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.

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.

DIAMOND HEAD – BORROWED TIME (1982)

You’d think that with my overwhelming love of heavy metal that I would’ve been way more into the New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands than my research for this article showed me.

In prepping to write about Diamond Head’s 2nd album Borrowed Time, I looked up a list of bands that were part of this particular brand of metal. One of the things I found is that a lot of the bands started out (and finished) well before I even got into metal.

But the list of bands I saw on Wikipedia showed me that there are only 4 bands from that time that I actually listened and/or still listen to nowadays. Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Grim Reaper and Saxon. I did hear one album from Lionheart from their recent run of releases too, but nothing else from them. And while I recognized a few other names, none of them were ones that I actually heard any material from.

And so as I set out to listen to Borrowed Time, I knew this was going to be an almost completely new experience for me. I say almost because of course I knew of the song “Am I Evil?” because of the Metallica version of the song.

Yes, Diamond Head’s best known song is also best known for the cover version of it rather than their own original recording. It seems that the band had a hex on it when it came to any hope of big commercial breakthrough. They didn’t have professional management, they never played in the States until 2002 and they were on a TERRIBLE record label for their style of music.

But what about the actual music? And that’s what I was looking forward to discovering since I can’t even be sure I’d heard Diamond Head’s “Am I Evil?” before checking it out on this cassette.

The Borrowed Time album is considered the band’s 2nd album but from what I saw online, it was originally supposed to be their first album. The band’s first release Lightning to the Nations was apparently only supposed to be a demo.

Which would explain how an album with just seven songs on it would end up having two tracks that had already been released on Diamond Head’s “first” album. Besides “Am I Evil?”, the song “Lightning to the Nations” (or “Lightning to the Nation” as it is listed on the actual cassette and insert) were released on both of the first two Diamond Head albums.

With “Am I Evil?”, it is possible that I’ve heard this original version in the past, but I just don’t remember doing so. As I listened to it here, I found that I liked it. But that enjoyment felt a bit tempered for me because I’d heard Metallica’s version first and in my head that’s the version that is THE version for me. I know that makes little sense logically but that’s just how it is I guess.

As for “Lightning for the Nation”, I definitely have no recollection of hearing this track at all. I liked the way the song opened with a big thunderous kind of ovation and then launched into a far more fiery rocking tempo for most of the rest of the song. Singer Sean Harris sounds really good on this track and the band really lays down some serious metallic chops.

Of course each of those two tracks close out each side of the cassette. What about the rest of the material?

Well, the song “Call Me” opens up the first side of the album. My initial reaction to the song was that it sounded rather commercially accessible (or at least what would be considered accessible in 1982). I’m guessing that might be something to do with what I saw online about how signing with MCA Records led to Diamond Head smoothing out their sound a lot from their first album to this 2nd one. Still, I don’t think it was all that detrimental to the overall effect the song had on me. This track seemed much more of a hard rock song than a metal one and you got that big backing vocal sound on the chorus that would become VERY prevalent throughout the 1980s metal years.

For “In The Heat of the Night”, the song is more of a midtempo slow burner, at least until the crackling good guitar solo that lends a bit more of an edge to the overall feel of the song. It took me a couple of listens to really appreciate the song but it did grow on me pretty quickly I must say.

The most surprising track for me on Borrowed Time had to be “Don’t You Ever Leave Me”. Like “Call Me”, it is definitely more of a hard rock song. But what really got me into the song was the bluesy rock sound I heard in the music at points and the fact that it is a pretty lengthy song, clocking in at just under eight minutes long. I loved the guitar playing and solo from founding guitarist Brian Tatler as well. He just wails on this song.

Before I talk about the songs on Side Two, I thought I’d go into why being on MCA was such a bad move for the band. It really kind of breaks down to the fact that MCA just didn’t seem to know how to market the band. Case in point, the cassette edition I have doesn’t have official liner notes for the album. Instead, the insert has two lists of other MCA artists “you will enjoy”. And most of them are country artists like Barbara Mandrell, the Oak Ridge Boys and Merle Haggard. Sure, there’s few listings for The Who and Lynyrd Skynyrd but then you’ve got Neil Diamond and Olivia Newton-John too. Not exactly feeling the love of metal here people!

