Customer Reviews

Animal Grace/Walking Through Fire

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

 

 

This is the second BGO Records April Wine reissue set (the first was 2007's First Glance/Harder...Faster reissue). This 2-disc set features 1984's Animal Grace and 1985's Walking Through Fire.

The mid 1980's was a transitional time for April Wine, who was moving from traditional hard rock into a more radio-friendly direction. Of course, radio-friendly in the mid 80's meant slicker production and liberal use of synthesizers, but I don't mind that at all. April Wine played that kind of AOR very well, as evidenced by songs like "This Could Be the Right One," "Money Talks" and "Hard Rock Kid" from Animal Grace and "Rock Myself To Sleep" and "Wait Any More" from Walking Through Fire (the weaker of the two albums).

The main draw of the BGO reissues is the digitally remastered audio. BGO has a mixed track record with their reissues. The Loverboy and Angel reissues sound great, the MSG reissues...not so much. Fortunately they did a great job on these April Wine albums. Both albums sound louder and clearer, and the packaging is quite nice as well.

The music on these albums is undoubtedly dated, but it's still very memorable. If you're a serious April Wine fan, you're going to want to own this set for the improved sound quality. If you're unfamiliar with April Wine and are looking for a good starting point, you're probably better off with the First Glance/Harder...Faster reissue set. If you like what you hear, come back around to Animal Grace/Walking Through Fire. Hopefully BGO will work through the rest of the band's catalog in the years to come.

These were the band as they started to fall a bit. With a more synth sound , that some would critize but compared to the really bad music of today (techno and the rest) the synth rockin period of the eighties sounds like mozart. The other reviewer did a great job on this one but he got the date for 'walking through fire' wrong it was 1986 , in 85 they released their live cd which is now available on cd , one for the road" , anyways compared to what came before fans at the time were not impressed with these two decent cds. They were blander to be sure than earlier releases and that's due to the synths etc, and the song writing was not as powerful either but lets be honest here april wine is a great band so these releases are chock full of good melodies and imo 'animal grace' is a more average three star release than the 'walking through fire' which I enjoyed more. So that's why this package gets a four star release but casual fans who want kick butt rockin should get this set last. You should go for earlier wine cd's then get this one last because it's good but not great as many of their earlier releases were.