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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
spiderman rocks!!!, June 25, 2003
By A Customer
Arachnophobiac is a great sounding record, with solid riffs and solid songs. Alive, Illusion, Rock & Roll Believer, and especially Weathervane are bona fide hits. I love all MSG, but this might be the first MSG record ever that has 4, 5, maybe 6 songs that absolutely everybody (read: not just guitar freaks) would really like. This one totally rocks. Chris Logan sounds better than on the last record, both in terms of his voice and his songwriting. He definitely has the full-on Bad Company vibe going, but he also does a damn good white man's R&B, without going overboard. Lyrically he's from the straight ahead, uncomplicated school; he's no Phil Mogg, but his stuff works and doesn't get in the way. The evangelical thing is more overt on this one, with more stock Christian lingo here and there, but Chris pulls it off, and sounds genuine, not preachy. Bass and drums are solid and get the job done. Production is solid. Then there's the lead playing. My first time through this record, I was just waiting for every lead break, hoping to hear Michael blow the doors off and prove to me that he still has it. I was mostly disappointed until track #10. If this is the way you are going to listen to Arachnopobiac, I would suggest that you start by playing tracks 10 and 11 first, because the man can still burn, but for whatever reason, he doesn't really kick it on the first 9 songs (though the lead on Illusion ain't bad). Anyway, get it out of your system by skipping to the end; listen to the playing on the last two numbers, and then go back to the beginning and start over by listening to the songs, which are really good. Jeff Watson plays all the leads on four of the tracks. He plays solid stuff which sounds like he just blew a couple takes on each number, but didn't spend oodles of time on them. In the absence of any official explanation regarding why Jeff Watson needed to play lead on 36% of a Michael Schenker record, we are left wondering. Or not. We could just consider it one hell of a rebound album, and keep hoping the man can keep climbing up that hill.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
New and Old, June 19, 2003
Michael Schenker has been releasing a lot of music over the past few years, and as a long-time Schenker fan, I couldn't be happier. The interesting thing has been the diversity of music that he has released, but there is always something "Schenker-esque" in all of it."Arachnophobiac" is intriguing because it includes some new types of melody, and combines them with a lot of interesting and melodic guitar work that would have fit in very nicely on 1970's UFO releases, or the first three Michael Schenker Group releases in the 1980's. There is a bit of a blues influence in most of the songs (though not enough to render them boring), and the songs are definitely in the style of traditional British Hard Rock/Heavy Metal, but again, with Michael's trademark melodic guitar work running through all of it. I liked this release the first time I listened to it, but repeated listens reveal even more of the intricacies of the melodies. The overall guitar sound is a bit thinner than, say "The Unforgiven," and again could be likened to his late-70's or early-80's sound. The title track keeps me laughing every time I listen to it, and shows a playful, silly side of Michael Schenker that is not evident in his earlier work. "Arachnophobia" is definitely not for listeners who think that Cradle of Filth is the greatest band on earth, but for those who like good melodic hard rock and metal, in an essentially traditional vein, with emotional, melodic, accurate, often very fast, and always interesting guitar work, then "Arachnophobia" is a good buy. Listeners who think that "nu-metal" has any value whatsoever should buy it and take a few lessons from a master on how to actually play the guitar with meaning.
Those of us who were hoping to hear some of the Michael Schenker sound that we grew up with are very pleased indeed. Oh, yes. Vocals are mostly fairly clean and bluesy, and sufficiently expressive. Drums and bass are solid, fit the songs, and don't get in the way. :) Why four stars instead of five? Well, there's no "Rock Bottom" or "Lights Out" or "On and On" or "Desert Song" on this one. I'm saving the extra star for those.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad at all, but could have used more seasoning, June 20, 2003
By A Customer
Considering the revolutions in Schenker's private life over the past few years, it would have stood to reason that this album would be a total disaster. However, there are plenty of Schenker's patented rhythm figures, and singer Chris Logan adds some excellent melodies. The only problem with this outing is that it sounds as if it was recorded to quickly. The guitars never hit the razor sharp highs of Schenker's best work. There are some tricky riffs and a continued exploration of exotic harmonies as first seen on the Covenant album. Jeff Watson contributes some fine guitar solos, but it's not clear why. Schenker's own solos are pretty good here too, but there's nothing that completely rips it up like "Hello Angel" or "Back To Life." It's nice to see that he's still doing new music, though.
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