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.

My Favorite OZZY OSBOURNE Albums From 1 to 10

Yo everybody, 'zup? It's been a while, since last year actually oh HA HA... I suck at this.

... Anyway, I'm in quite some Ozzy period right now. Ozzy Osbourne is the Godfather of heavy metal. Everybody knows that for a fact. What people don't know is that he's kind of my Godfather as well. See, it was Ozzy who got me into metal. It was back in 2002 when I heard a couple of tracks that I really fell in love with his music. The two songs in particular that caught my attention was "Bark at the Moon" and "Hellraiser" (especially). Believe it or not, but "Crazy Train" was a song I actually was never too fond of. I always thought of it as highly overrated, you know? I never liked the poppy gallop-y verse riff. It's grown on me over the 13 years that I've listened to Ozzy, but I still roll my eyes a little bit every time I hear its verse. The chorus is cool, though!

I'm not gonna count compilations, singles, EPs, live albums or the cover album "Under Cover" on this list. Official studio albums only. Anyway, let's list this (good) shite!


10. Down To Earth (2001)

On tenth and last place is this sucker. This is very much not the Ozzman's (or Zakk Wylde's, for that matter) best effort to date. Actually, I think this is the opposite. It's by no means a bad album, but it's just somewhat dull and weak compared to Ozzy's other albums. Especially the older ones. What really makes this album one of his weaker is the repetitive and occasionally uninspired-like material, accompanied with a very muddy, stiff and boring production. It just sounds lifeless and none of the band members really get to shine here. There are, however, a few cool tunes here like "Gets Me Through", "No Easy Way Out", "That I Never Had" and "Alive". Of course "Dreamer" is quite nice, too. I don't listen to it very often, though. I also dig the B-side "Black Skies" from this album. That one should've replaced any of the unmentioned tracks, because the remaining album sounds very much like filler material.

09. Scream (2010)

Well, it wasn't too long ago since this came out. Or, yeah, it's almost five years so I guess it's quite some time, but I remember it like a month ago. Zakk Wylde had been let-go of and replacing him was the supposed power metal guru Gus G. (I never heard any of his other work). Ozzy wanted to change his sound away from Zakk's own band Black Label Society, and I can respect that. However, fans all over the world were quite disappointed with the result of this album - there's pretty much no musical difference to this album or any of the more recent Ozzy albums with Zakk (or BLS). This sounds like it's written by/with Zakk, and played by him as well apart from the many missing squeals. However, that was not the only disappointment with this album - the fans also thought it was pretty bad. I for one actually kinda like(d) this album a lot. It's certainly not bad, but once again not nearly Ozzy's best album. It's got a flow going, no fillers, no particular killers either, but a fine line of average to good quality tunes (for Ozzy's standard) throughout. One still standing disappointed for me, however, is Gus G. - I expected more from him after all the fuzz and Ozzy's wishes to change the sound. He's the most boring and characterless of Ozzy's guitarists to appear on an Ozzy album. Ozzy should've gotten Jake E. Lee back, or just as well kept Zakkie.

08. Black Rain (2007)

And here it is: the most perfect example of how unnecessary the trade from Zakk to Gus G. actually was. This album and Scream pretty much sound like brothers to me, musically. I guess I would say that this is somewhat darker and more swinging due to Zakk's squeals and overall more aggressive guitar playing. I think these songs are also slightly better then those on Scream, but to be quite honest: it was hard chosing which one of them to get this spot - they're pretty much at the exact same rate. What this album has most in its favor is its B-sides. The B-sides from this album are the best, in my opinion, from any Ozzy album. The song "Nightmare" is simply amazing and should've been on the regular version, no doubt. I don't know why it isn't, but it's one of my absolute favorite modern-era Ozzy tracks. This album has got some neat rockers overall, and the "fillers" are actually quite overlooked tunes by fans if you ask me. This is a good album. Ozzy looks awful on the album cover, though, but I like the title and concept of it.

