Customer Reviews

Thunder & Lightning

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

By the time the mighty Thin Lizzy machine was beginning to grind to a halt Phil Lynott decide to inject new blood in the band once more and roll the dice. Insert John Sykes to the two-headed monster of guitarist Scott Gorham and whoever Lizzy got to play axe with him. The swan song from the band delivers like a white-hot burning pile of anvils. The title track will want to make even the most calm individual break a pool que over someone nearby's head at the sheer intensity and voracity of the production. After that the band delivers a collection of well made hard rock and roll. There is no filler on this release and each song is unique unto itself and a credit to the often maligned genre. In the meantime, Gorham's heavy vibrato-laden melodic solos hit even harder as Sykes extraordinary blistering technique pushes Gorham's work completely out of the envelope. The wonderful Lynott vocal melodies are hard at work here as well, bringing unexpected hooks to songs such as "This is the One" "Bad Habits" "Sun Goes Down" and "Baby Please don't go". This was the perfect album for the band to leave as it's final piece of work. It puts a final head-banging stamp on what is arguably the best body of work ever achieved by a band in its genre.

Thunder & Lightning is my favorite Thin Lizzy album and one of my all-time favorites. Phil Lynott's vocals are tremendous! And Jon and Scott on guitars . . . Ah! Buy this CD! It's VERY difficult to find in record stores and I applaud Amazon.com for making it available!!

My copy is actually the Warner Bros/Metal Blade original release, but it's all good. This CD features John Sykes as the 2nd guitarist alongside of Scott Gorham. There is also Darren Wharton on keyboards. Of course there is Phil Lynott and Brian Downey on bass and drums, respectively. If I had to rate all of the Thin Lizzy albums this would rank 3rd, behind BAD REPUTATION and JAILBREAK.

Versatility is always a factor with Thin Lizzy and THUNDER & LIGHTNING is no different. There is hard rock ("Cold Sweat"), ballads ("the Sun Goes Down"), blues/rock ("Baby Please Don't Go), and more. Two of my biggest Lizzy favorites are here "the Holy War" and "Bad Habits". This is another of those Thin Lizzy albums where the only weakness is the music ends far too soon. "This Is the One" and "Heart Attack" are very good listening. This is one of those discs that goes well in a multidisc player in your car, where every song counts.

Once again the group proves it doesn't matter who the second guitarist is, because the music is going to jam. Sykes holds up the tradition of Brian Robertson, Gary Moore, Snowy White, and Midge Ure, showcasing two extremely talented guitarists. You won't get a cold sweat from THUNDER & LIGHTNING because there is no gamble in the greatness of this CD.

This is not my favorite Thin Lizzy album,but I do love this one. The music is more harder and heavier than all there other albums, due to the influence of John Sykes joining the band on lead guitar. You still hear the typical standard Lizzy sound style throughout the CD on many songs. I particularly love the song THE SUN GOES DOWN, which gets into steady slow rythym with a blistering guitar solo in the middle of it. A must own for the die hard Thin Lizzy fan like myself.

I was turned on to Thin Lizzy when they released their Jailbreak album and was immediately hooked. Nothing could be better than this, or so I thought! Oh the surprize when I discovered Thunder and Lightning several years later. "Awesome!" My bandmates, at the time, had to learn "Cold Sweat" and play it live. It was the biggest rush ever. Thin Lizzy rocks on this album, and yes Victoria, it IS their best.

The addition of John Sykes did alot to make this one of my favorite Lizzy albums; The songwriting is strong, and the band really sound inspired w/it's new direction. Sykes, who has a style similar to the 'metal' Gary Moore and Dio's once own shred god Vivian Campbell, is in amazing form here; As one of my biggest early influences, Sykes energizes every song with some seriously blistering guitarwork; 'Baby Please Don't Go' is filled with all sorts of guitar fireworks, most of which still hold up even today. Coupled with the lyrical intelligence of Lynott(not to mention his bass playing, which seems to be taken for granted alot of the time...), the underrated drumming of Downey, and 2nd axeman Gorham, 'Thunder and Lightning' just may be one of the most overlooked rock/metal albums of all time; It seems hardly anyone even knows about this album, or chose to ignore it. And it's a shame they didn't get to progress from here with this line-up. R.I.P, Phil...Your last work was some of your greatest!!!