As for Side Two, besides “Am I Evil?”, you’ve got the album’s title track which is another one that runs nearly eight minutes in length. It’s pretty interesting though not one of my personal favorites on the album.

As for “To Heaven From Hell”, I think this is the album where Diamond Head really cuts loose fully and sounds like what  you might expect from a heavy metal band considered such an early influence to metal music and to Metallica and Megadeth in particular. Start to finish, this song just rocks relentlessly. I love the guitar playing on this song a lot.

As I said at the start, I’ve never really heard much from Diamond Head in the past despite knowing who they were. The Borrowed Time album struck me as being pretty good even if it didn’t bring the band the commercial success that would’ve broadened their fan base at the time. I don’t know that I would listen to it on repeat or anything but the album does make me want to hear more of their albums which makes this foray into the Diamond Head catalog a rousing success in my book!

NOTES OF INTEREST: Besides singer Sean Harris and guitarist Brian Tatler, the Borrowed Time recording lineup included Colin Kimberley on bass and Duncan Scott on drums.

Diamond Head has recorded nine studio albums over the band’s run, though their most recent was a 2020 re-recording of their first album Lightning to the Nations. They’ve also put out six live releases and shockingly enough eleven compilations.

Guitarist Brian Tatler joined fellow NWOBHM band Saxon in 2023 and recorded the 2024 release Hell, Fire and Damnation with them.

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.

STONE FURY – LET THEM TALK (1986)

When Kingdom Come hit it big with their debut album, a lot of the talk centered around how the band sounded like Led Zeppelin. Particularly singer Lenny Wolff.

Well, it would seem that, at least in part, that was something he was doing well before Kingdom Come came around.

Stone Fury, the band Wolff co-founded with guitarist Bruce Gowdy, had a lot of that same Zeppelin vibe going for it as well. However, as I listened to their 2nd and final album Let Them Talk, I noticed that the album actually sounded like a typical 1980s rock/pop album with plenty of keyboards threaded in the mix as well.

But the album does open up with what definitely is a Led Zeppelin inspired track in “Too Late”. Lenny Wolff’s vocals are hard to miss, that’s for sure. What does give the song a bit of its own identity is how strongly those aforementioned keyboards come through. Unfortunately, like a lot of stuff from that time period, the keys actually overpower everything else going on in the song and kind of wrecked it for me as a whole.

I did actually mostly enjoy the next song “Lies on the Run”. First off, kind of cool song title. It’s a bit more of a straight on rocker from beginning to end. There is JUST a touch too much keys in this song but the song sounds more of its own thing and not a clone of Zeppelin. As I was listening to the song, I was searching my brain for another band comparison for this particular song and I kind of settled on Honeymoon Suite…except the latter wouldn’t have had quite so much in the way of keyboards in the mix. Still, I enjoyed this track.

The album’s title cut sticks mostly to a slow and midtempo groove. It’s kind of a power ballad in spots but doesn’t quite blow up to a more intensely rocking sound towards the end as most songs of its ilk would tend to do.

What can I say about the the song “Babe” (not a cover of the Styx classic)? Well, honestly, the song was just pretty freaking annoying the whole time it was playing.

I was a tiny bit surprised at how much I liked the Side One closing track “Doin’ What I Feel”. I liked the rhythm established by the music and I thought the vocal delivery was pretty good as well.

As for the 2nd side of the album, it opens with the song “Eye of the Storm”. The song really gives Stone Fury another song that sounds something original versus being a clone. Uptempo in nature, it works pretty well.

On “Let the Time Take Care”, the opening flourish is uptempo but when you hit the first main lyrical passage, the music drops into a lower intensity and Wolff’s vocals get a bit softer in delivery. The chorus ramps the music back up of course, but the switching between sonic avenues gives the listener something to swing back and forth with, rhythmically speaking.

Wolff’s vocals get a bit more strident for “I Should Have Told You”, the shriek echoing what you are probably used to from the Kingdom Come material. What I did like about this song is that it has a vibe to it that left me thinking it would be used in some kind of montage street scene for a movie or TV show. The music, in the main passages anyway, has that kind of cinematic flair going for it.

