keepers 3
keeper avg .375
The album opens with the pounding fury of "Steamrock Fever"*****, a song I can't believe I've never heard on the radio. Punishing yet melodic, it's catchy as hell, and between the off-time drums and stuttering guitars it's one of the most unusual and evocative metal songs I've ever heard. Opening side 2, Uli Roth's eastern-flavored "The Sails Of Charon"**** is a wank-fest to be sure, based around Roth's distinctive minor riff. Roth's clean riffing gives "I've Got To Be Free" an older Hawkwind-ish feel and saves it from being completely generic. But as their later "Rockers 'n' Ballads" album would attest it's not all head-banging. Several songs on the album, "The Riot Of Your Time", "We'll Burn The Sky","Your Light", "Born To Touch Your Feelings" make use of the light/heavy dynamic, but none of these are Scorpions' better tracks. But the silly "He's A Woman - She's A Man"**** is, which I imagine was more shocking back in '77. While making no attempt at political-correctness (maybe referring to people as 'it' sounds less offensive in the native German), it rocks out convincingly and seems like the closest approximation to the NWOBHM style that Scorpions would embody. The song's b-side, "Suspender Love", is equally titillating in subject matter but with more generic Nazareth riffs.
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