Revisiting: Kane Roberts' "S/T"

Welcome to the third installment in my brand new kind of review series. Damn, that headline doesn't look good no matter what I do with it. Oh well. Since I started off this series with Alice Cooper's excellent "Raise Your Fist And Yell" album, I thought it would be fitting to revisit and do a breakdown of this album as well. Let's go!

Band/artist: Kane Roberts
Album: Kane Roberts (S/T)
Release year: 1987
Style: Glam Metal

Quick introduction: I'm guessing most of you who read this are probably here because you were actively Googling for Kane Roberts. If not, then let me introduce the man. Kane Roberts was a promising guitar player who's mostly known for his work with Alice Cooper. He helped the Coop in relaunching his career during the mid 80's after years of alcohol abuse and some album flops. It was a successful collaboration. Alice's career took off once again, now playing more of an 80's heavy metal style compared to his earlier classic (shock/hard) rock sound.

Kane Roberts himself was also known for playing a guitar designed as a machine gun, as well as for being a body builder. This made him something of a "metal Rambo" in media and MCA (Alice's record company at the time) tried to capitalize on his looks and guitar talents, launching a solo career for the man. It seems, however, that it was more or less a flop as it's fairly hard to find his solo music or any information about him. Not even his time with Alice Cooper, despite being quite successful, seems to have much substantial information to find these days.

1. Rock Doll

This was an MTV video back in the day. For being a single it's ironically a track I kind of like the least on the entire album. It's not bad but I've heard it a thousand times before. It's just your typical run-of-the-mill party track, 80's glam style. Nothing too memorable.

2. Women On The Edge Of Love

This is better. It's not as rocking as the album's opener but it's a lot more melodic, which I prefer in this case. It's obvious you're in for a typical 80's album as it's got your trademark cheese keys, almost bordering on an AOR-ish sound. It doesn't matter, the song is catchy as hell. I like it.

3. Triple X

"Triple X! It's only sex 'til it crosses the line!" The lyrics might not be something worth remembering but then again, whenever were glam lyrics that memorable anyway? This song is great, though. Kane also does a great solo on this one. Now the chorus is stuck on my mind. It's super catchy!

4. Gorilla

Just another case of "your typical", this time in form of a short guitar instrumental. If you ever bought an album in the 80's with some kind of guitar monster featured, it always had a "wank track" like this. This is just not that exciting, though.

5. Outlaw

This is the heaviest track so far. Short and straight to the point. The guitar(s) sound great here, riffs as solo. It's also got some of those lovely 80's style gang vocals in the chorus. OUTLAW! Cool song.

6. If This Is Heaven

The album's most upbeat-sounding track to my ears. It's not overly upbeat but more so than the others. It's pretty much another 80's anthemic song. Not superb but good enough. The chorus is once again a catchy thing.

7. Out For Blood

Like you can probably guess from the title it's going for a heavier route again. This is definitely the album's heaviest and most uptempo track. Speedy riff and pounding drums all complete with a gang vox chorus and a long blistering solo. One of the best tracks on here.

8. Full Pull

This is the only track on the album to feature a collaboration with the Coop himself, who did some or all lyrical work. The song itself, however, is amongst the album's weaker ones. It definitely lacks the same kind of memorability in chorus and solo compared to the other tracks.

9. Too Much (For Anyone To Touch)

...And the cheese-keys are back. To put it very simply: this is as 80's as it gets. Imagine the most 80's-sounding metal song you can think of and this is right up that alley. But I'm not dissing, I think this track is great. It's extremely catchy and I used to strongly associate it with Kelly Bundy (Christina Applegate) from Married With Children, whom I had a mad crush on during my late teens.

10. Tears of Fire

"She had a hand in my sex education, took me down right by the river." These lyrics sure are something special. All accompanied by one of those extremely soppy 80's metal ballads, musically speaking. This song and its lyrics have been a standing joke between me and my buddy for a decade, even though we haven't heard it for years. "But I still remember baby when she came..." Yeah I remember it too, Kane.

11. Strong Arm Needs A Stronger Heart

At this point I'm really out of ideas how to describe it without repeating myself. It's just more of the same, but since it's catchy and super 80's sounding I guess it's a good thing, right?

