In 1986, Krokus released their first live album, ‘Alive and Screamin” and to celebrate that release they put out a Special Promotional 12″ Single of “Screaming in the Night”. When I was in New York back in April, I came across this beauty and had to have it.
What attracted it to me was the cover. It was a variation of the live album’s cover by Les Edwards. It is so creepy and sinister that it looked perfectly eerie and something I needed in my collection. The picture is taken from Les Edwards’ painting of ‘The Croglin Vampire’ and was also used as a bookcover for Best New Horror 1990, edited by Stephen Jones and Ramsey Campbell and published by Robinson, and on Super-Monsters by Daniel Cohen, published by Archway. Just click on the link if you want to see the original artwork.
The first side of the record you get two versions of “Screaming in the Night”. You get the live version from the live album and then you get the full length studio version (not the radio edit). The live version sounds incredible. It captures the magic of the album version and brings a new energy to the song. The sound is crystal clear and is everything you want in a live song.
For the live album, there are two changes in the line-up. You now have Tommy Keiser on Bass and Jeff Klaven on drums. The studio album had Chris von Rohr on Bass and Steve Pace on drums. Otherwise, you still have Marc Storace on Vocals, Fernando von Arb on Lead Guitar and Mark Kohler on Rhythm Guitar.
On Side Two you get a live version of “Headhunter” also from ‘Alive and Screamin”. It is bombastic, loud, and so in your face. Marc Storace sounds amazing and the band is hitting on all cylinders. It is a raucous good time and they are just killing it.
I also like the fact it is a promotional copy. It says it on the vinyl labels as well as the little stamp on the back of the album jacket. All-in-all, I love it and it is a great addition to the collection and another Krokus album is always a good thing (almost always as they didn’t always get it right, but around this time they did).
I hope you enjoyed this look at the 12″ Single and maybe I will have some more coming down the pipeline for you to check out.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 
Nice score! Me and Krokus go back to 1981..In 1984 they opened for Hagar on his VOA tour which I caught live…
I submitted a review to Sleaze Roxx about Krokus 1988 release Heart Attack in which I said their creative gas tank went empty.
The comments section ripped me big time..hahaha…
The best is I gave the readers all thumbs up as I come up as Derek on Facebook but my reviews are posted as Deke…
hahaha…maybe I have the last laugh kinda…
This is a cool one to own ….
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That is funny. Yes, that site comments can be brutal. I don’t think I saw them. I wanna say I saw them open for Kiss, but not sure if they toured with Kiss or not. My memory isn’t as good as it used to be. Now who are you again???
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HAHA…what tour was it for KISS?
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I think it was Animalize
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Could have well been…Krokus and Hagar i seen in Oct 84…Seen Krokus Headline Duluth 4 months later with Dokken opening… Than after that they were touring with Wasp and Krokus..
They were pushing the Blitz album pretty hard…so they might have done some shows with KISS as well before they headlined
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I looked it up and it was with Kiss.
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Good stuff when was that? The date?
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sorry Krokus were touring with Wasp and Helix
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According to Kiss Animalize tour schedule, they opened in January 1985. Got the year wrong.
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Yeah that would make sense…Think I seen Krokus Feb or March of 85
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I’d have bought this for the cover alone if I’d come across it in my travels.
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What he says.
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That was what attracted me to it. I love the cover.
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