In a conversation with the mighty Batlord (TM) recently, I realised that I had not finished this series, and way back last year gave a tantalising idea of the bands I would focus on in part four of my look at the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. I did say not to expect an update any time soon, but hey, that was back in July of last year! So here we are, almost a year later, and I'm finally getting around to it. Well, better late than never!
As I mentioned at the end of part three, one of the bands I'll be concentrating on in this episode is a band most or many of you may not even have heard of, a small band who nevertheless gave the world a serious guitar superstar, a little outfit from Northern Ireland who, over the course of over thirty years, have split up twice and released the grand total of three albums. But even at that, they are seen as being one of the big influences on and movers in the NWOBHM. They're called
Formed in Belfast in 1979, Sweet Savage was founded by Ray Haller on bass and vocals, Trev Fleming on guitar, David Bates on drums and Vivian Campbell on guitar. Yeah, that one. A rising star in the world of heavy metal, it wasn't long before Campbell's talents were noticed and he outgrew the band, leaving to join Dio where his signature guitar sound would become one of the trademarks of Ronnie's new outfit. Later of course he would join Def Leppard and Whitesnake, but he left Sweet Savage before they had managed to release their first album, so although he was a pivotal figure in all the bands he later played in, his contribution to his mother band was really two singles, though the B-side of one of those singles would later catapult Sweet Savage back into the limelight when Metallica covered it.
Disappointed with their failure to break through into the big time like bands such as Saxon and Maiden and Motorhead, despite playing the huge Slane Festival alongside Thin Lizzy and U2 in 1981, Sweet Savage disbanded in 1982 and a few months later Campbell headed off to make his own future in heavy metal. In 1984 the guys tried again, resurrecting the band but with a mostly new lineup. Campbell was gone of course and so was Trev Fleming, and they brought in a dedicated vocalist, Robert Casserly, while the twin guitar attack was streamlined to one, Ian Wilson being given the tough job of stepping into not only Vivian Campbell's shoes, but those of Fleming as well.
The guys released two more singles, neither again gaining much in the way of commercial interest, and stuck together until 1989, when again disillusioned they split. However in 1991, two years after their second breakup, metal giants Metallica recorded a cover of "Killing time", which had been the B-side of their first single. Such exposure led to an awakening of interest in the Belfast lads, and Sweet Savage reformed again in 1996, this time to record a proper album, the first of three. Fleming returned on guitar and was joined by Simon McBride. Under this lineup they released their first album, with Haller back on vocals as well as taking bass duties.
Killing time --- Sweet Savage -- 1996 (Neat)
Perhaps referencing the amount of wasted time between their formation in 1979 and this, or maybe namechecking the track that had brought renewed interest in them as a band, this album contains many of the songs released on single and various EPs, though oddly not their first two singles, at least not the A-sides: it does obviously include the B-side of "Take no prisoners", their debut single, and the track that essentially brought them back from the dead.
There's a wild, crazy guitar and drums that sound like someone hitting tin cans in a gymnasium to get us under way with the title track, and to be honest the vocal is very muddy and the production is terrible. The guitar work here doesn't seem as good as Vivian Campbell's on the original, but then, you wouldn't expect it to be would you? There's a fresh sense of youth though about the song, and you can easily see these guys recording it and dreaming of the big time; decent start. A hard slower grinder then for "Vengeance", one of the two longest tracks on the album at just under four and a half minutes. Vocals still hard to make out though. Good guitar work from Fleming and McBride; kind of a faster Sabbath feel about this. "Welcome to the real world" rocks along with real energy and passion, the tempo going up several notches, although it fades out a little suddenly, bringing in the other track that ties for the position of longest, and "Thunder" is another big, heavy, marching grinder with a sense of doom and also a little progressive metal about it.
We're off an headbanging again then with "Eye of the storm", one of the songs that appeared on their 1980 session on Tommy Vance's radio show, and later as a single put out in 2005. "Parody of wisdom" slows it all down again with another grinder, and some slick bass work with a nice hook in the chorus of the song, while the oddly-named "D.U.D" kicks the tempo back up again and then everything fires off at ten for "Prospector of greed", another track from that Tommy Vance session. Now, this could very well be the ballad, as it starts off quite laidback and relaxed, and indeed "Why?" seems to show the other side of Sweet Savage (more of the sweet and less of the savage? Okay! Okay!) and it's a nice change from the heads-down metal and grinders, good though they are. Sort of acoustic feel to the guitars here, and though I feel that some keyboards or piano might have added to the sound of the song, it's a nice ballad, and probably the first time you can really get to hear the vocalist properly. Again though the song fades out really unexpectedly; is this bad production or bad writing?
Anyway, a big boogie rocker is up next with "The raid", a song originally recorded in 1981, with "Reach out" keeping the tempo high and we close on "Ground zero", a good fast rocker to bring the album to a powerful and energetic finish.
