Review Reviews in Brief

[TageRyche]

This post will be for various "old" albums that I've never reviewed here or anywhere else. They could be for albums released decades ago or even albums released in 2024 that I can't get a review done for before the year ends. My idea of brief might be longer than others, but it is unlikely that I'll do any kind of full-length review of any album here...unless it is still really short.a
First up:

HELLOWEEN - Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy World Tour 2005/2006 - Live in Sao Paulo (2007) - Despite my love of the band Helloween and the fact that I knew I owned most, if not all, of their material, it turns out I didn't. In fact, I somehow didn't even know this album existed until I discovered it on a visit to my friend's record shop after he got a couple new collections in.

Even though I didn't know about it until just recently however, it turns out that this was a pretty enjoyable live recording. Oh, and apparently it wasn't just recorded in Sao Paolo but material from shows in Bulgaria and Tokyo were used as well. I just have the CD recordings but their is a DVD of the release as well.
The mix of songs from both the Kiske-era material being sung by Andi Deris and the stuff that Deris originated himself is fantastic. And despite seeing the band a couple times in recent years, there was still music on this release I haven't seen performed myself like "Hell Was Made in Heaven", "Mrs. God", "The Invisible Man" or "Mr. Torture".

Live in Sao Paolo is just great live document of the band during this time period!

 

[TageRyche]

W.A.S.P. - W.A.S.P. (1984 / 1998 Reissue) - While I still own a cassette copy of the original 1984 release, the cassette really doesn't work. I've been slack on upgrading to a CD edition but the trip to a friend's record shop provided me an opportunity to get my hands on the 1998 reissued edition which restores the planned track listing that wasn't to be back in 1984 plus adds two more bonus tracks as well.

Restoring "Animal (Fuck Like a Beast") is great given how the record label gave into censorship back in the day. Even though I own a cassette single of that song, I like having it back where it was originally supposed to be. The album is chock full of classic W.A.S.P. songs like "I Wanna Be Somebody", "L.O.V.E. Machine" and perhaps my favorite "ballad" track from the band, "Sleeping (In The Fire)". But even the tracks that aren't "hits" like "Hellion", "School Daze" and "The Torture Never Stops" are fantastic! As I listened to the album, I was reminded why I not only liked the band so much back then but why their material inspired me to write a term paper about them and the music back in high school.

With W.A.S.P. currently doing a 40th anniversary tour playing this album, it's a great time to celebrate the W.A.S.P. album!

 

[TageRyche]

SEVENTH RIZE - FULL MOON (2009) - According to the listing on the label website, the band had a Bad Company vibe to their sound. While I don't know that I completely agree with that assessment, I do know that I was pretty impressed with the album overall. There's a gritty sensibility to the bluesy hard rock. The record was produced by Bobby Rock (currently the drummer for Lita Ford) and there is a grand vocal presence from Stacy "The Big Daddy" Humphries.

I didn't really think there was a single bad track on the album. The disc opens with the title cut which is a rousing rocker. That amped up feeling continues through the next three tracks as well. On the song "Torn", there's a guitar riff that threads its way through the entire track that really stuck with me. Guitarist Jerry Stone plays some mean guitar throughout Full Moon and he has a phenomenal solo on the song "Quicken".

The ballad "One Last Time" has a slower tempo but there's a depth of feeling to the song that keeps the lyrical content from becoming overly sappy, so I found myself rather keen on the song. There's an epically endearing edginess to the song "Wreckage". The music is just outstanding.

My two favorite songs have to be "Roller Coaster" which features an incredible soundtrack and the performance from Humphries is incredible on this song. If you are wondering about any particular song that might've been a candidate for radio play back when bands actually got played on the radio, check out the closing song "You're The One". There's a great rhythmic feel to the song and it just epitomizes the feeling of "cool".

was the band's 2nd and apparently final album but man, I have to say that it was just an absolutely incredible thrill to hear this one. If I was Siskel and Ebert reviewing a movie, Seventh Rize would be getting a very big "Two Thumbs Up"!

 

[TageRyche]

DANGER ANGEL - DANGER ANGEL (2009)

I have to admit when I first listened to this album, one big flaw to my ears kind of colored my opinion of the overall complete product.
The flaw in question? At times, singer Jimmy Cage gets so screechy in his vocal performances that whether the music for a song is good or not, I just couldn't take listening to the track.

