Michael Schenker is back and this time he is celebrating a career of twenty five years in the music business. The album is a launching pad for his new vocalist, Jari Tiura, but more interesting is that all six past MSG singers have been brought back to tackle one song each. Why only one? Who knows. Out of a staggering nineteen songs I would have hoped they would be utilized better, but something is better than nothing.
Schenker's mad axeman string bending sounds on fire, better than he has in years, but the album is still riddled with too many problems to even count. Sure, its much better than the dreadful "Arachnophobiac" and the even worse "Beware of Scorpions" but this will be winning no awards as a MSG classic either. Although you will be given a look at what could have been, which actually made me pretty sad. What could be is pretty darn good, but that's not the direction that Michael wants to take his band in, so such personally tailored songs should likely not be taken to heart as being an example of an MSG for the impending future.
Oddly enough this was not even concieved as a MSG album. The music was written for Phil Mogg in mind, who apparently never showed up for the gig. So it was shoved aside. Schenker found a demo tape of Scandanavian screamer, Tiura, was blown away and that's how the disc got on a roll. It was a few months later when the other singers were brought in and assembled. The whole ordeal of getting them in the studio to record their vocal tracks took an entire year, so this has been sitting on the backburner for quite awhile.
The most disappointing aspect of this
"Twenty Five Years Celebration" is that Michael has all these great vocalists on hand, yet only give them one a piece to work with out of a total of 19! That means his new singer, Finn Jari Tiura cracks out the other thirteen and he certainly doesn't achieve the vision of what one would conjure for a singer paired with Schenker. Then again, the music itself has taken on a vibe that is nothing like anything anticipated. On
"Dust to Dust" he sounds like
Bruce Dickinson in ways and grates on the nerves with overuse of vibrato and just being as annoying as possible. Jari has this growling
Dio-ish "hail to metal" howl that just shakes the rafters. This one is reminiscent of
Dio mixed with Savatage, hell it could even be Omen in spots. Shrouded in aggressive, nail clawing dominance, melody is the sacrificial lamb and heaviness is ushered in as the new gothic washed direction.
"Dust" is one of the better songs he was given - despite its repetitive nature lyrically - and would have been superb in the hands of one the other guys. Jari over does it and doesn't know when to quit. Plus the shock of all the changes to the formula have not quite had a chance to sink in by the time it comes around. A good match would have been Graham Bonnet. And actually, I had arrived at
"Journey Man" and didn't even realize it.
"Voice of My Heart" is in there somewhere but I'll be damned if I know where these are seperated at the hip. The first two songs just kind of blend into each other too,
"The Ride" and
"Setting Sun", both which have brief glimpses of what could be, but quickly divert to being tedious rockers. I knew it was a change of song when the singer suddenly improved.
"Shadow Lady" is one of the better tracks with Tiura. Almost everything he is given to sing is very gothic metallic, dark and written in a similiar fashion. Guitar abounds, and all of Schenker's shredding is undeniably superb, but the annoyance factor of having thirteen songs that sound bloody alike is enough to make one's head explode after Tiura screeches for no apparent reason for the millionth time and each song grinds on with the same sinisterly explosive pacing. It is an approach that works out interestingly enough for a handful of pieces but the lack of variety becomes grating.
What MSG fans are really showing up to the party for are to hear their favorite singer back with the legendary fallen angel guitarist. We're all curious to see how he has redeemed himself, and the other fresh material is not quite cutting it. Thankfully, Schenker saved the best songs for the returning crooners and penned music in line with his past works, so this is basically the cream of the crop for
"Tales of Rock N Roll". Even this is give and take quality wise depending on the song. Also there is a concept running through here too, with each song being that individual's look back at their life in rock. An interesting factor to consider while listening.
Leif Sundin sounds great on
"Angel of Avalon", the first song that really captures the attention. His bluesy touch comes out nice and the chorus is pure MSG goodness. You can just feel the inspiration seeping back into those string bending fingers as the track unfolds its wings and soars out with confidence, and an easy accessibility that lets you reach out and just touch it. The lead guitar breaks are a bit too much but it does put the spotlight on Michael, who cranks out the electric with his signature smooth pizzazz.
Chris Logan swings it with
"Dreams Inside" - a cool bluesy bit that rolls with a decent chorus and some weird "ahhh" backing vocals. Schenker's guitar sounds positively classic classy here which is exciting after such let downs as his past few albums.
"Big Deal" is more of the same of what you hear on the album, just sung by Kelly Keeling. It lights no fires really but is a decent song.
"Big" comes as a relief from the incessant aural assault and Tiura vocal attack.
Gary Barden handles
"Life Vacation", and he seems down right bored. Barden is capable of so much better, just look to his "Agony and Xtasy" cd released earlier this year where he was simply brilliant. This performance though, he's just phoning it in. Schenker goes on a strange guitar tangent that is really quite captivating though too short, leaving you craving for additional bursts of electricity. The chorus is grindingly annoying though and shows that it could have benefited from further tweaking.
"Rock N' Roll" is Graham Bonnet's lead spot and there's no mistaking his gritty, gravely voice. Bonnet is the logical pick for this swift metallic grinder. The chorus just pops right out with a boosted elevation that lets it stick right out in prominance. And he nails it with experience and that crooning factor he has. Then its back to straight forward whipping out with a fleet pacing. By far the second best track of the album.
"Tell A Story" is Robin McAuley's time to shine and he's paired with a piece that concentrates more on melody than the dark, clogged atmospheres that bog the album down elsewhere. This is an awesome piece that harkens back to days of the McAuley/Schenker group when Michael had managed to find his second wind and inspirational fire. This proves he can still not only burn up the fretboard but write a snappy rock tune while he's at it. Robin oozes pure personality and the music rises up eagerly to match his enthusiasm. Love this one, along with
"Rock N Roll". These represent what MSG used to be all about before he took his axe and went slogging down the road into "who cares"? mediocrity. The late 90s curse that shadowed his career and tarnished the Mad Axeman image.
The promo copy that was released is also broken up into 80 tracks of music (!) making it a difficult cd to try and review. It also made the fact that the Jari tracks are so identical to each other stand out even more.
"Tales of Rock N Roll - Twenty-Five Years Celebration" is a long winded CD that has a handful of good songs to pick out of a plethora of average to annoying ones. Sure, its a real trip to hear the original MSG vocalists back again, but this album would have worked much better if Jari had been left out of the picture and his material handed off for a disc of its own so it could be scrutinized seperately. Shoving this all together makes the journey feel mismatched and disjointed with the clashing of rock'n'rollers and the new formula just squished against each other.
The mystical melodic magic of the early 80s Barden MSG, the complex assault of the Bonnet era and the numbingly catchy pop metal McAuley sound are all sorely missed. This dark, sinister twist of this "new age" is too plodding and redundant. If he chooses to pursue this direction for further efforts, the style needs to be tweaked and more excitement injected into the music than relentless screeching that clutters up the fantastic guitar. No complaints with the guitars at all, Michael is a new man with an open ear for metal freshness, but one side still locked in touch with his former self. This is something I hope he can hold onto. However, Schenker should look over what is working for him musically and what aspects are failing and turn that into a gold mine of classic MSG goodness. Dial up Graham or even the underrated Leif Sundin and get one of them back behind the mic as well, because as thirteen of these Jari sung tracks have proven, the "new" MSG just isn't cutting it.
Written by
Alanna Thursday, July 27, 2006
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