MEAN MACHINE

I consider this album as a straight hard rock album as most of songs in this album are under mainstream rock category, I think. Of course there are some prog touch in some of tracks such as titled track "Mean Machine". I guess the group was trying to push their music boundary from the kind like "Mind Exploding" album or even "Banquet" where there were heavy prog elements in most of tracks. Without having to worry "is it prog or not?" this album is still good even though not essential. At least, you may enjoy the great voice of John Lawton and excellent lead guitar playing by Peter Hesslein and energetic keyboard playing by Peter Hecht. Unfortunately, my favorite bass player, Dieter Horns, does not demonstrate his dazzling bass guitar style in this record. But, I still consider him as respected bass player (you may check his style in "Mind Exploding" album. Stunning!).

"Hey Driver", "One way Street to Heartbreak" and "Fire and Rain" are good rock tunes with nice guitar playing and great vocals. "Mean Machine" is the track opened with relatively long lead guitar solo. It's an excellent track with prog touch. I really like this track and this is the best track in this album. I just only notice that in some singing style, it reminds me to KISS style. Just a little bit, not the whole track. I love the guitar solo at the interlude, it's so cool. It then flows nicely to keyboard solo. Uh.!!! What a wonderful piece here!

"Cool Hand Killer" is also a track with a little bit prog touch in its some musical segments. "Action" and "One Night Sensation" are also hard rock tunes with prog touch.

Overall, this album is good. How can I recommend you? Well, if you like URIAH HEEP, DEEP PURPLE, LED ZEPPELIN, BLACK SABBATH, you may enjoy this album. But if you are avid "early" YES fan that do not tolerate any music with less complexity, you should NOT buy this album. Indeed, this record is now hard to find.

What do you think? - Gatot Widayanto, Indonesia

Dear old Lawton is back on the vocals after a five years hiatus. I wouldn't blame Mike Starrs who was responsible of the vocal department for the last two albums; because the descent of this band started far beyond this replacement.

Anyway, what one gets here is straight forward hard-rock music with little angle for sophistication ("One Way Street To Heartbreak"). And I am not even talking about prog of course. To compare this album with the giants of the genre (Led Zep, Purple or Sabbath) is quite daring as far as I am concerned?

It holds much more the comparison with second or better said third tier bands and it definitely leans on AOR sounds for most of the time ("Fire & Rain"). The best song from this work is undoubtedly "Cool Hand Killer" which is a real ? killer for sure: a superb beat, incredible guitar and great vocals. In one word: solid.

The poppish "Action" also features some great guitar lines and a frenetic beat. The more diverse track is "One Night Sensation". It holds some nice rhythm changes, powerful vocals and fine synthesizers.

Globally, this is not too bad an album: zero on the prog scale but five out of ten in terms of good old hard rock. Still, it lacks something to reach the three star levels.