Category: Album Review

John 5 & the Creatures – ‘It’s Alive’ – Album Review

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John 5 & the Creatures bring us a new album to start the year off and this time we get their first live album.  ‘It’s Alive’ was recorded live off the Season of the Witch Tour in 2017 at the Sellersville Theater in Sellersville, Pennsylvania in April 2017.  The band consists of John 5 on lead guitar, Ian Ross on bass and Logan Miles Nix on drums.  The amount of music that comes out of these there guys for this album is incredible.

In listening to an interview with John 5 on Talking Metal with Emily Strigl, I learned that album was recorded rather spontaneously.  They arrived at the theater the day of the show and someone from the theater asked them if they wanted to record the show as they had a recording booth upstairs.  The band joyfully said yes.  And a little less than a year later, we have a live album released.

John 5 also stated in the interview that there are no overdubs or any re-recordings.  What you hear is what you get.  And what you hear is a live album that is near perfection which is also a little of the drawback.  The album at times doesn’t sound live as the musicianship is absolutely incredible.  There are probably errors, but they are not noticeable (at least to my untrained ears).

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The Poodles – ‘Prisma’ – Album Review

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Not a huge cover albums fan, I was very apprehensive on this release.  I do like cover songs, you know, maybe throwing one on an album, but not a whole album.  Cover albums can be very hit or miss. The band either interrupts the songs in to their own sound or they copy it exactly adding nothing special and that is always my fear.

The Poodles decided to do a covers album for their 7th studio album and all though I am a huge fan of the band, this worried me greatly.  But being a fan, a did give it a spin.  The good news is the band took an approach of picking songs from artist that are not in their specific genre of glam metal and they definitely achieved that goal.  The album title ‘Prisma’, I can only assume was picked to signify the songs would be looked at from different angles or viewpoints and they would add their own color to them.  And was that achieved?  Well, let’s discuss that and find out.

The opening track of the album sounds like pure, classic Poodle.  The song is “Crazy Horses” by the Osmond Brothers from 1972.  Yes, I said that right…the Osmond Brothers.  Now that is definitely going outside your genre.  The song is cranked up much heavier and would fit perfectly on any Poodles’ album.  What helps is that I am not real familiar with this song so I have no preconceived notions of what this song should sound like.  Their first choice is making me think this might be a great covers album.

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Anderson East – ‘Encore’ – Album Review

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Anderson East’s ‘Encore’ is the follow-up to his label debut album ‘Delilah’.  With ‘Encore’, Anderson is finding himself and bringing us such a powerful vocal performance.  His voice was so soulful with that grittiness and emotion that it reminded me of Joe Cocker.  For that reason alone, I really dug this album.

He had some help with this album with songs written by Chris Stapleton (“King for a Day”) and Ed Sheeran (“All On My Mind”) both personal favorites.  He also reworked songs by Ted Hawkins (“Sorry Your Sick”) and Willie Nelson (“Somebody Pick Up My Pieces”).

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One of my favorites from the album is the upbeat song “Girlfriend” which feels like he is in church testifying his love to the congregation using horns and synthesizer (organ sounds) to give it that churchy feel.

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Ratt – Ratt E.P. – Album Review

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Back in 1976, there lived a band fronted by Stephen Pearcy called Mickey Ratt.  With limited success and numerous line-up changes over the years, including the great Jake E. Lee on guitar, the band eventually found the line-up that would work.  By 1982, that line-up be complete.

In 1981, one of the most crucial pieces was another songwriter to work with Stephen.  That role was filled by the late Robin Crosby on guitar. Also in 1981, a young guitar great, by the name of Warren DeMartini, joined the band courtesy of Jake E. Lee’s recommendation.  He would leave as he was in college and was afraid to quit school for a band with only moderate success.  He returned in 1982.  Finally, the band would add Bobby Blotzer on drums (ex Vic Vergeat) and Juan Crucier (formerly with Dokken) on bass and the band was complete.

Everything was in place and the band finally got a record deal in July 1983 with an independent label called Time Coast Music.  The band released their first E.P. as Ratt and it was simply called Ratt.  The E.P. included 6 tracks; however, the European release would give you 7 tracks which was an early version of “You’re In Trouble” that was later released on ‘Out of the Cellar’.  My version on vinyl is the U.S. release.  My version is also a re-release that was done in 1984 after the success of ‘Out of the Cellar’ which included a picture of the band with their more current look and was released by Atlantic Records.

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RSO (Richie Sambora & Orianthi) – Making History E.P. – Album Review

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Richie Sambora and Orianthi are back with their second E.P. this year.  From what I understand, they have written 70 songs together and recorded 25.  They plan on releasing them as E.P.’s so that means with 2 down (5 songs each), we have 3 more to look forward to in 2018? I hope that is the case as I am up for that. Before we get to those, we have to review the 2nd E.P., ‘Making History’.

The first E.P. ‘Rise’ was not what I expected from these two at all.  With both being exceptional guitar players, I was looking for a guitar based album and they did not come close to that on the first one.  Thank God they redeemed themselves with this album.  They brought the guitars on ‘Making History’.

