Customer Reviews

Silver & Gold

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

 

 

I just recieved my copy of this disc from Ebay. This is an amazing disc, and furthers my appreciation for Adrian Smith. As a DIE HARD Iron Maiden fan, I'll be the first to say that this is not like Maiden at all. Its almost like what you would get if you threw the better Bon Jovi in a blender with Maiden's Somewere In Time and 7th Son ofa 7th Son. It's like an 80s hard rock album: big guitars, synths, great vocals... it's interesting... and I LOVE it. I would recomend it for any 80s hard rock fan. Highlights include: 1,2,3,7,8,10

For years, while traveling, I had a steady rotation of three albums in my CD player, in this order: Bruce Dickinson's Accident of Birth, Psycho Motel's Welcome to the World, and this album. In an endless loop, because it seemed to me that the three were perfect compliments.

Of the three, this album, on a whole, is probably my favourite, in the sense that it's pure Adrian Smith. If you're an Adrian Smith fan, you need this album. Period. No argument. It is worth any amount of money you have to put down for it, particularly if you, like me, are especially fond of his songwriting circa Somewhere in Time.

Imagine if Somewhere in Time had been written -- and sung(!) -- entirely by H. That's what Silver and Gold sounds like. That's not to say that it's not an original, separate album of its own, for it is. But that's the closest comparison in terms of feel, quality and style I can come up with.

Silver and Gold is highly melodic but without the keyboard abuse (IMO) seen in a lot of its better-known contemporaries. It explores a lot of personal issues and ideas, many times in language that only someone else going through the same thing will recognise. Very much a good album for seeking and finding reflections of oneself in.

The music is often better than the lyrics, but there's nothing embarrassing here either. It's a good, strong effort -- honestly, as much as I like Welcome to the World, I really wish Adrian Smith had stayed on the track he was on for ASAP for State of Mind. That album, in fact, I think reflects his uncertainty about where he was going musically and suffers from it.

Silver and Gold is completely free of that kind of problem. It's 1987 and Adrian Smith is making music free of oversight. That's this album.

I wish it hadn't gone out of print. It deserves to be heard by more people than it has. It deserves at least as much recognition as Psycho Motel does, and certainly more than State of Mind. In a just world, this album would be known to everyone who knows anything about Adrian Smith. Oh well.

My copy of this is packed, unfortunately, as I just moved; I'll give a more detailed review once it comes out of a box.

On a sabbatical after touring Iron Maiden's "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son" album Adrian Smith pulled a few old ex-band mates together to record this Bruce Springsteen-esque slice of up tempo Adult Rock. And at the time, in 1989, it wasn't so much unexpected from the Maiden guitarist as completely and utterly unbelievable.

Ade's voice bears close comparison with Bryan Adams; rough and gravely and very Mid-Western American. Musically it was radio friendly AOR not a million miles away from a heavy Foreigner. Needless to say Maiden fan's hated it and the AOR community were not about to get interested in a `Heavy Metal' guitarists part-time side project. Subsequently it sold about 10 copies and sank without a trace.

In my opinion, with hindsight and a fresh pair of ears, it's a brilliant piece of Rock. Smith proves his guitar prowess, buzzing all over the place like a kid in the candy store; he's obviously thoroughly enjoying himself. His band too, is spectacular. We're not just talking straight down the line bludgeoning, hard-headed, misogynistic rock here, it's mature and thoughtful and full of light and shade. It's also worth noting that this album contains NO saccharine ballads and only one relatively slow song. Always a plus in my book :o)

So, it's not world beating by any means but like The Georgia Satellites or Bryan Adams at his rocking best, it's immense fun. It's a shame `Metal' prejudice did not give this album a chance and if any of the above mentioned artists ring a bell then you're going to love A.S.A.P.

These reviews make me laugh.

Yes, Adrian tried somehting different. Yes, his voice is good. But the end result is atrocious. Yes, it's Foreigner. But bad Foreigner. The work has not an ounce of own personality.

The solos are fine. But the songs... Oh my...

After Iron Maiden's masterpiece "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son", the band took some time off and Bruce and Adrian both released solo albums, neither of which were very Iron Maidenish. Bruce's "Tattooed Millionaire" was more of a mainstream hard rock album (think AC/DC or American wang-rock) than the sophisticated and epic metal we'd expect from his work with Maiden - not great, but fun. Adrian's veered in the opposite direction: you could fault ASAP for not being metal enough, or not being good-time rock'n'roll, but it was sincere and polished rock music.
Adrian's singing is more mainstream rock, and the music isn't really heavy or distorted, which all combines to make a sound that doesn't really fit into hard rock or metal. The songs are the thoughful and sincere kinds of lyrics like "Wasted Years" or "Sea of Madness" - Adrian's solo songwriting pieces from "Somewhere In Time".
A solid and tasteful rock album, with some good rockers at times. I can't help but thinking how a couple of the songs might've worked out with if given the whole Maiden treatment, though! (That said, I also wonder how some of the 90s stuff would've sounded had they kept the late 80's Maiden lineup intact - that was a group of musicians who complemented each other perfectly and were able to create something much better together than seperately).

I REMEMBER BUYING THIS BACK IN 1990,AND BEING A DIEHARD IRON MAIDEN FAN,I WAS REALLY AMAZED WITH THIS ALBUM.NOW,DON'T EXPECT THIS TO SOUND LIKE MAIDEN BECAUSE IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.IT IS NOT REALLY A HEAVY METAL ALBUM,IT IS MORE LIKE A ROCK ALBUM.HOWEVER THE MUSIC IS JUST AMAZING.TRACK#1,THE LION IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE SONGS EVER.IT IS HARD TO DESCRIBE THE ALBUM IN WORDS AND IT IS VERY HARD TO FIND AS WELL.EVERYONE HAS A DIFFERENT VIEW ON MUSIC,BUT IF YOU CAN FIND THIS JEWEL,BUY IT.OTHER GREAT TRACKS FROM THIS ALBUM INCLUDE:FALLEN HEROES,SILVER AND GOLD,MISUNDERSTOOD,AND BLOOD ON THE OCEAN WHICH MAKES YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO IT IN YOUR CAR DRIVING DOWN A DISTANT ROAD IN THE RAIN.WOW,WHAT GREAT MEMORIES THIS ALBUM BRINGS.ADRIAN SMITH IS NOT ONLY THE GREATEST GUITARRIST AND SONGWRITER EVER BUT VERY CAPABLE SINGER AS WELL.