Scorpions - Taken by Force (1977)^{Release ID: 2286}

I'm going to save you a lot of time here. "Sails of Charon" fuckin' rules, and the rest of this album doesn't. I'm not the biggest Scorpion's fan in the world to begin with but this album is very uninspired and boring outside of Sails. That's it. That's all I can muster. Put "Sails of Charon" in your playlist, and then move on from this. There is no other gold in these hills.

It's sacrilege I know, but I have never enjoyed the scorpions and I have given them a chance on multiple occasions. Full disclosure, I listened to this on Spotify with their 2015 remaster version and it just sounds way too clean. Not sure if the original version had more personality but the version I listened to was too "perfect" like they went in and took out any of the tiny extra vibrations from the strings or that the drums never rang out more than absolutely necessary. It feels like they went back in and made sure any imperfections weren't there so much so that it kept it from having substance. Also, this does not feel like a metal record to me at all. Glam rock at best. The best song on here to me was The Sails of Charon where it actually felt like they tried to have a bit of an edge on it with some harsher tones. The rest of the album was way too poppy for me, starting with Steamrock Fever which was trying to be catchy but went on way too long especially for an intro track. Then We'll Burn The Sky was really chorus heavy, and so was most of the rest of this record. Most of the songs tended to lend into just repeating the song title too much with overly clean guitar tones and melodies. He's a Woman - She's a Man, what is that? Why? If I knew the meaning behind these songs would I like it more, because I just did not have that great of a time with this one. There's way to much music out there I would rather be listening to so that I can skip being negative towards the Scorpions.

Scorpion's Uli Jon Roth trilogy marked the beginning of the band's hard rock sound with a metallic side. Roth was the key to the heaviness in the leads. I love his guitar playing, though I hate his singing in a few tracks from the previous two albums. The Roth album trio was also infamous for the controversial album covers. Well this album cover isn't controversial in the sexual/nudity sense, but I'll just say, this is why you shouldn't let kids dress up as cowboy gunmen in a soldiers' graveyard.

Taken by Force is another solid Scorpions album! The dark heaviness continues with a slight step up from their previous album. Roth's lyrics shine as well as his guitarwork, and thank heavens there's none of his god-awful vocals. Vocalist Klaus Meine is the real singing star here.

"Steamrock Fever" is a fast catchy start to this offering. Meine's vocals are rougher than in the previous album, and that I really like. The album's definite highlight is "We’ll Burn the Sky". This perfect rock/metal tune should've had more attention than the band's other popular slow songs. It starts off as a slow ballad than fastens into catchy heaviness, best exhibited in the awesome chorus. One of my favorite Scorpions songs ever, in all its beautiful melancholy! "I've Got To Be Free" has good simple rock.

"The Riot of Your Time" has the band's usual earlier darkness. The first one of the two Roth-written songs "The Sails of Charon" stands out with his good dark lyrical matter. The second Roth-written song "Your Light" even has a satanic vibe. Quite some cool Black Sabbath influence there.

"He’s a Woman, She’s a Man" has some humor while still being a legendary rocker. "Born to Touch Your Feelings" is the closing ballad, as is many Scorpions albums' ending tracks. It's good, but too long for a ballad. The final third of the track has several women from different countries speaking in their native language, from Japan, Suriname, Italy, the U.S. and Tahiti. Honestly though, that part is quite boring and doesn't help the extended length. Without it, this album would've been perfect.

Most people who have heard of Scorpions only know them from their newer ballads. That's a shame because they don't know what they're missing out in Taken by Force. Forget about the band's material from the 80s and beyond for a while and check out their 70s era. This album is a total view-changer!

Favorites: "We’ll Burn the Sky", "The Sails of Charon", "Your Light", "He’s a Woman, She’s a Man"

Probably like many, my main exposure to Scorpions prior to this was "Rock You Like a Hurricane". Taken by Force predates that by some years, so I thought it'd be interesting to hear what was there before.

I'm going to cut straight to the most important point here: "The Sails of Charon" is amazing. Every part of it, the funky riffs at the core, Uli Roth's gorgeous lead work, the twisting, snaking, menacing vibe that it oozes, it's all vintage heavy metal. It's that classic sound where everything gels and flows so well, and will lead to so much in later years. "Sails of Charon" is a track that deserves to sit proud among other early classics like "Don't Fear the Reaper" or "Children of the Grave", and whatever else I have to say about the album as a whole, this song should be in any metalhead's collection. 

As for the rest of the album...it's fine. It's decent. There's some good and some bad. It's hard not to be overshadowed around a track like "The Sails of Charon", honestly. None of the other songs on here are bad (though I'll admit "He's a Woman, She's a Man" feels a bit dry and overly reliant on just repeating the title). It treads the sort of lines you'd expect during the 70s, when hard rock was starting to give birth to heavy metal. There are typical but effective rockers like "Suspender Love", "I've Got to be Free" and "Steamrock Fever" (in which I actually enjoy the use of construction sounds and children chanting), and others that play a bit more with quieter moments. "Your Light" is a lazy river drifter with funky bass groundwork, "Born to Touch Your Feeling" harkens to some of Aerosmith's more effective ballads, and "The Riot of Your Time" has a nice rising sense of energy. "I've Got to be Free" is another of the harder tracks here, and probably the one that works best, just with sheer catchiness.

But despite all the praise I can give to these individual moments or elements, something's missing from the whole. Most of the songs on here are good, but rarely do Scorpions genuinely impress me like some of their contemporaries. Black Sabbath were darker, Led Zeppelin more ambitious, Motörhead nastier, Judas Priest sharper, AC/DC committing more fully to the rock aesthetic. Most of Taken by Force is good, but I can't say I'm going to stick the album on much after this review.

Except for "Sails of Charon". That shit rocks.

Choice cuts: I've Got to be Free, The Sails of Charon

The Scorps had been around for thirteen years by the time they got around to album number five.  They had only been knocking out recorded content for five years of that time, consistently gracing the shelves of record stores since on a near annual basis since 1972.  After the controversial Virgin Killer in 1976 the band dropped Taken By Force twelve months later with the US version being delayed until 1978 as the previous record had only been released in early 1977.  It is a complete anomaly to consider the band a metal band at this stage, there sound was very much at the rock edge of things and offered little in the way of anything heavy for sure.

Although there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the album it is hardly chock full of anthems like Lovedrive or Blackout for example.  As a result it just passes you by and you soon forget you ever played it at all really.  There is a real feel of them settling for some good tunes and ideas but never really building on them to provide any "wow" factor.  Yes, there's a couple of hooks here and there and the odd catchy riff that gets me to look up from my desk but I am soon back beavering away with little if any attention being given to the music.

For a band at album number five I expected more to be honest, certainly one that had been together for over a decade.  My experience of the Scorpions was that they peaked early in the 80's and really should have had a stronger run in to that point in time instead of almost petering out of the course of two or three records.  There's tracks here in a style any fan will recognise as they deliver smoochy ballads and tongue in cheek energetic rock songs like He's A Woman - She's A Man that harks to the more humorous side of the group.  But still there's little here to get overexcited about.