Unknown Soldier

Overview
It had been two years since America’s premier hard rock act Aerosmith had released a studio album (they had released the Live! Bootleg album the year before of course) and so in keeping with the band’s status, studio album number six was definitely due for a 1979 release, but it came with plenty of pitfalls and band heartache! By the time of the album’s actual recording, things had been seriously on the downslope for the band for quite some time and in-band fighting along with heavy substance abuse had finally taken its toll on the band. Somehow the band had previously managed to hold it altogether on the previous Draw the Line album, but this time around there were serious question marks. So with the help of in-house producer Jack Douglas, the band were able to get it together to start recording sessions for the new album which would be called Night in the Ruts. But in the middle of these sessions, the record label suggested that the band should go on tour, in order to recuperate some of the recording budget that they had burned through on just recording half of the album. It was on this tour that band tensions finally came to a head, with the band putting out some of their sloppiest performances ever, along with cancelled dates and worst was to come when Joe Perry suddenly upped and left the band to embark on a solo career, he would soon form the Joe Perry Project by the end of the year! This meant that the guitar onus now fell onto the shoulders of Brad Whitford, to complete the rest of the guitar parts for the album, but luckily he had help from various musicians such as band collaborator Richie Supa with the most notable help coming from New Yorker Jimmy Crespo ex-Flame, who would after the album’s release become Joe Perry’s official replacement within the band. Things also got worse for the band, when tried and tested Jack Douglas was replaced by Gary Lyons for the album’s production. This turned out to be anything but a straightforward production swap, as Jack Douglas’ raw production swagger, would now give way to the more en-vogue radio friendly style of Gary Lyons. Despite this more radio-style approach from the band, Night in the Ruts would prove to be the band’s least successful selling album to date and after its initial sharp climb up the US Billboard charts it quickly fell away and only achieved platinum status, thus making it the least successful Aerosmith release to date. More significantly though the release of Night in the Ruts, would coincide with Aerosmith’s huge commercial slump as a band and this would continue onto their next album Rock in a Hard Place which was recorded three years later. This lengthy slumber for the band would last right upto Permanent Vacation an album which came out several years later!

Steven Tyler-Vocals
Joe Perry-Guitar
Jimmy Crespo- Guitar
Brad Whitford-Rhythm
Tom Hamilton-Bass
Joey Kramer- Drums

Production- Jack Douglas/Gary Lyons

Album
No Surprize- The song title says it all really, as Steven Tyler delivers his typical revved up vocal delivery from the word go and the song is superbly highlighted by Joe Perry’s guitar riffs throughout. Chiquita- Real singles material here (even though the song wasn’t a single) and in many ways the song predates the polished Aerosmith songs of the 1980s by as number of years and therefore it certainly serves as a template for their 1980s sound. This was also another song that was recorded with Joe Perry still on-board. Remember (Walking in the Sand)- A cover of the Shadow Morton song that was performed by the Shangri-Las and was the principal single from the album as well. Cheese Cake- A somewhat rather short-feeling first side of the album, is brought to a close by the energetic “Cheese Cake” which sounds like a good mixture of earlier Aerosmith material all in one song. Three Mile Smile- A heavy mid-paced track and the sort of thing that the band always did well anyway, making it easily one of the stronger cuts on the b-side. Reefer Head Woman- A competent blues cover that seems no more than a novelty idea on this album. Bone to Bone (Coney Island White Fish Boy)- The most interesting thing about this song is its title and the track is real b-side album material as well. Think About It- A cover of the Yardbirds track and despite not being a bad cover, is probably one cover too many for the album. Mia- One of the true highlights of the album, as the band lay down one of their powerful trademark outros and a song that despite its quality, has often gone unnoticed by lsteners of the band!