The Let Them Talk album closes out with the singularly  titled “Stay”, which is a track that starts out with a mid-tempo pace. There’s a bit too much production on the vocal track but I like the way the song’s music comes through here. And while this is hindsight nearly four decades late, I think the lyrics would’ve been better served without the Wolff shriek. Still, this was another song that kind of grew on me as I listened to it.

While I don’t know that Stone Fury’s 2nd and final album Let Them Talk will be an album I go back to continuously from here on out, I am now kind of interested to check out their first release Burns Like a Star to see and hear what the band had going for them their first time out. 

I will say that I found this album’s 2nd side a lot more to my liking, but there was a surprising amount of stuff I enjoyed hearing for the first time. This musical history lesson definitely served to inform me better about what Lenny Wolff was up to just before he hit it big. So I’d say that Let The Talk did a pretty good job of getting me interested in the band as a whole.

NOTES OF INTEREST: After Stone Fury broke up when Let The Talk didn’t break them into commercial success, singer Lenny Wolff would return to Germany. He’d be back in the US a year later with Kingdom Come’s debut album which did turn out to be a commercial hit.

Despite having only two studio albums, there was a Best of Stone Fury compilation released in 1988.

Guitarist Bruce Gowdy would go on to work with prog rock band World Trade and the band Unruly Child 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.

METAL CHURCH – THE DARK (1986)

Nearly four decades ago, the Metal Church album The Dark was my initial entry point with the band. Time has faded exactly how I came to first discover the album but all those passing years has not dimmed my love of their 2nd studio album.

In fact, each time I end up listening to it, I think my love and appreciation of The Dark only grows. The powerhouse lineup of David Wayne on vocals, Kurdt Vanderhoof and Craig Wells on guitar, bassist Duke Erickson and drummer Kirk Arrington slam their way through 10 absolutely electric numbers taking no prisoners and really only slowing the pace down a bit for one song that is still one of the band’s best tracks.

The album’s opening track “Ton of Bricks” is a monster song and is credited as being written by all five members of the band. I love the fade in as the song starts and then the drum lead-in as the song then blows up in full sonic attack mode. There’s a razor sharp fast and viciously delivered vocal turn from Wayne and the guitar work here is phenomenal. As Wayne proclaims “I’ll hit you with a ton of bricks”, you can see why I think this song should always open the band’s live shows and amply demonstrates just the kind of assaulting metal sound Metal Church brings to the table.

The song “Start the Fire” is keyed off a killer guitar line that runs throughout the song. Wayne’s vocals continue to be a perfect distillation of the vicious power he had going for him during this period.

In fact, when I first discovered the album, it was Wayne’s vocals that were the first thing I focused on. I’m a vocalist and lyric guy, so I hadn’t yet matured enough in my musical appreciation to get into songs as a whole. And I just loved the slice-your-throat nature of the vocals.

“I kill for no reason, my heart too stone cold”…the song “Method to Your Madness is a killer track (no pun intended). Fast paced with a cutting vocal line and this softer brief moment in the middle of the song that serves as great counterpoint to the rest of the song while still enhancing the track as a whole.

I mentioned that Metal Church had one song where they weren’t going on a full pedal to the floor rocking style. And that’s of course the song “Watch the Children Pray”. I know it gets described as their power ballad, but that is a woefully inexact term to apply to this song. That’s because while most “power ballads” dealt with themes of love or what have you, “Watch the Children Pray” doesn’t have any of that. As the song opens, the music establishes a feel that has long made me think of it as an opening of a gothic horror movie or book. And there’s certainly no love theme in the lyrics. While the main lyrical passages are a bit slower in delivery, it’s only a matter of degree because as a whole, the song is just freaking HEAVY throughout. I like the way Wayne’s vocals switch back and forth between the more gravelly attacking keen and the cleaner vocal that comes in at certain points to give the song a bit more of a dramatic feel. But still, this is not what I would truly consider a power ballad in the least.

