. I found myself really digging into the lyrics for the song as I listened to it for this article and found that as I listened, I got inspired enough that I wondered what it would feel like to be learning how to fence and the rush you’d get from all that thrust, cut and parrying action.

The first side of the album closes out on the song “The Duellists” which as you listen to the performance, you could find yourself thinking it was thematically similar to “Flash of the Blade”, the song was written by Steve Harris and is based off the Ridley Scott movie of the same name. There is dueling involved, but mostly it is about two rival French officers during the Napoleonic Wars. Once again, this isn’t a song I have listened to nearly as much over the years but I do like the way this song comes out in the end. And with a lengthy mid-song instrumental piece, I found it more interesting because of the lyrics before and after that instrumental break.

For Side Two, the album is shorter in terms of having just three songs (Side One had five tracks) but thanks to some lengthy running times for the songs, it is actually a bit longer in the overall running time.

Iron Maiden wastes little time in ramping up their musical rampaging with “Back in the Village” which is a sequel track to their song “The Prisoner” (released in 1982). Of course, both tracks are based on the classic British TV show “The Prisoner”, which is a show I must get around to watching someday for all the good things I’ve heard about it. As for the song itself, it is another fast paced rocker song and I found myself appreciating it a bit more than I think I might’ve done before. I don’t know why, since I’ve always kind of like the song but it just hit differently for me this time.

The “Powerslave” title track song is obviously the key song for the album but not just because it serves as said album track. The ancient Egyptian themes and the artwork inspiration for the album also served as the motif the band used for their world tour promoting the Powerslave album. It’s a freaking incredible song that I can’t get enough of whenever I hear it.

Now, the closing song on the original version of the album brings up something for me that I always found interesting. When I was in school, I kind of hated history class. Not that I couldn’t do the work or anything, but it was just so flat, dull and boring to me a lot of the time. And let’s not forget that I went to school at a time when learning from ANY alternate sources was actively frowned upon by teachers. I once had a teacher get mad because when asked how I did so well on a test about Greek mythology, I told her that it was due to reading Thor comic books. She correctly pointed out the fact that it was Norse mythology being used in the comic books. But when I told her the comics got me interested in actual Norse mythology and reading about that got me interested in Greek mythology, she was kind of snippy about it. As if the reason I got the good grade somehow cheapened the grade itself.

Well, if she’d ever tested me on stuff that I learned about through Iron Maiden’s many songs drawing from literature, history and the like, her head might’ve exploded!

But my interest in history wasn’t originally peaked by the Powerslave album. The reason for that is I didn’t “discover” Iron Maiden until their next album, Somewhere in Time. It was the “Alexander The Great” track on that album that piqued my interest. But as my interest in the band grew and I started getting their back albums and learned of how they drew their inspiration from all these rich actual sources of literature and history, I found myself wanting to know more after listening to the songs.

I imagine that Iron Maiden being consistently able to bring history alive in such a way that interested me is why I became such a fan of this album’s closing track “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. Based on the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem which has the same title, the song takes you on the same long journey the poem conjures up. It is over thirteen minutes long making it the longest Iron Maiden song for over thirty years. But what makes the song so interesting isn’t just how it was inspired by the poem but the way the band turns the song into such an event. You get their overarching rocking musical soundtrack but there’s spoken word material and sound effects to build that illusion of both being at sea and I think the sense of madness closing in at one point as well.

I’ve seen the band perform this track live and it is a showstopping piece of perfection to say the least. Plus, three of the band members have gone on record saying it was their favorite song to perform live as well. 

I still may not understand why someone would’ve stopped listening to Iron Maiden after this album but as I listened to Powerslave for the writing of this article, I can certainly concur with the notion that the album is such a classic that it sounds as fresh and vibrant only a couple weeks short of its 41st anniversary as it did when it was first released. It is simply a classic metal album of the first order.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The Powerslave album peaked at #21 on the Billboard album chart. It has officially been certified platinum according the the album’s Wikipedia page, though I don’t know if it has gotten more certifications in the forty plus years since its original release.

The album got reissued in 1995 with a 4-track bonus disc included. It was also reissued in both 1998 and 2015.

The tour for the album was called the “World Slavery Tour” and went for eleven months. It led to one of the greatest live albums ever in Live After Death. While I’ve seen the band a number of times since I “discovered” them, I missed out on this particular tour, though I do have a replica T-shirt for the tour.

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.

OZZY OSBOURNE – THE ULTIMATE SIN (1986)

On Tuesday July 22nd, 2025, heavy metal’s own “Prince of Darkness” Ozzy Osbourne passed away at the age of 76 after years of health issues. It was just a couple weeks after the “Back to the Beginning” event, where Ozzy performed for the final time, was held.

It was a bit fitting that I learned of the news while filling in for a shift at my friend’s record shop, Purchase Street Records. I had texted my friend Jeff to let him know that I was working at the shop that day (pretending that anyone would actually care about that) and he got back to me saying that Ozzy had apparently died.

Not surprising given the health issues he’s had, but still a bit of a shock. I had to confirm it but then I told a couple of the customers that were in the store who were also a bit shocked as you might imagine.

And so begins a long period of time as everyone who ever heard the music of Black Sabbath or Ozzy’s solo career will weigh in on his passing from a multitude of angles.

I had actually planned on writing about a different album this week but I scrapped that in order to pay tribute to Osbourne. The funny thing is, I realized that I’ve never written about an Ozzy solo release in the eight plus years of doing this series. And the only Black Sabbath album I have written about featured Tony Martin on vocals. 

I could’ve sworn I’d done something with Ozzy’s solo albums but as I looked into it, I apparently wrote some very brief pieces on a now-defunct message board forum that I was part of for a good long time. Part of what I said there will be incorporated here.

For me, The Ultimate Sin was the first Ozzy Osbourne album I ever bought and it remains my favorite. What I didn’t realize until now is that Ozzy himself apparently didn’t like the album. I was reading the Wikipedia page for the album and he apparently liked the material but blamed producer Ron Nevison for everything feeling and sounding the same. Me, I don’t feel that way and continue to love the album.

The first side of the album opens the album’s title track, which is one of the two big tracks from the album to this day. It’s a phenomenal track with a great guitar run through from Jake E. Lee but it is far from the only great bit of music on the album.

While “The Ultimate Sin” had a slightly more methodical delivery amidst the overall uptempo pacing, “Secret Loser” was a flat out rocker right from the start. While you may question the idea of being a “secret” loser when you are singing a song about it, this is a flat out great track. It has a fiery delivery of the music and Ozzy giving a vocal performance that is almost rapid-fire in its delivery at times.

As I’m writing (and editing) this article, I’m thinking about my own various experiences with Ozzy Osbourne over the years. I mean besides the music itself. While I’m sure others have seen him live in concert many times, I only saw a solo Ozzy show once. It was the last solo tour he did before starting Ozzfest (a package tour I never once attended). If my memory is right, it would’ve been in 1996. While Ozzy’s performance was good, I remember the show particularly because Prong and Filter opened up and I walked out on both performances because I didn’t like either band.

The song “Never Know Why” is a pretty damn good rocker, but while I did enjoy the song for the most part, the repetition of “We Rock” in the lyrics grew tiresome as the song progressed.

Another blazing rocker is “Thank God for the Bomb” which is thematically in line with the Side 2 track “Killer of Giants”…at least in my mind if nowhere else.

The first side of the album closes out with the song “Never”. Good song but I wonder why they decided two songs with “never” in the title were sequenced on the same side of the album. Granted, they were dramatically different and all but it just seems weird as I think about it in the here and now.