TRACKLISTING
1. Killing time
2. Vengeance
3. Welcome to the real world
4. Thunder
5. Eye of the storm
6. Parody of wisdom
7. D.U.D
8. Prospector of greed
9. Why?
10. The raid
11. Reach out
12. Ground Zero
Two years later and Fleming was gone, and Sweet Savage released their second album, which again failed to do much. This was the late nineties after all, and metal was not enjoying the exposure and popularity it had a decade earlier. Also other, new forms of metal were springing up, with the likes of viking and doom metal as well as the tail-end of the grunge phenomenon leaving these three guys from Belfast looking --- and, it has to be said, sounding --- like something of a relic from the past. Whereas bands like Maiden, Saxon and Dio changed with the mood of the time, Sweet Savage, something like Mama's Boys and a few other bands from the NWOBHM who never quite made it or faded away quickly after the initial burst of enthusiasm in the early eighties, seemed unable to adapt. This made their second album sound rather like their first, and that was not a good thing.
Rune --- Sweet Savage --- 1998 (Neat)
Perhaps they were confusing their audience with the title of the album. While bands like Rainbow, Dio, Maiden and Hawkwind all flirted with the essentially prog rock idea of fantasy, sword-and-sorcery and mythology, Sweet Savage used a fantasy-sounding title for their album but there's little evidence of any fantasy lyrics or themes within the music. The opening track starts with some feedback and then rocks out in something of a similar style to Dio's "Stand up and shout", but again the vocals are very muddy and the production is, well, dire. It would be cruel to say that "Ditch" was a presentiment of where the album, and the band at the time, were headed, but the snarled
"All I wanna say/ Is fuck you!" certainly doesn't help if the fans think it's being aimed at them, which I don't think it is. There's also something missing in the guitar work now that Simon McBride is shouldering the entire responsibility himself. That's not to say he's not a great guitarist, and he unleashes some great solos here. But think of Maiden or Scorpions with only one guitarist: there'd definitely be something missing.
Second track, "Life's a game", has a very lively bassline driving it, almost like a fast synth at times, but I can't stop wondering if Ray Haller is just that bad a singer, or if the production really is that bad, as it's really hard to make out not quite his voice, but any real personality or emotion in his singing. "Trust" has a nice sliding boogie guitar groove, and the interestingly-titled "I am nothing (you are less)" at least sounds like it has a nice idea going, but there's something derivative about the main melody: at least Haller puts some dark emotion into the vocal, growling out the title like a depressed punk rocker. "Who am I?" has again a cool bassline, and it rocks along nicely, but I have to say that in general this album has all the professional feel of a bad demo tape. There's little consideration given to how the songs end, meld together, or fade, and it's all just a little, well, cack-handed. That said, McBride hands out the guitar licks and delivers many a fine solo, but there's just nothing that terribly special here, and in a genre like heavy metal you need to be able to stand out if you want to survive.
The only song really that might possibly reflect the fantasy theme of the title of the album, "Shangri-La" is a rather disappointingly generic rock song with it has to be said some pretty awful lyrics. There's some bluesy touches to "Survive" and that influence continues on into "Communication", mixing in some "Master of reality" era Black Sabbath riffs. Nice rolling drum intro with attendant screaming guitar takes us into "Why me?" which makes up in energy what it lacks in subtlety, ends suddenly as most of the tracks here do, and ushers in the closing track. "Walk on by" is not a cover of the old Dionne Warwick song, surprise surprise, and it confirms that there are no ballads, indeed no slow songs at all on this album. As a closer it's okay but rather like the rest of the album, sorry to say, nothing special, nothing that stands out and nothing I'm likely to remember or want to play again once this review is finished.
TRACKLISTING
1. Ditch
2. Life's a game
3. Trust
4. I am nothing (you are less)
5. Who am I?
6. Shangri-La
7. Survive
8. Communication
9. Why me?
10. Walk on by
It's no terrible shock that after this very sub-standard album Sweet Savage again failed to garner any interest in their music and again split up. When they eventually reformed ten years later, David Bates had left and been replaced on the drumstool by Jules Watson. The band then played festivals in Germany to almost incredible acclaim, given how little of their recorded output had been available. Galvanised by this, the band toured with Metallica, Saxon and Iron Maiden, the last being a replacement support for Heaven and Hell, who had to pull out due to the tragic death of Ronnie James Dio. Sweet Savage would suffer their own tragedy though, as in 2010 Trev Fleming, who had returned to play with the band, passed away. No details are available as to the cause of his death, though it is said to have been related to a condition he was already suffering from.
