What are you listening to now? : Non-metal Edition

Congratulations Vinny! Have an awesome time in Wales!

Welcome to the club Vinny! 

Buffalo - "Volcanic Rock" (1973)

The sophomore album from this seminal band from the beloved town of my birth in Sydney, Australia was pretty much regarded as heavy music royalty by the older metalheads when I was first getting into underground metal in the very late 80's. It's not a metal release as such although I'd suggest that the opening & closing tracks should qualify as they're not all that far off Black Sabbath. The rest of the tracklisting is closer to heavy psych & hard rock in my opinion but "Volcanic Rock" is a high quality release in its own right with no weak tunes included. Front man Dave Tice sounds almost exactly like my all-time favourite singer in Soundgarden's Chris Cornell & is the clear focal point of the album although the more stripped back, repetitive & psychedelic guitar work is a real treat too, especially the nine minute album highlight "Freedom" which is nothing short of mind-blowing. If you dig 70's psychedelic/hard rock & proto-metal then you can't go wrong with this record.

For fans of Sir Lord Baltimore, Flower Travellin' Band & Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell.

4/5

Buffalo - "Volcanic Rock" (1973)

The sophomore album from this seminal band from the beloved town of my birth in Sydney, Australia was pretty much regarded as heavy music royalty by the older metalheads when I was first getting into underground metal in the very late 80's. It's not a metal release as such although I'd suggest that the opening & closing tracks should qualify as they're not all that far off Black Sabbath. The rest of the tracklisting is closer to heavy psych & hard rock in my opinion but "Volcanic Rock" is a high quality release in its own right with no weak tunes included. Front man Dave Tice sounds almost exactly like my all-time favourite singer in Soundgarden's Chris Cornell & is the clear focal point of the album although the more stripped back, repetitive & psychedelic guitar work is a real treat too, especially the nine minute album highlight "Freedom" which is nothing short of mind-blowing. If you dig 70's psychedelic/hard rock & proto-metal then you can't go wrong with this record.

For fans of Sir Lord Baltimore, Flower Travellin' Band & Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell.

4/5

Another one of my favourite early 70's records. Heavy psych is a sorely overlooked genre.

Scorpions - "Tokyo Tapes" (1978)

I always enjoy the German hard rockers 1970's releases but I can never seem to get my scoring up over the 3.5 star mark & this double live album is no exception. It's an 80 minute/18 song journey through the band's first five albums with a few covers & an unreleased track thrown in for good measure. Some of the tracks are extended through some entertaining & most welcome instrumental experimentation with guitar legend Uli Jon Roth (in his very last show for Scorpions) being the obvious superstar. Front man Klaus Meine proves what a talented singer he can be too while the rest of the band perform their duties with a great deal of professionalism. The weak point certainly comes when Roth takes over the vocal duties on "Polar Nights" as he can't sing in key & sounds like some sort of dying animal while the high points come during the more progressive & expansive numbers, especially the brilliant one-two punch of "In Search of the Peace of Mind" & "Fly To The Rainbow" which is nothing short of breath-taking. Unfortunately there are enough generic hard rockers here to taint the elite level stuff which is generally the case with Scorpions. And for the record, Scorpions never have & never will be a metal band. That belief is a complete falsity. Still... this is definitely worth a listen for those that wanna see what the band were like in their prime or guitar heads like myself who want to marvel at one of the finest exponents of his craft the 1970's had to offer. If I'm being honest though I'd probably reach for studio albums like "Taken By Force", "Blackout", "Lovedrive" or "Animal Magentism" before this one though.

For fans of Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple & Rainbow.

3.5/5

Alkana - "Welcome To My Paradise" (1978)

A fairly underground one-off album from this obscure Californian band that included future Warlord front man Jack Rucker (aka Damien King) behind the mike. I'd describe Alkana's sound as being based in the hard rock of bands like Boston, Deep Purple, Van Halen & Queen with the addition of the progressive rock stylings of Yes & the proto-metal riffage of early Judas Priest. Instrumentally it's a pretty decent record but I find the light-weight vocals of Rucker to be a real let-down, particularly on the less ambitious & more traditional hard rock fodder. Unfortunately that flaw taints the overall product enough to ensure that I won't be enticed into return visits any time soon.