07. Ozzmosis (1995)

I know what y'all probably thinking right now. Something like, "yeah, of course...", and yeah, maybe you're right. I'm the typical Ozzy fan, favoring all of his old albums before his newer stuff. I let the music speak for itself there. This album, however, is a real fan-base splitter. Some people tend to really (almost hate this and) place it last of all Ozzy albums, while some enjoy it a whole lot more, maybe even holding it rather close to their hearts. I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't think Ozzy has succeeded this album with any of his albums since Ozzmosis, but it's his worst up album until that point. It's also been a grower on me, for sure. What's perhaps hard about embracing this album, today, is it's very dated 90's feel and sound. Apparently this was a record company-controlled album in many ways where they wanted Ozzy to sound like Soundgarden at the time, while Ozzy had started off with this album as more of a "continuation" of No More Tears. That was a bad but ultimately interesting idea by the RC, I think. This is unarguably Ozzy's most experimental work and it's kind of interesting in that way, but it falls a bit short on delivering the real goods. My faves are "Thunder Underground", "See You On The Other Side" and "Tomorrow".

06. Bark At The Moon (1983)

This is perhaps Ozzy's most overrated albums ever. I will leave that up to debate with the next album on this list, but they together are his most overrated albums, no doubt. Anyway, this album is still a classic and important piece of 80's heavy ... metal, and a bunch of other stuff. Yes, that is the problem here - this album hasn't really got a red thread holding the material together. This album is not really experimental in that sense, but it's "all over" the place. I mean, we have some true heavy metal thunderstrucks like the classic title track and "Rock 'n' Roll Rebel", while we've got some weird attempts at keyboard-oriented gothic 80's metal in the otherwise cool and overlooked track "Waiting For Darkness". "Slow Down" is somewhere towards an AOR sound with it's silly-sounding chorus and, well... I don't know. It's all over the place. It goes into ballad territory as well, of course, with the excellent "You're No Different" and the instead awful grandma-loves-this-tune "So Tired". It's not a bad album, just not very solid either. There is one great thing about this album, though - the then-new guitarist Jake E. Lee, whose work with Ozzy I really like. Underrated and overlooked guy that not too many people, sadly, seem to remember or talk about.

05. Blizzard Of Ozz (1980)

Maybe this is more likely to be Ozzy's most overrated album, or maybe it isn't at all. I know many people love it and praise it, and so do I in many ways as well, particularly the talent of Randy Rhoads. The reason that this album isn't really my favorite, however, is the musical quality delivered here. What I can never understand with the praising of this album is how people tend to completely forget rather bland tracks like especially "No Bone Movies" and pretty much "Steal Away (The Night)", too. Those two tracks certainly don't help this album become a flawless masterpiece, even less Ozzy's best moment. Apart from that, there isn't much to discuss about this album. It's got Ozzy's most recognized tune "Crazy Train" and the fan favorite "Mr. Crowley", which is my favorite off this album as well. Randy Rhoads guitar work also stands the test of time - I love his playing - his tone, squeals, solos, classical overtones, and riffs. This is a very good album, without a doubt.

04. No More Tears (1991)

Times were a-changin' in the early 90's within the Ozzcamp, but maybe not really that different? This album is one of those critically acclaimed and fan favorited Ozzy albums, and I do see why. It was most likely very fresh in its time and packed with great tunes. It was the second album where Zakk Wylde handled the guitar duties and my guess is that he had more (of southern rock) input this time around. It's a very dynamic record, going from rockers to ballad-esque tracks to real heavy metal. What I really dig about this record is its variety and how it manages to still sound like an 80's Ozzy album, but with that early 90's attitude, feel and touch to it. Think maybe Ozzy's early solo stuff combined with early Alice in Chains and stuff. It was a winning concept nonetheless, as Ozzy was the only one, together with Metallica and (the) Red Hot Chili Peppers, amongst the 80's artists/bands who managed to remain successful and go multi-platinum in the new decade. But at the end of the day, I still miss something in this album. It hasn't got that special mystique that some of Ozzy's older albums have, or material quite up-to-par. Whatever this album has and hasn't got, it still is a quite unique Ozzy album as none of of his other stuff sounds like this one. And what else can I say? No other than Lemmy co-wrote four songs on this album, and like the best ones at that. This is an album that ages very nicely, and some of my absolute fave Ozzy tunes is on here: the title track, "Hellraiser", "Desire" and "Mama, I'm Coming Home". A very balanced, perfect all-around sounding middle-era album that combines the best of two worlds: what Ozzy did in the 80's and what he would later do up till this day.

