Victims of the Fury Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Originally released in January 1980, Robin Trower's seventh LP "Victims of the Fury" proved to be his ultimate crowning achievement. It had been five years since what I consider to be his last truly great release before this, 1975's "For Earth Below." The three albums that came in between, 1976's "Long Misty Days," '77's "In City Dreams," and '78's "Caravan to Midnight," while all being good, I feel were somewhat uneven in quality for Trower standards.
That's why when Robin and company ushered in the new decade with "Victims of the Fury," both blues and heavy rock fans alike had reason to rejoice. While the at the time 34-year-old Robin originates from London and from a clearly English background, his emotionally rich and vivid playing, along with the ever soulful vocals of bassist James Dewar, were more rooted in U.S. blues of the past. Hence, Trower's LPs throughout the '70s always charted higher in America rather than in his own home country.
Being only five years old in 1980 when this album was first released, I was introduced to Trower's music much later on in the '90s with the "Essential Robin Trower" compilation. While collections like that are great for that purpose, I eventually picked up all the original albums, including the one being reviewed here "Victims of the Fury."
This record, as stated, is nothing short of a masterpiece. From the opener "Jack and Jill," Robin introduces his jangly, reverby guitar and some of the most fluid riffing he had ever created and more rooted in heavy rock than ever before. From there, the chorus on the title track really made it stand out to me on the "Essential" CD and hearing it here in its original LP placement position is amazing. Side one of the original album closes out with the breathtaking "Only Time," which paints an emotionally rich picture so vivid through the sounds you hear and the vocal lines are very poetic as well.
The reason I say in the headline that you must get the 1989 Chrysalis pressing of this CD rather than the 1997 BGO disc (which also had "Caravan to Midnight" tacked on), is that the latter switches the LP's original running order around and eliminates three of its compositions, "the Shout," "Fly Low," and what is one of Trower's best ever songs, "Ready for the Taking," which features one of his most mesmerizing riffs ever, truly brilliant. I am listening to it now and am still swept away by its essential beauty and power.
If you can't find or afford the original Chrysalis CD though and don't have a turntable to listen to the record, then definitely download the missing tracks here on Amazon. You won't regret it.
All in all, some of the best blues rock ever created from one of the genre's most amazing power trios. Highly recommended.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Victims of the Fury

Click here for more information about Victims of the Fury

Joe Satriani - Live in San Francisco (2000) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I'll take this DVD over "G3" every time. "Joe Satriani - Live in San Francisco" is a superb combination of great playing, great sound, and good camera work and editing.
This concert, recorded at the Fillmore in December of 2000, showcases 24 songs plus a short blues introduction (not listed) and a bass solo. Eight studio albums are represented, from "Not of This Earth" (1986) through "Engines of Creation" (2001; not yet released at the time). "Crystal Planet" (1998), "Surfing With the Alien" (1987), and "Flying in a Blue Dream" (1989) were the most represented, with six, five, and four songs, respectively.
Overall, the performance has all the ingredients that make for a superlative rock 'n' roll concert: well over two hours of music, tight playing (one of the band's "on" nights), enough variation on the songs to make them "live" without losing the essence of the music, varied camera views (without going overboard on the tilted angles, thank you), and expert sound mixing. Disc 1 features thirteen songs, with very little down time between numbers; no need to go into detail about every song; they're all great. Disc 2 adds eleven more, plus a little more flavor with the opening blues intro and a bass solo by Stu Hamm that incorporates classically themed arpeggios, popping/hammering techniques and even a rendition of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown." Also, "Big Bad Moon" features Joe singing and playing a harmonica that doubles as a slide (clever). As opposed to his G3 "power trio," Joe enlisted the services of Eric Caudieux, who added rhythm guitar and keyboards, which is a smart move since as the "middle" was severely lacking from the G3 show. Still, I would have preferred that Eric made it out front even more often, similar to what guitarist Mike Keneally does in Steve Vai's band. Jeff Campitelli keeps his driving drum beats going throughout. Even with my audio system set to "DVD Stereo" the tunes still rocked. Users of 5.1 will be really pleased.
For the most part, the camera work is very good. Lots of angles are available both from the boom-mounted unit over the audience, and a few hand-held "roamers." The vast majority of the time, what's on the screen is exactly what I want to see: Joe's playing posture and fingering are highlighted 80% of the time, as it should be. Seeing the cameramen moving around all over the place was a little distracting at times, but not enough to damage the video presentation. Check out the feature that allows for four different camera angles on three of the songs: the hand-helds provide a more intimate dynamic perspective, mostly from on stage. Also worth watching is the nine-minute backstage commentary where Joe explains his influences, describes his pedal effects, etc.
Satriani fans MUST get this DVD. It's great for other guitar/rock fans as well.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Joe Satriani - Live in San Francisco (2000)

