Customer Reviews

Comeblack

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

 

 

Between the newly released 3D concert blu-ray and this new compilation record, it's great to see the Scorpions providing a plethora of high-quality content during their farewell tour. Sting in the Tail was a fantastic final record with a great blend of hard-hitting tracks and powerful ballads. It appeared the Scorpions were done there, but a final trip to the studio has given the fans an added treat.

Comeblack is essentially the encore to Sting in the Tail, and while it lacks original tracks, the new takes on classic tracks are killer. The re-recorded Scorpions tracks are original enough to warrant a listen thanks to incredible production values. Meine's vocals are absolutely stunning and the instrumentals follow suit with Kottak's brutal drums and expert guitar work from Schenker, Jabs, and Maciwoda. In regards to the covers of songs from other bands, some may be turned off by inclusions like Ruby Tuesday and Tainted Love, but I fully support their tributes to the songs that influenced them. It's really cool to see a hard rock band like the Scorpions covering Beatles and Rolling Stones songs, not to mention that the tracks all fitting covers that do justice to the source material.

In what is likely to be the last Scorpions release, Comeblack is a fantastic send-off for the Scorpions' phenomenal 40+ year career.

Is it possible to fall in love all over again with the same ol' songs that are played all the time at show after show and we hear time and time again on classic radio? That's a resounding HELL YEAH!!

First, let me say it was nice to hear Klaus Meine sing the entirety of the songs. Usually in a LIVE show, he has the audience help quite a bit. This is okay, because that's what the fans love to do and what Klaus loves to hear. But, it was refreshing hearing his voice throughout the whole CD. Second, let me say, the man with the bionic voice has never sounded better. He is in rare form and I love hearing these classics in his current voice, which barely sounds any different than his golden years. It's a superb feeling, hearing that incredible signature primal snarl once again on the rockers and then to turn around and hear that soft velvet voice, such as on Still Loving You, almost like he's whispering in your ear. It's like silk on skin. Hey, remember guys, I am a woman and call it like I hear it.

One thing I did ask myself at one point while listening to No One Like You was; is it LIVE or is it Memorex? For those too young to remember the commercial; it was an ad about a Memorex cassette tape being played up against the real singer and they asked in the ad, "is it LIVE or is it Memorex?" Okay, well, that is what I asked at first. Some of the guitar parts, especially the solos, were so exact, that I really wondered for a minute if the original guitar parts had literally been dubbed into the current song or did these guys actually channel their early years and remained so true to the originals that I really couldn't tell. However, I can assure you with certainty, that these songs have been redone, no dubbing included. Just listen and you can hear the difference between the new songs and the classic songs; there's a maturity, a more polished and refined sound, if you will. I also love the heavier sound they put to them; Rhythm of Love for instance. That really rocks. I am, to say the least, very impressed and am excited as hell over this CD. I still can't get over how Klaus sounds, and how Matthias attacks the Lead and James adding a fresh beat to the mix. I love the dual guitars, as usual the seamless mix of Schenker's and Jabs' guitar playing that is so cultured after all these years, gives it such a fine balance. I also want to say that I don't believe for a minute that Matthias or Rudolf would stand for dubbing the old guitars onto their new CD. They are proud of their abilities and so therefore, I am convinced that they are redoing these songs. Additionally, even though James and Pawel weren't members at the time of these classics, I have to say they hold their own. For the seasoned diehard Scorps fan, they can hear the difference in James' style compared to Herman's. And yet, James has added his own character, along with Pawel's bottom bass to make them new sounding. And they sound gooood! And I will always love Rudolf's rhythm guitar and his leads of course. He's so accomplished.

The other half of the CD is covers. Who ever thought they would do several covers on their album? Yeah sure, they have done covers before, but not to this extent.

I love Tainted Love. The way Klaus and the boys made it their own without losing the originality of the song, was most inspiring. Most of the time, when a band records covers, they make it so much their own, they screw up the song. Not so with Scorps. They probably realized how many times THEIR songs were covered and screwed up, so didn't want to make the same mistake. The lead solo by Matthias using that tremolo is a fantastic composition. And James' drums are hard driving fantastic!

