Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
The only studio album ever released by Nashville’s Steeler (who soon relocated to Los Angeles) at least until a compilation album was put together by frontman Ron Keel in 2005. Steeler named after a Judas Priest song are by and large mostly remembered as the launchpad for the virtuoso guitar skills of Yngwie Malmsteen, who of course would go onto become one of the pivotal neo-classical guitarists of the decade. He largely garnered this acclaim after the demise of Randy Rhoads as far as American based artists were concerned when it came to neo-classical guitarists. Around this time most US metal bands were usually in awe of the guitar histrionics of guitarists like Eddie Van Halen, but the introduction to US shores of Sweden’s Yngwie Malmsteen would be something of a sensation around 1983 and 1984 period especially with the release in 1984 of Rising Force. His sensational neo-classical style came straight from the European school of guitarists like Ritchie Blackmore and Uli Jon Roth and he would contrast starkly with purer metal sound delivered by guitarists like Eddie Van Halen. Now one point worth noting before talking about the album content, is that it’s often stated that Yngwie was flown in to finish the album last minute and didn’t have too much to do with its actual composition, which is sometimes proved by the lack of complexity on some of the tracks, leaving band leader Ron Keel as the principal purveyor for the Steeler debut. So with this in mind, Steeler with its floating early roster seems no more than just a put together vehicle that put on some great shows around the LA area in 1983, before its members went off to do other projects. Now normally I might bypass an album of this type, but when it’s as good and solid as the Steeler debut I just had to make an exception. Straight away Steeler go in for a big metal sound a la Y&T which is obvious with its opening cuts “Cold Day in Hell” and “Backstreet Driver” where frontman Ron Keel displays an effective Udo Dirkschneider of Accept gruff vocal style and at times sounds akin to Gene Simmons of Kiss. The strongest tracks are the radio friendly “No Way Out” punctuated by its addictive chorus and its acoustic strummings and it’s a track I really like. Yngwie’s strummings are then taken onto the next level for the acoustic Spanish opening of “Hot on Your Heels” before giving over to his soon to be famous dazzling metal fist-frets and this ends up being the album’s best known track and also one the fastest tracks, along with the pretty ace sounding “On the Rox”. Even the albums’s lesser tracks "Down to the Wire" and "Born to Rock" with their everyday sound are still solid listens and "Seranade" closes out the album nicely. Steeler is both a big yet dense sounding metal album, that’s high on catchy choruses (when used) with effective and punchy if simplistic guitar riffs which are strewn across its tracks. Basically all this combined with the band’s image, makes this album some pretty hot early glam metal listening at the potent end of the spectrum, and the album is pretty hot from beginning to end. If you’re a fan of bands like Accept, Kiss, Dokken, Keel and anything that contains Yngwie Malmsteen then this album is a must listen to piece and can pretty much go toe-to-toe with the other top glam metal releases of the year. It’s simplistic in its song construction, but then again some of the best albums around often are. After the breakup of the band, Ron Keel would go onto form Keel a glam metal outfit before going onto to tinkle with southern rock. Yngwie Malmsteen would have a stint with Graham Bonnet in Alcatrazz who released their debut album No Parole from Rock ’n’ Roll also in 1983 and this was an album that just missed the top 20 on this year’s list, before embarking on his far more illustrious solo career the following year.

Ron Keel- Guitar/Vocals
Yngwie Malmsteen- Guitar
Rik Fox- Bass
Mark Edwards- Drums