Verdict
In many ways the album starts out as business as usual for the band, with the superb and infectious album opener “No Surprize” one of several songs that were recorded with Joe Perry on guitar and the song certainly reveals that the Tyler and Perry relationship still had fire when they wanted it to. This is then followed up by the pacey and polished “Chiquita” one of the better known songs from the album and a song designed to hang inside your head. Other highlights include the b-side opener the heavy rolling “Three Mile Smile” and the album closer “Mia” which reminds us of how “You See Me Crying” superbly closes the Toys in the Attic album. Other competent tracks include a cover of the Shangri-Las song “Remember (Walking in the Sand)” which despite being a good cover, does spank of a band that know they lack quality material in depth on the album, so to make up for this deficit of quality material, the band on a number of songs do a good job of plagiarizing their own material, especially on tracks like “Cheese Cake”. Lesser tracks include the blues cover “Reefer Head Woman” which was certainly a dated choice for such a supposedly forward looking album. Then there is the speedy sounding throwaway “Bone to Bone (Coney Island White Fish Boy)” and its following track “Think About It” which is a Yardbirds cover. Overall Night in the Ruts as an album shimmers and shines in certain places, whilst in other areas the band can really be found wanting especially in the song department. Also most of the material on offer both good and bad, seems to have been glued together from varios riffs, lyrics and ideas that the band had already laid down on their previous studio albums, with the only real difference being that Gary Lyons’ production style gives everything a much more polished feel. Quite often Night in the Ruts finds itself lumped in amongst the band’s weaker output, which to be fair is somewhat unjust and whilst it might not be one of their best albums, it does document a stylistic change for the band, which would garner them a lot of success several years later in the mid-1980s. The real bone of contention though as far as many fans go, is that this was the first album without a band essential in Joe Perry (sure he was around for about half the album but not the whole album) and the album gets its detractors for this reason, I guess it was kind of like if say Keith Richards had left the Rolling Stones (which never happened of course) This album and their following album would be the Jimmy Crespo era in the band, a name now mostly forgotten when Aerosmith are mentioned.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Overview
Down to Earth would be a turning point for Rainbow, as it would usher the band into a more amenable listen for the general music fan, by giving us a more one-dimensional sound overall. This of course had now become possible since Dio had left the band, thus leaving Ritchie Blackmore to push Rainbow into a more overtly commercial AOR direction. Graham Bonnet ex-Marbles was now recruited on vocals to replace the mighty Dio, Ritchie’s old Deep Purple teammate Roger Glover now a leading producer was brought in on bass and finally Don Airey ex-Colosseum II was on keyboards. In fact this actual band line-up actually wasn’t planned at all, but just fanned out as so as things often do in rock. Originally both Ian Gillan and Peter Goalby of Trapeze were considered for the vacant vocal slot, even though it would’ve been a surprise to see Ian Gillan working so soon again with Ritchie Blackmore! Also Roger Glover had initially only planned to produce the album, with either Jack Green of The Pretty Things or ex-Jeff Beck musician Clive Chaman playing on bass. Luckily though there was no change on the drum stool, as Cozy Powell still kept that nice and warm! Quite simply with Dio now gone, Ritchie Blackmore was the undisputed leader of the band (if he already wasn’t) and largely became more dictatorial than ever with the band’s songs and musical arrangments, a factor which would undermine the rest of the band’s discography over the ensuing years. The album cover certainly denotes just how high the band were aiming for here, as they saw themselves as a comet striking the earth, a factor they certainly lived upto in the huge sales that accompanied the album and its leading single the reknowned “Since You’ve Been Gone”. But then again I’ve seen reviews that state the exact opposite of this, in that the lofty aspirations of Ritchie Blackmore were being brought down to earth on this album, as the band played a more conventional brand of rock across the album! The album cover also brings back memories of the Deep Purple Fireball cover as well. At this time the band were as big as they ever got and they would be major headliners at the following year’s Monster of Rock festival at Castle Donnington.

