Customer Reviews

Beyond Salvation

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

 

 

One of the best albums in their catalogue. Beyond Salvation went straight to #1 on the charts when it was released in 1990, and spawned 5 hit singles, among them "Let The Night Roll On", "Backstreet Pick Up" and the now-classic "Dogs Are Talking". I highly recommend it.

This is Angel City about 9 years after "Face to Face" and their sound has matured, even if the lyrics have gone a little backwards. Still, if you like hard edged rock, this is a must from one of Australia's best ever.

When the discussion turns to the marketing strategies of record companies, one can always count on The Angels being mentioned when the talk turns to the strange end of the spectrum. The US version of this album was labeled as "The Angels From Angel City" and contained an oddly different track lineup, much the same as the US only "Face To Face" a decade before. Instead of just issuing the album in the states and letting it stand on it's own merits, both albums were loaded with both new and old material, making them an instant pseudo-greatest-hits collection. Very strange, especially considering the ease with which "Beyond Salvation" and "Face To Face" could have stood on their own. Whatever the case, Let The Night Roll On stands as one of the band's shining moments and should have been a huge AOR staple. Unfortunately the US was busy being infatuated with M.C. Hammer at this time and couldn't be bothered. Tough luck, America.

A serious drinking album upon it's release in Australia tihs album clocked up very healthy hit singles in it's ntive market, even though apparently the international market had all but dried up for these guys by 1990. Many is the time I belted out the lyrics to the tunes Let the Night Roll On and Dogs Are Talking along with mates at local watering holes. But then my excuse was that I was about 19 at the time and claiming to like The Angels was the done thing for Australian heavy rock fans at that stage. Years later I actually bought the album and it quickly became obvious why the album popped out a couple of hit singles and yet no real reversal of the gradual diminishing fortunes of this band.

At least half of this album is dullard hard rock. Gone are the persisten and great riffs of earlier classics like No Exit, this is a somewhat more textured release by the band yet they've utterly failed to do anything of real interest. The rut sets in almost straight away. While lead cut and successful single Let the Night Roll On was a worthy addition to the bands live set the second track, Back Street Pick Up sounds almost hokey and lacking in commitment. Dogs Are Talking is an anthemic hard rocker and picks the pace up a bit but it's the third track, and pretty much the last really good one. Later tunes such as Bleeding With the Times, Pushing and Shoving and Love Waits are just rock writing by numbers. Doc Neeson still has some magic charisma and the band sound very tight while production is perfect for this sort of bar room metal. Things do pick up a touch at the end with track 9: Bitch. Which does have a touch of humour about it and a rolling feel. But then there is the title track which ain't no big deal and the album closer entitled Take An X would of been better titled Take A Valium such is it's droning nothingness. It's actually hard to envision any band sitting in a studio and thinking this track was a good idea.

It's a double pity as the band could still crank live as I caught them on the 'Barbed Wire Ball' tour around Australia which featured The Angels, US AC/DC clones Rhinobucket and the Poor (pre their More Wine Waiter Please hit) and they rocked out like guys ten years their junior.

Anyone interested in finding out what the fuss was about regarding this band should buy No Exit. Only fully confirmed fans should get this album in it's entirety, Australian music fans who recall the hits on this album would really be better off trying to downlad the salient tracks, those being numbers one and three.