JOE SATRIANI: LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO - DVD Movie

Get 11% OFF

Click here for more information about Joe Satriani - Live in San Francisco (2000)

Pyromania Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Released in 1983 "Pyromania" was the album that broke Def Leppard in America but primarily due to MTV's playing the videos of "Photograph", "Foolin'" and "Rock Of Ages". Again, with Robert John "Mutt" Lange doing the producing as well as co-writing most of the songs "Pyromania" had it's share of great songs starting with the hits "Photograph", "Foolin'", "Rock Of Ages", and "Rock Rock (Till You Drop)", etc. More polished than the band's 1981 album "High N' Dry" (but in my opinion not necessarily better) it was ex-Girl guitarist Phil Collen's debut replacing original guitarist and founder Pete Willis. "Pyromania" seems to have a more commercial sound than the previous albums and the band seems to be getting away from their NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) roots. The remastering on this Deluxe Edition is far superior when compared to the older non-remastered single disc. I hear a crispness and more midrange in this newly remastered version that the older version lacked. The bonus disc (running just over seventy minutes long) from a concert in 1983 at the L.A. Forum is extremely well recorded and is a treat for Def Leppard fans as it includes not only material from "Pyromania" but from "High N' Dry" and "All Through The Night". Songs such as "Rock Brigade", "Wasted", "High N' Dry (Saturday Night)", "Another Hit And Run" and "Let It Go" have never been recorded "live" on cd or dvd for commercial release as far as this reviewer remembers so this is a first. Queen's Brian May even makes an appearance joining the band in playing the Creedence Clearwater classic "Travelin' Band" (the ending mixed with Led Zeppelin's "Rock And Roll"). The packaging of this Deluxe Edition of "Pyromania" is excellent with both discs securely mounted and there's also a fairly lengthy booklet with colorful photos of the band. Highly recommended!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Pyromania

Pyromania, Def Leppard's third album originally released in 1983, was the album that took the band to the global stage. Produced by Robert "mutt" Lange, the album sold over 10 million copies in the USA alone and spawned the huge singles "Photograph," "rock of ages" and "Foolin'." The Deluxe Edition features a remastered version of the original album and a bonus disc of a previously unreleased 15-track show from the La Forum in 1983.

Click here for more information about Pyromania

Guitar Hero 3 / Game O.S.T. Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)It seems to me that the previous posters are quite obviously not 360 owners, or just don't know about the reason why it's a companion CD and not a compilation CD.
In addition to the songs included with the CD, one also get's three additional songs to be downloaded via Xbox Live. For $10 you get what amounts to a song pack that usually runs 500 Xbox Live Points (value $6.25), with a copy of the songs from the game that you can listen to when you don't have your console readily available to you to play them.
Yes a lot of people will have these songs already in their music collections. So what it really boils down to for these people is, do you want to pay for a song pack and a couple of songs that you could otherwise download from iTunes (Curses be to Apple), or do the "illegal" route (down with the DMCA & RIAA) and BT them?
Either the way the value is not meant for Wii and PS3 owners to determine, but for 360 owners!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Guitar Hero 3 / Game O.S.T.

The Guitar Hero III Companion Piece is a combination of two different products - a traditional soundtrack of music from the Guitar Hero III game and an expansion pack of songs for the game. We call this a "companion piece" since it is a compliment to the newest version of Guitar Hero III. This piece provides fans many of the key songs from the game as well as new songs/levels for them to play.The music portion of the companion piece will feature songs from the Guitar Hero such as AFI "Miss Murder", Sonic Youth "Kool Thing", Queens of the Stone Age "3's and 7's", and many more.The expansion portion for the game will literally be new levels for the game - new songs to be played in the Guitar Hero III game. These bonus songs will be delivered via a CODE on an insert in the CD package.This code is unique for Xbox Live, where the user can type in the code and download 3 exclusive tracks in guitar hero format directly into the Xbox game. These three "expansion songs" are unreleased material from 3 of the biggest rock acts in the world:* "Carcinogen Crush" from AFI (from a forthcoming EP of new material due in December) * "Tina" from Flyleaf* A remix of Marilyn Manson's "Putting Holes in Happiness" by Nick Zinner from Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Click here for more information about Guitar Hero 3 / Game O.S.T.