Before diving into the second side of The Ultimate Sin, I thought I’d dig into the 2nd time I saw Ozzy in concert. This time it was with Black Sabbath as they toured for what ended up being their final studio album 13. I loved the show overall and while Ozzy sounded a bit off-key at times, it was the first time I was seeing Tony Iommi and man was I blown away by witnessing him play guitar live. 

The second side of the album opens with the song “Lightning Strikes”. It’s an explosive rocker from the start and perhaps a bit of an underrated gem because it is such a good song that it should’ve been as big as both the title track and “Shot in the Dark”. I love the guitar playing on this song. At times it is understated but when more of a pyrotechnic approach is called for, Jake E. Lee delivers the goods.

I mentioned “Killer of Giants” earlier in this article when talking about the song “Thank God for the Bomb” and how I think of them as thematic compatriots. The opening of “Killer of Giants” has a great understated guitar intro before a relatively subdued vocal take from Ozzy comes in. The song is way more of a dramatic presentation until you get to that first chorus when the music breaks out into a more readily rocking tempo. The song alternates with those two stylistic choices for the next part of the song before sticking with a more in-your-face rocking nature til the end of the track.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever fully appreciated the song “Fool Like You”, but as I was listening to the album so I could write this article, I discovered that I was really getting into the song. Maybe a bit of sentimentality was creeping in because of Ozzy’s passing but the song just clicked with me. You’ve got a vibrantly rocking musical score behind Ozzy’s vocals and while it may not be one of his greatest songs ever, I definitely felt myself rocking to the song this time around.

Speaking of sentimentality, I’m not usually prone to it. So when I saw Black Sabbath on their final run of their “The End” tour in 2016, I wasn’t sure how things were going to go. Remember I mentioned that when I saw them a few years earlier, Ozzy had been a bit off-key at times. But I shouldn’t have worried because this particular show was AMAZING! I even gained a new appreciation for a Sabbath song at the show. The song “After Forever” just blew me away and Ozzy’s vocal for the song on that night was just killer!

 I had written a review of the show for the KNAC website and the final paragraph of that review summed up succinctly what I thought of the final actual tour that Ozzy performed: 

“I don’t give raves to a band based on sentimentality so when I say that BLACK SABBATH delivered a fantastic concert, it is based on their actual performance and not the fact that they have announced “The End”. And that is exactly what happened in Mansfield on August 25th. BLACK SABBATH put on a show for the ages leaving the masses with a indelible memory of a band firing on all cylinders that was less a celebration of their leavetaking and more a reminder of the fact that they are, indeed, the Godfathers of Metal.”

And that brings us to the closing track of The Ultimate Sin album, the all-time classic “Shot in the Dark”. I don’t know what else I can really say about that song other than that. The great mood established right from the start, the burning guitar track…killer lyrics and an all-time vocal performance from Ozzy. Does anything else really need to be said? Just go listen to the song and you’ll get it for yourself. Assuming you haven’t already spent decades loving the song, of course.

When I confirmed the news that Ozzy had indeed passed away, after my first thoughts of shock and sadness, my next “first” thought was for the daughter of an author friend of mine. While she will remain nameless here, she is a HUGE Ozzy fan. She and her family took a trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this summer and there she is in front of the Ozzy exhibit just to continue our totally fake and manufactured feud about who is the best Sabbath singer. Of course, she’s Team Ozzy and because of my love of all things Dio, I choose Ronnie’s side. It has led to a lot of good natured banter between us as she’s been discovering all the great music that I grew up with. But now I wish she’d actually been able to see him live in concert. She’s saddened but doing okay. She even wrote about Ozzy on her Facebook page yesterday as she mourns his passing which included this great line that got me chuckling to myself: “- To this day, there are still very few singers/songwriters that can truly make me feel as if satan himself is out to get me, in the best way possible.”

And that’s what I’m sure many (or all) metal fans will be doing for a few days at least, pulling out albums and rejoicing in the music Ozzy Osbourne was part of creating and that will stand as his testament now that our Prince of Darkness has left us.

For me, that process of digging out his music all begins with The Ultimate Sin. I still think of it as my favorite Ozzy solo album and while critical opinions may vary, nothing can dim my love of the album.

Born John Michael Osbourne, the man who would become “Ozzy”, leaves behind a catalog of music that fans will know and love forever.

Rest in Peace Ozzy!

NOTES OF INTEREST: The Ultimate Sin peaked at #6 on the album chart in the US. It went double platinum. 

When Ozzy’s solo catalog was remastered and reissued in 2002, The Ultimate Sin was the only one that didn’t get re-released. The only available version of the album on CD is apparently the 1995 reissue which features the single edit version of “Shot in the Dark”.

Most of the music on The Ultimate Sin is credited to Ozzy, bassist Bob Daisley and guitarist Jake E. Lee. However, “Shot in the Dark” is credited to Ozzy and bassist Phil Soussan. It is believed (though I’m not sure if it is confirmed) that a legal struggle between those two is the reason why the album never got reissued in 2002.

At one point, Greg Chaisson was hired to be the bassist in the band, but he was fired for not fitting the image of the band. He would later reunite with Jake E. Lee as part of the band Badlands.

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 – BAD COMPANY (1974)

A little over five years ago, I wrote about the Bad Company album Holy Water when singer Brian Howe passed away. I’d always planned to write about more of the band’s albums but just never seemed to get around to it.

Until now it is…sadly. I say that because on June 23rd of this year, after years of health issues related to a stroke suffered in 2016, Bad Company guitarist Mick Ralphs (who also co-founded Mott the Hoople) passed away.

Everything I read about Ralphs after his passing talked about while he may not have been one of those flashy kind of guitar players, the man could write some incredible guitar riffs AND he wrote some absolutely outstanding songs have stood and will continue to stand the test of time. And substance over flash is never a bad thing.

When I wrote about the Holy Water album, I mentioned that the only time I saw the band live was when Brian Howe was the singer. But I did get to see Mick Ralphs and I do know that I had a blast at that show. But what I forgot at that time was I did see band live when singer Paul Rodgers had returned to the band. Well sort of. I paid for a pay-per-view concert that the band did at some point. I think it was from a date they played in Florida but I can’t recall for sure. But I did at least get to see Ralphs, Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke (I can’t remember if bassist Boz Burrell had passed away at that point or not) play a show together even if it was thousands of miles away.

With all that, I just felt that I had to talk about the band’s self-titled debut album this week to mark the passing of Mick Ralphs. When I was a member of the Classic Rock Bottom message forums, I’d done a pretty involved look at the album when a special two-disc version of the album was released, but with that site gone now, it was time to take a new listen to the album.

There’s just eight songs on the original album but the band sure managed to make their mark right from this auspicious start. Six of the songs are stone cold classics of the band’s catalog!

Side One opens with the killer rocking romp “Can’t Get Enough” and if you hadn’t gotten a taste of the individual members of the band before, this song fully captures their separate talents and makes a rousing statement from the first moments. You’ve got the smoking guitar sound from Ralphs, the insistent soulful blues-soaked vocal take from Rodgers and a stunningly resounding thump from both Burrell and Kirke. In fact, the bass and drums for this track are so up in the mix that even I was picking out Burrell’s playing as the song played. Plus Kirke is a thumper on the kit so you know you weren’t going to be disappointed there either.

By the way, this opening song was a sole writing composition by Ralphs. He wrote two other songs on the album himself and co-wrote two more with Paul Rodgers. If that doesn’t show how much substance he had as a musician, nothing will.

For “Rock Steady”, you still have a rocking upbeat tempo to the music though it is a bit more subtle than on “Can’t Get Enough”. However, don’t let that fool you into thinking that the band was taking their foot off the musical pedal. Rather they were just shifting gears a bit. Paul Rodgers wrote this song and it is another highlight of not just the album itself but the band’s catalog.