03. The Ultimate Sin (1986)

One of Ozzy's more complicated albums, The Ultimate Sin has ever since it came out in '86 divided fans opinions all over the place, I believe. There seems to be a constant debate about where this album actually lies quality-wise. I wouldn't go on to call it underrated, overrated or misunderstood really, because most people seem to have given it a listen at some point at least. What I can feel about it, however, is that it's perhaps "wrongly accused". Some people bash this for being a sell-out album by Ozzy, which I can understand in one perspective - as it being a glam metal album released in the heydays of glam metal, but in any other perspectives, I cannot understand it. Ultimately I don't think it is an overly commercial album. I think it's still a bit too heavy compared to Mötley Crüe or Ratt, which were big glam acts at the time, and I still think it has more metal elements than those bands. It also sold "only" two million copies in the US, not really a too large amount compared to other glam metal bands. Some people also tend to think the material on this is simply weak, with no actual hits or memorable tunes present. I oppose them all. I think these songs are all great, even the ones generally considered "filler" (for instance - "Fool Like You", "Never") which are among my very favorites. It also spawns a few fan favorites, besides the obvious hit and classic "Shot In The Dark", which are the great "Secret Loser" and "Killer Of Giants". But what I think I dig the most about this album is the guitar playing by Jake E. Lee. The album cover is also my favorite one among Ozzy's albums.

02. No Rest For The Wicked (1988)

"What album did you say?", yes? This is like a mighty pearl thrown to the swines - a forgotten, totally underrated and overlooked heavy metal album. This truly is the one and only Ozzy album I can truly considered underrated and overlooked. Despite selling two million copies in the US alone, people seem to have genuinely forgot all about this one. Perhaps it's because it totally lacks anything called a "hit single", but perhaps it's just peoples ignorance as well. What this album is probably most (and sadly, only) remembered for is that it was the first album featuring a very young Zakk Wylde, and you can immediately recognize him and his style. This is very much a pure heavy metal album - a very dark and heavy one at that. I mean, in my opinion, this is without a doubt Ozzy's heaviest and darkest album ever. There is an eerie and sinister feeling throughout the album, with Zakk Wylde-ified Black Sabbath-y riffing and pentatonic scales all over. He just plays with an intense hunger and energy, and he sure had got the chops already at that early age. Ozzy's drummer at the time, the late Randy Castillo, also really shines on this one. To me, this album is the best Ozzalbum drum-wise. I really appreciate this album as a whole without really trying to pick any favorites, but I would totally call "Breakin' All The Rules", "Miracle Man", "Bloodbath In Paradise" and the epic ballad-esque track "Fire In The Sky" classics in Ozzy's catalogue. The Japanese bonus track "The Liar" is also when of Ozzy's better (piano) ballads to my ears.

01. Diary Of A Madman (1981)

Maybe this was a bit foreseen and obvious of a choice, but one cannot deny the greatness and epicness of this true masterpiece. This album is totally something purely outstanding that Ozzy had never done before, or would do again. It's just something that was done right at the perfect time. This album has been closest to my heart out of all albums featuring Ozzy (inc. the Sabbath catalogue).
   There is something dark and strange going on behind the musical curtains that you cannot quite see or understand, you can only hear it being present through these tracks. I don't know much about the recording of this album, but I wouldn't be surprised if they recorded parts of it, or at least composed/rehearsed these tracks, in a haunted or possessed place. The album's magnificence is largely because of the guitar work by the late, great Randy Rhoads. I just truly believe Ozzy did find the ultimate musician in him, because his playing rules this album, and you do understand the fuzz and legend about him when you hear this album.
   I don't think you can compare this and Blizzard Of Ozz. It's two similar records but yet so different from each other. That one is really more of a "basic" album made of album tracks and hits, I'd say, while this is very epic and more complex. This is where Randy really pushed his creative boundaries, which is most notable in the amazing title track, which ends this masterpiece just perfectly.
   Believe me, I cannot express in words what this album is for me. It's like a journey you have to join yourself in order to understand, but that is certainly something that can't quite be said about any of the other Ozzy albums. This is one the one, the magnum opus, the flawless masterpiece.