Customer Reviews

After the War

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After The War, Gary's last rock album until 1997's Dark Days in Paradise, is an album full of great songs marred only by overly polished production. The production leaves many of the songs with a slightly sterile feel. Having heard some of these live, I can say they have more vitality in concert that on this disc.
This album, like Wild Frontier, sees Gary looking at his celtic roots with songs like Blood Of Emeralds and Dunluce. His cover of Rory Buchanan's The Messiah will come again is outstanding. He teams with Ozzy Osbourne on the fun Led Clones which pokes fun at bands like Kingdom Come.
This album is clearly the follow-up to Wild Frontier, both in sound and spirit. Actually you could say that this is the third in a trilogy with Run For Cover and Wild Frontier as all three have a similar vibe. Songs like the title track, Ready for Love and Speak for Yourself could easily be inserted into either of those albums.
Anyone looking for outstanding guitar playing that fits into the songs and isn't just shredding for the sake of shredding will certainly enjoy it.

Generally this album had a late 80s production, varying styles between songs, and would end up being the last of Gary Moore's hard rock/metal albums. Most of Ozzy Osbourne's band circa-1987 backs Gary on the album, and Ozzy Osbourne himself sings on "Speak For Yourself" and "Led Clones", a song about bands ripping off Led Zeppelin. Other highlights include "After The War", and "Ready For Love," but the album is worth the price alone just to hear Gary's incredible rendition of Roy Buchanan's "The Messiah Will Come Again", which is a must have for any guitarist and easily one of the greatest guitar performances ever.

1989's AFTER THE WAR was Gary Moore's last hard / metal album, before he was "Born again" in blues and released his most succesfull album ever, STILL GOT THE BLUES.

And this album, altough a little bit overproduced by Peter Collins, is a very solid record, with the exception of the awful instrumental track "The Messiah Will Come Again", that is almost the same song as "The Loner", from his previous 1987 album WILD FRoNTIERS. It's boring as hell.

The line-up is top of the game, with Bob Daisley on bass, the late Cozy Powell on drums and Neil Carter on keyboards, but you will never know who plays what on each track because, on the "guest stars" list, we have also Simon Phillips and Charlie Morgan on drums, Don Airey on keyboards and a few more musicians.