Graham Bonnet- Vocals
Ritchie Blackmore- Guitar
Roger Glover- Bass
Don Airey- Keyboards
Cozy Powell- Drums

Production- Roger Glover

Album
All Night Long- Hooky and anthemic and the perfect track to start off the album, and we get our first introduction to the gruffer voice of Graham Bonnet here. Eyes of the World- With its then contemporary synthesizer almost sci-fi sounding start, the second track on the album then emerges into a trusty mid-paced rocker and it doesn’t get anymore listener friendly than this. The song then emerges into an almost neo-classical final part and the song is certainly the most ambitious on the album. Stratovarius many years later would put out a great song with the same title as well. No Time to Lose- A more straight-forward track that could’ve existed in Ritchie Blackmore’s Deep Purple days and it nicely fills out its almost 4 minutes on the album. Makin’ Love- A good song that seems hidden away on the first side of the album and a song that I always enjoy listening to as well. Since You’ve Been Gone- One of the many songs that were written by musician/songwriter Russ Ballard and this is arguably one of his best known. As for the song what can I say, as its one of the most recognizable of its type and probably the most famous song that the band ever put out with along with the future “I Surrender” even though “I Surrender” is a much better song. Love’s No Friend- From the word go the song resonates back to the David Coverdale Deep Purple era, but the song does have a tendency to drag in places and also smells of filler. Danger Zone- A song that promises quite a bit especially with its neo-classical sections, but it never quite gets off the ground! A certain Kenny Loggins would borrow the song title and use it to much better effect several years later! Lost in Hollywood- The album closer that really wasn’t good enough to be an album closer and just sounds like a standard b-side track.

Verdict
Overall Down to Earth tones down the emphasis on fantastical themes that had featured in the Dio years, even though their previous album had had a lesser emphasis on this. Ritchie Blackmore had now re-invented Rainbow along leaner hard rock lines and like Aerosmith would push the band into a more radio-friendly commercial sound to engage the AOR market. Roger Glover may have not been the best producer for this directional change, but he at least gave the band rocking credibility as both a producer and a player on the album. Roger Glover’s production style also keeps a certain amount of gruffness as well and he also by and large co-writes nearly every track on the album with Ritchie Blackmore. Down to Earth is one of those commercially sounding albums that scores more than it misses and where it scores is in key areas such as its sweet rocking hooks, which can be heard on a song like “All Night Long” and then there are traditional Deep Purple inspired rockers such as “No Time to Lose” to be considered. But then there are debatable tracks, which happen to be some of the pivotal efforts on the album with songs like “Eyes of the World” which comes with all the trademark Rainbow musical clichés and also resonate some real hard rock power, before then emerging into a fully blown neo-classical track. It’s the type of song that bridges the gap perfectly between Ritchie Blackmore and what Yngwie Malmsteen would go onto master very shortly. The song’s downside though, would see it as the kind of song that bands like Europe would dish regularly within the next several years! Then there is the album’s most famous track “Since You’ve Been Gone” surely one of the most overrated rock tracks ever recorded and it usually leaves me unimpressed on every listen. Singer Graham Bonnet may not have had the vocal range and pure ability of Dio, but he still remains a strong and capable performer on this album and his gruff voice seems to dominate on every song. He’s also one of the best remembered vocalists that Rainbow ever had as well, which could be deemed as being surprising given that he only ever featured on one Rainbow studio album! Despite the commercial appeal of this album and its competent delivery, everything tends to be solid rather than brilliant and it’s a level below the band’s previous two albums Rising and Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll in terms of overall quality. So when it comes to commercially sounding hard rock meets AOR it does what it says on the tin, even though Foreigner were certainly better at doing it than Rainbow.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Overview
With the huge interest that rock had created in Japan by the latter part of the decade due to the western acts that regularly toured there, the Japanese had taken most of them to heart and it was therefore obvious that a few quality home-grown acts would surge through to record some really good material. Japan though was no stranger to quality hard rock and heavy metal acts, largely due to the exploits of pioneers The Flower Travellin Band earlier on in the decade (see those cool reviews) and of course they were used to hearing their own heavy metal band in Bow Wow. At this time there were countless Japanese heavy bands popping up and based on the very few that I’ve ever listened to, Nokemono which means ‘Beast’ in English were certainly one of the best and they were a quintet which in my opinion were far more talented than the better known Bow Wow. Unsurprisingly and like most Japanese manufacturers who preferred to copy rather than being original, Nokemono would continue this national trait with their music and largely be no exception to this rule. Their debut album carries influences from the bands that inspired them which range from Deep Purple to UFO, even though these influences are not overly obvious when listening. Sadly the band would only ever record one studio album, after already having come to national attention as opening for Judas Priest on their Japanese tour in 1978 (which would appear on Judas Priest’s live Unleashed in the East album) The band also have the added bonus of singing in Japanese rather than in English and all credit to them for choosing this option. The album cover has a very mid-1970s style and is a fashion leftover from the glam rock period and just the type of cover that was worked on a budget to encompass the band in one fell swoop.