I won’t claim that I’ve ever really been much of a fan of Mott the Hoople. I know that the band existed and that Ian Hunter was their most notable singer, but I never really got interested enough to give the band a good listen. So when I first learned that the song “Ready For Love” was actually a cover version that Mick Ralphs had written for Mott the Hoople I was surprised. Even as I listened to the album now and was doing research, I’d forgotten that fact again. And while I should do a better job of remembering these things, I can’t get that upset at myself about it because the Bad Company version is a smoking hot slow burn track that they make the song their own and the track oozes such a fiery undercurrent that even though the tempo remains in straightforward groove for almost the entire running time, you still get a rocking vibe to it at the same time.

The final song on Side One of Bad Company is “Don’t Let Me Down” which is not one of the six “Hall of Fame” type songs the album can proclaim…BUT…don’t let yourself sleep on this track. It’s got a nice pounding rhythm to it and when you take the vocals from Paul Rodgers and enhance them with a killer backing choir/chorus to give an added dimension, the song is definitely an underrated gem.

The second side of the album kicks off with the album’s title track. And it is an absolute masterclass in not just songwriting but seeing the vision executed to perfection. And between the lyrical content and the different ways the band uses to set the mood of the song, I can’t see how anyone couldn’t be moved by the track. The slower main lyrical passages give you that cinematic feel. You get the feeling this is the main title screen song for a western movie. When you get to the song’s chorus, the music gets rocked up and suddenly you are hit with a blast of guitars that remind again just how good Mick Ralphs is/was. The song was co-written by Ralphs and Simon Kirke and they really got everything right about this one.

The song “The Way I Choose” is the other of the two tracks which aren’t usually mentioned when you talk about the album. Despite listening to the album plenty of times over the four decades I’ve actually owned the album, it’s probably the one I forget about the most myself. But I’m listening to it in the here and now and find that I like this ballad more than I remembered. It’s got a slow and easy pace and for the most part, the song is built around the vocals and the rhythm section. Yes, Mick Ralphs is involved but he’s in the background more than being the lead thing you hear in most of the song. I liked the use of the saxophone on this track as well.

The energy level gets brought back up to a full rocking beat with the song “Movin’ On”, another high energy rocker that not only features some tasty guitar playing but a superb vocal turn as well.

The album closes out in a much more relaxed vibe with the song “Seagull”. Pretty much just Mick Ralphs on guitar and Paul Rodgers on vocals, this is a ballad that is not only fantastic, it doesn’t really show its age because the song’s subject matter isn’t tied to whatever someone’s love of the moment is. It’s almost somber in a way but I’ve always taken the song in a much more positive and upbeat kind of way myself. I like the seeming simplicity of the song. While I don’t remember exactly when I first heard the song (probably when I actually bought the album but who knows), I remember that I was kind of blown away by it. It’s a feeling that has continued to happen every time I hear the song even now.

In November of this year, Bad Company will finally be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It will be a great day but a somber one because Mick Ralphs won’t be able to be there. So like many other fans, I will take solace in the music he leaves behind and what better way to get started than with Bad Company, which is not only a masterful debut album but one of the best examples of the entire classic rock genre.

REST IN PEACE MICK RALPHS.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The Bad Company album has sold more than five million copies since it was released. The album got the reissue treatment in 1994 and 2006. In 2015, the album was reissued again with a bonus disc containing 13 tracks. Some of those tracks were demo versions of songs on the original release, but two songs (“Little Miss Fortune” and “Easy On My Soul”) which were B-sides to singles released were included as well.

The Bad Company album peaked at #1 on the album chart. The song “Can’t Get Enough” hit #5 on the singles chart while “Movin’ On” charted out at #19.
The final album released with Mick Ralphs being involved was not a Bad Company album but instead it was the 2016 Mick Ralphs Blues Band album called If It Ain’t Broke.

A day or so after Mick Ralphs died, Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott paid tribute to him during one of their shows by playing a slightly shortened version of “Seagull”. You can see a clip of that on Bad Company’s Facebook page.

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.

ROBERT PLANT – NOW AND ZEN (1988)

Yes, Yes. I know…oooh Robert Plant. Frontman for the greatest rock band ever. Sang on the greatest song ever recorded…ooh!

Okay, while the above is said with tongue-in-cheek and a heavy dose of sarcasm, there isn’t a whole lot that can be said about Robert Plant during his time with Led Zeppelin that hasn’t already been said by any number of people in the past.

But despite its success, I think Plant’s solo career, which features so many stylistic changes from album to album that you might get whiplash with each new change of direction, is still somehow underrated despite its highly successful nature as well.

And that’s what led me to writing about the fourth studio album Now and Zen this week. I just wanted to go back and check out one of his earlier albums given I hadn’t dug them out in a while.

I went with the album because it is the first one I can remember really paying attention to back in the day. While I went back and got the other earlier albums, this was the first Plant solo release that I actually bought.

The first side of the album is just four songs and two of those were among the three singles released from the album. Now and Zen opens with “Heaven Knows”, which was the first single. The song has a mid-tempo pacing that isn’t quite a full-on rocker but it does get pretty intense with all the instrumentation giving a growing intensity to the music. Plant’s vocals are pretty smoothed out here and the backing vocals on the chorus gives an extra bit of pep to the overal vocal. That guitar solo was pretty rocking (see NOTES OF INTEREST for who played the solo). From the guitar solo on the pace of the song gets more of a rocking beat and the guitar playing really kicks in full to have the song rock out through to the end.

For “Dance on My Own”, the pacing is pretty lively from the start. I love the musical score on this one and Plant seems to really be warming up to more of a rocker stance with his vocals on this one. The funny thing is that this particular song has a great hook and it left me wondering why they didn’t try to release this one as a single. I think at the time, it would’ve done pretty well for itself on the singles chart. It is probably one of my favorite Robert Plant solo tracks.

Now the second single released from the album is where I really became aware of Now and Zen. The song “Tall Cool One” just hit me like a two-by-four the first time I heard it and I was hooked into the song. You’ve got a full on hard rocking music soundtrack and Plant is REALLY rocking out with his performance on this song. It’s a flat out killer track in every respect and if I was going to be allowed to pick a setlist for a Plant solo show, this one would definitely be on it. The fact that it samples at least five Led Zeppelin songs musically and a couple of lyrical takes from the group as well might have been Plant’s beginning of NOT running away from his musical past. Just a great rocking number that features a new solo from the same special guest that played the solo on “Heaven Knows”.

The final song on Side One of the album Is “The Way I Feel”. It’s got a nice little bit of atmospheric moodiness in the musical presentation at the start. The song is quite intriguing throughout even if it is probably looked upon as an “album” track these days. Of course, that’s definitely doing a disservice to the song because there’s a lot of cool musical stuff to check out. The guitar playing is phenomenal here as it pops up and surprises you with some fleet-fingered playing in at least two spots that grab your ears.

The second side of the album opens with the song “Helen of Troy” and it has a really cool kind of epic feel to it. But the fact that instead of being a long drawn out musically dramatic score, the song has a cool hard rocking drive to it. And plenty of riffs to draw in the listener. Plant’s delivery of the lyrics is pretty cool as well.

By the way, I should point out that by now I’d realized that it had been long enough since the last time I listened to Now and Zen that songs like “Helen of Troy” had admittedly slipped a bit from my conscious memory. So I got to listen to the song almost as if I was hearing it for the first time. Which means I also got to rock out in my head because the song was so engaging. Just a straight-shooting rock and roll song!