Overall impression:

So this was Kane Roberts' first solo album. I think it's pretty safe to say it didn't left much of a mark in metal history, despite sounding like basically any other successful guitar-shreddy 80's glam album. Musically it's a very cheesy album most of the time, but it's also an extremely catchy and memorable album. Despite not having listened to it for a decade or so, I find myself remembering these songs very clearly. Most of all I find it a fun album to listen to. Isn't that what truly matters?

If I compare this to what Kane did with the Coop I've gotta say I prefer the Coop stuff. Well, maybe not the "Constrictor" album but definitely "Raise Your Fist And Yell". This album, however, has better guitar solos from Kane in my opinion. He really gets to show more of his musical abilities on here, while with Alice he did more odd stuff during solos. I suppose you can call Kane another 80's guitar virtuoso, but he's also not that over the top. Guys like George Lynch or Warren DeMartini would beat him any day, in my opinion.

Sadly Kane Roberts' never truly took off. He got a fair amount of spotlight while playing with Alice, but in retrospect it's perhaps not a generally favored era in Alice's career either. Say what you will about Kane Roberts - the man could certainly play guitar really well and he seemed to be quite a showman as well. It's also pretty safe to say that he was rather productive at the time, releasing three albums over two years time. Personally I really enjoy his stuff with Alice as well as his solo stuff.

Revisiting: Tigertailz' "Bezerk"

Welcome to the second installment in this new review series of mine. Bear in mind that it's not gonna be your typical review, but instead a song-by-song breakdown and literal revisit for me. Let's jump right into it!

Band/artist: Tigertailz
Album: Bezerk
Release year: 1990
Syle: Glam Metal

Quick introduction: Tigertailz is one of those bands I never was a very big fan of. Not that I've ever disliked them but I never thought they were anything extra ordinary either. Their image (particularly the hideous haircuts) were definitely competing with bands like King Kobra, though. I was really into glam metal during the time frame 2007-'09, or "hair metal" as I always referred to it. I listened to a lot of relevant bands of that time and genre, and I discovered lots of great but obscure bands. Tigertailz, however, were just "another band" to me. Never leaving much of a mark for me back then, I haven't really revisited this album in the past 10 years - until now.

1. Sick Sex

Hearing this opener makes me think of two things: it sounds like quite the "typical" glam metal opener of the time (late 80's), but it also sounds rather generic. Put this up against a glam metal masterpiece opener, such as GN'R's "Welcome To The Jungle" or Ratt's "Wanted Man", and this is just proof that Tigertailz is nowhere near the same league as many of their peers. Not bad but not very engaging either.

2. Love Bomb Baby

Probably my clearest memory of this record but not in a positive matter. I suppose this was the album's "big hit" and I can understand why, but to me it just sounds cringey as fuck. The ultra-happy intro choir just rubs me the wrong way immediately. There's also a cheesy AOR-ish keyboard which makes it sound more dated than anything else on the album. Nope, time hasn't changed my opinion about this song.

3. I Can Fight Dirty Too

Now we're startin' to talk here. This is one of the album's rockers and possibly also the best track on the entire album. It's got a pretty nice drive and actually sounds way more instrumentally engaging and energetic than "Sick Sex". Pretty good riff and quite catchy chorus. Not awesome but definitely a song I could come back to again.

4. Noise Level Critical

I remember reading old Kerrang mags I bought from Ebay to get old band posters back when I was a teenager. They used this song's title for their concert reviews page. The song itself is very Van Halen-esque and pretty decent. I defintely would've prefered this as a single over "Love Bomb Baby" (and with that said, I have no idea if this was a single/video as well).

5. Heaven

I remembered this track. Kind of. I remember it being a ballad and that I thought it was pretty good, but I had forgotten the song itself. Hmm, it's still pretty good. I mean, it's very soppy and kind of "wimpish" and the lyrics are lame, but it's just what you'd expect from your typical hair metal ballad of the time. It reminds me of Steelheart. If nothing else then at least it's something to make out to with my girlfriend.