Yukihiro ‘Ace’ Nakaya- Vocals
Shigeo ‘Rolia’ Nakano- Guitar
Bunzo ‘Bunchan’ Satoh- Guitar
Massaki ‘Cherry’ Chikura- Bass
Tadashi ‘Popeye’ Hirota- Drums

Production- Nokemono

Album
Run Away- A fast opening track that goes straight for the jugular and the type of track when sung in English would be typical NWOBHM material. Terrible Night- A well constructed track and one of the best on the album and it shows the ability of the band on a slower paced track. The Closed City- Similar to the previous song but this time the heavy guitar work is even more dominant in places and the song is well paced. Lost Love- With a gentle guitar intro the songs threatens to be a ballad, but then we move into some typical Deep Purple riffery that changes the tempo of the song and is probably the best overall song on the album. Big Wednesday- Dominated by its big riff and equally accompanied by its big chorus. It’s the kind of sound that a band like Accept would adopt on their Ball to the Wall album a few years down the road. From the Black World- The title track is one of the faster tracks on the album to start the album’s second side and contains some pretty nifty guitar work in its middle section. Back Street- A standard album track and probably the weakest track on the album. Path of the Ashes- A slow burning ballad that sets itself up as one of the stronger tracks on the album. Ant Hell- A great song name that is started off by an almost Jimi Hendrix heavy style psychedelic intro, before taking on a more hard rock approach and then we jet into some early speed metal. Run Away (Reprise)- As the name suggests, a 30 second acoustic reprise.

Verdict
Not only is From the Black World a good album, even more importantly the album displays many of the traits that would go onto characterize the NWOBHM which of course would break onto the scene the following year. This fact in itself is a unique factor considering that the Nokemono debut came out in 1979 a year before most of the NWOBHM metal acts did (excluding the likes of Saxon and Samson of course) As far as I’m concerned the NWOBHM was largely about new British metal bands issuing home-made metal using the ethos that punk had used earlier in 1976 and 1977, but here we now have a Japanese band with the same ethos that was doing it a year earlier! In fact besides Nokemono, French metal band Trust were were also issuing out a similar kind of home-made metal as well, which begs the question just how original were the British bands in this respect? As for the Nokemono album, the music is fast when it matters and is also slowed down to give a good balance on other parts of the album. In fact it’s the mid-paced tracks which resonate the best and where they demonstrate their love for the bands that influenced them, and these are the stronger cuts on the album. Also not to be overlooked are the ballads, which the band either use at the beginning of certain songs or as stand alone ballads on their own. The guitar riffs on the album meld in nicely with the vocals of Yukihiro ‘Ace’ Nakaya who sounds fairly cool and competent over most of the album. In addition what makes From the Black World a good album for me, is that I’m often harder on non-British and American bands from this era when it comes to making this kind of music, as often these bands can be found wanting in certain crucial areas and tend to come off as lesser copies of their British and American contemporaries, of course this viewpoint would all change by the following decade, and in this respect Nokemono were early international quality pioneers. Overall this is a good album for any aficionado that likes to listen to lesser known international acts from this time period.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Isbjørn

This journal! Me like! Want more!

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The Batlord

I'm trying to remember if there were any NWOBHM albums from '79 besides Iron Maiden, which I'm assuming will be vying for first slot with Bomber and Highway to Hell. Don't think so.

