18. Samson Before the Storm 1982 (Polydor)
Hard Rock
... and the band played on.
Album
Despite being regarded by Kerrang! as Samson’s best album,
Before the Storm is most noted though as being the first post-Bruce Dickinson album by the band, after his poaching by Iron Maiden from Samson the previous year. After Bruce Dickinson had gone it was thought that Samson would possibly fold, but given the fact that Paul Samson was the band’s leader he opted to go on and drafted in heavyweight blues vocalist Nicky Moore ex-Hackensack and ex-Tiger, as well Peter Jupp coming in on drums for Thunderstick. The first release with the new line-up had been the
Losing My Grip EP and around this time the band were also touring the UK with American southern rock band Blackfoot (I once reviewed one of their albums somewhere on here) before they went into the studio to cut
Before the Storm. A number of the tracks included on that album, had actually already been cut with Bruce Dickinson whilst he was still a member of the band and were now being re-recorded with Nicky Moore, the Bruce Dickinson versions would finally appear on the
Shock Tactics cd re-release as extras in 2001. Now with Nicky Moore in the line-up, it seemed fairly obvious that the band might just retreat into their bluesy shell, given the fact that Paul Samson was a hardened bluesman as well, but the end result didn’t turn out like that at all. The album starts with the pretty beefy sounding “Dangerzone” and it has Nicky Moore sounding like a beefier David Coverdale across the song, and the song is one of those hard rock gems that’s built to last, in this vein there is the previously known track in “Losing My Grip” and the album closer “Young Idea”. A lot of the material on the album is fairly up-tempo including tracks like “Stealing Away” which are often mixed in with plenty of melody like on “I’ll Be Around” and “Life on the Run”, whereas tracks like the “Test of Time” and “Turn Out the Lights” are not only pacey, but also have an aggressive edge as well. The weakest track on the album is probably “Red Skies” which was actually one of the songs partly written with Bruce Dickinson. As for the album overall, the most interesting aspect of this album is its distinctly hard rock feel as opposed to a metal one. In regards to this direction, it’s all credit to the band as well, for keeping their bluesy roots at a minimum here, which thankfully keeps the album contemporary for its time. Also I’m guessing that Eddie Vedder long before his Pearl Jam days, may well have been a fan of Nicky Moore vocals, because they both have that same powerful depth to their voices.
Before the Storm probably sits on the same level as
Shock Tactics for Samson’s best album, but wheras
Shock Tactics veered towards a more straight heavy metal sound,
Before the Storm goes in for a more melodic hard rock one and of the two I’d probably sooner listen to
Before the Storm despite the fact that
Shock Tactics is better song for song. Finally over the course of the decade the band’s credibility and finally their fanbase sadly dwindled, leaving Samson as being no more than largely one of those bands that had missed their big opportunity much earlier on in the decade.