You want an utterly under-appreciated song from Metal Church? I think you can take the Side One closing track “Over My Dead Body”. From the first notes of the song, it is just relentless. If you stood directly in front of a speaker stack as the band played this song, you’d come away feeling like you had been hit by 1,000 fists. The music’s pace never lets up as it continues to hit you with one sonic wave after another and the almost maniacal vocal turn from Wayne only further endears the song to me.

The 2nd side of the album opens with the album’s title cut is DEFINITELY a short version of a horror movie with Wayne embodying someone trapped in a house with some kind of demon. The vocals are just spit out while the hard charging music hits you in the gut. And the lyrics sure do conjure up some scary images in your mind as you listen. I mean, this is a pretty visual set of lyrics, no? – “When I opened up the door /And snapped on the switch /The room was filled with light / Then something black and very fast / Fled upon my sight / What I feared most as a child / Was the coming of the night / Now my horrors have become quite real /My nightmares breathe new life”.

Much like “Over My Dead Body”, the song “Psycho” is just a brutally fast assault. It might even be faster than “Over My Dead Body”. The band just keeps the attack on your senses coming from all five members of the band. And the vocal track is so stunningly evil, that of course I love it. That always makes me laugh considering my relative disdain for horror movies but I just love the song.

The subject matter of the song lyrics for The Dark album ranges widely but I liked the way Metal Church took the stuff going on with the country of Libya at the time the album was recorded and gave us yet another killer track with “Line of Death”. The music is yet another exploration of just how fast the band can go, until the mid-section when it takes a breath for a minute, yet maintains an absolute grip on the heavy side of the musical ledger. And then when that breath ends, the music and throat-ripping vocals rev right back up to punch you in the face again.

The song where I think I like the story in the lyrics the most might just be “Burial at Sea”. As the slow fade in gives way to a mind-numbing scream from David Wayne and the story of a doomed ship unfurls. It’s a master class in telling a story in short order. I love the music for this song and the guitar solo is amazing. There’s even a spotlight on the drums as the track gears up for its last lyrical verse that serves the song so perfectly.

The album closes with the song “Western Alliance” and it is another over the top fast paced number that seems to just explode from your speakers. The music seems to be its own beast as it hits your eardrums and Wayne’s vocals once again capture him in peak form as he just tears out his (and yours) throat from start to finish.

It is no secret that I’m a major fan of Metal Church. And I love all the eras of the band (marked by each different singer). But it started with this album and I have never shaken just how much this smoking slab of molten metal made me feel when I first listened to it. It’s a feeling I still get as I listened again in order to write this article. For me, the Metal Church album The Dark is one of the key building blocks for me becoming a heavy metal fan. 

NOTES OF INTEREST – The Dark is dedicated to Metallica’s bassist Cliff Burton. Burton had died a few days before the album had been released.

In support of the album, Metal Church opened Metallica’s Damage, Inc. tour which also had Anthrax as an opener. They would also tour with Megadeth, King Diamond and would open for Anthrax when they did their own tour. Sadly, while I’ve seen Metal Church three times in concert, I never saw this “classic” lineup live.

“Ton of Bricks” was used in the movie No Man’s Land.

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.

D.A.D. – NO FUEL LEFT FOR THE PILGRIMS (1989)

After two albums that were only released in Denmark and not internationally, the band D.A.D. broke through with their third album No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims. Not only did it give the band a profile outside of their native country, it got them played on MTV and touring the US.

While the band was still known as Disneyland After Dark when the album was released in Denmark, the band had to change the name to avoid getting sued by the Walt Disney Company once they started getting notice here in the States. After all, there’s nothing Disney likes more than suing people who can’t possibly defend themselves against the corporate behemoth.

Setting that aside, I bought this album when it came out solely on the strength of the first of the album’s two minor hits, “Sleeping My Day Away”. But a funny thing happened when I listened to the album. I just didn’t really like it all that much. In fact, since I first listened to it, I don’t think I’ve ever heard the full album in the ensuing almost 36 years since. I pretty much remembered nothing about any of the other songs on the album.