For fans of Van Halen, Yes & early Judas Priest.

3/5

Def Leppard - "The Def Leppard E.P." (1979)

I've never liked Sheffield-based NWOBHM legends Def Leppard's 1980 debut album "On Through the Night" much to be honest. Def Leppard didn't offer much interest for me until 1981's very solid "High 'n' Dry" record (which is probably still their best work in my opinion) but I have to admit that I'd only ever given their seminal 1979 debut E.P. a passing listen during my Metal Academy podcast research many years ago so thought I'd better rectify that in the interest of completism. It didn't sound much like metal at the time so I didn't give it much attention at the time & nothing's changed there. As with a lot of early NWOBHM releases, "The Def Leppard E.P." is nothing more than a hard rock release & I wouldn't say that it's a particular good one either. It includes three tracks with the first two both being pretty generic & uninteresting. Thankfully the seven minute epic "The Overture" is much stronger & goes some of the way to justifying the effort but unfortunately it's not enough to make this release worthy of my attention, despite coming a little closer to the mark than "On Through The Night".

For fans of Tygers of Pan Tang, Heavy Pettin' & Saxon.

3/5

I've crossed through the new Saint Asonia and Disturbed releases, now what's one more release from one of the bands my brother likes? Nickelback's new album Get Rollin' starts promising with their heaviest song since "This Means War", the lead single "San Quentin", filled with Avenged Sevenfold-like hard rock/heavy metal. "Skinny Little Missy" follows with a bit of the hard rock/alt-metal instrumentation of the more melodic songs from the aforementioned Saint Asonia and Disturbed releases. Then afterwards, the quality dropped hard for the rest of the album, mostly just pop rock/melodic hard rock with slight hints of country, in around the same rock level as their previous two albums. Although I might recommend this album to my brother, there's no chance I would ever get rollin' with this, other than those two killer opening tracks....

2.5/5

The Cure - "Pornography" (1982)

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Cocteau Twins - "Treasure" (1984)

The dreamy & ethereal soundtrack to a couple of hours spent swimming in our pool with the kids on a beautiful sunny Friday afternoon on the Gold Coast.

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - "Let Love In" (1994)

Drinking a glass of cheap Sauvignon Blanc & watching the Sydney Sixers play the Melbourne Stars on TV with the sound down & this album playing over the top.

Siouxsie & The Banshees - "Juju" (1981)

The soundtrack to playing Barbies with my four-year old daughter & swimming in our pool with my six year-old daughter on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Quiet Riot - "Mental Health" (1983)

I fucking hated the first two albums from Los Angeles glam metal outfit Quiet Riot. I investigated them primarily due to the presence of legendary Ozzy Osbourne guitar virtuoso Randy Rhoads many years ago but found them to be horribly cheesy & poorly executed with Randy not really standing out as anything terribly special two or three years before his association with Ozzy. Fast forward to five years later though & this third album took the band from bedroom bangers to household names overnight, mainly off the back of their hugely popular cover version of Slade's "Cum On Feel The Noize" which was a global mega-hit for them, taking them to the top of the Billboard charts which was a first for a heavy rock band in the USA. I listened to that song a zillion times as a seven or eight year-old as my mum had a compilation record that included it & it's obviously the clear album highlight here too.

"Mental Health" is admittedly a much better record than Quiet Riot's first two efforts but I still can't count myself as a fan. The cheesy glam metal sound that most of this record is pushing is simply far too bubblegum for my taste. There are a couple of genuine heavy metal tracks here in "Breathless" & "Run For Cover" but these are easily squashed by two awfully commercialized AOR/soft rock numbers. There's even a blatant attempt at emulating Eddie Van Halen's "Eruption" which just comes across as a waste of space given the comparitively immature skills of guitarist Carlos Cavazo & his focus on simply copying his idol. The rhythm section of future Blue Oyster Cult, Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force, Dio & Whitesnake bassist Rudy Sarzo & future WASP drummer Frankie Banali do a pretty good job here. As does front man Kevin DuBrow who has a great voice for glam metal but unfortunately the weak moments are far too catastrophic to allow the stronger tracks like "Cum On Feel The Noize", the title track & "Breathless" to carry the album. I'm afraid I don't ever think Quiet Riot will be for me but you may have better luck if you're a big fan of bands like Twisted Sister, WASP & Motley Crue.