With, again, renewed interest in the band they were joined by new drummer Steve McCloskey and released their third album in 2011. Originally expected to be titled "Warbird", this is in fact the opening track but the album name was changed, perhaps to reflect the second rebirth of the band, perhaps to honour their fallen comrade. Speaking of former members, founder member Vivian Campbell guests on their cover of Lizzy's famous "Whiskey in the jar" on the album. Also included are older songs that appeared on singles or EPs prior to this.
Regeneration --- Sweet Savage --- 2011 (Grind That Axe)
The first thing I notice --- and it would have to be, over ten years later! --- is a quantum leap in production and holy mother of divine! I can
hear Ray Haller singing! So were the two other albums down to bad production then? Either that, or in the intervening decade he's learned how to sing. "Warbird", which kicks off the album and was originally supposed to be its title track (yes, you said already...)
, is a good hard rocker with a sort of mid-paced tempo, but picks up near the end and goes head-down into the breakneck "Powder monkey", with a truly stupendous guitar intro, somewhat reminsicent of Survivor's big hit, "Eye of the tiger", and staccato, machine-gun drumming. Good to hear most of the original band back together. Not so sure about Trev Fleming: he's given credit here on guitar but the album was released a year after his untimely death. Perhaps he recorded some/all of the tracks prior to his death, though Wiki says he hadn't been with the band since 2010. Then again, given that this album was supposed to have been released in 2009, I guess you'd have to assume it had been ready since then, so maybe he was involved.
At any rate, the other guitarist is the returning Ian Wilson, and with new drummer Marty McCloskey the band certainly sound energised, revitalised and, indeed, regenerated. There's no title track,
per se, but the next one up is "Regenerator", and that's as close as you're likely to get really. It opens with a sort of echoing shout like a chant or call to arms, then slowly the music comes up and it has a very eighties metal sound about it with a touch of grunge in there too, a great guitar solo from one or other of the guys and a real crowd-participation "Hai! Hai! Hai!" in the chorus. "No guts no glory" reminds me of nothing more than mid-eighties Tank, hammering along with a real sense of purpose, while "Saviour (I am not)" has a hard bitter edge to it and rocks the house. "Do or die" is like a mixture of Maiden and Metallica, a big mid-paced grinder with real menace in the guitar attack.
"Money" is not a cover of Floyd's classic, but another tough headbanger with a real snarled vocal from Haller --- now that I can hear him, he's a decent singer. I wouldn't give him any awards and he'll never stand toe-to-toe with the greats, but he's more than adequate to the task here. Nice soft guitar intro to "Razor's edge", but it doesn't last and we're into a riproarin' boogie rocker that just makes you want to bob your head and tap your feet. Nice sort of restrained guitar allows Haller his head, and I'd certainly class it as the best track so far. The well-signposted return of Vivian Campbell is up next, as he guests on guitar as the boys tackle Lizzy's standard "Whiskey in the jar", and you can definitely hear the difference. Decent version, but no-one's ever going to come close to Phil and the lads for me; even the original traditional song is pale and lifeless by comparison.
Of the four tracks left on the album, three are old songs that were either released as singles or on EPs. I'm not sure how I feel about this. For a band who have had, basically, ten years to record new material (well okay, three: they only officially got back together in 2008) I feel they could have had more new tracks on the album. If you count three old ones plus the cover, all you get here is nine new tracks. I suppose that's no major deal, I just would have liked to have seen more new stuff, given we hadn't heard from them since 1998. That said, "Eye of the storm" is a great rocker and "Queen's vengeance" a harder, tougher grinder almost in the Dio mould, with a great Maidenesque guitar outro, then "Achilles", the only one of the closing quartet not to be an already recorded song, has over a minute of fast instrumental intro before the vocal comes in. It rattles along really nicely, again a sense of Metallica in it, and the album closes on "The raid", with a nice boogie rhythm and a bassline that puts me in mind of Simple Minds' "Waterfront". Oddly enough, this was not only on their debut album but was also the closer on that album.
TRACKLISTING
1. Warbird
2. Powder monkey
3. No guts, no glory
4. Saviour (I am not)
5. Do or die
6. Money
7. Razor's edge
8. Whiskey in the jar
9. Eye of the storm
10. Queen's vengeance
11. Achilles
12. The raid
"Regeneration" is a massive improvement on the previous two albums, not only the material but also the production and the direction, but even so you would have to wonder if Sweet Savage have left it too long to try to make a final bid for the top? You can only get so far on the back of Metallica's recommedations, and though they've had a lot of exposure recently due to big support slots, I would question whether they will ever be the headlining act, or are they condemned, assuming they stay together, to always be the bridesmaid and never the bride, so to speak?
Either way, they are regarded as an important part of the overall phenomenon that was the NWOBHM, and if they can make their mark thirty years after that wave has flattened out and receded away, then fair play to them. I just personally think there are bands out there who are a lot better and have more going for them, but I do wish Sweet Savage all the best, and hopefully they'll make the luck of the Irish work for them.