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Twin reissue package plus a bonus CD, from British rock legends, UFO. Covenant (2000), Sharks (2002) and Live At Blind Melons (1995).
The problem with releasing a career high album like Walk On Water (1995), the band’s de facto “comeback” album, with Michael Schenker back in the fold, is that it creates an expectation that every album thereafter will live up to it.
As a result, being judged as “not as good as” Walk On Water, Covenant and Sharks ended up being underrated or overlooked.
It’s a harsh judgement, and the difference is marginal.
UFO’s increasingly fluid lineup had once again coalesced around Phil Mogg (vocals),Michael Schenker (guitar), and Pete Way (bass) and again between them they wrote all of the material, each interpreting the other’s highly personal musical language.
Covenant and Sharks may not have possessed songs with the bruising rock crunch of ‘Lights Out’ and ‘Doctor Doctor’, but Covenant gets tantalisingly close with the earthy opening track, ‘Love Is Forever’ and the wordy, declamatory, ‘Unraveled’.
Schenker’s laceratingly beautiful axework on ‘Miss The Lights’, and the booming beats of the Aynsley Dunbar / Pete Way locomotive rhythm section on ‘Midnight Train’ wins them the runners up prize.
Sharks is essentially Covenant part 2. The quality holds up, Mogg’s lyrics get more and more fantastical and Schenker’s axework sounds intuitive.
The rhythms are rawer, grittier here, matching flawlessly with Mogg’s darkly poetic lyrics, “I met Moses, I know Jezebel, Partied with Nero, As Rome burned and fell” (Quicksilver Rider). And “The enemy is at the door, the enemy within, dressed up in the strangest clothes, smells of Bombay gin” (Deadman Walking).
That said, the album probably works best on the hard rocking track, ‘Serenity’, a song that sees Mogg wringing maximum emotion from a Biblical blast of esoteric philosophising.
The third CD, Live At Blind Melons in NY State (it closed down last year) is as you might expect. The band sift through their back catalogue and ignore almost all their pre 1995 albums, landing loudly on Force It, Walk On Water and Lights Out. No Surprise really.
A rough at the edges version of ‘Rock Bottom’, is elongated to 10 minutes to give Schenker’s fiery axework room to ignite, and ultimately burn the house down.
Their knockout version of ‘Only You Can Rock Me’ is an onstage mix of raunch and melody. Paul Raymond’s proggy keyboard gells seamlessly with Schenker’s alternately metalised and melodic axework.
Mogg’s in great voice, even if the sound balancing doesn’t quite cut it at times, but hey… that’s the real charm of live music, rawness and realism.
You only have listen through this Disc once to realise how much of a bonus it is. ****
Review by Brian McGowan
Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK
Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.
Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio
David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 17 November 2024.
UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 19 November 2024.
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