Customer Reviews

After the War

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Gary Moore is an Irish guitarist of tremendous skill. He also writes & sings. Some may know him from the time he spent with Thin Lizzy. This collection features a number of Moore's cautionary tales about war, clearly based on his experiences in Ireland ("After the War", "Running from the Storm"), a lovely instrumental cover version of "The Messiah will Come", an attack on the slew of Led Zeppelin wanna-be's that sprung up at the time ("Led Clones" featuring Ozzy Ozbourne on vocals!) a couple of laughable up-tempo rockers designed to get a little MTV play ("Ready for Love") and a powerful number called "Blood of Emeralds". Of course, the whole point here is Moore's muscular guitar style. If you recall the film "Crossroads" you remember Ralph Machio's character has to play against the deveil's guitarist (Steve Vai) to save his friends soul. Now, no disrespect to Machio, but I'd take Moore in a second. There is NO ONE that unleashes such huge, sweeping, and emotionally charged guitar solos like Moore. His fretwork is impeccable, and he displays all of the "tricks" of the day such as the Van Halen style tapping. But, unlike many players, he always stays within the context of the melody and theme of the song.

In the early 80's, versatile guitarist Garry Moore began cranking out a series hard rocking albums that established the Irishman as a respected guitar hero in the genre. He was also something of a crusader, making nuclear war the subject of several songs during the Reagan years. Perhaps Moore's best all around album in the 80's was Wild Frontier, released in 1987. The songs were full of emotion, the production excellent, and the musicianship outstanding, as Moore's fiery guitar playing was tempered with a more bluesy vibe, backed by keyboards. With Moore's singing under control and conveying more feeling, Wild Frontier was one of the best melodic hard rock albums of the late 80's.

Moore's follow up, After the War, released in 1989, is similar to Wild Frontier from a production and sound standpoint. Although there are some great tracks, overall the material is a mixed musical bag, lacking the cohesiveness of Wild Frontier. This time around, Moore seems to be interested in lightening things up a bit.

Speak For Yourself, is an incredible power rocker, with some incendiary guitar work that ranks among Moore's very best. Running From the Storm is melodic, and has the impact of a gale force wind, with more great lead work. The title track, After the War, is a catchy tune with great vocals with a familiar antiwar message. Incorporating traditional Celtic melodies is something that both Moore and Thin Lizzy had done before, and it works quite well on the dark and brooding, Blood and Emeralds. Originally a bonus track, Moore`s impressive cover of blues master Roy Buchanan's instrumental, Messiah Will Come Again, adds more dark favors to the mix.

The ultra syrupy Livin' on Dreams, is pure pop rock, and is kind of new territory for the usually feisty Irishman. Moore's aggressive, raw style of singing featured on This Thing Called Love is kind of a throwback to his early 80's style. A change of pace number that does kind of work, is the bouncy Ready for Love, which after another over the top guitar solo, brings in some soulful female background vocals. Led Clones, features Ozzy Osbourne singing on a Kashmir influenced track, about bands borrowing from Led Zeppelin.

The musicians are hard rock heavyweights. Bassist Bob Daisley (Ozzy Osbourne/Rainbow/Uriah Heep), and keyboard player Neil Carter (UFO), return after having also played on Wild Frontier. Also contributing are Don Airey (Rainbow/MSG/Whitesnake) on keyboards, and Cozy Powell (MSG/Jeff Beck/Black Sabbath/Rainbow) and Simon Phillips (Toto/MSG/Judas Priest) on drums.

Gary Moore seems to be exploring some new musical directions on After the War, the results being a somewhat uneven album. His creative lead work is at times completely off the charts, but a great solo doesn't always make for a great song. Perhaps Moore had grown weary of the heavy metal genre, as he would turn to the blues next. After this would come Still Got the Blues, the first in a long string of blues albums the guitarist would record in the 90's and beyond.

"After the war" is the 7th * studio album by guitar legend Gary Moore originally released in 1989 and was to be his last effort in the hard rock/metal genres. "After the war" ranks easily amongst Moore's heavier releases if not the heaviest; the album makes direct references to a preceding album "Victims of the future" his most protestant and anti-popular-lyric-wise album. The line up features Gary on lead vocals and guitar, Neil Carter on keyboards, bassist Bob Daisley and iconic drummer Cozy Powell.

As always the melodies and choruses are immensely catchy despite being conceptually based on war as a social phenomenon. This time the riffs are faster and the production is thicker suggesting that "After the war" is just as much a metal album as it is hard rock. Songs like "Speak for yourself", "After the war" and "Running from the storm" are totally indicative of the direction of the album while also expanding into different rock areas. There is the ballad "The messiah will come again", the AOR tunes "Living on dreams" and "Ready for love", the sarcastic "Led clones" featuring non other that Ozzy Osbourne on lead vocals, never forgetting the orchestral opus "Blood of Emeralds" a tribute to his late friend and band-mate Phil Lynott.

Overall "After the war" is indeed Moore's most diverse album in the hard rock genre and the last in the particular genre of music. Once again great songs, outstanding performances and some of the greatest names in rock all featured on this released.


* 7th in the 80s hard rock genre

Gary Moore may be the most versatile, underacknowledged and underappreciated guitarist since the '60's Roak Era began. He is a master rock guitarist from the '70's and '80's who has rekindled his phenomenal blues chops since the '90's, often duetting with the Old School Blues Masters Albert King, Albert Collins and BB King, NOT giving up a note of virtuosity to these revered guitar heroes. His '80's material (of which After the War is merely one source) is only outdone by his subsequent blues pursuits and collaberations. I bought this CD as part of a catalogue remastering series and await the introduction of each new addition to the series. I can not say enough about this guy's playing despite some rather cheesey videos, representative of the '80's hair metal period, that are beneath his true sonic abilities. GIVE HIM A TRY!

I give this one 3 stars because of all the 80's music Gary has done this one is the best.Not by much,The one track that makes this stand out above the rest is the Roy Buchanan cover The Messiah Will Come Again.Led Clones is sung by OZZY and is also a good song.Dunluce pt 1&2 are instrumentals not bad and there are a few others ,But nothing to write home about definately his best 80's work by far In my opinion GARY's BEST WORK IS HIS BLUES CD'S! After Hours, Still got Blues, Back to Blues,Old New Ballad Blues,Bad for you Baby ,Close as you Get,and Power Blues Check out these titles you won't sorry.