Oh, apparently Whitesnake had an album from '79. That cover...

Not to mention Unleashed In the East in the live section.

Edit: I thought Overkill was released in '78. Apparently not. I just went through your '78 list and was about to chew you out for missing it, then I Googled it and realized my error.

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Unknown Soldier

Keep reading young 'un, as you can't have read everything yet

The Iron Maiden debut came out April 1980 in the UK, check your data Bats. In fact 1980 was the watershed year for all the quality NWOBHM albums, hardly anything good under that label came out in 1979

Strange how you mention Bomber instead of Overkill, as Overkill is considered as the stronger album. Not sure which I think is stronger but am reviewing both separately and not together.

It's probably the sexiest album cover in the history of rock, a pity the album wasn't up to much though. Might find someway to show the cover on here.

Sure will be, at it's one of two great live albums released that year

__________________
Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Overview
After the disappointment of Ian Gillan’s new hard rock project debut being slated for a Japanese only release in 1978 (see Gillan review) The majestic one luckily decided to keep some of the best bits from that album and re-issue them the following year, along with his new material for the Mr.Universe album for both a UK and international release. The borrowed material would now be re-recorded with what would be his definitive line-up under the Gillan moniker and this included highly talented musicians such as John McCoy on bass and the vital Colin Towns on keyboards who had both been on the Gillan album. Added to these two would be the talented Irish guitarist Bernie Torme and the much travelled Mick Underwood on drums. Ian Gillan’s current project Gillan, now very much focused on what he did best and that was his Deep Purplish hard rock sound which resonates across the Mr.Universe album, where we have him firmly realigning himself with his Deep Purple heyday from earlier on in the decade. As with the debut album, keyboardist Colin Towns co-writes nearly all the songs with Ian Gillan and also has two solo efforts credited to himself as well on the album, making him the biggest writing contributor for the album as a whole. Mr.Universe would also give Gillan their commercial breakthrough as a band with the album clocking in at no.11 on the UK album charts and its success was surely no surprise really given the song quality on offer musically, along with a certain Ian Gillan posing as a superstar on the album cover, which is devoid of the rest of the band members! The album of course also offers the perennial headache of different versions of the same album as well, of which I won’t go into here and to make matters even more confusing there are also different versions of the previous Gillan album as well, probably making around five or six different versions of the two albums or should that actually be one album! Also with the album coming right at the end of the decade, it was kind of nice to see Ian Gillan going full circle as an artist.

Ian Gillan- Vocals
Bernie Torme- Guitar
John McCoy- Bass
Colin Towns- Keyboards
Mick Underwood- Drums

Production- Paul ‘Chas’ Watkins

Album
Second Sight- With its almost Tubular Bells atmospheric start, the song then takes on a familiar Rainbow type stance along with some good work by Colin Towns on keyboards, who also has sole writing credits here and the track then leads into….. Secret of the Dance- We’re now into familiar territory here and that means Deep Purple territory. The song has some a real up-tempo gusto about it and sets the tone for much of the album to come. She Tears Me Down- One of the songs solely written by Colin Towns and it’s a strong song from beginning to end, and unsurprisingly Colin Towns is the dominant musician on this song. Roller- One of the heaviest tracks on the album and one of those important tracks that keeps the tempo of the album just right. Mr.Universe- The title track is without doubt one of the strongest tracks on the album and has Ian Gillan vocally at his best, there is also some top notch guitar work by Bernie Torme as well and stellat work by Colin Towns on keyboards. Vengeance- A heavy melodic track and despite being regarded as one of the stronger tracks on the album, but I’d say it was fairly average from beginning to end. Puget Sound- The only group composition on the album surprisingly and it starts off with an “Anyone’s Daughter” kind of vibe from the the Fireball album. Dead of Night-Ian Gillan covers failry known ground here, as he tells a tale in his all too familiar and plodding style. Message in a Bottle- An energetic album track that kicked off the second side of the debut album, but here it featires as the penultimate track on this album. Fighting Man- The third song solely accredited to Colin Towns and it’s carried across from the debut album. Again it’s no surprise to see that the piano features highly in the song and at more than 7 minutes it was obvious that this was pencilled in to be an accomplished track in every way and closes the Mr.Universe album, the song is a true treasure in every respect!