The song “Billy’s Revenge” might’ve been done in 1988 but the intro started out and it kind of gave off a 50s rockabilly vibe for some reason. The production on the song makes sure it sounds of the decade it was actually released but the way the song was crafted musically and how it was performed vocally, it really got your foot tapping to the beat. It’s a nice way to combine two different eras and still produce one hell of a track.

The third single from the album was “Ship of Fools” which is the signature ballad track and it is astonishing to me just how damn cool it was then and how it remains so even now. The music is a bit softer in the beginning, more methodically played and feeding perfectly into the vocal performance where Plant really is delivering the goods. This one is so damn good that you’d almost think this could’ve been a Zeppelin song. When the drums kick in after the first lyrical passage, you can feel the song becoming even more dramatic. As Plant sings, “turn this boat around…”, you can just find yourself lost in the mood the song establishes. I saw one place that called “Ship of Fools” one of the best songs Plant has ever writtend and recorded and I think you’d be hard-pressed to really find any kind of flaw in the song.

The opening music for the song “Why” sounds like the intro music you might hear in one of those quintessential 80s movies that introduce some character who is going to become a hero and get the girl by the end of the 90 minute film. I know it might seem a weird connection to make with the song but that was my impression as I listened to the track in the here and now. It’s got a very upbeat and highly electric tempo so you do get a bit of a charge from the music.

The closing track from the cassette version of the album is “White, Clean and Neat”. I was never quite sure what to think about this song before now. I got curious so I used the Net to look up what the meaning of this song was supposed to be. I have no problem admitting that I didn’t get it all these years. The song itself is good with a jaunty tune and some cool guitar riffing powering the song. But the meaning of the lyrics escaped me. When I looked it up, finding out it was criticizing the difference between how celebrities lives got presented to the public and what they really were like definitely gave me a different kind of perspective on the song.

I’ve seen a quote from Robert Plant where looking back at the album, he feels some of the songs got lost in the various technologies employed to craft them. He’s of course the final arbiter of his music, but for me I really loved the Now and Zen album a lot. It’s got great songs that even more than thirty-seven years after its release still have quite the zesty vibe to them. As I listened to the album for this article, I was swept back up into what made Now and Zen such a magical experience the first time I listened to it!

NOTES OF INTEREST – The Now and Zen album peaked at #6 on the Billboard album chart and has been certified triple platinum. While the original cassette included only nine songs, the CD had the bonus song “Walking Towards Paradise”. There was a reissue in 2007 that added three live tracks as bonus cuts. By the way, I checked out “Walking Towards Paradise” and found that I really liked the way it came out. It’s got a cool rocking feel to it and as the closing song on the CD version of the album, really brought things to a different crescendo as the album finished.

Jimmy Page played the guitar solos on “Heaven Knows” and “Tall Cool One”.

I saw Robert Plant at the Providence Civic Center on the tour for Now and Zen. Sadly, I was not thrilled with the show. The volume was so loud that Plant’s vocals got buried too much in the mix. He had Cheap Trick opening up for him and they were miles away better…because you could actually understand and HEAR the vocals from Robin Zander.

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.

METAL CHURCH – THE HUMAN FACTOR (1991)

As I await news of any potential new studio album from Metal Church, I’ve once again started to listen to their past albums. Metal Church is one of those bands whose albums always sound evergreen to me whenever I put them on.

Having written about three of their albums, I couldn’t quite remember off the top of my head if I’d written about every one of their albums that I own on cassette. So I had to go to the wall mounted tape holder and check. As you can see by the fact that you are reading this article, I did indeed have one more album that I could write about.

Released in 1991, The Human Factor is the fourth full-length studio album from Metal Church (as well as their second with singer Mike Howe). As I was looking up information about the album, it struck me a bit funny that this album was hailed as being “metal perfection” by writer Martin Popoff and yet it is one of the band’s worst selling releases.

I wondered how that could be when everything about this album is outstanding.

Take the first side of the album. The album’s title track opens things up and Metal Church wastes little time in driving home the hammer and tongs metallic stylings as Mike Howe’s vocals lay waste to the artificial nature of a lot of music being made. This is a bit more than ironic since the album was released in 1991 and music is still dealing with this issue, with AI and backing tracks in live shows being the new additions to the problem. The lyrical line “Musicians all make mistakes, who needs them anyway?” is particularly telling and still timely.

The band shot two videos in support of the album and the first one is for the song “Date With Poverty”. The video showcases the band playing in a rundown mobile home park with a storyline beginning and ending surrounding video clips of the band themselves. Of course, the video isn’t the point but I remember seeing it on TV and thought it was a great way to introduce the song. The topical nature of trying to simply get through life being short on cash rings true even now for a myriad of reasons that don’t need to be gone into here but the band puts on a stomping performance and has great lyrical timeliness once again.

The thing about being so topical in the song lyrics is that you still have to put forth a great song around whatever particular idea/concept you want to talk about. Time and time again on this album, Metal Church does it with an amazing sense of dexterity as they switch gears and topics effortlessly throughout.

Case in point, there was a big flag burning controversy that rose up in 1991 and Metal Church took on the issue headfirst with the song “The Final Word”. Unsurprisingly, the song was not in favor of flag burning and the band weren’t about to take prisoners with an opening line like “Why don’t you find a worthwhile cause to channel your energies, like finding a solution to starvation and disease.”

Essentially putting those in favor of burning the flag on blast for their support of such an action as buring the flag. No matter what side you might take on the issue, Metal Church had their viewpoint and stated it clearly with this monstrously rocking blitzkrieg.

There’s been a lot of songs taking on those who would try to ban songs, put labels on records and blame bands for actions for fans have taken. Remember Judas Priest on trial when two fans killed themselves who were fans of the band’s music?

But of all of the songs that have been done, the track “In Mourning” might be the most declarative in putting forth the notion that the people at fault are more likely the ones you see in the mirror every day. The lyric “You know the last words that they spoke were “Who loves me?” remains powerfully haunting in and of its own right. But in an off-topic way, it stands eerily on point for what would come later when singer Mike Howe took his own life.

But the whole song is chalk full of great lines and stands tall as a defense against metal music being blamed when that blame lies elsewhere, a belief driven home by the following passage:

“Think twice before you point a finger that you may regret
To clear your conscience is your goal, but that is all you’ll get
What’s done is done, you can’t bring them back, just let go of despair
You keep saying to yourself “If only I’d been there”

The first side of the album closes out with the song “In Harm’s Way”. It was the second video for the album and it is more of a straight up band performance concept in the video. But there’s a heavy subject being tackled here: child abuse. And Metal Church doesn’t shy away from being graphic in their lyrical descriptions either. John Marshall and Kurdt Vanderhoof wrote a stunning song here. They lay a false trail at first with a soft guitar opening that is soon joined by a lightly delivered vocal turn from Mike Howe. As the intensity of the music increases through the first two lyrical stanzas, Howe’s vocals increase as well. And then the band bursts out into a full on metal explosion musically. But it is the following passage that really drives the point home as the band goes for the jugular detailing the life of the child talked about in the song but their utter lack of sympathy for the abusers as well:

“It’s not that mommy hits that hurts me, it’s when she goes away
Get home from school all by myself and won’t see her for days
A kid deprived of love in life has no alternative in sight
He throws up barriers to get him through
A human life’s a gift from God
Your conscience and your heart are gone
You’re much to cruel to have a point of view”

To say this is an effective and affective song is probably putting it mildly.

On the album’s second side, things get off to an explosively charged start with “In Due Time”. Full on metal from the start, I love the way the song is just a straight forward arrow that finds its mark. I’m not sure of the exact nature of the song but I love the performance from everyone. Musically, the speed gets you amped up on a higher excitement level. And Howe’s vocals are so razor sharp, that you feel like you might just have to check for cuts as you listen.

