This is the Canadian band Loverboy's debutalbum. It features rock'n'roll with a partyattitude that apparently was liked by many people since it sold 700 000 copies in Canada and 2 million in USA! They toured with ZZ Top, Cheap Trick, Kansas and Def Leppard. For a debutalbum at the time it's rather good. The songs rocks but there's also a lot of melody and hooks that stuck at first hearing. The sound of this record would define the whole carrier of Loverboy, one of my favorite bands that I grew up with in the 80's.

Mike Reno has released a soloalbum and Paul Dean has released three. Scott Smith died in 2000 after being knocked overboard by a wave while sailing.

1)The kid is hot tonite (7,0)

2)Turn me loose (7,0)

3)Always on my mind (7,5)

4)Lady of the 80's (7,0)

5)Little girl (6,5)

6)Prissy prissy (6,0)

7)Teenage overdose (6,5)

8)DOA (6,5)

9)It don't matter (6,5)

Score: 6,72

Mike Reno (Joseph Michael Rynoski)-vocals (b.1955)

Paul Dean-guitars (b.1946)

Scott Smith-bass (1955-2000)

Matt Frenette-drums

Doug Johnson-keyboards (b.1957)

See also album nr.45 Tommy Shaw-Girls With Guns 1984, filed under 80' hardrock/heavy metal

After Tommy Shaw's debutalbum the year before which were an okey melodic rockalbum, he released this crap. Many of the songs are so cheezy (popmelodic crap) that they are just unberable to listen to. Maybe Shaw was trying to reach the toplists and he was on his way since this record peaked at nr.87 on the Billboardlist.

Gary Myrick has had an solocarrier and also played with a lot of wellknown rockartists.

1)Jealosy (6,5) Superplastic drumsound a lá 1985. Saxophone and a powerful refrain and ending to the song.

2)Remo's theme (What if) (5,5) Oooh those cheesy dums... And also very cheesy song and a Toto-bridge but suddenly a superb female vocalbridge.

3)Reach for the bottle (7,0) A rather good complex song with saxophonesoloing.

4)Freindly advice (3,5) Here the okey songs end. Synthdrum- and synthintro with funny guitars to a very strange song. Did they try something new here?

5)This is not a test (4,5) ...

6)See me now (5,0) Too cheesy.

7)True confessions (2,0) My goodness...Why isn't Shaws great voice used like it could?

8)Count on you (1,0) Cheesy ballad, really really awful!

9)Nature of the beast (3,0)

10)Bad times (6,0)

Score: 4,40

Tommy Shaw-Vocals, guitar and keyboards (b.1953)

Brian Stanley-bass

Steve Holley-drums

Richie Cannata-keyboards and saxophone

plus, not mentioned on the album...

Gary Myrick-guitar on 2 songs

Mark Marshall-drums on 1 song

The debut soloalbum from the former Styx-member. The first (and almost worst) song on the album, "Girls with guns" was a big hit in the USA and was also featured in the TV-series Miami Vice. The album reached nr.50 on the Billboard-chart. This album contains soft and melodic hardrock, better known as AOR (Adult Orintaited Rock).

Peter Wood worked with Al Stewart, Roger Waters, Bob Dylan, Cindy Lauper and more before his death in 1993.

1)Girls with guns (5,5) Platic drumsound a lá 1984.

2)Come in and explain (7,5) Good heavy melodic hardrock with a very good refrain that lifts the song.

3)Lonely school (6,0)A ballad that is a little too cheezy.

4)Heads up (7,5) Co-written with Kenny Loggins, another softrockartist.  A good rocksong with good singing as always by Shaw. Also nice guitarplaying.

5)Kiss me hello (7,0) Kind of a ballad with good melody but a little too long.

6)Fading away (7,0) Reaggeish song, okey.

7)Little girl world (5,0) Not the best ballad, kind of strange. Of all artists, G.G Allin (1956-1993) also sings on this song but there is no note on the record about this.

8)Outside in the rain (6,0) Duet with Carol Kenyon. Not very good.

9)Free to love you (6,5) Incredible melodic singing but the song isn't that good.

10)The race is on (7,0) Okey end of the album. I like the saxophonesolos.

Score: 6,50

Tommy Shaw-vocals, guitar and mandolin (b.1953)

Brian Stanley-bass

Steve Holley-drums

Peter Wood-synthesizer and piano (1950-1993)

Stryper is a hardrockband from Orange County, California. They formed in 1983 and this is their 2nd album. It's actually an expanding of their 1st release, an EP with the same name that came out in 1984. In the beginning C.C Deville, later of Poison-fame played in the band during a short time. They are a christian band and at least in the first years they threw bibles and other symbolic features to the audiences and in other ways protested against the devilsymbolics that was popular in the hardrockcommunity at the time.

