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Alcatrazz - No Parole From Rock 'N' Roll review



Reviewer:
8.0

44 users:
7.77
Band: Alcatrazz
Album: No Parole From Rock 'N' Roll
Release date: 1983


01. Island In The Sun
02. General Hospital
03. Jet To Jet
04. Hiroshima Mon Amour
05. Kree Nakoorie
06. Incubus
07. Too Young To Die, Too Drunk To Live
08. Big Foot
09. Starcarr Lane
10. Suffer Me

Supergroups are often vanity projects for those involved, rich in talent but often rarely living up to the hype they generate, yet still becoming bigger than their recorded output deserves. Alcatrazz however were the near inverse of this situation, a band featuring erstwhile Rainbow frontman Graham Bonnet and a young Yngwie Malmsteen fresh out of Steeler: talent in spades and a record of huge quality, but at the expense of not having much in the way of success. No Parole From Rock 'N' Roll is the resulting debut from the band, a classic that never got its due.

Take Bonnet-era Rainbow and throw in the guitar work of Malmsteen and you can get a rough idea of the band's sound. From the off, the band offer up solid sonic attacks from "Island In The Sun" through "Jet To Jet" before on one hell of a high note on "Suffer Me". An album that deserves to be heard in full, for each song is as strong as the next one, covering all bases you could want in a rock/metal album.

Malmsteen is much his usual self, unloading an arsenal of amazing guitar work (check out "Kree Nakrookie" for one hell of an underrated solo) all over this album. I'm surprised this album isn't at least well known if only for that. Add onto the guitar work the vocal masterclass of Bonnet and you have a recipe for success (or so you would think), his strong booming voice jumping out of the speakers to the point it sounds like he is in the room singing right at you (the man doesn't respect social distancing).

The lyrics are surprisingly dark for the accompanying music; the music is upbeat heavy metal yet the lyrics deal with topics that wouldn't seem too out of place on a Slayer record. I do wonder if this played a part in why the band never achieved the success that seemed destined for a band of this quality. This is not a knock on the band at all, in fact "Hiroshima Mon Amour" has to be one of the finest songs about nuclear war I've heard. Alcatrazz superbly write from the point of view of how post-Hiroshima survivors may have felt about the event, rather than the usual zombie/mutant fodder that many write about.

Where does the album fall short? I would expect from the lack of an apparent single from the album; while each song is strong and could work on the radio, none of them leap out and embed themselves in your brain quickly. Repeated listening will see to that, but that instantaneous smash and grab eludes Alcatrazz on this album.

If you're short of a good rock/metal album then check this one out; you'll find yourself absorbed by the music and questioning how this band weren't one of the biggest things to come out of the eighties.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 8
Production: 7

Written by omne metallum | 02.05.2020




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.



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