Verdict
Despite some detractors and quality control moaners on certain reviews, Mr.Universe is without doubt probably the strongest effort Gillan put out as a band, along with the later Future Shock album which came out in 1981. Mr.Universe is a well balanced album and the hard rock credentials of the songs are spot on and well distributed across the album. Gillan cleverly use the same opening double act from their debut set to start this album as well, in the atmospheric “Second Sight” and the rocking “Secret of the Dance” which comes hot on its heels. The band then save the three other tracks from the debut album to finish this album off “Dead of Night” “Message in a Bottle” and the epic “Fighting Man” which is highlighted by Ian Gillan’s famous screaming finale to the song! The crop of new songs on the album are a strong bunch overall, despite containing a couple of weaker efforts here and there. The stronger songs start with the well-crafted Colin Towns track “She Tears Me Down” one of the best on the album, as is the energetic “Roller” as well, but the pick of the bunch is surely the title track “Mr.Universe” with its addictive vibe and its guitar jamming mash-up middle section! Other tracks though are not so great like “Vengeance” which despite being both melodic and heavy, really fails to ignite where it matters and ends up sounding quite standard. “Puget Sound” doesn’t fare that much better either and is largely a disappointing band composition. At the end of the day, it could be argued that Mr.Universe is just half an album really, as half of it had already featured on the debut. But another way of looking at it, is that it really does combine the best that the Gillan band had in their locker around this time all on one album, making it similar to what the Sweet had done with their Desolation Boulevard album several years earlier. Of the songs initially omitted from the Mr.Universe album, it was probably a shame to not see the excellent “Abbey of Thelema” being featured, but I guess that would’ve been one song too many carried over from trhe debut. As has already been previously mentioned on the Gillan review, Ian Gillan out of the three vocalists that fronted the three biggest hard rock/heavy metal British bands of the 1970s, would see him as being the least appreciated out of a trio that consisted of Robert Plant and Ozzy Osbourne working outside their better known main bands, and for that reason alone Ian Gillan’s solo work is probably the most rewarding of the three as well.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

Weird. I thought that it was '79.

I edited that a minute later cause I'd thought that Overkill was released the year earlier at first. Batting a thousand here.

It is a great cover, but then I tried listening to the first song...I didn't get very far. I'd still buy that album if I saw it though.

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Unknown Soldier

Weird you certainly are

The problem with early Whitesnake is that David Coverdale just released too many sub-par albums under his own name or under Whitesnake's in a short space of time and they really lack any quality. Lovehunter is one of those albums and tends to be a bit more consistent than the others, the problem though, is that there is nothing really great on it.

__________________
Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Overview
Whenever a blockbuster debut hits the charts like the Van Halen debut did, there is always the pressure for a band to follow-up with a likeminded sophomore set. Quite often though a band can’t match the strength of that debut and tend to fall short, whereas others can of course match that debut album in both terms of impact and quality. Van Halen on their second album were surprisingly in both camps in this respect and where the album lacked in matching the debut album for stand-out tracks and impact, it scored its points with its consistent overall feel especially on its b-side and its feeling of being lean where it mattered. The album features one cover song less than the debut, one song less and is trimmed by around three minutes and its compactness would be its key. Like a lot of sophomore sets a number of the songs had existed even before the debut had been recorded and some even date back to 1976, two years before their debut album. Also once again all the original songs are complete group efforts as well. The success of this debut album was certainly vital for the then development of American heavy metal which was now taking on a much more glamorous aspect than its British counterpart, which of course still focused on the darker matter of the genre. Highly commercial producer Ted Templeman would be on-board again to give us another polished performance and the album would go onto to be a multi-platinum seller. The album would reach the lofty postion of number.6 on the US Billboard chart and contain the singles “Dance the Night Away” and “Beautiful Girls” of which the former would be a hit single for the band. This was certainly an achievement by a relatively new metal band around this time, especially since they were competing with other genres that were more popular commercially at the time, meaning that they would get more exposure on the radio than a lot of metal would. But then again their success was not overly surprising given the visual appeal that they provided and their grasping of the ‘pop metal’ denominator in their music.

