Reviews roundup – W.A.S.P. vs. Midge Ure vs. The Poynt

Reviews roundup – W.A.S.P. vs. Midge Ure vs. The Poynt

W.A.S.P.
Golgotha
Napalm

Six years on from his last album and since then Blackie Lawless has done three world tours and broke his leg in 20 places.  But you can’t keep an old dog down, and even if this isn’t the best WASP album ever (c) the internet, it’s certainly up there with his best.

Of course, I’m old enough to remember when WASP were a band, and saw them in their eighties heyday, so when the first two tracks blasted in, in fairly ho-hum manner, I was thinking this was going to be another “Still Not Black Enough”.  But then the epic ‘Miss You’ arrives, and after it’s eight minutes have passed, the album steps up a gear, and a division.

From then on, it’s prime Lawless, as the songs are quality, he ekes some great guitar work out of Doug Blair, and listening to the likes of ‘Eyes Of My Maker’ and ‘Hero Of My World’ remind you of how good a songwriter he is, regardless oh his raw meat origins.

Best of all is the title track, which is as good as anything in his extensive back catalogue.  I’m sure there is another lengthy tour on the horizon, and having seen him on the “Babylon” tour, it’s not a show to miss, even if he manages to outdo Lemmy and Jerry Lee Lewis when it comes to truncated gig times.

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MIDGE URE
Breathe Again: Live and Extended
Oblivion / SPV

“Breathe” was the 1996 album from Midge Ure, and one of the most beloved by his fans.  It didn’t make much of a commercial impact over here, as it was a decade after the peak of his solo success.

But last year saw a 20th anniversary tour, to commemorate it being 19 years old (eh?) and is the fashion nowadays, it was recorded, leading to this. Anyway, turns out Midge did his sums from the final completion and mixing of the album, not the release date.

So you get the entire album performed live, and as this has now been expanded to a double CD you’re also getting ‘Vienna’, ‘Fade to Grey’, ‘If I Was’, ‘Lament’, ‘Dear God’, ‘All Fall Down’, ‘Fragile’ and ‘Become’ while the download version also includes a specially recorded version of ‘The Refugee Song’.  Annoyingly for people who forked out for the special edition on its original release, some of those songs seem to be appearing here in non-£25 format.

But regardless, Midge has managed to keep his voice, and with a back catalogue that covers some great material, this is a timely reminder of his extensive and impressive run in the seventies and eighties.  Even better, as a first time visitor to most of the “Breathe” material, it turns out that those were some of the best songs he’s ever written.  Respect.

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THE POYNT
This Is American Royalty
CP Productions

This is quite an odd one.  It’s a concept album with some prog metal influences, but most of the songs could easily sit in the middle of a shelf marked post grunge.

Basically, the album investigates the modern day cult of ‘celebrity’, looking at the rise and fall of one such, through the modern mediums of internet and social media.  The band leader, Eduardo Alarcon is a good vocalist and guitarist, but it’s when he turns his eye in a Queensryche direction that things get interesting.

However, a lot of the songs have college radio written on them, and that’s when my attention dips.  So this one is filed under interesting rather than essential, but The Poynt are worth keeping an eye on, just in case they go all Mindcrime on us in the future.

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