Production- Mike Varney

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
The second coming by Kiss saw them launch an album that would not only become one of the biggest selling of the year, but most importantly open the band up to a whole new generation of music listeners and these two factors alone returned them to the top of the rock hierarchy in 1983. The previous year’s Creatures of the Night had been where it had really started and in fact that album was stronger track for track than Lick it Up (see review) BUT the big difference between that album and this album was that on Lick it Up the New Yorkers had finally removed their trademark make-up, which had been a mainstay for over a decade and the band now revealed themselves finally in the flesh! Lick it Up as an album, is as much about the new naked look of the band as it is about the music on the album. The make-up should’ve been removed on Creatures of the Night to compliment their return to a heavy sound, probably their heaviest even though the Gene Simmon’s tracks here can match it. Instead it happened a year later and in fact the timing may have been spot on, as 1983 was the year that glam metal broke big time and despite not being a glam metal band per se, Kiss were one of the biggest influences behind that movement and even with their make-up stripped off their naked look fitted neatly into that movement as elder statesman. Overall they were essentially to glam metal what Judas Priest had been to the NWOBHM a few years earlier. The album cover displays Gene Simmons as the macho focal point, with Eric Carr looking subdued next to him, despite having been the star turn on the Creatures of the Night album. New guitarist Vinnie Vincent looks cool despite his limited guitar ability, but its Paul Stanley’s somewhat effeminate rock star pose, that leans the look of the band into glam metal territory, which made the new look extremely contemporary for the period and the album cover’s all white backdrop looks great too. With no Ace Frehley in the band, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons split the vocals between them so five songs apiece. So starting with Paul Stanley, the album opens up with vocals like ‘deep in the night I am waiting’ ‘and I know what you want’ ‘heaven is yours for the taking’ and ‘pleasure and pain’ all are just the type of thing I always imagine Paul Stanley singing and are contained on the album opener “Exciter” and the song turns out to be a pretty blistering heavy staple. Not much needs to be said about “Lick it Up” a song that everybody on the planet must know unless they’ve lived under a rock and the video is a must see. “Gimme More” promises much but offers little, but the rap rocker “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose” is a good inclusion and written by all four members, his final song “A Million to One” is the type of song that Paul Stanley always did so well and his voice is perfectly suited to. The Gene Simmon’s efforts are all mid-paced pounders and start with “Not for the Innocent” and this song is mean and moody, and so friggin loud and probably my favourite on the album, especially with its bad ass lyrics! “Young and Wasted” is another great loud muscle song and things get faster on “Fits Like a Glove” but “Dance All Over Your Face” is a poor track, whilst the album closer “And on the 8th Day” hardly matches “I Love it Loud” from the previous album. The album would be highly influential and would be a prime mover behind the whole glam metal scene and Kiss along with the likes of Def Leppard and Van Halen, would be one of those bands from this period that would be borrowed by the glam metal movement in the 1980s. I also have great memories of this album as when it first came out, I was into my early years of buying music and when I bought this I already had Destroyer and found that the difference between the band with and without make-up a fascinating contrast. Finally I’ve travelled to about three continents and seen numerous hard rock and heavy metal cover bands covering various songs and if memory serves me right, all of those bands covered the “Lick it Up” track and covered it well, which shows just how far reaching this Kiss album really was.

Paul Stanley- Rhythm/Vocals
Gene Simmons- Bass/Vocals
Vinnie Vincent- Guitar
Eric Carr- Drums

Production-Michael James Jackson and Kiss

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Urban Hat€monger ?

I quite enjoy Lick It Up, It makes a nice companion piece to Creatures Of The Night.
Not one of their best albums but I'd call it a solid effort. All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose I think is one of the best singles they ever wrote.
My biggest annoyance with this album is they didn't let Eric Carr sing Young & Wasted.
Disagree with you about Vinnie Vincent being limited, I think it was his guitar playing that gave them a shot in the ass they needed, much like John Sykes in Thin Lizzy around the same time.

And if you want to see Vinnie Vincent was doing before Kiss.......

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The Batlord

I think the vast majority of young people probably haven't heard any eighties KISS. Probably haven't heard a KISS song that wasn't "Detroit Rock City", "Rock and Roll All Nite", or maybe "Beth" to be honest. I wouldn't be surprised if most of my peers weren't even aware that KISS had ever taken off their make-up.

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Chula Vista

AWESOME thread! Love your reviews of LZ1 and LZ2. Absolutely nailed it.

Did ya know that LZ2 was recorded in 13 different studios in three different countries while the band was touring?

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Unknown Soldier

When I listened to this album about a month ago to place it in the list and then re-listened to it whilst writing it, I thought it was even better than I remembered it being and now think I should’ve put it higher on this year’s list. As said its the perfect pair with Creatures of the Night and I was going to put "All Hell’s Breaking Loose" as one of the vids and switched it last minute for "A Million to One".

Why? I think the song is perfectly suited to Gene Simmons. And on the video for Lick it Up, Eric Carr looks I think quite uncomfortable singing on it.

That’s not so much my opinion just based on opinions by the other members of Kiss on his limited ability to play non-melodic stuff well. I didn’t mention it in the review but Rick Derringer was brought into play on "Exciter" which pissed Vinnie Vincent off. And that video is hardly a great audition for Vinnie either

How do you know, you weren’t even born back then.

Thanks and despite not knowing that it was recorded in 13 different studios etc I’ve always known that its kind of the archetypal example of a hard rock album written on the road, so what you’ve said doesn’t surprise me.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Chula Vista

Agreed. Another little tidbit is that the unaccompanied guitar solo in Heartbreaker was recorded in a totally different studio than the rest of the song and was inserted into it well after the fact. The solo guitar is not even tuned exactly with the song - it's off by a few cents.

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

The Batlord

I imagine most young people these days don't remember much of the eighties.

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Unknown Soldier

You sound like somebody that plays the guitar to spot that tidbit. It sounds like the incident on the Door song "Five to One" where Jim burped at the beginning

I wasn't talking about people today but about people listening in the 1980s, who weren't that familiar with Kiss from 1970s and got into Kiss based on the success of Lick It Up.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Urban Hat€monger ?

you're not taking in to account one factor.
Kiss were bigger in Europe and the rest of the world in the 80s than they were in the 70s. Because they knew that their popularity was declining in North America they made a point to play in places like Europe, Australia & South America more regularly, places they either hadn't played in years or had never been to.

And it worked, Lick it Up was their highest charting album in the UK up till that point.

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