Children of the Revolution is one heavy riffed song and it's one to really get into. It's heavier than what Scorpions have done in quite some time. Even though it was a cover, I was glad to hear Klaus' ability to still sing with that much strength. James is slamming out that beat that is so his form. And do we even have to mention the guitars? LOVE that heavy metal sound. But, guess what you hear at the end; that unmistakable signature sound of Matthias Jabs. If you were to listen to the original by T. Rex, you would find that there is no comparison. Scorpions killed this one and put the original to shame! I would love to see them add this to their final 2012-13 tour!

The choice of Across the Universe was a surprise to me as I have so many others in mind from The Beatles they could have done. But that's not my call. Listen, I'm not really complaining it's just not one of my favorite Beatle songs. Klaus, as usual, does it justice though, with that caressing smoothness of his voice, making the song so very much his own.

Tin Soldier starts out sort of poppy, but then suddenly it gets very "Scorpionized". It's almost like THEY wrote and did this song already. I liked it because of that familiar feeling of Golden Days Scorps. Actually, I'm really liking this song a lot.

All Day and All of the Night is fun for me because it's one I have loved since way back when. And for my favorite band to redo it is a double treat. What I find consistent in these covers is that they don't change it up so drastically that it loses the original sound. And yet Scorps still make it their own by adding to the songs, such things as, Matthias' distinguished lead guitar sound that put him in the annals of one of the best guitar players in the 80's, and what gave Scorpions their unique sound, and the inimitable, distinct raucous voice of the one and only Klaus Meine are still there. Of course there is James giving his own flavor along with Rudolf and Pawel. Other than that, the songs remain the same.

I like how they begin Ruby Tuesday. I couldn't quite put my finger on the guitar intro and why it sounded so familiar until I went and replayed both The Best Is Yet to Come and The Good Die Young intros. Yep, there it was that feeling of the two sort of mixed together for the Ruby Tuesday intro. I agree with a friend of mine who said the boys do this far better than the great Rolling Stones. Scorpions do this song such justice, Stones should be proud. Matthias does quick little licks that are so characteristic; it's such a pleasure to hear this little bit of Scorps in an infamous cover song.

I highly recommend this excellently done CD. It's a wonderful trip into a classical rock tour; from their originals to covers that they excelled at in their execution. By the way, I put this on my MP3 player because I love listening to these splendid works in my ear while making people wonder why I have such a silly grin on my face.
I want to end with this; I may have given Klaus and Matthias many kudos, but without the entire team, the stability of the Scorps machine with Klaus, Rudolf, Matthias, James, and Pawel, this would not have sounded as good. And even though there are new members that did not do these songs back in the day, it still turned out first-rate. So I say kudos to all of them.

Buy this now!!!

If you're a Scorps fan, you may or may not like the new recordings of their classics, but their covers are worth checking out! When I saw the list I wasn't quite sure, but their hard rock spin to them really works.

I ended up getting "Tainted Love" and "All of the Day and All of the Night".

"Children of the Revolution" and "Ruby Tuesday" are pretty good, am going to listen to the samples one more time and might get them, too. "Ruby Tuesday", for me, is much better than the Stones original!

If nothing else this album is good enough that you should listen to the samples, which in this day and age is high praise, and for an aging band they can still rock you!

I love the Scorpions, and Humanity Hour One will always be one of my favorite CDs. The remakes of their original material are pretty good, especially the vocals. The lyrics are much easier to understand, which makes most the songs better. Interesting choices for the extra songs. Some work, like Ruby Tuesday and Children of the Revolution. The others are mediocre at best. Their take on Tin Soldier is horrible. This is easily one of the worst remakes of any song in history. It starts out fine, but the main chorus, I have no idea what they were thinking. If you want a remake of that song, look to Lou Gramm, he did it right.

Overall, I am glad I bought this CD, Ill record it to MP3, and cut out Tin Soldier. Buy it for the a more modern vibe on their material, not for the other remakes.

And someone force the Scorps to make Hour 2 of Humanity.