One of my favorite Metal Church songs that I think isn’t appreciated nearly enough is the song “Agent Green”. Essentially the tale of a man without a country who will sell out to whomever pays him, this is an espionage thriller set to music to me. The brief little kind of acoustic sounding guitar in the opening quickly gives way to a more sonically intense rocker. And to say Howe really delivers in his vocal is a bit of an underplaying statement for me. He absolutely kills it on the final main lyrical passage as he sings:

“I’ll change my name, a different look, another page in my life’s book
It makes no difference just who I am, I’ll take the money from Mother Russia or Uncle Sam
I’m filled with secrets of a nation, here at your disposal to benefit my greed
I take my liberties wherever I can find them, I am protected by the crime that lies behind”

I really want to read the full story that someone could make out of this song!

For the song “Flee From Reality” you get an immediate shredding soundtrack as Metal Church races without much in the way of a breather through the song. Cutting vocals keep you on a huge adrenaline rush as well.

The issue of addiction gets addressed on “Betrayal” and I have to admit that this might be the one song on The Human Factor that hasn’t quite gotten its due with me. But as I listened to the song for the article, I really dug into the lyrics and got a new appreciation for what the band was doing with the song. At the start, it’s got a bit of a stop/start feel to it but then a mid-tempo heavy thumping pacing powers the music. I’m not sure if the song lyrics are specific to any one person or just a kind of general aim towards anyone dealing with addiction but man, this finally fully hit home with me even if I’m not specifically affected by the topic myself.

With so many darker tones throughout the album, Metal Church looks to provide at least some measure of hope and positivity with the song “The Fight Song” as the closing number on The Human Factor. Not content to provide sappy hearts and flowers though, the music bursts out of the speakers with the band firing off an intense “racket” that will hit you full force and drive you back. It’s a fiery anthemic track that features some pretty damn good lyrical expressions with passages like this:

“Endowed with a free will and thoughts for expression
Don’t let them fall by the way
Strengthen and use them but don’t you abuse them
Help build a better day”

Easily enough, it’s the perfect track to bookend the album with as the band brings things to an over-the-top ending that leaves you begging for more. I found it pretty easy to write about The Human Factor for The Cassette Chronicles this week.

Because I both love the album already and because it is one that remains in rotation for me a lot. But as I mentioned at the start, it wasn’t their most commercially successful album and for me that just makes me want to know why it “failed” the first time around. Because this is a metal album par excellence that is just begging to be rediscovered by the metal community that should never have missed out on it back in the day.

NOTES OF INTEREST: Each of the members of the Metal Church lineup that recorded The Human Factor (Mike Howe, guitarists Craig Wells and John Marshall, bassist Duke Erickson and drummer Kirk Arrington) have at least one songwriting credit spread out amongst the album’s 10 tracks.

Metal Church was part of the Operation Rock & Roll Tour with Motorhead, Judas Priest, Alice Cooper and Dangerous Toys to support The Human Factor album. They’d also tour in support of Metallica as well.

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.

DIO – SACRED HEART (1985)

I had planned on writing this week’s new Cassette Chronicles article on another artist but if you are prone to believing the universe is giving you signs, last week seemed to be one of those times.

Last week marked the 15th anniversary since the passing of Ronnie James Dio. I can’t say enough about how much I loved his singing. Recently, I’ve been watching The Charismatic Voice Youtube channel where a professional opera singer does videos talking about various songs and singers. She does a lot of rock and metal tracks and from the Dio videos she’s done, she absolutely adores his abilities.

The day after the anniversary of Dio’s passing was the 49th anniversary of the release of the Rainbow album Rising. That album is yet another great indicator of just how great a singer he was.

So when I decided that the universe was giving me a sign and I just might have to heed it, I looked to see what Dio album I could write about to once more give my bit of acclaim for Ronnie James Dio.

As it turned out, I’d already written about the Holy Diver, The Last in Line, Dream Evil and Lock Up The Wolves albums. But I’d yet to weigh in on the band’s third studio album Sacred Heart. And as you can see, that’s the release I picked. It turned out to be a fortuitous choice as well because in just three months, the album will mark its 40th anniversary!
So let’s get down to the business of talking about the Sacred Heart album, shall we?

The album opens up with the song “King of Rock and Roll” and it is a raging rocker that immediately sets the scene ablaze for you as the listener. It has a live crowd audience playing throughout the song which helps amplify the power behind the song. I love the song because Dio himself is pretty much on fire as he delivers the vocals in a rapid-fire manner that hits you square in the face. But the band is especially intense particularly guitarist Vivian Campbell whose playing is just crackling with fierce intensity throughout.

In writing this piece I did briefly look into whether or not the song was actually a live track but what little I found online says that the crowd noise was dubbed in. Hopefully that’s correct but either way, it’s an absolutely phenomenal track and such a great way to kick off the album. I never saw Dio (the band) during this time so I wonder if the song was used to open up the concert dates because it seems like it would be a perfect choice to hit the audience right out of the gate with a fast and furious burst of energy.

The album’s title track came next in the album’s running order. It’s still uptempo in nature but there’s a much heavier methodical stomping feel to the track. I love the line “Whenever you dream, you’re holding the key. It opens the door to let you be free.” I’m not sure about this but for all the various title tracks Dio wrote for each release he did, I think “Sacred Heart” is a bit underrated overall. The fantasy-laced lyrics create a particularly vibrant tapestry as you listen to the song and for me, that actually increases my enjoyment of the track.

I won’t say that I have forgotten about the song “Another Lie” since I’ve listened to the Sacred Heart album any number of times over the years. But as I listened to it while prepping to write the article, I found myself marveling anew with the guitar playing on display here. Yes, Dio’s work remains a constant standard bearer, but I gained a new adoration for Campbell’s work on this rocking track.

The album’s first single release was “Rock ‘n’ Roll Children”, which is the closing track on Side One of the album. It’s got a great story within the lyrics itself but the video for the song drives the story aspect that much more. Whenever I get to see the video I love how it plays out on the screen. The keyboards play a much bigger role in the sound of the track, but it still has its more power driven rock sound at the same time.

For the second side of Sacred Heart, the album’s 2nd single “Hungry For Heaven” kicks things off rather nicely. The song was originally written for the Vision Quest movie soundtrack but it was used here as well. Along with the song “Rainbow in the Dark”, the “Hungry For Heaven” song is one of the main Dio songs I still hear on the radio to this day. There’s a real urgency conveyed in the music here and I continually find myself getting amped up whenever I hear the song, particularly if I’m driving down the highway at the time.

Drummer Vinny Appice gets to kick off “Like the Beat of a Heart” with a solid thumping flourish and he sets the tone throughout the number with his work behind the kit. The track is a foot-stomper of the first order. I think Dio added just a touch more growl to his vocals on this song and for me, it added even more fuel to the fire powering the song from start to finish.”

On “Just Another Day”, the pacing picks up once again. I think this is one of the songs that I once again have paid a little less attention to despite hearing it all the time. But I love the speed of the track and the guitar playing caught my ear like it never did before. Campbell once again outdoes himself throughout the song and gives you a frenzied solo too.

“Fallen Angels” is a straightforward rocker though a tiny bit slower in pace than some of the faster moving tracks on Sacred Heart. Not that he doesn’t do it on pretty much every song he’s ever done, but I like the world Dio creates within the lyrics of this song. It creates a touchstone for the listener over and over again for each individual time you listen to the song.

