Monthly Archives: March 2009
BLACK LABEL SOCIETY – Sonic Brew
Black Label Society – Sonic Brew (1999, Spitfire Records)
1. “Bored To Tears” … 4:28
2. “The Rose Petalled Garden” … 4:59
3. “Hey You (Batch Of Lies)” … 3:48
4. “Born To Lose” … 4:23
5. “Peddlers Of Death” … 4:33
6. “Mother Mary” … 4:26
7. “Beneath The Tree” … 4:37
8. “Low Down” … 4:36
9. “T.A.Z.” … 1:56
10. “Lost My Better Half” … 4:24
11. “Black Pearl” … 3:27
12. “World Of Trouble” … 5:20
13. “Spoke In The Wheel” … 4:13
14. “The Beginning… At Last” … 4:26
BONUS TRACK
15. “No More Tears” … 6:58
Band:
Zakk Wylde – Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Piano
Phil Ondich – Drums
Additional Musicians:
Mike Inez – Bass (“No More Tears”)
Produced by: Ron Albert, Howard Albert and Zakk Wylde
Despite owning four BLS albums, I’ve never been a huge fan of ‘em. Out of the four I own, you could probably make one REALLY good album. BLS tends to either be too mellow and acoustic or too sludgy for the most part. BLS songs often alternate between being southern fried Alice In Chains and sludgy Lynyrd Skynyrd. That just doesn’t work for me. Another problem I have with the album is that there’s just too many songs. 1o or 11 tracks is the best length for an album, in my opinion. Once you start going above that, you’re just adding filler.
I bought this album thanks to a lot of praise I was reading online, but it’s nothing special to me outside of a few songs. “Spoke in the Wheel” is a really cool Lynyrd Skynyrd sounding ballad and “No More Tears” is a decent Ozzy cover. Zakk’s voice isn’t all that great on this album, he would get better on the later ones, but it still has some charm.
It’s to my understanding that the album was released in the Fall of 1998 in Japan, but before the U.S. release, they decided to do some remixing of the album. So, we got a new album cover (see above) along with the “bonus track” of “No More Tears”.
Highlights: “Bored to Tears”, “Spoke in the Wheel”, “No More Tears”
RATT – Detonator
Ratt – Detonator (1990, Atlantic Records)
1. “Intro to Shame” … 0:57
2. “Shame, Shame, Shame” … 4:32
3. “Lovin’ You’s a Dirty Job” … 3:15
4. “Scratch That Itch” … 3:17
5. “One Step Away” … 4:50
6. “Hard Time” … 3:47
7. “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” … 3:59
8. “All or Nothing” … 4:15
9. “Can’t Wait on Love” … 4:04
10. “Givin’ Yourself Away” … 5:27
11. “Top Secret” … 3:50
Band:
Stephen Pearcy – Vocals
Warren DeMartini – Guitar
Robbin Crosby – Guitar
Juan Croucier – Bass
Bobby Blotzer – Drums
Additional Musicians:
Jon Bon Jovi – Backing Vocals
Desmond Child – Backing Vocals
Produced by: Desmond Child
Ah, now this is more like it! This would be the final album from the glory days of Ratt and it definitely delivered a more Rattier sound than what Reach for the Sky did, but truthfully, this is still a slick album, “Givin’ Yourself Away” is Exhibit A of that. The band traded one slick producer for another by parting ways with Beau Hill and hooking up with Desmond Child, who also co-wrote ever song with the band and even brought along Jon Bon Jovi for backing vocals.
Still, songs like “Shame Shame Shame and “Lovin’ You’s a Dirty Job’ are classic Ratt and this is definitely a must-have release for Ratt fans. Unfortunately, the album didn’t sell as well as their previous releases, “only” going Gold.
This album was the end of an era due to internal band conflicts and a change in the musical climate.
Highlights: “Shame Shame Shame”, “Lovin’ You’s a Dirty Job”, “One Step Away”, “All or Nothing”, “Can’t Wait on Love”, “Givin’ Yourself Away”
RATT – Reach for the Sky
Ratt – Reach for the Sky (1988, Atlantic Records)
1. “City to City” … 3:31
2. “I Want a Woman” … 3:59
3. “Way Cool Jr.” … 4:27
4. “Don’t Bite the Hand That Feeds” … 3:09
5. “I Want to Love You Tonight” … 4:27
6. “Chain Reaction” … 3:43
7. “No Surprise” … 4:03
8. “Bottom Line” … 4:23
9. “What’s It Gonna Be” … 4:07
10. “What I’m After” … 3:36
Band:
Stephen Pearcy – Vocals
Warren DeMartini – Guitar
Robbin Crosby – Guitar
Juan Croucier – Bass
Bobby Blotzer – Drums
Produced by: Beau Hill and Mike Stone
This was the final album from Ratt’s original run that I picked up. I ended up ordering it online years ago during a CD splurge, and the main reason it took me so long to track it down is because of the poor reviews the album has received. Those reviews were pretty right on because Reach for the Sky is by far the weakest Ratt effort… Well, until their 1999 self-titled “comeback” album that is.