This album is quite uneven. There are some okey tracks but also some which are not very good. But you can hear that they had the ability to do good songs and it did come later on.

1)Lound'n'clear (6,0) Amateurish sound on this midtempo track that is okey but as an albumopener it's too weak.

2)From wrong to right (7,0) A better track with strong back-up vocals from Oz and Tim.

3)My love I'll always show (3,0) Cheeeezy! Sounds like femal vocals and the title is as cheezy as the song. Terrible.

4)You know what to do (7,0) Here you can hear that this band had better things coming. A heavy riff with their characteristic guitar- and drumsound.

5)Co'mon rock (7,0)

6)You won't be lonely (4,0) Terrible cheezy and repetitive track.

7)Loving you (6,0)

8)Reason for the season (5,0)

Score: 5,63

Michael Sweet-vocals and guitars (b.1963)

Oz Fox (Richard Alfonso Martinez)-guitars (b.1961)

Tim Gaines-bass and keyboards (b.1962)

Robert Sweet-drums (b.1960)

Bonfire was one of my favourite band's in the 80's. They played what I liked best at the time; heavy melodic hardrock. They had the hair, the music and the looks to be able to become a big band in the poodlehairdays of the 80's and they were at least among the most well-known band in that genre at the time.

Bonfire started out as Cacumenin Ingolstadt, Germany in 1972 and in 1978 they hired the singer Claus Lessman who still is in the band. Cacumen released an album in 1981. The name Bonfire came up in 1986 and this album was the first from the new band featuring 2 new members.

This album's a little uneven. It suffers from bad production and not always good songs but promises for better music to come, and it sure did!

1)Intro (-) A good intro that makes for high expectations.

2)Starin' eyes (6,5) Oh what a "thin" sound. The production seems to suck. It only sounds okey with a lot off bass on the stereo and with headphones on. The drumsound is plastic but the song itself is not bad but could have been better.

3)Hot to rock (7,0) My goodness, they try to be really hard and tough but they're not! The singer really saves the song because he's really good!

4)You make me feel (8,0) A very good 80's hardrock powerballad. After some listening I'm getting used to the drumsound.

5)Longing for you (6,0) Again I can't stand the drumsound but the song is ok and typical Bonfire; a simple riff and a good refrain.

6)Don't touch the light (7,0) Except for the drums, a good song.

7)S.D.I. (6,0) Slow and heavy song that's too repetitive.

8)No more (7,5) A good song all through. They show that they can make good music and that there will be better albums to come.

9)L.A. (7,5) An uptempo rocker thats pretty good but again too repetitive.

Score: 6,94

Claus Lessman-vocals (b.1960)

Hans Ziller-guitars (b.1958)

Horst Maier-guitars

Joerg Deisinger-bass (b.1966)

Dominic Huelshorst-drums

This must surely be the worst Aerosmithrecord there is. The guitarist Brad Whitford left the band during it's recording and formed his own band Whitford/St. Holmes together with Derek St. Holmes (from Ted Nugent's band) with who he recorded one album. Joe Perry had left earlier, already in 1979, to form his own band The Joe Perry Project. Singer Steve Tyler's drugabuse led him to collapse on the stage and in 1980 he was hospitalized for 2 months after a motorcycleaccident. The songs sound Aerosmith but the quality is really poor on the most of the songs even if there is some okey ones. The new guitarist Jimmy Crespo earlier played with Flame and later with Billy Squier and Rod Stewart. The other guitarrist Rick Dufay had released an album prior joining Aerosmith and actually played guitar on one track on the special Walmart-version of the 2012 Aerosmith-album Music From Another Dimension.

Rock In A Hard Place reached nr. 21 on the Billboard chart, very bad for a band of the status they had had a few years before.

1)Jailbait (5,0) Has the typical Aerosmithsound but it's too repetive and boring even though it's a fast and crazy albumstarter.

2)Lightning strikes (7,0) Midtempo, monotone but an okey song.

3)Bitch's brew (7,0) Nice driving rhythm but nothing happens.

4)Bolivian ragamuffin (5,0) Just a hysterical mess. No feeling and other things that makes a song good.

5)Cry me a river (2,0) This is truly terrible! Some kind of jazzballad with vocals so bad that it hurts. Tyler must be high on dope because he can't be serious here.