And yet, the album was considered one of the best Hair Metal albums of all time by Rolling Stone in 2019. (Not that Rolling Stone has much credibility anymore but still.) Plus, any time the album came up in conversation, Roger from Purchase Street Records would rave about just how much he loved the album. So when I saw a copy of the album on his store shelves a couple weeks back, I decided it was time to give it another shot. I had completely dismissed the album and almost totally erased it from my memory, so what would I think of it now?

Well, I have to be honest here…I’m an idiot. Well, maybe not a COMPLETE idiot but after listening to No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims in the here and now, I have shake my head and for the most part wonder what was wrong with me back in 1989.

“Sleeping My Day Away” opens up the album and it still has that great hook and catchy chorus that made it break on MTV and with listeners back in the day. I did notice that I had a bit of a hard time fully understanding singer Jesper Binzer as the album and song got underway but I think that’s basically because I hadn’t listened to D.A.D. in so long.

As I said, I don’t really remember much about the rest of the album so it was almost like a totally brand new listening experience for me. So as I listened to the gritty and fast moving “Jihad”, I was just getting more and more amped up. The music was giving me a feeling of exhilaration. By the way, the album title comes from a lyric in this song.

On the song “Point of View”, not only did I like what I was hearing in the mid-to-uptempo song, but the lyrics are amazingly on point for how things are going in modern day. I doubt the band could’ve seen that coming but it does give them a bit more standing in my mind. The line I loved most was “See, I’d like to share your point of view / As long as it’s my view too”. Tell me that doesn’t sum up the majority of discourse these days, right?

There’s a heavy and deliberate thump to the otherwise hard charging track “Rim of Hell”. The song was the other minor hit from the release. The song has a cool sounding chorus and really landed well with me this time around.

Okay, while the song “ZCMI” certainly has an abundance of explosively charged energy coursing through it, for some reason it just fell flat for me. But as the first side of the album comes to a close the rocking “True Believer” gets the album back on track.

Before I talk about the 2nd side of No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims, I should note that despite the fact that I ended up not liking the album back in the day, I did see D.A.D. live in concert. They were opening for Badlands at the Living Room in Providence, RI. Sadly, there’s very little I remember about their set. Heck, I’m not even sure who I was with at the show. But the reason I do remember seeing them was because Badlands was fantastic and I got a great shot of their singer Ray Gillen that came out better than how I took it when the developer screwed up how the final photo turned out. As for D.A.D., the one thing I do remember is that during the Badlands set, I left the main floor because it was way too packed for me and I watched about half the set from the side of the stage. It was during that time that D.A.D. drummer (at the time) Peter L. Jensen came out to watch the show and he was standing next to me for a good part of that time.

As for the second side of the album, it opens with the song “Girl Nation”. It’s got a lively uptempo style and I found that I really quite enjoyed the song’s rhythm.

I wasn’t quite as taken with “Lords of the Atlas” but I liked the guitar playing on “Overmuch”. It has a pretty kicking rhythm and vibe to it. The same can be said for “Siamese Twin”, the guitar playing from Jacob Binzer really soars on the two songs and makes it that much more appealing.

The fiery soundtrack for the track “Wild Talk” was instantly appealing and I think it does another excellent job of showcasing all of the band members at once.

The album closes out with the song “Ill Will”. While it features plenty of fast moving parts, I got the feeling this song was really going for a very heavy in-your-face vibe at the same time. The vocals seem to be more intense with a bit of a growl and musically this one is quite the ass kicker. The guitar playing that ends the song is blazing and despite the song’s short length, D.A.D. packs quite the sonic punch to finish off the album.

Once again an album that got basically deleted from my memory comes back to bite me in the butt! While there’s still a couple of songs on the release that don’t really do anything for me, it’s clear that I’ve been missing out on all the great music No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims has been waiting for me to hear (again) all these decades later. I have a feeling I’m going to end up playing this one a lot in the days and weeks to come because man did my opinion of the album do a reversal. Who knows, it may even lead me into checking out more of what D.A.D. has to offer. And isn’t that what it is all about? I just really loved what I heard this time around.