3/5

G.I.S.M. - "Detestation" (1984)

This debut album from rough 'n' ready Japanese hardcore outfit G.I.S.M. represents a very early example of the Crust Punk sound with the band incorporating heavy metal & speed metal elements into their filthy hardcore arsenal in a similar way to Amebix's "Arise!" album. The production & musicianship is extremely primitive & the vocals are kinda silly so I struggled with this record although it's very easy to see the influence it may have had on the early exponents of Norwegian Black Metal (Mayhem, Darkthrone, etc.). I can see why some people might want to lump "Detestation" in with the metal crowd but this material is far too obviously weighted towards the hardcore side of the equation in my opinion so I don't buy it personally. This album might appeal to diehard punk fans or metalheads with a strong penchant for punkier metal acts like Plasmatics or Sacrilege but it unfortunately wasn't for me.

3/5

Swans - "White Light From the Mouth of Infinity" (1991)

A spectacular example of the gothic rock sound. Right up there with my favourite releases from the genre in fact. Perhaps not the best record to play games with my kids or do the supermarket shopping to though as it's a seriously dark album but then again... I've never been one to give much of a fuck as great music can move me no matter where I am or what I'm doing.

Bauhaus - "In The Flat Field" (1980)

My soundtrack to working out, cleaning up the garage & taking my daughters for a swim in the pool this weekend. And yes... I did tease my hair up & wear black eyeliner & a cape for all of it.

Y&T - "Mean Streak" (1983)

I first experienced Californian hard rockers Y&T (formerly Yesterday & Tomorrow) through their 1981 third album "Earthshaker" which I quite enjoyed but I found their 1982 follow-up "Black Tiger" to be a bit of a let-down. I feel similarly about his fifth full-length to tell you the truth as it doesn't possess the highlight tracks of Y&T's previous two albums but doesn't venture as far off track as "Black Tiger" did either so I'd probably take it over that album if I was forced to decided between them. You can expect to hear some well executed & fairly accessible US hard rock for the most part but they've tossed in a few metal tunes for a bit of excitement too. The vocals sound very much like Monstrose/Van Halen front man Sammy Hagar which can't be a bad thing. Sadly, the tracklisting dies in the arse over the last two tracks which are the weakest on the record but I really only found myself getting into about a third of the songs & didn't come close to saying that I love any of them. This is unintimidating party-time hard rock that won't do a thing to change your life but likely won't ruin your day either.

3/5

Motörhead - "What's Words Worth?" (1983)

This was an historical live recording of a gig from 1978 & I get the feeling it was more of a cash-grab intended to milk the band's growing popularity than anything else as the production is pretty much radio quality & the performances aren't their best either although guitarist Fast Eddie Clarke consistently gives us a whole bunch of his most electric solos. I've never been a fan of Motörhead's pre-1979 work as it's a bit too rock 'n' roll based for my liking & "What's Words Worth?" is another example of that with songs like "On Parole", "Leaving Here" & "I'm Your Witchdoctor" sounding pretty damn flat compared to the much more exciting & visceral material we'd hear from the band the following year. "Iron Horse/Born To Lose" & "White Line Fever" have always been great songs so they manage to stand out of the pack but the rest of the album is pretty uneventful to tell you the truth & is a hell of a long way short of the standard 1981's classic "No Sleep Till Hammersmith" (my favourite Motörhead record) set. It baffles me that people might think this is a metal record too. It's fucking miles away from metal in my opinion.

Ultimately "What's Words Worth?" is an inessential release for completists only. I'd take it over Motörhead's 1976 debut album release "On Parole" (released in 1979) or the 1980 "Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers" E.P. but that's about it for Motörhead's back catalogue to the time I'm afraid.

3/5

Cocteau Twins - "Head Over Heals" (1983)

The sophomore album from this seminal Scottish artist is a gorgeous blend of ethereal wave, gothic rock & post punk that's made cleaning the house & having play battles with the kids much more enjoyable on my Saturday afternoon.

