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Various

From page 80 of Classic Rock Magazine May 2004

Cover of May 2004 issue.

‘The Best Heavy Metal Album In The World... Ever!’

(Virgin EMI)

I’m no stranger to hyperbole. I once said that the greatest live album of all time had been issued by Kiss; I even gave US AOR maestro Paul Sabu an ‘L’ rating in Kerrang!, meaning that his record (I can’t remember which one) merited more than a top ‘KKKKK’ accolade, at least in terms of alphabetical advancement. But I must take issue with this album’s global metallic leadership claims. For something with the words HEAVY METAL in giant Iron Maiden-esque lettering on its cover, there’s not much bona fide heavy metal music on here. Out of the entire two-CD, 36-track package, only six acts (Motörhead, Black Sabbath, Megadeth, Judas Priest, Saxon and the aforementioned Maiden) could be called ‘metal’ legitimately... and you could possibly argue the toss about the latter two, particularly Steve Harris’s mob, who

are more of a prog-metal band these days. However, there’s no dispute as far as Poison (‘Talk Dirty To Me’), Thunder (‘Love Walked In’), UFO (‘Doctor Doctor’), Nazareth (‘Bad Bad Boy’) and other relative lightweights are concerned. With the exception of Wolfsbane’s ‘Steel’, you probably own all the tracks already. But still, I loved hearing Uriah Heep’s enchantingly clumsy ‘Easy Livin’’ back-to-back with Montrose’s peerless ‘Rock The Nation’. And it’s been a while since I listened to Deep Purple’s ‘Burn’ but I was surprised by how clumsy and slow-paced it sounds in 2004.

If you ignore the trades description act (and the song by Nickelback) this is an incontestably enjoyable party-on pandemonium-package... despite the glaring absences of Kiss and Paul Sabu. ★★★★ ★

Geoff Barton HIGH CONCEPT All the hits and more. But this is hard/ heavy rock rather than pukka metal.