6)Prelude to Joanie (-) Some spaced-out fill out.

7)Joanie's butterfly (5,0) For 1.30 acoustic, then just a strange midtempo song.

8)Rock in a hard place (Cheshire cat) (7,5) Wonderful driving rhythm which I like and a happy song that would have been better with some horns. Unfortunately chaos at the end.

9)Jig is up (5,5) Slow and boring.

10)Push comes to shove (3,0) Terrible theatermusic. Glad the album is over and I won't listen to it again.

Score: 4,70

Steven Tyler-vocals (b.1948)

Rick Dufay-guitars (b.1952)

Jimmy Crespo-guitars (b.1954)

Tom Hamilton-bass (b.1951)

Joey Kramer-drums (b.1950)

I bought this album maybe two years ago by chance. Have no relation to the band in the past but I really like the albums amateur-youth-energy-kick ass rock'n'roll. This band was from Glasgow, Scotland and this is their debutalbum. They were in 1983 voted the 2nd best new band by Kerrang and toured with Mötley Crüe, Kiss and Ozzy Osburne. Brian May from Queen even produced the album so they were really getting somewhere but the band later split and the guitarrist Punky Mendoza said in 2004 that there will never be a reunion. So let's enjoy some good rock'n'roll because the music will always be there!

1)In and out of love (7,5) Strong rocker with a great chorus!

2)Broken heart (6,5) Nice intro that goes into a heavy riff and bass pumping. Irritating singing in the chorus.

3)Love on the run (8,0) Fantastic riff, great vocals, nice break. A great furious rocker!

4)Love times love (7,5) Driving riff, drumming and bassline, good guitar solo.

5)Victims of the night (9,0) I like songs that takes a while before the singing starts. The song builds up in a nice way. A great rocker and in the end the song gets a new riff and then some great soloing and furious tempo until the end. This is rock'n'roll!

6)Rock me (6,0) At first nothing special, then change of tempo that is somewhat a trademark on this album, solo and a nice break. Boring refrain though.

7)Shout it out (7,0) A rocker but does'nt really take off until a great solobreak.

8)Devil in her eyes (7,0) Driving beat after a tasteful intro. Melodic refrain. Too long and too much repetition of the refrain.

9)Hell is beautiful (6,0) A fast rocker but they are trying to hard to make a good last impresssion on the album. Too screamy vocals and guitarsoloing that becomes a mess.

Score: 7,17

Steve "Hamie" Hayman-vocals

Punky Mendoza-guitars

Gordon Bonnar-guitars

Brian Waugh-bass

Gary Moat-drums

Review + fanpage

http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=58321

http://www.angelfire.com/rock3/heavypettin/heavypettinmain.html

I bought this album on LP when it first came out in -86 but since then I have sold it, don't remember when. Probably I did not think it was good enough to keep. I have never been a big fan of Accept even though I think they've done some good songs and I like that kind of raw heavy metal. Really like the cover with the band playing Russian roulette with "Russian" clothes! This I consider to be the best Accept-album.

1)TV war (8,5) Heavy, fast, short and intense double bass drum song with great strong raw vocals from Udo and a perfect guitarsolo. What a start of this album!

2)Monsterman (7,0) Midtempo, nice riff but too much repetition of the refrain.   

3)Russian roulette (8,5) Cool intro with only Udo and a simple riff building up to the heavy tempo. Udo's voice is at it's best here! A great heavy song with a fantastic powerful bridge and refrain!

4)It's hard to find a way (7,5) Starts like a powerballad but turns into a melodic hardrocker. Very strong refrain as on all songs on this album.

5)Aming high (7,0) Heavy and powerful, strong refrain but again too much repetition of the refrain.

6)Heaven is hell (7,5) 7 minutes long with a simple powerful riff, heavy and a wonderful spoken part where Udo really sounds like he's the devil himself! 7,5

7)Another second to be (7,0) Midtempo metal-song.

8)Walking in the shadow (7,0) Great hardrockintro to an okey song with an, again, strong refrain but the song is nothing special.

9)Man enough to cry (6,5) Effective simple riffing, midtempo. Nothing special. The songs gets lamer at the end and I start to loose interest.

10)Stand tight (7,0) Just another song. A marching one wich suits the band. 7,0

Score: 7,35

Udo Dirkschneider-vocals (born 1952)

Wolf Hoffman-guitars (b.1959)

Jörg Fischer-guitars

Peter Baltes-bass (b.1958)

Stefan Kaufmann-drums (b.1960)