SCORPIONS - Rock Believer
Vertigo Records
OK let's get the obligatory personal history with the band out of the way. I got into the SCORPIONS in the mid-70's. In Trance from 1975 was my first album by them. And yeah I'm a Uli Jon Roth era SCORPION's fan first. Now as far as the Matthias Jabs era goes I liked those early albums up to Love at First Sting from 1984. After that I didn't care about em anymore.
So why am I bothering with this album after all of these years? Well supposedly this was the band giving a try at reliving some past glory. That glory was trying to do an 80's era style album. Plus over the past 3 to 4 years there have been a few legacy bands releasing some decent material. So hey why not the SCORPIONS, right? Ah well that would be a big fat NO!
This nineteenth full-length by the band has them grasping for some nostalgic but missing horribly. The eleven songs on here, sixteen if you pony up for the 2xCD deluxe edition, are decent hard rock sounding tunes. As far as any highlights go Matthias Jabs can still come up with a halfway decent solo. There's some cool riffs by Rudolf Schenker as well as some old tricks he's pulled out. Klaus can still sing.
But for me it's the weak songs and corny song titles that leave me going BLAH! For example opener "Gas in the Tank", ah yeah some of ya are in your 70's. "Roots in My Boots", really what "lead in my pencil" didn't cut it? The title track is horrible. I don't know why they bothered to record Mikkey Dee's drumming on here. A drum machine could've done the same job.
I will give some props to songs like "Peacemaker", the best song on the album. "When I Lay My Bones to Rest" at least allows Pawel Maciwoda to show off his bass vibe. Damm I miss Francis Buchholz, a very good bass player. The second CD, if you get the deluxe version, has four more cuts plus an acoustic version of the ballad "When You Know (Where You Come From)". Once again the cuts are totally average. The bottom line is that the band cannot write hard hitting music like they use to. They can play well but that's about it.
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