Customer Reviews

Victims of the Future

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

 

 

No offense to his blues stuff, but to me this guitar work stands up with the greatest; His '80's lead style evokes strong mixture of Van Halen, Schenker, Jeff Beck, and Vivian Campbell. The leads in the title track, Devil in her Heart, Empty Rooms, and Murder in the Skies are still hard to fathom, and Shapes of Things still remains one of the greatest rock/metal solos to come from this era. Moore displays an incredible balance of technique and spine chilling emotion...Rock/metal guitar fans will be pleasantly(if now overwelmingly)surprised at how much he shreds here; Those who have the album already know what I'm talking about...His most shining moment as far as I'm concerned.

The title and opening track sets the mood for the CD, putting great 80's metal with nuclear anxiety right on the table. "Shapes of Things" will take you back to the Summer of '83, when GM dominated even US rock radio with this track. Maybe you've forgotten this fantastic rocker and maybe you didn't even know at the time who it was. It's actually a cover of an old Yardbirds song, but you've never heard a makeover like this! The ferocious, galloping rocker "Murder in the Skies" relays the true tale of a commercial passenger jet shot down by communist fighter planes during some of the most intense moments of the cold war. It begins with a stellar solo where you'll find darker metal's answer to Van Halen's Eruption.
My 4-star rating picks up anything from pretty good right up to just about a 5-star rating. And I stop at a 4 here for a few reasons. Empty Rooms does beat most other ballads. Even so, calling it the '84 Remix really doesn't even justify the repetition of the song as a "bonus" track. Also the instrumental, Blinder, just doesn't go anywhere, which distinctly disappoints--especially with what GM does everywhere else on "Victims". Aside from these things, you've got tons of solid 5 star material here.

"Victims of the future" is the fourth* solo album by legendary Gary Moore originally released in 1984; "Victims..." as its title suggests turned out to be the darkest in Moore's lengthy catalogue. By the songs titles alone, one can easily make out that this album is indeed an unconventional perhaps anti-popular offering. Songs like "Murder in the skies", "Shapes of things" and "Victims of the future" are totally indicative of the lyrical direction of the album carrying mighty protestant choruses but also an underlying pessimism-even the ballad "Empty Rooms" is sad in essence. "Hold on to love" is perhaps the only ray of light on "Victims of the future".

It is therefore ironic that "Victims of the future" solidified Moore's status in Europe as one a leading artist in the hard & heavy genres receiving credit from both classic rockers and metal-heads alike. One also notes that, on "Victims...", Moore began to move away from the band format, using a number of musicians as session players: bass is contributed by Neil Murray, Bob Daisley and Mo Foster while drums tracks are split between Ian Paice and Bobby Chouinard, finally keyboards are performed by Neil Carter.

Overall, it would be fair to say that idiosyncratically "Victims of the future" is a genuine heavy metal album, in the sense that it is provocative, challenging, and intense while daring to address sensitive issues. By 1984 it should have become clear to fans that Gary Moore was an artist committed in pushing the creative barriers (if there were any such) of his music delivering landmark after landmark.


*Counting from 1980 onwards, his fourth solo album in the style of `80s rock.

If you like 80s hard rock this is a keeper!A already solid album it sounds even better remastered.And the extended version of Murder in the skies is excellent! A must have for any Gary Moore fan!

VICTIMS OF THE FUTURE, along with CORRIDORS OF POWER, RUN FOR COVER, THE WILD FRONTIER, and the best-of OUT IN THE FIELDS, is one of Gary Moore's five best CDs ever. All of the songs except "Law Of The Jungle" are great, but the title song, "Devil In Her Heart", "Murder In The Skies", "Hold On To Love", and the ballad "Empty Rooms" stand out in particular. You should get all the Gary Moore albums I've mentioned at the same time.

I loved this album back in the 80's and it still rocks today. Gary Moore has always been a killer guitarist and he showcases his chops to great effect on this release. I wish it had a better remix but in the mean time, this will always be my favorite Gary Moore release!

For the Gary Moore fan...this here is when he was into hard heavy rock with heavily laden blues licks as well as big power chords to blow your senses!! I highly recommend this album as it has all his finest guitar licks all rolled into one great kick ass collection of finely written songs!! This definitely will not disappoint the G.M. fan whatsoever...it is a must have for your collection!! Empty Rooms is one of his best tunes on here as well as a Yardbirds cover of Shapes of Things to Come. Devil in her Heart is very catchy and there is also a remix of Empty Rooms which is refreshing to hear. Gary has put together an amazing band and this band rocks!!

P.S. Get this CD!!!!

RIP Gary Moore! Great cd, snatched up the entire collection to back up the old LP's I bought years ago.

THIS...is the Gary Moore that I will always hold near and dear to my heart, for sadly, this Gary Moore no longer exists. For me he was one of the finest rock guitarist ever. His playing was balls to the wall and he had the chops to pull it off. Sadly he never got his just due here in the United States but there's no mistaking that Gary was the real deal. Victims of The Future starts off with some nice mellow acoustic guitar and then BOOM!!!...the power chords kick in! Put this bad boy in your iPod, crank it up and watch the smoke come out! Enuff said!
[...]

This is a perfect example of an album that could have been so much moore. There are some great tracks and there are some bad tracks.
Murder In The Skies is worth the price of admission alone. Fantastic song (although the guitar solo-intro is kind of out of place for such a dark song)
The title track and Devil In Her Heart are very good.
Shapes Of Things is good.
The rest of the album really falls short with a few stinkers.
Gary's voice is also very limited; I think a different singer could have really livened things up. Great guitar work though, love the meaty sound on Murder & Devil.
I use to have this on cassette way back and just picked this up...great to hear these tunes again.
3 1/2 stars