Warrant ~ Ultraphobic (album review) ... You're under arrest & so is this album!

Style: hard rock, hair metal, heavy metal
Label: CMC International
Year: 1995
Home: California

Members: Jani Lane ~ vocals
Rick Steier, Erik Turner ~ guitar
Dave White ~ keyboards
Jerry Dixon ~ bass
James Kottak ~ drums

Planned to be their comeback album arriving in 1995 it was the worst time for a comeback. Grunge had killed the hair metal 80's & in 1994 the unrivaled king of grunge Kurt Cobain died. The world was still reeling & finding itself musically all over again & though hair metal has returned it took 20 years not 5 to make that happen. But, in their favor Ultraphobic is much harder than anything they had created before & remains their hardest outing & is nearly unrecognizable from the glam rock "Cherry Pie" era. All the 80's clichés have been set aside & the band has moved from hard rock to heavy metal ... successfully. A comparison of song titles from releases says a lot. Ultraphobic includes the heavy sounding: "Undertow", "Followed", "Sum Of One", "Chameleon", "Crawlspace", while Cherry Pie includes the cliched: "Bed Of Roses", "Sure Feels Good To Me", "Love In Stereo", "Song & Dance Man" "You're The Only Hell Your Mama Ever Raised." Though, it should be mentioned that though but five years bridge releases this really wasn't the same band. A lot had changed for them as they'd hit highs & low plus numerous line-up changes. They'd been through too much to keep writing sappy love songs & Ultraphobic reflects that in incredibly personal & sometimes bitter lyrics, like "I'm still bleeding from a wasted youth ... don't touch me" in the highlight "Family Picnic". In many ways the album also has far more personality than the by the mold glam rock of earlier days where they played the same riffs every band played. By 1995 Metallica, Alice In Chains, Smashing Pumpkins & Soundgarden were paving the way in the mainstream for metal & copying them was out of the question for Warrant ... though fans of Soundgarden will probably enjoy this & fans of the current Stryper, which says more about the sound of the album than any other description ... so Warrant had to find themselves & reinvent themselves like never before. The fans might not have come out in hoards but the result is nothing to cringe at or hesitantly approach. Peers Firehouse took their music in the same direction when styles changed & found the same type of musical success but also found themselves playing extended tours in Japan but not elsewhere. Not long after this Warrant would lose its sexy & iconic frontman Jani Lane along with seeing more line-up changes than albums & continue a struggle to the present day ... though for their credit they never broke up like many bands. But, though this wasn't their last album if it had been a swan song they would have gone out on a high of highs. Released today Ultraphobic would be indeed welcomed. It's interesting to note that at the same time the label CMC was promoting similar bands such as Widowmaker featuring another struggling star looking for a comeback in Dee Snider rocking out also harder than ever with future Megadeth guitarist Al Pitrelli.

Sin-Atra (album review) ... A good try, but full of sin!

Style: heavy metal
Label: Armoury Records
Year: 2011
Home: n/a

Members: Bob Kulick ~ guitars/b. vocals
Brett Chassen ~ drums/b. vocals
Billy Sheehan ~ bass
Doug Katsaros ~ keyboards

Additional: Andrea Becker ~ b. vocals

Guests: Ritchie Kotzen ~ guitar
Devin Townsend, Glenn Hughes, Geoff Tate, Dee Snider, Tim “Ripper” Owens, Robin Zander, Eric Martin, Joey Belladonna, Franky Perez, dUg Pinnick, Elias Soriano, Jani Lane ~ vocals