Here, we see the band continues to opt for an even more commercial poppy sound that was started with Dancing Undercover. The edge is gone on this album and Ratt as ventures into by-the-numbers pop metal, which didn’t really make sense because Dancing Undercover didn’t sell as well as the first two albums, so why bother to continue going in the same direction?
Though there’s a lot of uninspired songs here, nothing gets close to being terrible, it’s just generic. The best songs from this album don’t stand up to the rest of Ratt’s catalog. Fortunately, producer Beau Hill (who I usually like, but I think he stuck around with Ratt for way too long) would *not* produced the next album…
www.therattpack.com
www.myspace.com/therattpack
Highlights: “City to City”, “I Want a Woman”, “Way Cool Jr.”, “I Want to Love You Tonight”, “What’s It Gonna Be”
RATT – Dancing Undercover
Ratt – Dancing Undercover (1986, Atlantic Records)
1. “Dance” … 4:17
2. “One Good Lover” … 3:06
3. “Drive Me Crazy” … 3:42
4. “Slip of the Lip” … 3:15
5. “Body Talk” … 3:44
6. “Looking for Love” … 3:09
7. “7th Avenue” … 3:11
8. “It Doesn’t Matter” … 3:08
9. “Take a Chance” … 4:00
10. “Enough Is Enough” … 3:23
Band:
Stephen Pearcy: Vocals
Warren DeMartini: Guitar
Robbin Crosby: Guitar
Juan Croucier: Bass
Bobby Blotzer: Drums
Produced by: Beau Hill
The band’s third release in three years, and fourth in four years if you wanna count 1983′s Ratt EP. By this point, the band was going sounding slicker and more polished, to keep up with the new wave of pop metal bands, and still had Beau Hill at the helm as producer. But it’s still another solid release of catchy pop metal though the guitars don’t get much of a chance to shine that I’ll pull out every now and then. Even so, “Dance” and “Slip of the Lip” are pop metal gems.
Highlights: “Dance”, “One Good Lover”, “Drive Me Crazy”, “Slip of the Lip”, “Body Talk”
Chickenfoot Streaming Two Songs Online
Chickenfoot, the rock super group featuring Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony (ex-Van Halen) and Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), now has two songs up for streaming on their MySpace page and official website.
It’s good stuff, but I don’t understand why Sammy felt he had to hype of up their music as the equivalent of Van Halen and Led Zeppelin, because it’s definitely not.
“Soap On A Rope” reminds me a bit of early 90s Van Halen, but that’s about it. Really cool to hear Michael Anthony on backing vocals and Satch in an actual band environment. =)
“Down the Drain” is my favorite of the two songs.
What do you think?
RATT – Invasion of Your Privacy
Ratt – Invasion of Your Privacy (1985, Atlantic Records)
1. “You’re in Love” … 3:12
2. “Never Use Love” … 3:54
3. “Lay It Down” … 3:23
4. “Give It All” … 3:19
5. “Closer to My Heart” … 4:30
6. “Between the Eyes” … 3:54
7. “What You Give Is What You Get” … 3:47
8. “Got Me on the Line” … 3:04
9. “You Should Know by Now” … 3:29
10. “Dangerous but Worth the Risk” … 3:30
Band:
Stephen Pearcy: Vocals
Warren DeMartini: Guitar
Robbin Crosby: Guitar
Juan Croucier: Bass
Bobby Blotzer: Drums
Produced by: Beau Hill
The great thing (or maybe not so great depending on your tastes) is that most Ratt albums sound the same. But like I said, it’s a good thing. Invasion of Your Privacy was an immediate follow-up to Out of the Cellar, and not surprisingly, Beau Hill returned to produce and you could easily scramble the tracks from both albums and it would still flow together just fine, though I w
Even though the album played it safe, they came up with some of Ratt’s best songs: “Lay It Down” (another signature song alongside “Round and Round”) and “You’re In Love”.