NOTES OF INTEREST: D.A.D. is still together today and other than a change of drummers from Peter L. Jensen to Laust Sonne, the lineup of Jesper (vocals) and Jacob Binzer (guitar) and bassist Stig Pedersen has remained constant.

For a band that has always struck me as relatively obscure in comparison to other bands from the 80’s Metal Years, D.A.D. has released 13 studio albums, 3 live releases, 8 compilations and an EP. Their most recent album, Speed of Darkness was released in October 2024.

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.

SAVATAGE – STREETS: A ROCK OPERA (1991)

“As darkness falls…so hard…”

With that line, the title track to the 6th studio album from my personal favorite band Savatage, begins to spin its yarn about D.T. Jesus, a New York rock star who rises from a drug dealer to the heights of the music profession, only to then experience another fall.

Like I said, Savatage is my favorite band. The fact that I’ve written about four of their albums already in The Cassette Chronicles would lend credence to that statement. But back in 1991, my fandom was still growing. I’d seen the band on the tour they did for the Gutter Ballet album where I’d gotten to meet four of the guys from the band. Add in that the show was great and my fandom was definitely ascending when Streets: A Rock Opera came out.

While singer Jon Oliva seems to hate the fact that “A Rock Opera” was added to the album title, I’ve always appreciated the extra dose of the dramatic that term added to the release.

The album opens with the “Streets” song. Much like how the album was based on a book that producer Paul O’Neill wrote for a Broadway play, the song serves as a kind of introductory overture for the rest of the album. With Jon Oliva providing his vocals over the music from guitarist Criss Oliva, bassist Johnny Lee Middleton and drummer Steve Wacholz, the track gets you keyed up for what’s to come.

The story gets underway in full with “Jesus Saves”. It introduces you to D.T. Jesus. He’s a drug dealer but he ends up becoming a big rock star…and falls prey to all the vices that would seem to entail. By the end of the song, his star has faded and he’s lost amongst the streets of New York, addled by drugs and on a slow road to nowhere or oblivion. The solo in this song is fantastic, Criss Oliva being on fire.

And that’s just in one song! The funny thing about this song in how I related to the song as someone listening to it. Like a lot of people I would sing along with the track. One day my mother heard me singing the chorus which includes the words “Jesus Saves”. She was a bit taken aback, thinking I was somehow having a religious awakening or something. She asked me, and I laughed as I told her that this particular Jesus was a New York drug dealer. Her response? “Don’t let your grandmother hear you saying that.”

As D.T.’s addictions continue to get the better of him, the song “Tonight He Grins Again” takes you inside the monkey on his back until the next track, entitled “Strange Reality”, shows him beginning to see what’s become of him and the resulting shock to his system. The way Jon Oliva’s vocals become strident without being overbearing is a deft touch as he brings this particular chapter to life.

The piano based ballad “A Little Too Far” has always struck a chord with me. The spare opening of the song with just the piano and what I think is a marvelously beautiful vocal performance from Jon. The song would seem to be showing us D.T. has he gets his act together, getting clear headed and taking a kind of inventory of what he’s done and what he’d like to do now. I also love the way the lyrics work in John Wayne, Captain Kirk and Spock in such an organic way that you can’t imagine any other persons being mentioned in their place.

The dual track “You’re Alive” / Sammy and Tex” has D.T. returning to the stage. “You’re Alive” is about his return to the stage and how everyone reacts to it. As for “Sammy and Tex”, that song whether taken as part of this great story or as a standalone song from the band’s catalog, I think it is one of my favorite songs from the band. It’s a full-tilt metallic assault on the senses with an amazing guitar run through from start to finish, a viciously ripping vocal turn and lyrics that show D.T.’s past coming back to haunt him…and hurt those around him. Just a monster track! I’ve spent all these years listening to the track in such a way that I can actually “see” the fight that is described in the lyrics and the results of said fight. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it is the lyrics of this song that creates a picture in my mind that sticks with me every time I hear the song.