The album closes out with the song “Shoot Shoot”, which follows the same kind of “uptemp-but a tad bit slower than usual” but don’t think that means I’m damning the song with faint praise. It’s actually a pretty electrifying number and keeps you on an adrenaline high through the final strains of the music.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Ronnie James Dio no matter what venue he appears in whether with this solo band project or with Black Sabbath or Rainbow. He’s just a master performer. I’m not sure exactly what the overall feeling is about the Sacred Heart album within the Dio fandom but I have always quite enjoyed every track on the album and so I love the album unreservedly.

In marking another year since the passing of Ronnie James Dio, Sacred Heart reminds me that Dio always left me hungry not for heaven but for MORE. This is one hell of an album that probably needs more of an appreciation from the metal community as a whole.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The Sacred Heart album hit #29 on the Billboard album chart. It is the shortest of all the Dio studio albums at just 38 minutes in length. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA in 1985. It was also the last album to feature guitarist Vivian Campbell.

With the exception of keyboardist Claude Schnell, everyone in the Dio lineup for the Sacred Heart album has a varying number of songwriting credits for the material.

The album was reissued in 2012 with a second disc that contains the studio track “Hide in the Rainbow” that originally appeared on the soundtrack for the Iron Eagle movie. It also has three individual live tracks that served as B-sides for the single releases of both “Rock ‘n’ Roll Children” and “Hungry For Heaven”. The bonus disc also includes the Dio live EP/album Intermission which was originally put out as a separate release. The studio track on that release is “Time To Burn” which does give Claude Schnell a co-writing credit.

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.

LOUDNESS – HURRICANE EYES (1987)

Featuring the same lineup that recorded the Thunder in the East in 1985 (singer Minoru Niihara, guitarist Akira Takasaki, bassist Masayoshi Yamashita and drummer Munetaka Higuchi), Hurricane Eyes (the 7th studio album) found Loudness still looking to break big in America.

After writing about Thunder in the East a few weeks back, I had been tempted to dive right into Hurricane Eyes and get yet another bit of immersion in the the Loudness back catalog. But I ended up deciding to wait a few weeks in the hopes that I wouldn’t be too overly influenced by my previous Loudness experience when writing and/or critiquing this album.

How’d that go? Well read on…

The first side of the album opens up with the song “S.D.I” and it wastes little time in blowing the roof off the place! The drums from Higuchi are immense. From the brief little flourish to open the song and then the non-stop almost violently intense way his playing rings through the song, he is definitely the song’s foundation. The song as a whole is a pretty fast moving number. The guitar playing is a constant frenzy throughout. Singer Minoru Niihara’s vocals were just a tiny bit rough in the first verse but became a lot clearer as the track went on. The song is pure fire throughout and it will surely get your blood pressure rising.

The guitar playing in the intro of “This Lonely Heart” was nice little earworm. The song itself is uptempo throughout and Niihara’s vocals are fine here but I think they are clearly enhanced by the guest singers who are on backing vocals for the album (see NOTES OF INTEREST for more info on that). By the way, the album’s title makes a lyrical appearance in this song.

With keyboards giving an added depth to the sound of the song, “Rock ‘N Roll Gypsy” turned out to be a decent ode to the rock and roll life. And man, the guitar solo from Takasaki is fantastic! I’m not sure if the crowd noise that comes into play in the latter part of the song is manufactured or from an actual Loudness concert or not but it did let the song temporarily give you the live setting feel without actually listening to a live album in total. I actually liked how this song came out and perhaps if there’d been a bit more subtlety in Niihara’s delivery, this one could’ve been a hit song for Loudness.

The song “In My Dreams” moves the band into power ballad territory. But the ballad portions of the song are pretty run of the mill. But when Loudness gives up the pretense of balladry, the guitar power goes unrestrained, particularly in the song’s outro and that’s what I liked most about the song.

The first side of the album closes out with the track “Take Me Home”. It is a blistering rocker and I found myself (ever so slightly) with my head banging away to the song’s attacking pace and full on explosive energy.

The second side of Hurricane Eyes kicks off with another furiously heavy attack thanks to the song “Strike of the Sword”. It’s relentless yet inviting to the listener. I honestly don’t know how the band didn’t need a nap after playing this song live (if it was in the set list at all) because they expend so much energy in the performance, they certainly should be tired. But my ears were loving every note of this song.

For “Rock This Way”, the heaviness of the band’s sound is fully on display but they pull back on the over the top pacing for a more restrained feel. The song is still uptempo with a chorus that has plenty of anthemic feel. It’s a damn good track.

“In This World Beyond” was a pretty lively song musically but for some reason, I just didn’t connect with the lyrics much. It’s annoying to me because of how much I dug the music. “Hungry Hunter” is another uptempo rocker. Great music, less interesting lyrical content for me once more though.

You could possibly make an argument that “So Lonely” falls under the power ballad banner. But while the main lyrical passages are a bit slower in delivery, I never felt that they were quite “ballad” speed in terms of the delivery and pacing. The lyrics definitely qualify but musically, this song is a brilliantly executed way to end the album. Yes, a tad bit slower but with plenty of rock and roll attitude to spare.

For the most part, I once again have to plead stupidity as to why I have not gotten around to listening to Loudness before now. I really enjoyed Thunder in the East a lot and while a couple of songs here didn’t quite hit the mark for me, Hurricane Eyes does another sensational job of rocking your socks off!

NOTES OF INTEREST: Loudness released Hurricane Eyes in Japan a bit later than in the rest of the world. However, that version of the album featured Minoru Niihara singing all the lyrics in Japanese. The album also featured a re-arranged track listing.

The Hurricane Eyes album peaked at #190 on the Billboard album chart. It is the last Loudness album to chart in the US at all.

Greg Giuffria (House of Lords and Giuffria) played keyboards on the album while his Giuffria bandmate, singer David Glen Eisley provided backing vocals. Frehley’s Comet keyboardist/guitarist/vocalist Tod Howarth also sang backing vocals. Both of them are credited with providing “assistance with English lyrics” as well.

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.

DOKKEN – TOOTH AND NAIL (1984)

Since it has been nearly six years since I wrote about a Dokken album for “The Cassette Chronicles” series, I thought now might be a good time to take a look at another one.

I chose Tooth and Nail despite the fact I don’t actually listen to the full album that much. I know it’s got plenty of the band’s best known songs on it, but when I looked at the track listing as I prepped to write this article, it dawned on me that I usually just listen to those well known individual songs rather than do full album listen.

So I figured it’s about time I do that full listening session and give more of a thought to the album cuts as well as those big numbers.

The first sort of surprise for me was the instrumental “Without Warning” opening up the album’s first side. Obviously owing to the fact that I don’t listen to the full Tooth and Nail album all that often, I’d kind of forgotten that Dokken chose to have the instrumental open things up. It’s a short bit, just about 90 seconds or so but it’s pretty cool. I like the main riff that runs through it at the beginning where the music is a bit softer in delivery. That opening sound fades into the background over the 2nd half of the track as a more intense and crackling electric sound takes over as the song ends its run.

It leads into the album’s title track which is a frenzied and fast paced rocker. I actually like the song a lot and have heard it any number of times over the years, but I’m not sure if it is considered a “hit” track for Dokken or not but that could be just my own personal ignorance talking. Still, it certainly gets your blood pumping. Not that I don’t like the instrumental track, but in my own personal hindsight, having the “Tooth and Nail” song open up the album might’ve been a better sequencing decision so that you get hit right at the start with Dokken’s fiery delivery. Don Dokken sounds pretty good here and actually has a nice big scream at one point in the song. George Lynch’s guitar work is phenomenal and clearly his six-string work merged perfectly with the bass and drums from Jeff Pilson and Mick Brown.