This is not something that is apparent on every song but on those songs where the screechy vocal is not reined in the producers (including the band's guitarist Ethan Chionos and drummer Antonis Venieris), it becomes a huge pain in the butt.

But before I talk any more about that, I do have to say the band gets their self-titled album off in a rousing fashion with the lead song "Com' On Rock Me". It's got a big fast paced sound and serves as a great way to first introduce the listener to the band.

The song "Runaway Angel" starts off a bit slower, but once the first chorus kicks in so does the more uptempo feel of the material.
The first example of that screechy vocal I hated was on "Poison Dreams". The music was pretty decent but I just couldn't get past the histrionic vocal take. The song "Rebel Son" is pretty good until that same screech starts showing up in the song's chorus. And forget about "Together Forever". The same over the top screechy vocal shows up throughout that one as well.

The band is billed as being for fans of Europe, Bon Jovi and Honeymoon Suite. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that the band has a couple of power ballads on the disc. The first one is "I'll Be There For You" which did nothing for me. However, the song "Till The End Of Time" was actually rather good. There is a guest vocal from singer Peggy Zarou teaming up with Jimmy Cage and her presence gives a deeper feel to the vocals as a whole.

One of the main selling points to me for this album was Jeff Scott Soto singing lead on the song "Never Let You Go". No offense to Jimmy Cage intended, but this song is one of the best on the album. Between the superb Soto performance and the fantastic rocking soundtrack, I just flat out loved the song.

Of course, Jimmy Cage shines on the songs "Hangover", a quick stepping rocker and "The Rain". The latter song starts off like it is going to be a ballad but quickly changes tack and more of a rock and roll feel soon permeates the track.

As for "Until The Morning Light", the shrieking vocal makes an appearance within the song, but for a change it actually worked in concert with the overall track. The song "Burning Hearts" closes out the album with a mid-to-uptempo soundtrack. The song is pretty good and finishes things off on a high note.

While there are a number of songs that I didn't quite get into here, the Danger Angel CD does have some real gem-like tracks that listeners will really enjoy as long as you wade through the lesser songs on the disc.

 

[TageRyche]

ACACIA AVENUE - EARLY WARNING (2016)

When I saw that Acacia Avenue's 3rd album was recommended for fans of Survivor (plus Journey, Dokken and Giant), I was immediately intrigued because Survivor remains one of my favorite bands.

But after listening to the album, I have to say I don't really see the comparison. Okay, that's not to say this is a bad album but I don't think this is a band that would be comparable to Survivor's sound. Band leader Torben Enevoldsen (who plays guitar, bass and keyboards as well as singing and producing the album) has a far more heavier rock sound to his songs. The melodic nature of the music might be where the comparison comes in but the majority of the songs on Early Warning have a full on heavier feel.

The album kicks off with "Real Love", a hook laden fast paced melodic rocker that gets the listener going pretty much right from the start. From there, you have some decent tracks like "TNT", "Running Out Of Time" (which has a pretty cool solo) and "A New Beginning".

The vocals are pretty good but with something like 5 or 6 different people singing lead on the individual songs, it would've served the album better if which singers sang which songs. Still, Enevoldsen, Torben Lysholm, Rob Maratti, Steve Newman, Andy Engberg, Albin Ljungqvist and Mats Leven all seemed to do a decent job on whatever songs they happened to have sung.

The song "Need To Let Go" was the one track out of the twelve on the disc that did nothing for me. There's a cover of the Deep Purple song "Space Truckin'" that comes out fine but it did feel kind of an unnecessary indulgence.

While the song's title and lyrics might be more in the vein of a love song, "All For Love" is a pretty lively rocking track. I thought the drumming on that song helped tie everything together for the song.

The intro for "Time To Listen" is pretty fast before the song settles into a mid-to-uptempo groove. I found that I really enjoyed this song.

My favorite two songs on Early Warning are the title track (which has a monstrously cool killer rock and roll vibe) and "Survive" a song that finds its strength in the rocking music and an anthemic chorus.

While I'm not sold on the musical comparison the went along with the album, I was pretty happy to discover that Acacia Avenue's third album Early Warning is a deceptively good melodic rock release!