Kane Roberts first came to attention for his time working with Alice Cooper in the late 80’s and it was the same year that ‘Raise Your Fist and Yell’ was released that he got a solo deal with MCA, and this was the result. Now when I look at the cover and see a guy that looks like Rambo (except with more muscles) and a guitar shaped like a huge machine gun my first reaction is to laugh. The second is to bemoan my fate, and why do I have to listen to albums like this, why can’t labels only send me music I actually want to playetc. After putting it off as I just knew how bad this was going to be, I eventually put it on and was somewhat surprised as while this is not exactly an indispensable release, it has a great deal going for it and is at least as good as much of the melodic rock that was coming out at the time.
The vocals have a depth, the arrangements are really good, and some of the songs such as “Triple X” have plenty of hooks and power, moving from an acoustic base to a great little rocker and back again.If you enjoy period melodic rock then this is probably going to be of interest to you. It is at least worth a listen and just shows that you really shouldn’t judge a CD by its’ cover.