6. Love Overload

This starts off really good with a heavy if somewhat unimaginative riff. Think earlier Dokken or similar heavy hair bands closer to the mid 80's. Overall it's an okey song but the simple yet poppy chorus drags down its potential a notch. There's a pretty cool harmonica later in the song, though.

7. Action City

So this one started really good with another engaging riff only to kill itself when everything else kicked in. It's like they wanted to play a fast rocker at first but then they switched into your generic hair metal filler. Wasted opportunity.

8. Twist And Shake

Shalala la laaa... Shut the fuck up already. Annoying as fuck intro. Overall this is along the lines of "Love Bomb Baby", being another jolly and cringey sing-a-longish earsore.

9. Squeeze It Dry

This sounds like something off of Dokken's "Back For The Attack" album, being a rather positive thing in this case. Not the best track but it's definitely one of the better ones on the album. I like the calm mid-breakdown in the song. It's actually the only thing on the entire album that sounds like 90's music, reminding me of that one 90's song everybody's heard in some movie (forgive me for not remembering its name right now).

10. Call Of The Wild

Why did seemingly every band have a song with this title in the 80's? Doesn't matter, though. This is finally more of that up-tempo heaviness that left me hungering for more earlier during the album's playthrough. Still nothing extra ordinary for the genre but a solid enough closer and overall pretty cool. Along with "I Can Fight Dirty Too" I'd say this is my favorite track on the album. It's also got the best guitar solo on the entire album.

Overall impression:

So I've gotta admit that this wasn't exactly the most positive comments I've had to say about an album. My memory served me more or less correctly, though. To say it's bad is perhaps an overstatement. I'm sure there are glam metal fans out there who loves this band and this album. To my ears, however, it's a very mediocre album of its genre. There are very few moments that really catch my attention and those are all very second-rated stuff.

Having heard countless of bands in this genre, I'm just not so easily impressed. Hell, this album was a (very small) part of me ten years ago. Ten freakin' years. At that time I had more acceptance toward this kind of bands because I was so heavily dedicated to hair/glam metal. These days, however, most of those bands aren't still around in my speakers.

My ticket into Tigertailz was when I watched the video to the re-recording of "Living Without You". I thought that track was awesome. I still do. But that's also a whole nother level I feel the band never managed to reach again, further making this album something of a disappointment as its songs pale in comparison. For a hair metal album this just doesn't reach beyond an "average" to me. To compare it to all metal in general... I'm not even gonna be that much of a douche.

Top-10 Favorite Sleazy Hard Rock & Glam/Hair Metal Bands

Anyone who's been reading this blog before will know what an open-minded kind of metal listener I am. During my early days of exploring and discovering metal music, my biggest genres were NWoBHM, thrash and typical glam/hair metal. Just like with any metal sub-genre there were some bands which I liked in particular and some others not so much at all.

During my first five years as a metalhead I was still somewhat of a casual listener to hair metal and similar sounds. I pretty much stuck to the more obvious choices - GN'R, the Crüe, and so on - as I spent so much time discovering all kinds of metal sub-genres during those years. Around 2008, however, I really got into this particular style of metal and I kinda considered myself a "hair metalhead" between 2008 and 2010.

For two years there I really dug into the genre and all of its largely unnoticed bands. I quickly realized that my favorite era of hair metal was 1988-1992, where the genre kind of bloomed better than ever, but with many great bands unfortunately slippin' under the radar due to the success of thrash and death metal, but also particularly (and obviously) grunge in the early 90's.

I will now present to you: ten of the greatest bands in glam/hair metal and sleazy hard rock music, all according to my personal taste. I hope you enjoy!

Starting at...

10. Mötley Crüe

Comment: The kings when it comes to glam metal and for good reason. Nikki Sixx sure knows how to make great songs, but at the same time I can't really say that I'm a huge fan of all the Crüe's albums. I'm the kind of fan who jammed "Too Fast For Love" a lot, truly loved "Shout At The Devil", was confused by "Theatre Of Pain", thought "Girls, Girls, Girls" was misunderstood, and absolutely hated "Dr. Feelgood" (ironically enough felt very bad about it). I'll just leave it at that.


