Ratt ~ Infestation (album review) ... Welcome this rat into the house any time!

Style: hard rock
Label: Roadrunner
Year: 2010
Home: n/a

Members: Stephen Pearcy ~ vocals
Warren DeMartini ~ guitar/b. vocals
Carlos Cavazo ~ rhythm guitar/b. vocals
Robbie Crane ~ bass/b. vocals
Bobby Blotzer ~ drums

 

 

Ratt's self-titled album, known by fans as 1999, is so iffy that I don't own it anymore, & I'm a Ratt & Pearcy fan. too. There's just nothing on it I want to hear again, & this comes after giving it numerous listens. I also don't own Dancing Undercover, outside of two songs. Same reasoning applies. For me those two albums are just throw away songs that have never grabbed me & demonstrate where the tightly wound Ratt template can often be its own worst enemy. So, when it comes to 1999's follow-up in Infestation my hesitancy is wanting to put on the breaks. Having listened to this album many times, forget the breaks ... go for the gas! This is the comeback Ratt fans wanted! This is Ratt! I love this album. No longer is Ratt trying to sound like current trends like grunge, something which is shared by & plaguing Pearcy's solo career at the time, but just sounding like Ratt as we know & love them. It sounds a lot like early Ratt, which the band said at the time was deliberate, but the guitars are a little harder & the sound a lot fiercer. Its a very mature sounding Ratt, yet also nostalgic. The end result is a total ear worm. This album features the same line-up of 1999, which debuted new bassist Robbie Crane, but with the addition of former Quiet Riot guitarist Carlos Cavazo. I don't know how much of his influence is on this, such as if his presence allowed DeMartini to have someone to bounce riffs back & forth with versus on 1999 where it was all on his shoulders. Pearcy is also in great form here, sounding more alive than he has not just on past Ratt albums but even some of his solo work. He sounds like he's enjoying himself & singing his heart out. If he wasn't, he's fooled my ears. Some critics have said this album rates as an average Ratt album, but considering what came before it, average is the perfect place to be. There are a few tracks that don't excite me ("Last Call", "Garden Of Eden", "Don't Let Go"), but when the overall album is this strong the weak moments get washed away. Pearcy asks on "Lost Weekend": "Is it me or do I like what I'm feeling?" Nope, not just you. I'm in agreement.

Hughes/Thrall ~ Hughes/Thrall (aka debut) (album review) ... Hugely enthralling!

Style: hard rock
Label: Epic
Year: 1981
Home: n/a

Members: Glenn Hughes ~ bass/vocals
Pat Thrall ~ guitar/guitar synthesizer

Additional: Peter Schless ~ keyboards
Frankie Banali, Gary Ferguson, Gary Mallaber ~ drums

