THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Tag: music (Page 323 of 454)

ARMORED SAINT – Raising Fear

November 6, 2021 /

When Metallica upped sticks from LA to the Bay Area in San Fran to be leaders of the fledgling thrash scene, Armored Saint hung around to be one of the leading bands in the LA metal scene.

This album was their 4th release that came out in ’87. After this release, they were dropped by their record label Chrysalis. Now it’s not as good as March Of The Saint, which IMHO is a classic, it does nevertheless contain some great songs. At times the band do remind me of Iron Maiden, especially on tracks like Saturday Night Special, but they do sort of have their own sound as it’s an amalgamation of a lot of influences. There are a couple of typical early eighties slow build numbers like Isolation and Frozen Will that are cool, but my favourites are the simpler tracks like Out On A Limb and the close out track Underdogs, which have the big riffs and grooves to bang your head to.

As I said earlier, not their best but I enjoyed it having not listened to it in a long while.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

OSI – Blood

November 5, 2021 /

This is the third album from Kevin Moore (ex Dream Theater) on keyboards, and Jim Matheos (Fates Warning) on guitar. The first two albums Moore had Mike Portnoy (his band mate from Dream Theater) on the drums, but this time Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree) was on the skins. I’ve always found Moore a bit of an oddity as he shunned DT when success came their way after the Awake album, and he would reappear sporadically with his first solo project Chroma Key with the Dead Air For Radios which I really liked, and then this project. This project is sort of a cross between DT and Dead Air.

The first track, The Escape Artist, has a huge monster of a riff that would put DT to shame and really drives the track along, with Moore’s breathy vocals style over the top. Terminal is almost an electronic track with a cool groove and a simple quiet vocal. The fat huge heavy riffs return with False Start – this a real heavy sounding track. This is the pattern of the album, very heavy riff driven tunes interspersed with more intricate electronic pieces that seem to compliment each other perfectly. My two favourite tracks off the album are Radiologue, which is a groovy amalgamation of both styles, and the delightfully heavy groove of Be The Hero. Superb tracks! I really like Kevin Moore and I wish he would do more things.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

STYX – Pieces Of Eight

November 5, 2021 /

You’d think with my love of things in the heavier side of town that Styx would not be on my radar musically, but this album is a great record and the best thing that they ever did IMHO. I think it’s down to the fact that Dennis De Young only sings the lead on three of the tracks, and even these tracks are quite rocking. This is a Prog fans wet dream, and yes, I’m aware that they are regarded as AOR/pomp gods, but parts of this album could have come out of Britain in the seventies, such as Great White Hope, I’m Ok, and Ding For the Day.

It’s Side 2 that makes this album Styx’s best. With Blue Collar Man, Queen Of Spades, Renegade, and Pieces Of Eight – I think you’ll agree – it doesn’t get better than that. That Hammond intro to Blue Collar Man is awesome and sets the tone for the side, plus Tommy Shaw lets rip on the guitar. Then comes probably the best song they ever did with Queen Of Spades. It opens with a killer vocal from DDY, and then something that you don’t hear too much in Styx tunes, a killer riff and chord pattern, and this time James Young with the killer solo. I’m sure most of you will have heard Renegade, and it follows the pattern of Queen Of Spades except with Tommy on lead vocals. The title track closes out the album and it’s a huge big production with vocal harmonies a plenty, which is a Styx trademark sound.

They sort of lost their way a bit after this record. I know they had some great tunes, but not some great albums.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

PANTERA – Projects In The Jungle

November 4, 2021 /

Back in the mists of time, before Pantera were the heavy groove metal kings after their release of Cowboys From Hell in ’90, they had released 4 albums of which Projects In The Jungle was their second, released in ’84. Think of a glam version of the band with Joe Elliot on vocals instead of Anslemo and you won’t be far off.

Dime is an absolute star on this record and he rips it up on every track. If you are a lover of over the top 80’s glam metal, then you will love this. There is not a bad track on this album. If you want to hear what an influence EVH was on Dime’s playing, then listen to his show piece, Blue Lite Turnin’ Red, which is his homage to Eruption.

The only thing I find amazing here is how come they never broke through before they did, because this album is streets ahead of some of the stuff that was around at the time. The riffs are heavy and the guitar is wild, and that is just fine by me.

9.5/10 from The Grooveman.

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