Highlights: “You’re In Love”, “Never Use Love”, “Lay It Down”, “Give It All”, “You Should Know by Now”
RATT – Out of the Cellar
Ratt – Out of the Cellar (1984, Atlantic Records)
1. “Wanted Man” … 3:37
2. “You’re in Trouble” … 3:16
3. “Round and Round” … 4:22
4. “In Your Direction” … 3:30
5. “She Wants Money” … 3:04
6. “Lack of Communication” … 3:52
7. “Back for More” … 3:42
8. “The Morning After” … 3:30
9. “I’m Insane” … 2:54
10. “Scene of the Crime” … 4:54
Band:
Stephen Pearcy – Vocals
Warren DeMartini – Guitar
Robbin Crosby – Guitar
Juan Croucier – Bass
Bobby Blotzer – Drums
Produced by: Beau Hill
Ratt is one of my absolute favorite hair/pop metal bands and this album is a great example of why.
Stephen Pearcy’s voice gets knocked a lot, but I think it was and still is a great fit for a pop metal band like Ratt and the guitar work from DeMartini and Crosby cannot be denied.
This is probably Ratt’s best release, IMO, even though I like their other ones a lot too. The one-two punch of “Lack of Communication” and “Back for More” (my favorite Ratt song) really put this album over the top for me. Ratt rode the line between sounding sleazy and slick with ease and did a great job of it with Beau Hill producing (as he would do for a total of four Ratt albums).
“Round and Round” is the band’s best known song and it’s still good enough to be an album highlight, but by this point, I’m sick of it. It’s still all over radio, 80s rock compilations and VH1 Classic and has become one of the signature songs of the genre, but ENOUGH! I’ve heard that song enough to last me the rest of my life.
Highlights: “Wanted Man”, “You’re In Trouble”, “Round and Round”, “In Your Direction”, “Lack of Communication”, “Back for More”, “I’m Insane”, “Scene of the Crime”
RATT Week 3/25-3/29
Wow. Have I seriously never reviewed Ratt? Huh. I’ve reviewed Stephen Pearcy’s solo work and Arcade, but never Ratt. That kinda surprises me and this needs to be corrected because Ratt is one of best hair metal bands out there. So starting tonight, in the middle of the week, I’m starting Ratt Week!
From tonight thru Sunday, I’ll be reviewing the first 5 Ratt albums, one each day:
3/25 – Out of the Cellar
3/26 – Invasion of Your Privacy
3/27 – Dancing Undercover
3/28 – Reach for the Sky
3/29 – Detonator
And let us not forget the band is currently working on their 7th album, tentatively titled Ratt Comes Back, which is due out later this year on Roadrunner Records’ Loud & Proud imprint. Can’t wait!
VAINS OF JENNA – Lit Up/Let Down
Vains of Jenna – Lit Up/Let Down (2006, Filthy Note Records)
1. “Don’t Give a Damn” … 5:49
2. “Ceased Emotions” … 3:22
3. “Hard to Be Vain” … 4:53
4. “Lit Up/Let Down” … 5:42
5. “Get on the Ride” … 4:27
6. “Baby’s Got a Secret” … 3:55
7. “No One’s Gonna Do It for You” … 3:12
8. “Set It Off” … 6:28
9. “No One’s Gonna Do It for You (Acoustic)” … 3:21
10. “Set It Off (Acoustic)” … 6:23
Band:
Lizzy DeVine – Vocals, Guitar
Nicki Kin – Guitar
JP White – Bass
Jacki Stone – Drums
Produced by: Bam Margera
Vains of Jenna are one of the better bands to come from the Sweden glam/sleaze scene and were the first band that made me take notice of that whole scene going on over there. This album is good time sleazy ‘n’ dirty rock and Lizzy DeVine’s vocals are a perfect fit and never comes across as too European sounding, as some European glam/sleaze singers do.
My only beef is the inclusion of the two acoustic versions of “No One’s Gonna Do It for You” and “Set It Off”. There’s nothing wrong with the acoustic versions, but it just seems a little silly to include those on a 10-track album. I would’ve rather heard two different songs instead of them already digging into doing alternate versions on such a short album. “Lit Up/Let Down” is easily the best track, a great mid-tempo ballad.
I don’t really care for Bam Margera, but kudos to him for seeing the talent in these guys and signing them to his indie label. These guys would’ve had a decent career in the late 80s.
Highlights: “Don’t Give a Damn”, “Ceased Emotions”, “Lit Up/Let Down”, “”Hard to Be Vain”, “Set It Off”