David Lee Roth- Vocals
Eddie Van Halen- Guitar
Michael Anthony- Bass
Alex Van Halen- Drums

Production- Ted Templeman

Album
You’re No Good- The album starts off with its only cover on the album and this is a song that was originally written by songwriter Clint Ballad.Jr. The song is a slow plodding effort and is highlighted by the guitar work of Eddie Van Halen. Dance the Night Away- Pop meets metal here (well its pop mostly) and a song surely written for chart success. The song has normally been a permanent fixture in the DLR fronted Van Halen over the years and its poppy approach captures the lighter side of the band. Somebody Get Me a Doctor- After the previous song, we’re back into heavier territory here and we have more vocal antics by DLR once again. Bottoms Up!- Similar to the previous efforts in feel, but this time we have a much faster track in its overall execution to contend with. Outta Love Again- A lot of Van Halen’s material started off with atmospheric intros, using Eddie Van Halen’s guitar to provide the actual intro (synths would used on later albums for this) and this is one of numerous songs on this album to have this approach. Light Up the Sky- One of the many songs that carries the typical Van Halen template, which would reach its climax on the future 1984 album. Spanish Fly- Here the band substitute the electrifying instrumental “Eruption” from their debut, with an acoustic Spanish flavoured shorty. D.O.A- Dominated by its heavy guitar work and David Lee Roth’s swaggering vocal style and the song speeds up nicely to its finale. It’s also the longest song on the album at just over 3 minutes! Women in Love…- At just over 4 minutes, this is one of the better constructed tracks on the whole album and further strengthens why the b-side of the album is better overall. Beautiful Girls- The second single returns us again to the light-hearted side of the band and of course the band’s obsession with pussy!

Verdict
The band’s heavy credentials are laid down from the word go with the plodding cover of “You’re No Good” and this heaviness is then combined with humour on “Somebody Get Me a Doctor” and in turn this humour is then combined with speed on “Bottoms Up!”. These three songs alone capture the true spirit of the album, where the band were looking to tie in all the aspects of their light humour, varying track speeds and overall heaviness in certain places, and all this comes together to varying degrees on these three songs. The pop hooks don’t get any stronger than on the album’s singles “Dance the Night Away” and the rockier “Beautiful Girls” which despite having that softly softly approach to metal, earmarked the band for chart success and this would be a style that they would fully exploit a few years later on the Diver Down album. As the album goes on, the music tends to get less light-hearted and songs like “Light Up the Sky” and the slightly more serious sounding “D.O.A” both demonstrate this. In fact they’re two of the best songs on the album, making the b-side of the album its stronger side. Van Halen as a band were never the most gifted of songwriters, as often nearly every song seems to stem from the same root with just varing degrees of variation in its execution, but kudos to them in knowing how to execute their material with all the excess fat trimmed away. Also having a guitar maestro full of histrionics in Eddie Van Halen and a vocalist like David Lee Roth boosted their street credibility through the roof anyway! But then again this is a matter of opinion regarding David Lee Roth, whose vocal antics and sloppy vocal style may not appeal to everybody. On listening to Van Halen’s material here, probably the most important thing that comes to mind, was their ability to promote a brand of heavy metal that didn’t take itself anywhere as seriously compared to its British counterparts and in fact the band push their more humorous side even more so here than on their debut. Despite this the band were also ultra-professional in their arrangements, attitude and their ability to live and breath metal, a fact which saw them as the most important American metal band to date. The template that the band had set up on their debut, wouldn’t be expanded on here, but it would be further solidified to help shape a large chunk of commercial American metal throughout the 1980s.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History