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Union brought together former Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick and former Motley Crue singer John Corabi with drummer Brent Fitz and bassist Jamie Hunting. Union puts together a great, straight ahead, no BS rock sound. For people that sit and whine about `novelty' in rock, Union could easily be your answer. There is no pretense in Union, no goofy costumes, no obnoxious condescending behavior. Nothing but great hard rock music. Imagine that. This is the band people seem to be begging for, yet no one knows about Union. The closest mainstream bands with a sound and style similar to Union would have to be Live, Fuel and Creed. But unlike some of those bands, no holier than thou rock star garbage here. Again, just great hard rock music. Imagine that, again. When listening to the album, it's almost impossible to say that it fits any specific time period or style, this could have been released anytime between 1973 and today. The album contains many stellar hard rock songs, like "Old Man Wise", "Around Again", "Tangerine" and "Get Off My Cloud". Big, loud songs that sound best with the volume cranked up. These tend to be the songs where Corabi's screaming ability and vocal range show up, the man is one of the best rock front men to come around in a long time. "Heavy D" (starts of a bit slower, but has some great guitar riffs and strong bass) is a bit different than most of the songs on the album. The pace of the song changes back and forth between fast and slow. Great song though, one of the best on the album. Some strong powerful `love' songs (think Fuel-Hemmorage) like "Pain Behind Your Eyes" and "Love (I Don't Need It Anymore)". One of the real gems on the album is "Robin's Song", an acoustic ballad that shows some amazing work by Bruce Kulick and superb lyrics by John Corabi. There was an era from about '88 to '91 where every `rock band' had one of these acoustic ballads on their album and while some are truly great songs many are instantly forgettable. This is one of the best you'll ever hear. "October Morning Wind", "Let It Flow" and "Empty Soul" are all good songs, but not the type of songs that would compel someone to actually purchase the album. October Morning Wind has some more great work by Bruce Kulick, he really shined on this album. The Spitfire release of this album does include a cover "Oh Darling". It's not bad at all, but if you actually want to hear Union doing cover songs you should pick up their live album, they have an amazing version of Cheap Trick's "Surrender". When I picked up the album, I thought I knew what to expect from Bruce Kulick and John Corabi based on their work with Kiss and Crue. Neither disappointed. If you enjoyed John Corabi on Motley Crue's self titled 1994 release then you will enjoy him here. Bruce Kulick was phenomenal on this record, not quite like anything he did with Kiss except maybe Carnival Of Souls, he is definitely one of the most underrated and under-appreciated guitarists from the 80s shred fest. What surprised me about the album was how great Jamie Hunting and Brent Fitz are. I had never heard of either before this, but both are great on this album, they're tight together and lay a great foundation for Corabi and Kulick to shine. It's a shame so many people missed out on this band, definitely one of the better albums to come out in the overwhelmingly vacuous 90s.
As a big fan of the criminally neglected John Corabi (vocalist), I was happy to finally get my hands on this one. His work on one album each for The Scream and Motley Crue was impressive, to say the least. And his work here is strong, too, as is the rest of the band's. I didn't find this to be QUITE as strong as his other offerings (to which I would give 4.5 stars, were it possible), but there's a nice balance of hard rockers, ballads, and a lot of straight up rock n' roll in between. Sometimes grungy, sometimes a little metal, sometimes soft, Corabi's voice is great for so many styles of music, and he has a great ability to write a catchy yet rarely generic vocal melody, as is demonstrated on many of these tracks and, especially, the closing "Robin's Song." If you've enjoyed Corabi's work with The Scream or the Crue, pick this one up, and it won't disappoint. It's perhaps a bit softer than those offerings, but still a worthy rock record.
NOTE: There are multiple artists with the name "UNION" or "THE UNION". And, as Amazon moves from CDs to selling mp3 and tries to combine reviews, these sometimes end up in the wrong place. I noticed this review, which I wrote for a CD I own, being applied to a CD by a DIFFERENT band (with similar name) that I do NOT own. Be careful as you buy...
I just picked this up the other day and let me tell you, it's a VERY strong release. I am so surprised it didn't do better! That goes to show how much radio stations suck nowadays! Unlike many of today's artists, the songs actually carry the weight of this cd. MOst bands come out distorted, fast and heavy with no emotion or no groove whatsoever. However, Union's debut release is an excellent listen. At times, heavy, yet emotional, It's everything but boring. Union combines heavy riffs, groove, and melody with the alternative sound consistant with the era of it's release. Like a combo of Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Kiss and the John Corabi era of Motley Crue...all rolled into one! Highlights include, Around Again, Pain Behind Your Eyes, and my personal favorite Love. There are many highlights on the cd, but those are the strongest ones. Why only 4 and not 5 stars? I feel that Bruce could have done more solos. He does some brilliant ones no doubt, but if I had been producing, he would have had callouses upon callouses! Bruce is a fabulous guitar man worthy of more recognition than he receives. His time with Kiss says it all...he was Kiss' BEST guitarist BY FAR! Corabi's vocals and songwriting is THE feature on this release. John is another one that deserves more recognition than he receives. A superb musician, songwriter and vocalist, it's a shame he's wasting his time touring with Ratt. No disrespect to Ratt, but Corabi should have MANY platinum records on his wall by now..but hey, touring DOES pay the bills! A toast to Union for such a awesome cd...one of these days, the music industry will wake up and discover what the fans knew all along.
This is an incredible record!! Every song on this album is listenable. My personal favs include, "Old man wise", "Around again", and "October morning wind". Every song on this album is great, a lot of work and effort was put into it, and it shows. The album has a good mix of songs, from hard rockers, to acoustic ballads, and a mix of both acoustic/electric songs. John Corabi's vocals are terrific, and Bruce Kulick's guitar playing is great as always. There are awsome harmony's and backing vocals all over the record which gives some of the songs a Beatles feel it. I would suggest the album to anyone who's into rock.
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