The biggest track on Side One is “Just Got Lucky” which is pretty much one of their best known songs. The song’s title refrain in the song lyrics hit hard and I can imagine that it comes off as a perfect spot in a live setting for the audience to pump their fists in the air or have that back and forth with the band letting the crowd to provide the vocal. The song is another high energy rocker and remains a particular favorite of mine.

While the song title “Heartless Heart” might conjure up the notion of some kind of power ballad, you do get a bit of a twist when it turns out to be a full on rocker track. But I couldn’t rightly tell you that I’ve really had this one in my memory over the years. As I listened to the album, the chorus seemed to be a bit familiar to me but overall it was almost like it was a brand new track to me in a way.

Yet more in the way of indictment on my criminal underappreciation of the Tooth and Nail album is the Side One closer “Don’t Close Your Eyes”. Man, that song is a freaking killer track! Another cool Don Dokken scream and a monster musical score that kicks up the adrenaline factor immensely.

For the second side of the album, you get two more stone cold Dokken classics with “Into The Fire” and “Alone Again”. The latter track is the band’s first big ballad number. And while a lot of 80’s ballads don’t age well, “Alone Again” still retains its original allure more than four decades later. The opening of the song fits right into that ballad designation with a soft musical score and a rather involving vocal take from Don Dokken. As the song progresses towards the first chorus break, the music kicks up the intensity so the power portion of “power ballad” gets its time in the spotlight. As the tempo alternates between these two deliveries, Dokken fashions one of the better ballads of the era.

As for “Into the Fire”, its place in the pantheon of great Dokken songs is secure. It’s got a tiny bit of a softer delivery in the song’s immediate opening but then turns up the pace. I love the part in the song, after the solo, when the band is singing in full with the lyrical passage that begins with the line “Take me back…”. I still get a bit of an extra kick when that part of the song plays.

But of course, before you get to those songs, you’ve got the side opening “When Heaven Comes Down”. That’s a pretty straightforward rocker but while there’s plenty of uptempo pacing in the song, you’ve got a bit of an additional thump going on as well. Not that Mick Brown doesn’t announce his presence throughout the album, but I think he gets just a bit more room to shine through on this number. And the solo from George Lynch is damn good as well.

While my memory does fail me at times when I need to recall certain songs or albums that I haven’t listened to in a while, for some strange reason I also seem to remember other tracks that you’d wonder how they made an impression when the rest of an album might not have. Such is the case with “Bullets to Spare”.

As I looked at the song title on the track listing, I couldn’t remember what the song sounded like. But then the song started playing and man, I could actually sing along with the track. I remembered the song but I don’t know why that particular album track stuck with me and others didn’t. Still, the song kicks ass! Fully rocking on this track, I really need to give more respect to the song from now on.

The Tooth and Nail album closes with the song “Turn on the Action”. The funny thing is I remember the song more for its appearance on the band’s live album Beast From The East than the studio version here. On that live album, the song closes out the live show and is introduced by Don Dokken as a song that just has “pure attitude” (though I don’t remember the exact quote). He’s not overselling that notion because it is a full on burst of killer rock and roll. There’s no reinventing of the rock and roll wheel here but the song makes its bones for that very attitude Dokken referred to on the live album.

When I was reading the story behind the making of this album on the Tooth and Nail Wikipedia page, it made me wonder how the hell it ever got made. The fighting between Don Dokken and George Lynch is well known but the other parts of the creative process and album’s production might not be quite as familiar. The fact that the album turned out to have some of the biggest Dokken tracks is testament to the songwriting capabilities of all involved. Especially since you are left thinking it is amazing no one killed each other during the recording process.

That said and set aside, Dokken really hit their stride on this album and it led to two more platinum plus selling studio albums in the succeeding years for the band. And for me, listening to Tooth and Nail now shows me just how much I’ve been missing out by not doing more full album listens all these years because it is just a damn fine album and I need to spin it more often.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The Tooth and Nail album peaked at #49 on the Billboard album charts. It became a Gold selling album in 1985 but it hit platinum record status for Dokken in 1989, the third of their albums to do so overall. The increased sales figures gave them a much bigger profile to say the least. Not bad for being a last chance album with Elektra ready to drop the band if the album hadn’t been successful.

All four members of the band had a hand in the songwriting credits.

The tour in support of the album saw Dokken opening for Y&T, Twisted Sister, Dio, Sammy Hagar and Kiss. They did some co-headlining dates with Loudness as well.

I never saw Dokken live in concert during their heyday. It wasn’t until 1995 when they were touring for the Dysfunctional album that a friend of mine got us on the guest list to see them play a show in Rhode Island. I actually had to go look up the info on that Setlist.fm website. It was at the Strand in July of that year when we saw the show. I remember the bands that opened for Dokken on that date were awful but Dokken themselves put on a pretty good show.

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.

COUNTING CROWS – AUGUST AND EVERYTHING AFTER (1993)

“…and a child shall lead them”.

Now now, I’m not actually going all religious buffoon on you. But that phrase does flow more smoothly than “the daughter of one of my favorite thriller writers shall lead me into choosing this week’s album to write about.” Plus, I’m sure I’ll get some crap from her for referring to her as a child so cut me a little literary device slack, will ya?

Anyway, the daughter has been engaged in a 3rd round of album spotlights on her Facebook page and one of those albums was indeed August and Everything After, the debut album from Counting Crows. When I read her take on it, I was reminded that I had indeed bought the album myself on cassette when it was originally released. But other than the two hit singles, I don’t recall the album having much staying power with me and it found its way out of my music collection.

So after reading “the daughter’s” reaction to the album, I found myself at Purchase Street Records in New Bedford and wouldn’t you know it, they had a cassette copy of the album. So I decided to pick it up and give the album a new listen to see if time had changed my opinion about it. I mean, it has been more than three decades since the album was originally released, it is possible time has altered my take on things. Also, the fact that it has been more than 30 years…I really feel old now!

The first side of the album has the two big hits off of the album. “Round Here” opens up the album and then of course there is “Mr. Jones” which was a worldwide hit that seemed to be on the radio or MTV every five minutes back then.

For “Round Here”, technically referring to it as a hit is inaccurate because when it was originally released there were rules in place that barred it from charting. I’m not sure what the rules were that kept it off the charts because I can’t find anything online. As for the song itself, it starts off with pretty spare instrumentation and a kind of plaintive vocal from singer Adam Duritz. I liked the song back in the day but as I listened to it now, I realized it has been so long that I forgot how the song grew to have much more musically going on from the 2nd verse onward. That doesn’t alter the fact that I like the song still but it was interesting to realize what I’d forgotten about it.

As for “Mr. Jones”, before the song became so overplayed that I would dread hearing it start playing, it hit #5 in the US, #1 in Canada and #7 in France. It was, to say the least, a MONSTER hit for the band. Hell, the video even won the band the Best New Artist award at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards. And while I still remember how much I hated to hear the song towards the end of its single cycle, as I listened to the song here, I remembered what I liked about it when I first heard it. It’s got a nice rollicking pace with Duritz providing a vocal performance that draws you in. The song’s chorus gets you a bit amped up too.

As for the other songs on the first side of the album, the track “Omaha” kind of just sat “there” for me. I was trying to get into the song but I just didn’t hear much to make me want to rewind the tape and play it again. I would say kind of the same thing about “Perfect Blue Buildings”. In fact, the lyric “Help me stay awake, I’m falling asleep…” kind of sums up my feeling about the song.

Maybe it is simply the fact that Counting Crows seemed more interesting to me when their songs were more in the uptempo vein. When the music is slow and contemplative, I get bored because the songs have a bit of “sameness” to it.

Of course, the song “Anna Begins” is a more interesting to me. While it does start off a tiny bit slow, there’s a good dose of thump from drummer Steve Bowman. The song does mostly hit a mid-tempo pacing thanks to the drumming and the rising and falling of the other musical parts.