This new Scorpions release is a mix of 7 re recordings of songs from their classic 1980-1991 period and 6 cover songs. While the Scorpions have more than earned the right to do whatever they want, I find this release to be ok but unessential. First the issue of Re Recording. As the re recordings are of classic songs with nothing really new revealed in them, I say what's the point of redoing a classic? Take any of the first 7 songs, why would we want to hear them redone? The originals are all classics in their own right.
Secondly, the issue of the cover tunes. While Children of the Revolution and All Day and All of the Night really do rock hard and sound great, I don't feel like any new ground is really broken. The covers of Across the Universe or Tainted Love really didn't do it for me.
In summary, I am not sure what listener this is aimed at. If you are fairly new to the Scorpions and want some or all of these classic hits, buy one of the greatest hits that are available by the band not this. At least you will have the originals and you probably won't care about hearing some cover tunes by the band. If you are a fan of the "classic period" of the Scorpions (The Mercury Records Years), and want something by the band, Pick up their 2007 release Humanity Hour One and if you are unfamiliar with any of the studio albums prior to 1978's Tokyo Tapes definitely seek those out. If you are a hardcore fan that picks up everything the band releases, then you probably own this already! I personally don't find anything new here that is essential. This will be one that will probably go on the shelf and probably not come out often.

It's hard to elevate the new (and allegedly, final) Scorpions album "Comeblack." For whatever reason, the band decided to revisit some of their greatest hits, along with members' personal favorites. We'll cover the bad news first: the re-recordings offer nothing new. They're basically note-by-rote redoes. I understand that bands occasionally do retreads to get a better royalty rate or creative/licensing control over their songs, but otherwise, why redo a song as perfect as "Wind of Change" or "Rock You Like a Hurricane" for a new tour?

Then there's the second half. Who would have guessed that T-Rex or "Tainted Love" were in the Scorpions' box of guilty pleasures? Or that they'd so totally get off on tearing up on The Kinks' "All The Day and All Of The Night"? Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs sound like they're have a ball turning T Rex's "Children Of The Universe" into a crunch fest. Then you get Klaus Meine showing off his genuine vocal chops by tackling The Stones' "Ruby Tuesday" and The Beatles' "Across The Universe." These make the last half of "Comeblack" into a pretty cool party album. However, it's not going to make me discard my copy of "Deadly Sting" anytime soon.

I was pleasantly surprised by this cd! Price was right so I took a chance and I am glad I did. The re-recordings of some of their classic material really surprised me. Each one has some subtle differences but I am already liking the new recordings almost as much or more than the originals! The cover tunes all stand out in there own special way and each version is instantly recognizeable as the Scorpions. I always loved their version of the Who's I Can't Explain and they have done justice to each of these choices as well. Best of the bunch is Tainted Love followed closely by the Kinks All Day and All of the Night. If you are a fan of the Scorpions or just good old 2 lead guitar rock and roll then buy this cd. Klaus never sounded better!

Having just discovered Scorpions since, oh about last month, this is a great finish to their final original work, 'Sting in the Tail,' and bookend to a storied career. I have already heard most of their earlier works, and - wow what did I miss!?!?!? I decided to take a chance on 'Comeblack' and was not disappointed. 'Comeblack' contains remakes of seven of their signature works and six well-known covers. However, do not let that deter you from at least a sampling. Every track is high-quality, veteran but yet, not stale - a fresh second-take - it is worth taking at least a once-over.

All the covers hold up well to the original standards yet each has the Scorps stamp. The hard-rock/heavy metal spin on "Tainted Love" gives a Brit-pop classic a fun, almost head-banger's feel. "Ruby Tuesday" is an incredible ode to the Stones.

Sonically, the mix is superb (though I am no audiophile and have idea what one even listens for). Performance-wise, Scorps still deliver: Klaus Meine does not let up the power throughout his range even with the larger-than-life tweeter voice, and the guitars and drums thrash and burn with fury and technical precision. The ballads are as artful and powerful as ever.

Auf Wiedersehen Scorps ... Too bad you were you gone before I had a chance to see you in concert!

Cool C.D .The covers are really good "Across The Universe" and "Tainted Love" are the best.The remix's aren't that special but I like these type of projects, they're interesting.

A Scorpion fan for over 20 years. Love this album my old favorites plus great covers. This one will be on my mp3 player for a long time.