Badlands - Badlands

Details:- 1989, Atlantic Records, CD

From the opening riff of “High Wire” is seemed obvious that here was something more substantial than much of the so-called US hard rock being force fed to us via the Headbanger’s Ball on MTV Europe. A look at the names involved seemed to back that up that this blues-rock tour de force was going to be the next big seller. Jake E Lee came off the back of two hugely successful albums with Ozzy, in terms of sales anyway if not legacy, Ray Gillen had proven his worth as a short term member of Black Sabbath and neither Eric Singer or Greg Chaisson were slouches either.

Whilst the album showcased a similar style to that Lee had given to the Ozzy albums, Gillen’s fine voice seemed to provide an earthier, more 70’s hard rock feel to the music. A stark contrast to some of the fluffy glam this band had to be seen alongside on the weekly helping of American rock. It also allowed Lee a real recorded spotlight that the shackles of the Osbournes perhaps didn’t fully allow. Witness the gentle acoustic peice “Jade’s Song” that introduces the monsterous part-ballad but ultimate rock-out of “Winter’s Call“. It’s very much in a Zeppelin vein yet they came late enough as a band to also escape the copy-cat criticism that dogged Kingdom Come for instance.

“Dancing On The Edge” starts with a scratchy intro that reminds of the old “Friday On My Mind” song before again Gillen kicks up with a great vocal. A fine song that is a contender for the albums best yet was over-shadowed by the huge “Streets Cry Freedom” that followed it. This for me is one of those album’s where you can perhaps argue that there isn’t a bad track on, at least amongst the 10 songs served up on the vinyl too. The somewhat forgettable “Ball And Chain” made the CD as a bonus. “Devil’s Stomp” is arguably the low point and even that doesn’t warrant the skip button as it builds from a soft opening into a rocker that hints Badlands were aware the G’n'R sound was worth borrowing a bit from but suffers mainly due to a poor chorus that sounds like it was originally intended for Ozzy. The high points are high though as the superb “Rumblin’ Train” brings those blues influences evident at times throughout the album very much to the for, whilst the excellent, epic sounding “Seasons End” provided a fitting conclusion to a critically well received début.

On reflection you get the impression that perhaps this album didn’t match the musical style the younger, record buying masses were going for. Lee, Gillen and co. didn’t quite fit the fluffy image conscious approach of the Warrants of the world and the music was heavier and more direct, less likely to attract much mainstream airplay. Sadly after just one more album the cracks appeared and soon after Gillen sadly departed the world. This album though probably represents his, and indeed Jake E. Lee’s best work and it’s still disappointing it wasn’t a better seller and better known worldwide.

Highlight :- Streets Cry Freedom

Score :- 4/5

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The promo video for “Dreams In The Dark”…

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BL

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