Pumping 80's synth keyboards ... sometimes it works & spawns a whole new style, i.e prog & new wave, sometimes it's an unnecessary clutter that turns what could be some great solid rock into some heavily dated sounding AOR rock. This somewhat forgotten release by H/T is marred only by the over emphasis on the keyboards ... & guitar synthesizer, which isn't much better. Considering half of H/T is a guitarist one expects more than melody lines dominated by synth guitar with the actual guitar buried in the mix by a producer who knows better, i.e. Andy Johns of the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Free, etc., leaving too much emphasis on the instruments that shouldn't be emphasized. Albeit, the bass & amazing vocal foray are really what charges & drives the album & even more so with this mix. For bassist/singer Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple, & now the popular Black Country Communion, & guitarist Pat Thrall from the Pat Travers band & Al Di Meola this pairing came at an opportune moment personally & musically. Thrall had yet to cash in on his growing name recognition while Hughes had spent five years languishing in drugs & depression following a single solo album & the death of his bandmate Tommy Bolin. The time was ripe for both of them to break free of their chains, while their respective styles & background make it a union full of potential for some interesting hard rock. The fact that the potential didn't pay off in the long-run as probably hoped is just more sad than anything & isn't necessarily anything but a cloudy reflection of the music. In the short run it's quite delightful in a sneak up on you sort of why. Months of rehearsal & songwriting went into creating this release with a keyboardist & trio of drummers including Frankie Banali of future Quiet Riot. Given the participants the resu;t is a surprisingly low key unglamorous affair ... its even hard to call this rock guitar album but instead feels like a radio friendly somewhat pop rock album. It feels almost as if Thrall isn't quite sure of himself & is erring on the side of caution instead of hanging loose, turning in little pieces instead of any heavy riffs, & trying to sound like what's on the scene than having any sound of his own. Hughes is out front with his bass steadily thumping away & really making the songs what they are. While it's hard to believe he was out of music for awhile as his vocals are amazingly great & in top form & stretched out in many different direction sounding like so many of his influences. His tuneful screams, a la Graham Bonnet, are particularly delightful (i.e. "I Got Your Number"). Check out the vocals on "The Look In Your Eye" & "Muscle & Blood" & the David Lee Roth-esque "First Step Of Love" & finally understand what the buzz around him is about. Sadly, the lyrics aren't anything particularly special beyond average rock prose. On first listen many will probably find Hughes/Thrall an uninteresting release, if not a bit too Asia-esque or of the era. I did. It's far from exciting ... or at least takes a few listens to get there. It doesn't match expectations but that might be its selling point. It comes from a different direction & thus has nothing to live up to because the expectations don't apply. It's one of those releases that seeps under your skin on repeated listens & the hard rockers (for example, "Muscle & Blood") suddenly rock harder & it'll be quickly obvious that there's absolutely no filler among the nine songs. It's tight & will leave one wanting more. For fan of Hughes singing or those wanting an introduction to him this release should not be missed. Thrall has done better, but his playing here has been compared to Allan Holdsworth while others have said this is the same vein that Billy Idol would tap into. Potentially. Demos were made for a follow-up but were scrapped due to bad sales & the pair split after a short tour with Santana & Ratt. Another attempt at follow-up was started in 1997, but in 2008 Hughes withdrew from the project saying a decade was too long for any musical project & would return to the scene with the outstanding all star Black Country Communion.

Quiet Riot ~ Metal Health (album review) ... The album that brought the noize to the masses!

Style: hard rock
Label: Sony
Year: 1983
Home: Los Angeles

Members: Kevin DuBrow ~ vocals
Carlos Cavazo ~ guitars/b. vocals
Rudy Sarzo ~ bass/keyboard
Frankie Banali ~ drums/b. vocals

Additional: Chuck Wright ~ bass/b. vocals
Pat Regan ~ keyboards
Riot Squad, Tuesday Knight, Spencer Proffer, Donna Slattery ~ b. vocals

QR will eternally be known for the first two tracks on the album: "Cum On Feel The Noize" & "Metal Health". No one will remember the fact that the other 8 tunes are equally powerful, even if they don't have the memorable "bang your head" choruses. But, the epitome of 80's excess hard rock & teenage frustration has been instilled nearly perfectly in these two hits, so how could they not become classics? Though, how these songs don't fall into cliché rock is a near miracle. The rest of the album features, without variation, Sex (i.e. "Cum On Feel The Noize", "Run For Cover", "Let's Get Crazy")teenage frustration (i.e. "Metal Health"), cars ("Slick Black Cadillac"), love ("Love's A Bitch", "Don't Wanna Let You Go", "Breathless"), guitar solos good for young air guitarists ("Battle Axe") & even a tribute to past musicians, here being Ozzy guitarist & former QR member Randy Rhoads ("Thunderbird"). Metal Health hands down features everything of concern to the average teenager. If they'd covered Alice Cooper's "School's Out" all variables would have been accounted for. There's nothing particularly great about the late Kevin DuBrow's singing but that might be the secret to how good this album is. It's not flying. It's just grooving. We can all relate whatever the mood or rock genre we typically prefer. Not a single week track, though there are a few slow pre-'power ballad' ballads (i.e. "Love's A Bitch") that owe more to the 70's than the 80's and the one-minute instrumental "Battle Axe" is far from on par with some of the other guitarists at the time, but is the only unnecessary track on the album. It's not reflective of this hit album that Quiet Riot's career quickly peaked and collapsed, the band finally folding after 25 upon DeBrow's death in 2007.