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Cherry Red [release date 08/09/23]
It seems like Jack Starr’s bands have been playing gigs and cranking out albums ever since Heavy Metal became a thing.
And yet, from his beginnings with Virgin Steele in 1982, to his primary music vehicle, Burning Starr, his bands have always operated marginally below the power/heavy metal radar, enjoying the respect and admiration of their peer group, but never really breaking through the Metal ceiling.
All Burning Starr except as indicated:
CD1 : Rock The American Way (1985) and No Turning Back (1986)
CD2 : Blaze Of Glory (1987) and Burning Starr (1989)
CD3 : Under A Savage Sky (Guardians Of The Flame 2003)
CD4 : Land Of The Dead (2011)
CD5 : Stand Your Ground (2017)
CD6 : Live In Germany (2013)
CD7 : From The Vault
Bringing new meaning to the description “comprehensive”, this 7 CD boxset (9 albums) focuses on the man’s career as founder / guitarist of Burning Starr, with seven key albums picked out from the band’s significant volume of work. It includes the album released under the moniker Guardians Of The Flame, which was Burning Starr in all but name.
Having failed to dent the charts with his heavily metallised, 1984 solo album, Out Of The Darkness (with Riot’s Rhett Forrester on vocals), Starr took aim at the Pop Metal charts with his first Burning Starr album, Rock The American Way in 1985 (with Frank Vestry and Bruno Ravel).
As Starr admitted : “This was me trying to be someone else, I will never do that again”.
Ironically, the album was as impactful musically as anything being released by Poison, Ratt and the other Sunset Strip bands of the time.
A string of Burning Starr/ GOTF Power Metal albums followed, leading from 1987’s Blaze Of Glory, Burning Starr (1989) and Under A Savage Sky (2003) to the more recent Land Of The Dead (2007) and Stand Your Ground (2011).
Each of those five albums was a refinement (if that’s the right word) of what had come before.
‘Go Down Fighting’ from Blaze Of Glory became Starr’s anthem. It was a common theme in Starr’s songs… the story of the ordinary man. ‘Stand Up And Fight’, ‘Cry For Freedom’, ‘I Stand Alone’, and others, are all wrapped in armour plated riffs and razoring axework. The man’s technique, tone, invention and his iron fist/ velvet glove guitar aggression were the hallmarks of a world class power metal axeman.
His choice of sidemen was always inspired. From bassman Ned Meloni and the already mentioned Forrester, to powerhouse Power Metal vocalists Shmoulik Avigal and Mike Tirelli.
If the gifted guitarist’s labyrinthine career path had been a plot for a movie, it would have been rejected for being totally implausible. And yet… chronologically it makes so much sense.
The boxset is rounded out with a relatively robust live set: Live In Germany, with numerous bonus tracks. Plus an interesting mix of remastered old stuff, demos and live tracks from the 80s.
As is the Cherry Red way, no reissue is complete without expansive, on the ball liner notes. Some great stuff here from Starr himself, and his long time musical colleague, Ned Meloni. *****
Review by Brian McGowan
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