Well, being a lifelong Lizzy fan i will try to review this album in an unbias way. Where do i start? I guess at the beginning...."Thunder & Lighting" is a little different to most Lizzy songs. By far the heaviest song they have ever recorded. Fast, furious and a classic. "This Is The One" is track #2 and another heavy song but a little more commercial sounding. Great guitars and a beautiful clean, fresh sound."The Sun Goes Down" breezes by and is a nice, slow tempo track with great solos. "The Holy War" fast became a Lizzy classic. Great drumming as usual from Brian Downey (one of the most underrated drummers ever). "Cold Sweat" is a great 1-2 punch of a song. A heavy track with a great chorus and exceptional soloing from John Sykes."Heart Attack" and "Someday She Is Going To Hit Back" fly by in a blur. "Heart Attack" is instantly memorable while "Someday..." takes a little more getting used to. Its a little different for Lizzy but definately a grower. And then there is "Bad Habits" which is just a great rock song with typical Lynott lyrics."Baby Please Don't Go" is another stand out track, typical Lynott and a great singalong song! So overall, i love this cd. Although it came out in '83, if it were to be released today it would sound as fresh and hip as ever! The only bad point about this cd is the cover artwork. I know that Phil was disappointed about it and he had no control over it for whatever reason. Anyway, a must for any cd collection, but then again, what Lizzy cd isn't!!!

"Thunder and Lightning" is a fantastic showcase for the talents of John Sykes - he is a truly gifted guitarist, and one of the best soloists ever. However, as a Thin Lizzy album, it misses the mark.

Sykes is brilliant - but he is showcased at the expense of Scott Gorham. Sykes handles nearly all of the solo duties, while Gorham sits comfortably playing the rythm track, and an occassional harmony. Gone is the brilliant two man guitar work of songs like "The Cowboy Song", "Roisin Dubh", and "Do Anything You Want To". As a result, the disc sounds like a hundred other early 80's hard rock bands with a hotshot lead player.

Secondly, Phil Lynott is nearly a non-factor on this CD. His voice is buried so low in the mix that one can barely tell that it's him. Sadly, it hardly matters, as Lynott is not on his game, lyrically ("Like Thunder/Like Lighting/Goddam, it's so exciting" is not one of Phil's finer moments).

Even worse, the songwriting that made albums like "Johnny the Fox" and "Jailbreak" so wonderfully eclectic is gone here. What made Lizzy great (besides Lynott's marvelous lyrics) was its ability to transition from a balls out rocker to a blues groove or a slow song. There's a token ballad here, but the rest of the tracks are over-produced, and obviously pandering to a new market Lizzy hoped to capture (the burdgeoining MTV generation).

As an example of early 80's hard rock, it's not a bad disc - but I expect more from Thin Lizzy.

Thin Lizzy was breaking up and there was nothing that a hot shot new guitarist or a heavier than ever sound was going to do to prevent this. Philip just didn't want to do the Lizzy thing anymore and Scott Gorham was desperate to free from heavy drug use. Depending on which musical reference book you use Thin Lizzy could be classified as heavy metal or hard rock but on `Thunder and Lightning', the band turned in their heaviest recording to date. Unfortunately the LP happened to be their swan song and Lizzy went out with a bang and not a whimper! While many critics ripped `Renegade' for its seeming lackadaisical approach to being a Thin Lizzy record, `Thunder and Lightning `roars with a fury that many of the band's contemporaries and the NWOBHM upstarts that the band inspired over the years would be pleased to come close to as the ferocity of the record roars with a passion and fire that would be the envy of many of these acts. Not that the LP lacks the traditional Thin Lizzy diversity if heavy rockers and slow burning balladry, it's just that the intensity is ratcheted up quite a bit. The old Celtic warriors would not go down quietly and thought the years of self abuse had not treated his voice kindly, Philip still shines through. The title track is easily the heaviest track in Thin Lizzy's history and is the coming out party of one John Sykes who was probably most responsible for the metal quotient of this record. "Cold Sweat", "This Is the One" and "Heart Attack" continue the onslaught. "Sun Goes Down" is sensitive and burning while "Bad Habits" is playful yet confessional. As great as these songs are my two untouchables are "Holy War" and "Baby Please Don't Go". These songs are as good as it gets for heavy rock and rank for me personally as good as anything Lizzy ever did. To go out like they did, as heavy and consistent as they did, are testaments to the greatness of Thin Lizzy and to the legend of Philip Parris Lynott, RIP.

THin Lizzy partenered with famous metal producer Chris Tsangarides and released their heaviest album ever, and their last studio effort anyway. It's much better than CHINATOWN (what isn't?)and RENEGADE. Also, John Sykes seems to be in harmony with Scott Gorham.

A great and heavy album. You'll sure like it.