Album review : WARRIOR FEATURING VINNIE VINCENT – The Complete Sessions (3 CDs)

Cherry Red Records [Release date 25.10.24]

Ninety days in 1982. That’s how long the love affair lasted between three quarters of New England and Vinnie (Kiss) Cusano/Vincent.

Vincent’s unconsummated love affair with Kiss, brought about by Ace Frehley’s sacking, was on a shoogly peg, so he was clearly hedging his bets, double shifting each day in the studio, allocating time to both bands.

It was an undesirable and untenable set of circumstances created by vocalist/ guitarist John Fannon’s sudden departure from New England.

Vincent had been recommended as a replacement, and so impressed were Hirsh Gardner, Jimmy Waldo and Gary Shea with Vincent’s axework and songwriting that they agreed to record with him, discard the New England name and call themselves Warrior.

Cherry Red first released a CD version of Warrior material in 2017 and in 2019.

Thanks to Jimmy Waldo’s “tea chest tapes”, several better quality recordings have since come to light. Consequently, this 3 CD set is a more complete overview and a better version of Warrior than we could have hoped for.

CD 1 release comprises firstly of the extensively bootlegged, Vincent penned tracks laid down by the new band in the studio,

All that said, there’s a considerable variation in the writing quality of these songs. ‘Boys Gonna Rock’ and ‘It’s Not Pretty Being Easy’ are exactly what the titles suggest – cliched, anodyne melodic rock.

‘Gypsy In Her Eyes’ stands head and shoulders above the rest. An eminently melodic AOR song, buoyed by Waldo’s elegantly contoured keyboard swells. It would’ve been an odds on favourite contender for inclusion in any of New England’s albums.

The balladic ‘Back On The Street’ isn’t too far behind. You could easily imagine Lou Gramm and a swaying Gospel choir accelerating from the verse’s whisper into the song’s climactic chorus.

‘I Need Love’s clanging riff perfectly suits Vincent’s urgent vocal, but ‘Baby Oh Why’ seems curiously satisfied with recycling over-familiar eighties’ melodic rock riffery.

John Waite was later to cover ‘Tears’, and you can hear the guide he took from the Warrior version.

CD2 opens with the only song across this anthology not written by Vincent. ‘Thrill Of The Chase’ was a soulful Jimmy Waldo/Steven Rosen collaboration. It was demo’d well after the band had split, in 1988 to be precise. Vincent had heard it and insisted they get back together to record it. It later found its way onto 2018’s Voices From The Past compilation, performed by Mona Moore.

Elsewhere across the set, there are “rehearsals with vocals and/or instrumental”. Fascinating stuff, you can hear Vincent leading and coaching the band through his songs, as he lays down an acoustic guitar foundation. The 20 minute ‘That Time Of Year/Forbidden’ on CD3 is an object lesson in wanting to get it just right.

Admitedly, these and other tracks are for completists who focus on the machinery of making music as much as the end product. But it’s also a useful insight into a band known for melodic, tightly constructed rock music.

In the end no label deal was forthcoming. Vincent, inevitably, went to Kiss and the other 3 went their well documented ways.

It’s yet another example (and there are many) in the history of rock music of what might have been. ****

Review by Brian McGowan

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)