Customer Reviews

In Your Face

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

 

 

I have been waiting for this album to be released on cd for years and as soon as I found out it was I got it.

I first discovered this in record form in about 1987 when I was heavily into drumming (I was in a band at the time) and my favourite drummer was Ken.K.Mary who went on to become Alice Coopers drummer in the late 80's.

If you like big sounding albums then this is for you because as the name suggests it is "In Your Face" from the first song.

"I wanna fight" pumps out of the speakers with huge drums and massive guitars.

Brads vocals on this are gritty and powerful all the way through and its just a shame that they didn't do more stuff like this because TKO were ahead of their time considering this was produced in the early 80's.

The version I got has the whole album remastered on the same disc which gives a more polished sound but I prefer the original because it sounds much more raw.

It would have been better to put some long lost songs or maybe a few live versions on here instead of the same songs again but hey.....it still rocks!

If you like early Van Halen and bands like XYZ then you will like this.....Buy it!

I bought this on vinyl from Important Records via mail after hearing them on the radio show "Metal Shop" in 1983 or so. Ozzy Osborn stated, at that time, that his favorite metal tune of all time is Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" but said his second favorite was "by this new band called TKO" and the song was "Run Out of Town". I remember liking all but two tunes on here and could roll side two all the way through. Great album because although its sound is dated, strong songs never go out of style. I rank this one up there with Ray West's APW and Mind Bomb as being two great ones that are sadly overlooked.

I completely missed the boat when this album came out. None of my friends had it and I don't recall mediocre magazines like Hit Parader or Circus giving them any print. I had Adam Bomb's underrated debut solo album Fatal Attraction on cassette but I had no idea about his past. About a dozen years ago I got the double CD of demos etc called In Your Face & Up Your Ass and I was impressed. Brad's vocals were strong and gritty and the guitar work was good. But most importantly the songwriting was there. I finally found this album on CD a few years ago as part of a 2 on 1 with Canada's Fist, and then I got the new version. Of the ten songs on this album I think six are classic and the other four ain't bad. With rockers like I Wanna Fight, Run out of Town, Give into the Night, and Working Girl you can't go wrong picking this up.

ok...i haven't as of yet bought this re-release but what i can tell you is this: i bought the original album back around 1985, and to this day, it has remained one of my all time favorite albums. to learn that this was actually recorded in 81 blows me away because nothing rocked quite like this back than..and it stands the test of time.

tko is a band with a long history and even longer roster update. i haven't heard much before or after this release, but in a way that's not a bad thing...it can be hard to duplicate such a grand statement.

sure, you're not getting anything new here...this is loud, in your face (no pun intended), arena c*ck rock at it's best, which holds up to anything by Ratt, Motley Crue, Dokken or any other L.A. glam metal offering. Actually, this is way more grittier than the aforementioned, more in line with Kix, but much more straight ahead hard rock n roll.

From the kick off of 'i wanna fight' to 'danger city', which evokes a comparison to early guns n roses (sorry kids, this is the genuine article, coming out while the gunners were still learning their instruments) there just isn't a weak track on here. Even the ballad can roll over any 'power' ballad you can shake a stick at. This is testosterone fueled, arena volumed, punched in the face hard rock n roll at it's absolute best. Brad Sinsel had a tough, strong voice with not a falsetto, bleach blonded (he was blonde infact) screech anywhere to be found..and the powerhouse drumming of Ken Mary (later to play with alice cooper) will definitely get you banging your head while you drive 80 down the California coast...kick ass indeed.

As i said, i haven't gotten this release yet...i'm still playing the original Combat version on vinyl. Once i do, you can be sure that the first thing i do is throw this in the car, speed off, and evoke memories of a teenage metal head who stumbled upon TKO at the record store in 85, not knowing that some 24 years later, i'd still be rocking out to it. Buy it!

Everyone is familiar with bands like Quiet Riot, Motley Crue, Ratt, and Dokken who ruled the airwaves in the 1980's. The success of those bands was made possible in large part by bands like Starz, Y&T, Angel, and Moxy, who paved the way for the next wave of hard rock bands to follow. One of those influential (and too often overlooked) bands was Seattle's TKO. Formed at the end of the 70's by singer Brad Sinsel, TKO was one of the first bands to combine the hard rock style of KISS and Van Halen with the glam rock sensibility of T. Rex.

1984's In Your Face was the band's second album. It was actually recorded in 1981, but record company issues delayed its release for a further three years. The album was much heavier than the band's 1979 debut Let It Roll, and was very much in step with the emerging metal movement in the mid 80's. The fact that it was recorded at the beginning of the decade makes Sinsel & company seem downright prescient. It's a hard-hitting, fist-pumping rock & roll album with just enough melody to keep it accessible. I wouldn't go so far as to call it radio-friendly, as it seems a bit too dangerous for mainstream radio.

Divebomb Records reissued In Your Face in 2008. The limited edition (only 1000 were pressed) reissue marks the first time the album has been officially released on CD. The reissue features remastered sound, which, given the source material, is pretty impressive. It also features 2001 remixes of all 10 songs on the album as bonus tracks as well as expanded liner notes by author and metal historian Martin Popoff.

Fans of 80's hard rock and heavy metal should definitely check out this underrated band, and the reissues of Let It Roll and In Your Face are a great place to start.