9. Ratt

Comment: Possibly the best guitar tone of the genre. I just love that crispy guitar sound! The guitar work is overall great as well, accompanied by some very distinctive vocals and great grooves. Ratt is just one very solid band in the genre. Particularly the first two full-length albums are great.


8. Skid Row

Comment: Back in my teens I wanted to be Sebastian Bach (or have his looks at least) to get the chicks. Around 2009 my buddy started calling me "Seb Bach" because of my long and straight blonde-ish hair and feminine face features. It felt good, in a way. But it was not all about Bach either. Skid Row's one of the best bands in the genre. The debut is great but "Slave To The Grind" stepped up things even further. I just love how heavy it is.


7. Warrior Soul

Comment: With no disrespect meant against these guys, I'm aware they might not really qualify for this genre. Seeing as they are often put in the same batch as these bands, however, I will use that to my advantage of praising them. Hailing out of NYC, a city I've got an obsession with and a dream of moving to, I just love the dark and gutter-y vibe to their sound. It's hard and straight to the point. The lyrical themes are also real, unlike most bands in this genre who are - well, honestly - quite a bunch of posers and love failures.


6. Cinderella

Comment: Something with this band is just perfection to me. The vocals, guitars and vibes are all there. They are great at combining gutter-rockers with really good ballads. I usually despise a lot of glam ballads because of how cheesy they are, but Cinderella are just pros at their craft. "Night Songs" and "Long Cold Winter" are two of the genre's very best albums.


5. The Almighty

Comment: One truly underrated band in my opinion. These guys were, according to themselves but also somewhat accurately put, a bunch of Motörhead wannabes. With that said, I love their first two albums - "Blood, Fire & Love" and "Soul Destruction" - which are great sleazy hair metal. The rest of their albums, however, changed in musical styles and did not fare too well me though.


4. Sleeze Beez

Comment: These guys hailed from the Netherlands but they sounded very much like genuine L.A. hair metal, albeit better than a lot of those bands. Their sound was quite heavy and definitely rockin' with a high energy level. Great songs, great vocals. "Screwed Blued & Tattooed" and "Powertool" are two of the best albums you can get your hands on.


3. Saigon Kick

Comment: A very unique band within the genre. They actually covered a lot more musical styles than just typical hair metal of the time, which is something I enjoy a lot. Any fan of these guys will know what I'm talking about. On a single album they would go between playing thrash-y hair metal to acoustic ballads to funk to soul-esque stuff. They were rather musically entertaining as they made anything turn out great. The first album is the most pure hair metal release they did, but I'd really recommend anyone of their first four(!) albums, which I think is saying a lot.


2. W.A.S.P.

Comment: It's been well-discussed over the years whether they are glam or simple heavy metal. Considering they dressed like trannies and made glam-esque music on their first three efforts, I'd definitely include them as a glam metal band, even if they actually were rather heavy. There's just something magic about 'em. Blackie Lawless voice is so haunting and one of the best voices I know. His voice's also aged gracefully in my opinion. Just an amazing band with many truly great albums under their belt.


1. Spread Eagle

Comment: And the winner are these guys from NYC. These guys came too late, debuting in 1990 and basically failed to make an impact in the then-dying hair metal scene. It's kinda funny that they would take the first spot considering they only made two albums, with one of them (the debut) being fuckin' awesome while the second is no good at all (in my opinion as well as many others'). Quite interesting, I think. But at the same time it's just a proof of exactly how good the debut is! Think of a rawer and heavier Skid Row and you've got these guys. Too bad they never did any more good stuff.

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So that was my top-10 favorite glam/hair metal and sleazy hard rock bands. I think it's safe to say that I definitely prefer the heavier bands in the genre, and also the bands with the least amount of make-up and emptied cans of hairspray. Not that most of those "girlie" hair metal bands (if I may call 'em that) were bad or anything, I just like the bands that, obviously, were into heavier sounds. As far as hair metal hairdos go, I definitely like it on band members in bands such as Vixen. Not so much Poison or Tigertailz. Chicks with big 80's hair are great. The males just looked like my grandmas.

Just my five cents thrown here. I hope you enjoyed the list at least! Maybe there was some surprising choices and maybe even a new band or two to check out? I hope so!