Customer Reviews

The Nature Of The Beast

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

...for only one song. The power ballad "Just Between You & Me" was by far the most-played song by April Wine on American radio in the early 1980's. Played mainly on the hard rock stations, the single went up to about #60 or so on the Billboard charts. The album, THE NATURE OF THE BEAST (1981)---not to be confused with British metallers Iron Maiden's 1982 release THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST---briefly broke the American Top 40. Considering how good it is, it should have done even better!

This album starts out with a clear modern-sounding '80's tinge with "All Over Town," a brief (3-minute), medium-paced, surprising hybrid of Hard Rock/New Wave that sounds jarringly different for April Wine. Not great, but somewhat catchy. The next track, "Tellin' Me Lies," follows pretty much in the same vein: Again, it is a 3-minute medium-paced HR/NW song; however, it is very repetitive and not one of April Wine's better songs.

At this point, you're thinking the rest of the album's gonna be quite lame, but---ah!---things immediately get better with the more Wine-like, evocative "Sign Of The Gypsy Queen." At nearly 4:30, it is the longest track on this rather short album, and it is wonderful: Beginning with a brisk-paced Hard Rock/Heay Metal instrumental intro theme, Myles Goodwin gives a melodic and emotional performance as he sings about a town that was predicted for doom & destruction by a local Gypsy Queen. The song features a slow, two-minute instrumental mid-section in which Myles plays bluesy guitar notes, before returning to the final verse/chorus that speeds back up again. The song really paints a picture; indeed, you can see a desert town somewhere out West, under darkening skies, with people trying to escape a coming storm on horseback. The song never fails to give me chills to this day, and is still one of AW's all-time greatest! Then comes the equally-good "Just Between You & Me": The album's lone hit, it is a beautiful melodic power ballad that features early-'70's-type fuzzbox guitar from Myles Goodwyn, who is every bit as talented a guitarist as he is a singer. I love the French lyrics in the final chorus repitition! The bass-playing by Gary Moffet is slow, pronounced and deep---evocative of the sadness associated with lost love. The drums by bald, bearded Jerry Mercer are slow but contain a certain upbeatness on the verses. Again, one of this band's greatest songs ever!

"Wanna Rock" is a fast, very short (2:06) electronic-sounding combo of bluesy Hard Rock with a New Wave beat. As cheesy as it has been described as being by a previous reviewer, it is actually kind of catchy. When I play songs from this album, I usually play it. "Caught In The Crossfire" is like a great Sci-Fi story set to music, and is extremely well-done. "Future Tense" keeps up the Sci-Fi bent, and is not as good as the previous track but still okay. But then, AW hit gold on THE NATURE OF THE BEAST's final four songs, beginning with "Big City Girls," their ode to "ladies in the night" which has a crunching guitar riff that sounds vaguely similar to the Scorpions' "Big City Nights" (which, by the way, was not recorded until 1984, so April Wine had the idea first). Then comes the speed-Metal (yes, you read that right) of "Crash And Burn," a two-and-a-half-minute explosion of fuzz-guitar riffs and one incredible solo by Myles himself (as good of a guitarist as Brian Greenway was, Myles' guitar is what dominates throughout most of this set). "Bad Boys" has a Bad Company-ish hard guitar riff and some good lyrics about a guy trying to leave a life of gangs for the girl he loves. Lastly, Song #11 is the very hard, upbeat & positive anthem "One More Time" which ends this great album on a multi-layered note, consisting of great work by all three guitarists in this incredible band.

What else can I say? April Wine is one of the greatest unsung veteran Hard Rock/Heavy Metal bands in history, and THE NATURE OF THE BEAST is probably their all-time greatest album.

MOST RECOMMENDED

I would say for the most part April Wine is pretty much unknown to a lot of people in the U.S., and it's not because they aren't a good band, they just didn't get the kind of attention or promotion that they deserved. Released in 1981 and a minor hit in America The Nature of the Beast is one of the 80's best rock albums, that people don't know about. Out of the ten songs on the album six of the songs are always fresh in my head. The ballad Just Between You and Me may be one of April Wine's best known songs over here in the U.S., but don't dismiss as a wussy 80's band turning about ballads all of the time. There are plenty of rockers on The Nature of The Beast. Songs like All over Town, Sign of the Gypsy Queen, and Wanna Rock show that these boys know how to rock.If you can find the album pick it up. You may not have heard of the album before, but I'd say it's more to due with Capitol records not promoting their artists very well, than the album or band not being very well.

This is April Wine's best album ever. "All Over Town" and "Tellin' Me Lies" are radio-friendly hard-rock-pop tunes; "Sign Of the Gypsy Queen", "Caught In The Crosssfire", "Future Tense", and "Crash And Burn" are dark rockers with cautionary overtones; "Just Between You And Me" is a pure power ballad; and "Big City Girls" and "Bad Boys" are street-scene stories. This is clearly one of the best rock albums of the 80's.

This is a truly great Album, No Filler, lots of different styles, Nice Guitars and Catchy Songs. Only regret is that AW started to go down hill after this, they never came close again. This Band was much bigger in Canada then U.S..