With the opening track and title track “Making History” you know that they are doing what we wanted them to do.  They are rocking out.  The guitars on this one are exceptional with an almost Def Leppardesque sound from around the “Euphoria” era at times.  The guitar solo is the best thing they have done so far and it is all what I asked for so why should I complain.  Of course I have one negative on the song.  The vocals aren’t the best.  I feel the production is lacking (Bob Rock is the producer which is surprising).  Richie and Orianthi don’t sound like they are singing together and I don’t know if it is the effects they put in her vocals, but something is missing with the chemistry and the mix with the two of them singing together.

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Whitesnake (Snake) – Still Of the Night Live in Battle Creek, Mich. July 26, 1987

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On Black Friday, 16 members of my family went to Zoo Atlanta.  It was a great trip and some great times were had.  However, my mind was elsewhere.  I wanted to venture over to Criminal Records over in Little Five Points and check out this great Atlanta record store.  At 2pm, my daughter and I were going to leave are family behind and head over to the store.

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While at the Zoo, we missed the new Reptile house and we were planning on going back around to check it out before we left.  Well, being at the zoo with 16 people and a lot of those people are children, it was very slow going.  2pm started creeping up on us and I started to think, we weren’t going to make it to the reptile house and of course, we didn’t.  I was a little disappointed I didn’t get to see any of the “Snakes”.

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“My First Time” with Kiss – ‘Lick It Up’

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We are now to the end of the “My First Time” series. I ended up skipping it in November as their were too many new albums to review, plus I just wasn’t in the mood,  That got me thinking.  I don’t like being tied down to a specific album or theme.  I want to review albums whenever I am in the mood to do it.  Doing this series, limited me a little so I figured I would do one more and then just start reviewing any album, any time…no theme.

I figured if it was going to be my last, it needed to be something special.  For me, that means Kiss!!  The “My First Time” series is about the FIRST album I bought from a band.  Believe it or not, that album is ‘Lick It Up’ by Kiss.  A couple of my brothers were huge fans and had all their albums, but I had never bought one.  That changed with the excitement of this release.

What was all the excitement about this album?  Well, I am glad you asked.  Kiss sales had been in the decline.  Even with the stellar album ‘Creatures of the Night’ (one of their best), Kiss needed to do something to shake things up.  So they did just that.  They removed the make-up.  It was such a big deal, MTV held a special for the band to reveal themselves without make-up.  They also introduced the video for their first single, “Lick It Up”.  Here is the MTV special reveal…

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Maroon 5 – Red Pill Blues – Album Review

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Maroon 5 started off their career as a Pop/Rock/Funk band back in the very early 2000s and brought us the masterpiece debut album ‘Songs About Jane’.  15 year later the band is still going strong with the newest album called ‘Red Pill Blues’.  The resemblance between these two albums is relatively zero.  The Rock/Funk part of the band is non-existent and all you have is glorified POP!

Don’t get me wrong, there is some pop music I like.  However, there is something about pop music that irritates me and that is most songs on pop radio seem to think the actually have to be “featuring” a hip-hop artist or at least another artist.  Singers and bands today don’t seem to be able to do a song that is strictly their own.

Maroon 5 now believes in that theory whole-heartedly.  As a result, they have six songs, that is right 6!!!, on their new album that feature another artist.  They are as follows:

  1. “What Lovers Do (Feat. SZA)
  2. “Help Me Out (duet with Julia Michaels)”
  3. “Who I Am (Feat. Lunchmoney Lewis)”
  4. “Whiskey (Feat. A$AP Rocky)”
  5. ‘Don’t Wanna Know (Feat. Kendrick Lamar – yeah for like 10 seconds)”
  6. “Cold (Feat. Future)”

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Hollywood Undead – Five (V) – Album Review

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Hollywood Undead brings us their fifth album simply titled Five or V.  The band is a fantastic mix of Hip Hop and Metal.  They don’t limit themselves to either genre as the album also mixes in some nice Pop and R&B sounds to bring a wide variety of styles and sounds in what might be there most infectious album.

The band members go by the monikers of Danny, Charlie Scene, J-Dog, Johnny 3 Tears and Funny Man.  They wear masks and the music is usually filled with anger and angst that is sure to draw you into a crazy, fun-filled ride.  This album does just that, but also is a departure from their previous efforts.

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Greta Van Fleet – From the Fires – Album Review

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What were you doing when you were around 18-21 years old?  I am sure you weren’t taking the world by storm like the boys in Greta Van Fleet.  I can’t remember the last time a band was getting so much buzz from critics and from music fans alike.  Especially a Rock & Roll Band!!

They are being hailed as the second coming of Rock and are completely ripping off Led Zeppelin in the process…but in a very good way.  Their Zeppelin stylings are showcased  by the stunning “Highway Tunes” and equally amazing “Safari Song” and “Flower Power”.  The band has an old soul which shines on the Sam Cooke cover “A Change is Gonna Come” and the Fairport Convention cover “Meet on the Ledge”.

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