The first side of the album closes out with the song “Time and Time Again” which finds the band slowing down once more as the track begins. But it does get more musically driven for the song’s chorus at least. What I noticed here is that the kind of whining yelp from Duritz really started to grate on my nerves by this point in the album. If I could tune out or at least down his vocal in this song by a half, I would’ve liked the song a lot more because musically this isn’t a bad track.

The second side of the album is where I ended up discovering that two more of the songs had been released as singles. They didn’t chart or anything but they’d gotten that individual treatment. I had probably checked out on the band before either song had gotten released which would account for why I didn’t know (or perhaps had forgotten) about that particular point.

The song “Rain King” opens up Side Two and it was the third single. The idea that I enjoy the band’s music more when it has a more rocking tone to the songs is given more credence because “Rain King” is uptempo throughout and I found myself digging the song quite a lot. As I listened I did recall this track from when I first heard the album but not that I’d heard it as a “single”. The vocals are more direct without quite so much whining and the fast pace was a audio feast for the ears. Hell, I probably enjoyed this song here and now even more than the two charting singles.

Counting Crows immediately slows things back down with the song “Sullivan Street”. I like the guitar line that fuels the song during its slower sections. The thing that made me enjoy the song more than I thought I would is that even though the vocals are slower in nature, they are delivered (mostly) in that same kind of direct fashion that you hear on “Rain King”. That is to say there is a lot less of that annoying and cloying emo whining than is on other songs.

Much like with “Omaha” on Side One of the album, I found myself just unable to get into and therefore appreciate what was going on with the song “Ghost Train”.

As much as I prefer when the material is more along a fast moving rock type song, I have to say that the piano driven “Raining in Baltimore” kind of blew me away. Between the heavy tone the piano gives the track and the impassioned vocal performance from Duritz, this track gained a new life with me as I listened to it for this article. It not only had me saying “Wow!” but also wondering why I’d forgotten the song in first place.

The album closes out with the song “A Murder of One”. The song was the fourth and final single released from August and Everything After. It’s got a solid rocking beat to it from the get-go. As I listened, the music carried me along and at one point I even found myself slapping my knees in time to the rhythm.

Confronting an album from the past that I’d heard, not really gotten into and sort of mostly forgotten about is part of the conceit of The Cassette Chronicles series to be sure. And the Counting Crows album August and Everything After certainly fits the bill. I guess the stuff I didn’t like as I listened to the album now is likely what drove me away from it back in the day. But those things are offset by what I do like after my new listening session. I’m going to definitely be keeping the album in my collection this time around. I won’t say that it will be in heavy rotation or anything but I do admit I’ve gained a new appreciation of the release as a whole.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The August and Everything After album sold 7 million copies and hit #4 on the album chart. When the album was reissued in 2007 it had 6 bonus tracks added to the end of the first disc. The second disc was a live concert recording.

One of my favorite singers, Maria McKee (from Lone Justice and a solo artist), is credited with providing backing vocals on the album.

Bonnie Aarons, the actress who appears in the video for the song “Round Here” would go on to appear in movies like The Conjuring 2 and The Nun.
The song “A Murder of One” would be used in an episode of the TV series Scrubs and The Bear.

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.

LOUDNESS – THUNDER IN THE EAST (1985)

While I normally travel back in time for each article in The Cassette Chronicles, I rarely venture further than England when it comes to where each band featured comes from. But if you will forgive the cliche writing, I’m not only going back in time this week but I’m travelling (so to speak) to the Land of the Rising Sun for a look at Loudness album Thunder in the East, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year!
Given that the “Rising Sun” artwork serves as the album’s artwork, I don’t feel too bad using that particular that cliche no matter how overused it is.

While Loudness had released four albums in Japan by the time 1985 rolled around, they’d yet to have an album officially released in the US. That all changed when Atco records made the band the first Japanese band to be officially signed to a major label in the U.S. (Atco was a subsidiary of Atlantic Records at the time).

To be clear, I have never heard this album before. I have a vague recollection of hearing the song “Crazy Nights”, probably on the radio back in the day. So this was pretty much a brand new listening experience for me. And after doing all the listening sessions, I have to say that I was astounded by just how much I enjoyed the album.
Founded by guitarist Akira Takasaki (the only constant in the band’s lineup all these years and who wrote all the music for this album save one track) and drummer Munetaka Higuchi, the lineup that recorded this album included singer Minoru Niihara (who wrote all the lyrics) and bassist Masayoshi Yamashita (who wrote the music for the song “Heavy Chains”).

Musically speaking, Thunder in the East was eye-opening to say the least. To say Takasaki was absolutely shredding on these songs is an understatement. He was just freaking fantastic as he had tons of six-string pyrotechnics to enliven each track.

The song “Crazy Nights” opens the album and it is still the band’s best known song. It’s got a bit of an anthemic feel to it. Each of the first nine songs on the album is pretty much an exercise in fast moving up tempo rock and “Crazy Nights” gets things going right from the start of the song. And while there are some songs where Niihara’s vocals either get drowned in the mix or could’ve used a bit more in the way of clearer enunciation, on this song his gritty intonations were perfectly cast alongside the music.

Loudness continued that kind of fiery delivery on “Like Hell” where Takasaki’s playing was particularly immense.

While the opening of “Heavy Chains” starts off with a slow roll intro, the song quickly gives way to a heavier rocking tempo and sound.
The last two songs on Side One of the album are “Get Away” and “We Could Be Together”. Each track pretty much just bursts out of your speakers to grab you from the first note and shake you around until the very last second.

I was feeling pretty invigorated after those first five tracks and once I flipped over the cassette, that same level of excitement continued with Side Two’s opening track “Run For Your Life”. The song opens with a rocking intro but then slows down as Niihara’s vocal run of the first lyrical passage kicks in. But as you get to the song’s chorus, the music ramps up and by the time you get to the conclusion, the song is a full on rocker!

The song “Clockwork Toy” is musically explosive with a soundtrack that will definitely get you pumped up. And you can say that about both “No Way Out” and “The Lines are Drawn” as well.

Thunder in the East closes out with the band’s power ballad “Never Change Your Mind”. Maybe because I was on such a musical high with the rest of the more rocking songs, I had no gripes with this track either. Well, maybe it could’ve been earlier in the album so things finished on a more energetic level but for the song itself, I actually rather enjoyed it for what it was.

While Loudness never really quite broke through in the US, they’ve certainly enjoyed a long career having released 26 studio albums (which according to the band’s Wikipedia page only 6 have been licensed in the US), three EPS, eight live albums and had 16 different compilations put out as well.

But as the album marks that 40th anniversary I mentioned earlier, I have finally heard my first Loudness album in full and I have to say that Thunder in the East has kind of lit a fire under my butt to check out more of what the band’s discography has to offer. And luckily, I won’t have to wait too long to do that because I actually purchased another of their albums on cassette when I bought Thunder in the East.

Meanwhile, I’m going to be enjoying Thunder in the East a bit more because in a failure of more clever writing, the music is quite thunderous indeed!

NOTES OF INTEREST: The Thunder in the East album peaked at #74 on the Billboard album chart. There have been at least 2 reissues of the album. In 2005, there were 2 bonus tracks. In 2015 there were two different bonus tracks plus two DVDs.

Founding drummer Munetaka Higuchi passed away in 2008 from liver cancer.

While singer Minoru Niihara has been the primary vocalist for Loudness, the band has had two other singers in their career. American singer Mike Vescera fronted the band for three years and ex-EZO singer sang for the group for 8 years before Niihara returned to the lineup in 2000.