Scorpions - Love at First Sting (1984)^{Release ID: 2290}

Aaannnd the metal is gone. A lot of it. Scorpions had just started making their move to the hard rock/pop rock era that would sadly become more popular than their metallic past. Pretty much the only exact thing in common is the return of the controversial album covers, with the cover photo by erotic photographer Helmut Newton.

That is the problem with several rock/metal bands starting off in the 70s. All their glory in that decade starts fading away in the 80s, and most of those bands have no chance in bringing it back. Scorpions is one of those bands with Love at First Sting. While similar to Blackout in terms of formula, almost all the heavy greatness of that album has been replaced with cheesy glam for the sake of commercial success. There's good music and some more killer riffing/soloing, but except a lot of highs and lows...

Starting things off promising is "Bad Boys Running Wild" that still has a bit of metal riffing and soloing despite the more commercial direction. "Rock You Like a Hurricane" rocks much more like a glam/hard rock hurricane, but I kinda recognize it as a classic. The downers start with "I'm Leaving You" having more lightness than tightness.

"Coming Home" starts calm in the intro verse for a little too long, but then it explodes into the last of their remaining speedy heavy metal to enjoy. "The Same Thrill" also has speed, but the rock is more dominant than metal and sounds terrible. "Big City Nights" is a good anthem of party rock (not that LMFAO sh*t) with Priest-like guitar power.

"As Soon as the Good Times Roll" doesn't have much of the metal madness, with the rhythm clashing with ska, but that kind of crossover works quite well. "Crossfire" has a darker military-esque marching beat. It's a little bad, but not as bad as... The ballad many people know, "Still Loving You". It's just highly unnecessary and unfitting, and it's the unfortunate sign of their softer era to come. Sonata Arctica performed that song much better when they covered it as an upbeat power metal tune.

So this album Love at First Sting is quite overrated. I wouldn't say it's completely bad, but when the band starts losing their metal steam and heading off in a more commercial path, there's not much that can appeal to a metalhead like me. The heavier side of Scorpions has pretty much faded away. That stings....

Favorites: "Bad Boys Running Wild", "Coming Home", "Big City Nights", "As Soon as the Good Times Roll"

I've always found that I get some enjoyment out of Scorpions records but have never found myself gushing over them like the majority of rock/metal fans seem to. Sure, the guitar solos are great but they have a fair amount of cheese included on every record too & I'm pretty sure that all of our regular contributors clearly understand my aversion to that abominable trait by now. I was familiar with the full string of five albums from 1976's "Virgin Killer" up until 1982's widely celebrated "Blackout" record (not to mention their 1978 "Tokyo Tapes" live release) prior to coming into "Love at First Sting" with all of them sitting at that 3.5/5 mark but the Germans highly regarded 1984 ninth full-length may be the first album I've heard from them where I struggled to overcome the commercialism with fully-fledged glam metal raising its head on more than one occasion.

The tracklisting begins quite well with the heavy rock of opener "Bad Boys Running Wild" being pretty entertaining however proceedings descend significantly after that with five lacklustre efforts in a row before the band miraculously resurrects things with three quality hard rock numbers to close out the album. Closing ballad "Still Loving You" is the clear album highlight & leaves me feeling better about the whole experience but I can't quite shake the memories of glam metal numbers like "Rock You Like A Hurricane", "The Same Thrill" or "Big City Nights" with their obvious pop hooks that were so clearly intended to crack the American rock radio circuit. There's no doubt that Matthias Jabs' guitar solos are exhilarating & my ears prick up every time he steps up to the plate but, as with every other Scorpions record, I have serious doubts about the metal credentials of "Love at First Sting". There's really only the one song that I regard as being genuine metal in the fairly dull "Coming Home" although "Bad Boys Running Wild" kinda skims along the borderline between hard rock & heavy metal. I guess they're a metal band if you think that Van Halen, AC/DC or Guns 'n' Roses are but I very strongly disagree with that sentiment.

"Love at First Sting" gives 80's Scorpions fans exactly what they want but I'm afraid this is where they've started to lose me & I'm a little fearful about what's to come from their later material given that it's not regarded anywhere near as highly as the band's classic era which ended with this record.