Guitarist Bob Kulick, brother of Kiss's Bruce Kulick, has created a second career producing an ongoing series of cover/tribute albums, such as for Metallica & Aerosmith, featuring many of his musical friends in unusual one-time only line-ups. The talent has never been less than top rate though the results have been mixed. In previous efforts Kulick as set up a different band for each song making every song star-studded & unique, but in his newest tribute executive producer duties have been handed over to others, including Ronnie James Dio widow Wendy Dio, allowing him to front a band that is featured on every track with only the vocalist changing on each song. With a single band the sound is much more even from song to song than on past albums, which often ended up feeling like compilations with some line-ups stronger than others, but at the same time having a single band removes some of the unexpected diversity that previous tribute albums offered. Here each song is the same distorted guitar chugging. Even the inclusion of keyboard created horns, however odd at times, doesn't really make much of an impact though it's an interesting inclusion & when songs do stand out for their arrangements its often due to this inclusion. Sadly, the great Billy Sheehan is on bass but there's not much space given over to him to play in the upfront quasi-lead style he's known for, let alone giving the arrangements any breathing room. The songs themselves are untouchable classics, so essentially, the success of Sin-Atra lies wholly with the arrangements & singers. The vocalists, culled from the metal world, are under particular scrutiny as they are all performing in a musical style & with a band that doesn't match their known styles/bands. At times the result almost feels like an audition recording where everyone is straining to let their musical personality shine in the best way. Sadly, it's quickly noticeable who is straining, who has the pipes & who doesn't & who should stay within their usual musical context because their weaknesses become incredibly obvious. Not every voice is suited to every musical context, though one might want to think otherwise to be fair. Highlights include Devin Townsend of Strapping Young Lad (i.e. "New York, New York"), Eric Martin of Mr. Big (i.e. "Lady Is A Tramp"), Tim "Ripper" Owens of Judas Priest/Iced Earth ("Witchcraft") & Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple (i.e. "I’ve Got You Under My Skin"). The lesser known Franky Perez of Scars On Broadway puts in a real highlight with "High Hopes", probably because the album itself is a bit of a joke & Perez is one of the few to not take his rendition too seriously. More of the songs should have been treated with the same attitude & the highlights would have outweighed the lows. The worst songs suffer from over-the-top singing &/or poor arrangements, witnessed in "It Was A Very Good Year" with Dee Snider of Twisted Sister that sounds uncannily like an industrial version of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir". What might have made this better would be more melodic arrangements offering something behind the singers outside of just a rush of chords & muddy riffs. The album also features "Fly Me To The Moon" with Robin Zander of Cheap Trick, "Love & Marriage" with Elias Soriano of Nonpoint, "Strangers In The Night" with Joey Belladonna of Anthrax, "Summerwind" with Geoff Tate of Queensrÿche, "I’ve Got The World On A String" with dUg Pinnick of King’s X & "That’s Life" with Jani Lane of Warrant & the one outside guitar solo with Ritchie Kotzen of Poison/Mr. Big. Thankfully, no sign of "My Way". If you're a Sinatra fan will you like this? Probably not. Metal fan? You'll love the playing which is good if not always interesting & if your favorite singer is here - probably, though you may also find yourself laughing ... but, kudos to Bob & company for at least trying.

Warrant ~ Cherry Pie (album review) ... Licking it up!

Style: glam, hard rock
Label: Columbia
Year: 1990
Home: California

Members: Jani Lane ~ vocals
Joey Allen, Erik Turner ~ guitars
Jerry Dixon ~ bass
Steven Sweet ~ drums

Additional: Mike Slamer ~ guitars
C. C. DeVille - guitar
Bruno Ravel, Steve West ~ b. vocals
Alan Hewitt ~ organ/piano
Beau Hill ~ organ/banjo/keyboard
Paul Harris ~ piano/strings
Juke Logan ~ harmonica

Though it pairs off against it's predecessor as the band's biggest selling album it's undoubtedly their most memorable & always will be even if they made their greatest comeback tomorrow ... or as soon as Jani Lane gets out of jail & reunites with the band. It's the bit odd & incredibly shallow, in that 80's big hair way, hit single "Cherry Pie" with it's follow-up power ballad "Uncle Tom's Cabin" that are the sole reason why we remember Warrant from the mass of bands that sound & look, just like them. These songs have even eclipsed the album they're on nearly making Warrant a one-hit wonder. Honestly, compared to their peers, there's nothing particularly unique about this album, which doesn't help anything. It contains a plethora of group vocals typical of the time with a flashy guitar solo to go with each cry, the sentimental power ballads, the rock anthems, an occasional David Lee Roth chuckle, scream & banter in between verses. Calling this a party record might be an understatement of it's most attractive feature. It is the epitome of a rock'n'roll 80's party with a range of sounds & screamed lyrics that seem to go right through the roof. Which is both it's asset & it's fault. It's the stereotypical Sunset Strip/L.A. glam sound, but a lot of their peers, such as Guns N' Roses & W.A.S.P., were able to have more than just musical flash but musical experimentation that expanded the glam sound while singing something other than maudlin sentimental cliched lyrics. "I Saw Red" is a highlight power ballad with a piano melody with crashing guitar parts, though nothing we haven't heard on Motley Crue's "Home Sweet Home" or G'N'R's "November Rain" to better effect, while "You're The Only Hell Mama Ever Raised" could have been the hit single if there hadn't been any "Cherry Pie" to eat up. But, I don't think we would have remembered it all these years later. I will confess that I have a soft spot for 80's L.A. hard rock as all who read this blog know. Rock'n'roll started as fun party music that didn't take itself too seriously & this is a straight line on the family tree. If you want the epitome of the era Warrant has got to find a place in your collection. It may be shallow & imitative but you really can't go wrong with this music & it's always fun no matter how much you listen to it. To emphasize it's spot in the 80's era it even includes an odd tack-on called "Ode To Tipper Gore" featuring not music but Jani Lane cussing in concert like nobody's business, not even Tipper's. The album also features guest C.C. DeVille from Poison & Bruno Ravel & Steve West from Danger Danger, while it's been rumored and confirmed by his wife that all the guitar parts were by Mike Slamer of Streets, with not a note by the Warrant guys. Maybe that's why Jani was cussing so much.