Could be a little better - filler still rules here. But it has "Crash and Burn", "All Over Town", "Future Tense", "Sign of the Gypsy Queen", "Just Between You and Me" - all great songs. I would give it 5- if it were not for obvious reason of this album being too unimaginatively done almost in one and same style not to mention that the style was at that point beaten to death by dozens of other bands. Still, a great record by one of the most undeservingly underrated and unfortunately relatively unknown hard rock bands in America. "Just Between You and Me" was played everywhere in 1981 but the band couldn't capitalize on that and faded into B status soon after that when they released a rather disappointing Power Play. Too bad...

I've mentioned before that I like rock albums with guitar-catchy songs because I learn them on my guitar. AND BOY HOWDY, DID THESE GUYS EVER ROCK! I've had a copy of this album in my collection in one form or another for as long as it's been out, and just recently I got a new CD of Nature Of The Beast. I LOVE THIS ALBUM! (Yes, I will marry it).
No filler, just rock! From the first song "All Over Town" to "One More Time", this album does not have a bad song on it.

- RECORD BUYERS AND FELLOW HIPSTERS FROM THE EIGHTIES - THESE ARE THE ALBUMS YOU SHOULD BE BUYING NOW!!! SUPPORT THE GROUPS WHO YOU LOVED AS YOU WERE GROWING UP. THEY ARE STILL AROUND, AND STILL DESERVING OF YOUR PATRONAGE!!!

I recommend you immediately go out and buy Nature Of The Beast, Autograph's "Sign In Please", and the soundtrack album to "Heavy Metal - the Movie". And every other album you remember liking in high school and beyond.

DO NOT SUPPORT EMINEM, 50-CENT, NELLY, or even CREED or COLDPLAY, or any other "musician" who has not paid the requisite dues to succeed. BRING BACK GOOD ROCK!!!

Canadian hard rockers April Wine were just a tad ahead of their time with their best studio album "The Nature of the Beast" and their biggest hit "Just Between You and Me." Had they waited a few more years when the power ballad had become THE hot phenomenon of (far less talented) hair bands, they might have become superstars. As it was, the song got somewhat lost amid the Duran Durans and Culture Clubs that dominated the airwaves in the early 1980s. The album starts out strongly with the tartly rocking "All Over Town," and "Telling Me Lies." Unfortunately, by the second half it runs out of steam, as the band itself did not too many years after its release.

Overall, an interesting period piece that in at least one important way was a harbinger of things to come.

The main song that anybody knows from this album - or even from the entire group - is "Just Between You and Me", which is, oddly enough, the only soft rock ballad from the album; it made the charts (it went up to #21), and was played in every bar up and down the east coast in the early 80's... overplayed, in fact. This was the make out song of 1981.

This was the first album of theirs that really caught on, but it was overshadowed by everything else happening in the 80's (Scorpions, Def Leppard, and Mötley Crüe, just to name a few), so it never really took off. "Just Between You and Me", is probably the only song that anyone really remembers, even though the group has been active (in one form or another) since 1969.

But the album does have a bit more to offer than just that. Most of it is generic rock - you can find the same style of thing anywhere else, but it is also easy (and fun) to listen to. Listening to it again, I can recapture the interest I felt when it first came out - an album to play over and over (driving the roommates nuts).

"Future Tense" is my absolute favorite from the album (it'll rip through your speakers, and is great for air guitar), followed closely by "Crash and Burn", "Sign of the Gypsy Queen" and "Big City Girls". Solid, hard rock, great to listen to.

The rest of the album ain't bad either - solid rockers, great listening; "Caught In the Crossfire" is the only thing I don't like, for whatever reason.

This is a good, basic rock album - solid work throughout, some of it very memorable. The best album to get by April Wine, recommended for anyone who likes the band or just good solid 80's rock.

The Nature of the Beast is an excellent album. I bought it when it originally came out back in the 80's. The two well-known numbers "Sign of the Gypsy Queen", a great song about "movin on", and the ballad "Just Between You and Me" are of course the gems. But "All Over Town" has a great riff and there's a comical break in the tune where Myles Goodwin has a very sophisticated mimic saying "I don't care." The collection itself has a lot of great guitar riffs and there's just some good rock n roll over all in songs like "Future Tense" and "Wanna Rock". The only bummer is probably "Tellin Me Lies" but it's catchy. April Wine was unforutnately an act that never really got the respect it deserved. If you like straight rock, with a flair of 80's, then this is a good buy.

The band was riding high with three great melodic hard rockers. or melodic metal releases if you will.
All three had great songs and cool hit songs on them. at least fm hits that is. And this was their commercial peak. They actually did come out with a animal head mask live too during this tour , at least they did in Wichita kansas that year at their local arena. Anyways they never sounded as good as this again until their great early 90's release 'attitude' imo. NOt that there weren't plenty of great songs to come , no release had the power of this one again for some times. The wonderful hit's 'sign of the gypsy queen' and 'just between you and me' were top notch songs that stand the test of time too. The next one 'power play' was pretty good too but not up to this standard.