Girlschool - "Play Dirty" (1983)

The early 80’s releases from all-female London NWOBHM four-piece Girlschool have generally offered me a fair bit of appeal in the past. Their 1980 debut album “Demolition”, 1981 “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” split E.P. with Motörhead & their 1982 third album “Screaming Blue Murder” all possessed enough rock ‘n’ roll electricity to keep me entertained although I strangely found their most widely celebrated 1981 sophomore album “Hit & Run” to be a little flat in comparison. I’d never ventured any further into the band’s back-catalogue however, perhaps being scared off by the claims that they’d sold out by taking a more polished & commercially accessible direction with their subsequent albums, so it's high time that I investigated a) whether that is indeed the case & b) whether it’ll have a detrimental effect on their appeal.

The album cover certainly gives you a strong indication that Girlschool had moved on from their dirty Motörhead-inspired roots, doesn’t it? And opening track “Going Under” (the only genuine heavy metal song on the tracklisting) does nothing to turn that impression around as it sounds much more like Def Leppard’s over-produced post-NWOBHM releases than it does Girlschool’s much rawer previous albums with its use of synthesizers & meticulously harmonized backing-vocals not being the only time those tools would pop up amongst the ten tracks. It’s a catchy number though & sees the record getting off to an entertaining start. Unfortunately, the remainder of the album makes for a rocky ride with some of the tougher hard rocks songs (see the title track, “Rock Me Shock Me” & album highlight “Running For Cover”) getting me nodding my head & humming the chorus hooks while the filler tracks around them left me slightly bemused & a touch bored, particularly the god awful “High & Dry” which is nothing short of terrible. There are even a couple of songs that I’d suggest cross over into… *gulp*.. US glam metal territory which I don’t regard as a positive move & I much prefer the material that sticks to an AC/DC-style crunch over those numbers.

There can be no denying the quality of the production job here as everything sounds crisp & attractive. Perhaps that’s not a good thing with a band like Girlschool though as a big part of their appeal lay in their grimy, working-class attitude & care-free, punk-rock image. Both of those things have been cast aside with “Play Dirty” & it’s been hard not to let that fact taint my impression of a record that was clearly intended for the US market. Sadly, it’s ended up being the band’s weakest release to the time & Girlschool have apparently never managed to right the ship in all the years that have passed since as far as I can tell either. “Play Dirty” may not be awful as such but I’d nonetheless suggest that you stick to records like “Demolition” & “Scream Blue Murder” if you’re looking for a bit of danger in your hard rock music.

3/5

The Sisters of Mercy - "First & Last & Always" (1985)

A pretty suitable gothic rock accompaniment to the two hour drive home in the pouring rain after a shit day at work.

Mogwai - Les Revenants (2013)

Danzig - "Danzig" (1988)

Interestingly I'd never given Glenn Danzig's widely celebrated self-titled debut an active listen until now. I was certainly across the couple of tracks that got flogged on underground metal radio back in the late 80's/early 90's ("Twist of  Cain" & "Mother" specifically) but the rest of the record was previously unknown to me. I didn't mind Danzig's 1990 sophomore album "Danzig II: Lucifuge" though so I thought I might also enjoy the debut & I do to a similar extent. Neither album are particularly to my taste but both offer a crunchy brand of bluesy AC/DC style hard rock with a darker Black Sabbath edge & a vocal delivery that pays homage to Elvis Presley. Is it a metal release? Not even close in my opinion. There are a couple of legitimate heavy metal tunes amongst the ten on offer (see "Am I Demon" & "The Hunter") but I can't say that I ever really find myself considering a metal-based tag for this one. The consistency of the tracklisting is certainly pretty good though as there's not a weak track in sight but, in saying that, I don't think there's a truly classic song here either. In fact, the two most popular tracks are probably the ones that I enjoy the least amongst this lot. I do dig the bluesy feel & the warm & uncluttered back-to-basics production but I don't think "Danzig" will be one that I return to all that often. I'd probably take the follow-up over this one by a slim margin.

3.5/5