Style: hard rock, glam metal
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 1986
Home: n/a
Members: Robert Fleischman ~ vocals
Vinnie Vincent ~ guitar/b. vocals
Dana Strum ~ bass/b. vocals
Bobby Rock ~ drums
I like Vinnie's work with Kiss. I missed Ace, but Vinnie was good for the direction they were going & brought a new musical side to the group. I've reviewed the second VVI album with Mark Slaughter on vocals. I was both impressed & turned off, often simultaneously. I found Slaughter's vocals amazing & often distracting. I found the music largely wannabe Led Zeppelin more often than not. I thought Vinnie shined when he was being himself & not imitating some one else. On the whole, it was interesting, but not something I want to return to. It was also often cluttered in an attempt to fill up every inch of air in the room. I've long been a promoter of letting music breath. Yeach, Phil Spector & me wouldn't get along. Yet, due to Kiss, Vinnie is still a fascinating guitarist in my head, but VVI's album just wasn't the right musical template for him to shine in. I think he should have done something like Steve Vai's solo work, though Vai hadn't quite braved those waters yet to show it could be done. Going backwards in time, how does the first VVI album sound? Instead of Slaughter, Robert Fleischman is the vocalist. His claim to fame is as Journey's vocalist for a few months in 1977, but is not on any studio albums. He co-write three songs, which is three more than Slaughter. Everything else is by Vinnie. First, thankfully, no Led Zep. Obviously that was their attempt to switch things up. Yet ... the vocals. I had no clue what Fleischman sounded like, but I was hoping for a complete contrast, like Phil Collins to Ray Wilson in Genesis. Instead, Fleischman & Slaughter sound like brothers. Perhaps they grabbed Slaughter as he could sing songs from this album in addition to the new stuff, or just saw his talent was too much to not tap into? Fleischman is a good singer, going from operatic highs to even higher highs, while Slaughter kept that & took things to greater heights, though at times to cluttered absurd heights. The problem I have with singers like this who sing so high they're going into orbit is, it often feels they are at the top of their range with no real place to go. Imagine a guitar solo that never moves below the 12th fret or is all above the 20th fret. After awhile my ears just want more range, more variety, more low end, more of anything. Putting the vocals aside, there's one thing I like about this album & three things I don't. The one thing I like is Vinnie turns in some super hot awesomely unique solos, absolutely out of this world. Wild & gnarly like only the '80's could do. They don't make solos like this anymore. Give me all the solos ... & all the bacon. Dump the rest ... nobody needs turkey bacon. Seriously, dump all the rest. That's the first problem. The songs are limp. Nothing is memorable or distinct. By the end of the album they just all melt together as a long drag that never seems to end. Ironically, though imitative, the second album thus becomes the stronger album. The second problem is Vinnie loves his whammy bar & finger tapping, which he does like a Greek God come to earth who has no limitations, but on every song & every solo it makes the whole album quickly feel predictable & monochromatic. Is that all you've got? Can you groove? Can you swing a blues wail? Can you slow down? While finger tapping has no real emotional feeling, as its sparks & fireworks, but no depth. This leads to my final problem with the album. Whatever the song is, whether bluesy power ballad or straight ahead keyboard heavy '80's rock, Vinnie turns in whammy solos & finger tapping moving as fast along the fretboard as possible. Essentially, one solo that is just used for every song whatever the mood. This makes for a huge disconnect between solos & songs. The outcome is something that would make Nigel Tufnel proud. The fact that "Animal" actually stops for the solo just pushes everything over the edge of absurdity. Then the album ends on a feedback loop if the absurdity hadn't already landed home. Going back to the second album, its interesting I said Slaughter ruined those songs by being so over the top. Here Vinnie ruins his own album by being over the top with crash & burn solos. He obviously learned a lesson & scaled back for the second album, but he turned the reigns over to Slaughter to just do the same thing. Replacing bad with bad. Again, if this was something like Steve Vai or Joe Satriani, then it would work, but otherwise its just a strange animal that doesn't know what it wants to be or where its going. I'd like to redo the album & remove most of the vocals. Sorta like what Jimmy Page did on Outrider, half singing & half instrumental. That's the first fix. Then rope in Vinnie to have some melody, focus & groove. Plus, bring in other writers. I really feel Vinnie shined with Kiss because he wasn't writing/composing. I would also come up with more interesting lyrics than just sex crap. Lyrics like Dio, stuff as big as the solos. I would also up the ante with the rest of the band, so the guitar bounces off of them & weaves around them. This could then be one of the greatest albums for air guitar players ever. Could be. Right now it has moments of potential, moments of six string awe & moments of severe cringe.