The first side of Streets: A Rock Opera comes to an end with the showstopping epic “St. Patrick’s”. As D.T. reels from what’s happened, he faces a dilemma. Will he return to the drugs to hide away from his pain…or will he carry on and reclaim his life. And in this song, I guess you could say he sort of ends of having a conversation with a deity in a rather well known church. The first half of the song is geared more towards a slower and more deliberate delivery but you can feel the intensity ramping up as the song goes on and as the second half of the song kicks off…the heavier side of Savatage takes over for a bit before you get a coda of sorts and it is just Jon and a piano as the conversation comes to an end…and I love the last line, “Or give a call, explain it all…I’ll even leave the dime”.

The second side of the album kicks off with “Can You Hear Me Now”, the brief slower opening gives way to a far more intensely driven rock beat, fed by a pretty scorching drum track from Steve Wacholz. The tempo rises and falls for the rest of the track but the two styles blend superbly for an underrated gem of a track. The guitar playing is immense here as well.

D.T. has had his rise, then his fall. Then came his, if not second rise at least a bit of a redemption and now faced with the potential of losing it all again, he’s wandering the streets and we are left to wonder what path he will choose. On “New York City Don’t Mean Nothing”, the song actually feels like the city it mentions. I am not quite sure how better to describe it but that’s the way this particular track has always struck me. There’s something just intrinsically fantastic about how this song develops. You could say the same kind of thing for “Ghost in the Ruins” which has the same kind of gritty edge to it.

The song “If I Go Away” finds D.T. questioning if he should just disappear again, what he would leave behind or if anyone would really miss him. This is more of a power ballad track as the early part of the song which is keyed by the piano gives way to a bigger rock score for a lot of the song as well. And I love the way this song shows off the different vocal styles from Jon Oliva. You get the focused clear vocals in the “ballad” portion of the song but as the song’s tempo picks up, his vocals get more intense and a bit more of an edge or perhaps a rasp comes into play as well.

I like the contrasting styles of the next two songs. On “Agony and Ecstasy”, the tempo and full throttle metal soundtrack reminds you of the way “Sammy and Tex” sounded. But what I like about this one is how the lyrics are from the point of view of D.T.’s addiction calling out to him to return to the addiction’s embrace. It’s a fascinating way of telling this part of the story and it is also a superb track at the same time. Oh, and give a good listen to that guitar solo from Criss Oliva right before the song’s end. The counterpoint to that song is the follow up “Heal My Soul”. Soft and spare with a piano once again accompanying the vocals, it is an amazing song that always gets me a little choked up for what it means to the story.

The album comes to a close with the songs “Somewhere in Time” and “Believe”. The former track starts off a tad slower in pace but it ends up becoming more of a heavy rocker as the story winds down with D.T. finding a measure of peace and redemption from the trials he’s gone through. The song “Believe” has been a rather effective song not only for this album as the exclamation point to the album and story but a line from the song has been used in other material from the band, giving it an extended life of sorts. In fact, the entire set of lyrics for the song are chock full of great lines that really stick with you.

Streets: A Rock Opera may be a fictional story of a rock star’s self-driven ups and downs but for me, it is one of the statement showpiece albums for Savatage. It’s been nearly 34 years since it was released and it still manages to thrill, chill and stun me with its rather astonishing and unequaled delivery of some of the most amazing work I’ve not only heard from Savatage, but from any musical act that I listen to. It is quite simply one of my favorite musical works of all-time!

NOTES OF INTEREST: The CD version of the album has an essay that tells the story of D.T. Jesus and the Subway Messiahs (the band he led) and of D.T.’s life before, during and after his fame, rather than just relying on my own interpretation of the story here for you. 

While the storyline of the album does bear similarity to what was going on in singer Jon Oliva’s life around the same time, it is not about his life according to everything I’ve read online.

Streets: A Rock Opera has been reissued at least four times that I can confirm. The CD edition in 2002 has one bonus track, “Desiree”. I own a copy of that edition as well as my cassette. A funny side note to that CD is that the hype sticker and the track listing on the back of the CD both manage to mistakenly spell “acoustic” as “accoustic”.  The album was reissued again in 2011 with two different bonus tracks. The next reissue came in 2013 and it is sometimes referred to as “the director’s cut” of the album because they worked in narration for the album as well as the bonus track “Larry Elbows”.