Customer Reviews

Glory Road

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

 

 

Hi
I love this album and re-purchased it to see if the rest of the remasters were worth getting for the "sonic upgrade". And ...drum roll...the answer is NO! I own the Virgin releases (with most of the bonus tracks from years ago). I a/b'D the older disc and this new remaster with pro-quality headphones and struggled to see what, besides a couple extra tracks, I bought this for! Not really remastered at all! What a ripp off. The other release is years and years old and with todays technology there should be a huge differenece "if" they went back to the masters. I heard from an inside source (from the industry) that this may not have been the case! Why do they do this!? What a missed opportunity.Save your money folks..what a bummer. I did actually luck into a few remasters that Repertoire did a few years back, and they were a decent improvement but the label seemed to have abandoned that project after remastering "future Shock", Double Trouble" and the Ian Gillan Band Budokan" live disc. Weird but true. What a shame....Great album though, and totally worth having but just not for the "remastering" aspect. Music 5 stars remastering 2..averaged to 3 :(

This is the ONE I can't get tired of spinning! Glory Road has the spark and fire the era had in the late 70's into the '80's. Here, Gillan had much to prove that he wasn't just "the singer" in Ritchie's band, but a musician in his own right. Previous solo releases were under the moniker 'The Ian Gillan Band' and did Steely dan/Country/soft rock stuff. The first post Purple hard rock record was titled "Mr. Universe" in '79 that was a taster for what came next. Bernie Torme rips from end to end here on cuts like "No Easy Way", "Running White Face City Boy" and "Nervous". With added bouns tracks from the previously released "For Gillan fans Only", this CD is a great value!

Update (12/08): The original Virgin CD's of GILLAN sound nicer overall, with better highs and clarity than the Edsel remasters. So try tracking down the originals first.

Glory Road is an album by the hard rock band "Gillan," which was released in October of 1980 and peaked at #3 in the U.K. album charts. This is a powerful record with loads of fantastic songs which show the legendary Ian Gillan at his rocking best, full of energy, confidence and using those powerful lungs and throat he's best known for. This album features Gillan's most famous line-up of Bernie Tormé, Colin Towns, John McCoy, Mick Underwood and of course Ian Gillan. This lineup also released two other albums, Mr. Universe and Future Shock. If you love Deep Purple MKII, you can't go wrong with this CD, it's real hard rock at its very best! There's also a great bonus CD, "For Gillan Fans Only" which was a pleasant surprise.

Once you get Ian's wordsmithing under your skin, you can't seem to get enough. While some of these songs are written for air play, you can start to see the clever phrasing beginning to emerge that would define the later Purple albums and newer solo albums. If your stereo has an 11 on the volume knob, buy this.

At last you can get the Gillan remasters, a very expensive commodity only a year back. When I got my copy of the album my first impression was that the music had dated. Though true, more for the quality of recording. Over the next couple of listens it all came back. This album really rocks..it has all for Deep Purple mark-II fans... speed, melody, twists and turns... good guitaring and great vocals...a really cocky album by a band who knew they were good. This one has real racy hard rockers in 'unchain your brain' and 'Running white faced city boy'. Good bluesy number in 'If you believe me'. I love the intro to 'on the rocks' with the sea, seagulls and a baby crying... then the keys come in like sirens leading to the guitar riff..just wonderful. The musicianship is very good from R&R standards. Bernie Torme' was a guitar hero of sorts at the time, Colin Towns always known as a great talent and songwriter is doing well in the TV and film score area these days. Ian is Ian you can either love him or love him more (he he), He is just wonderful as a singer and does not disappoint on this album. Not too much of extreme screaming except on 'Nervous'. The second CD 'For Gillan fans only' seems to be a mixed bag (something that Gillan as a band knew) nothing too good there but a must for Gillan fans only, for only Gillan fans will know the true value of 'for Gillan fans only' he, he, he.....All in all a real good Hard Rocker deserving to be a key contributor to the NWOBHM

I never did hear any of Ian Gillan's solo stuff when it originally came out,I totally missed that whole period.Since,i've been very intrigued as to what these solo releases sound like - I am a huge Gillan fan from his early Deep Purple days(as im sure the majority are that are reading this review).Ive read elsewhere that this period of his can be considered part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal scene occuring during the late 70's/early 80's.
Well Metal this aint.Deep Purple it aint,either.Hard Rock kinda along the lines of Purples later "Perfect Strangers" album,though not as good as that release by any means.Not to say this isnt decent,because it is - it is a solid three star album.Nothing really stands out though.If you are hankering to hear Ian's soaring falsetto,you'll be quite disappointed.No,as mentioned previously,this is Hard Rock played competently if not particularly inspired.