After being removed from Ozzy’s band (I think you can guess who by), and for being in the excellent Badlands, Jake E Lee all but disappeared from the public eye – only to release a couple of solo albums before returning to the spotlight 20 plus years later with this excellent band, Red Dragon Cartel. The band consists of Jake himself on all guitar duties, ex Harem Scarem drummer Darren Smith on vocals, Ron Mancuso on bass, and unknown drummer Jonas Fairley on drums. There are also high profile guests on vocals.
The album kicks off with Deceived, a monster of a tune with Jake E’s trademark riff to start, and Darren’s vocals on the chorus remind me of Ozzy. Great opening track. Shout It Out is one of the stand out tracks on the album. A great tune with a great chorus and huge riff. Feeder has Robin Zander on vocals and is another monster tune. That’s a 1,2,3 – that’s hard to beat. Fall From The Sky is very Zeppelin IV in style and shows how good a vocalist Darren Smith is. Wasted, the close out track on Side 1, has Paul Di’anno on vocals and is virtually unrecognizable vocally from his Maiden days.
Over to Side 2 we go and Slave gets things under way with a very eerie opening section before a Metallica style riff gets things going. It then settles down into an awesome tune. It’s the stand out track for me so far. Big Mouth is next, with Maria Brink on vocals, and is a very modern sounding rock track. For me it’s the surprise of the album. War Machine is a near lift of multiple Sabbath riffs and is a heavy sounding tune. Redeem Me has the awesome Sass Jordan on vocals, and is a very blues based track which suits her voice perfectly. Last track is the very first song Jake ever wrote when he was trained as a classical pianist, Exquisite Tenderness. It’s good, but I don’t see the point of putting it on here as it’s so out of place.
Anyway, a very good first album and it gets 8.5/10 from The Grooveman.
