4.3.. Great Blues/Metal Fusion - After the semi-success of the Debut, this was Badlands follow up. I personally liked it better than the s/t debut. Excellent riffs abound on Silver Horses , 3-Day Funk and Love Dont Mean a Thing . Great emotional tracks like Show Me The Way and their great version of Fire & Rain . Other great tracks come through on this cd as well.This is an under appreciated and now out of print cd. Ive loved it fopr years and would seriously recommend if you like Blues/Metal. Jake shreds on the solos and Ray Gillens voice sounds awesome.If you can still find this somewhere, and had enough interest to read this review, then you will NOT be disappointed. This was great stuff.
FIVE Voodoo Highway Stars for this gem! - Cheesy album cover aside (should ve just used Jeff Martin s gator with dobro in mouth creation from the CD face instead.......) Voodoo Highway represents the greatest 80 s/early 90 s hard rock band at their absolute peak. The debut was amazing but VH is much closer to what BADLANDS sounded like live - raw, edgy, dangerous, and taking chances. I remember a lot of people not liking the production all that much at the time but to me VH sounds just about perfect - it s stripped down, no frills, live wire BADLANDS. I can t even tell you how many times I ve jammed along to this album on guitar - these songs will stay with me forever. Ah, yes, the songs - once again Jake and Ray (R.I.P.) prove to be the Page and Plant of the late 20th Century and come up with at least a half dozen mindblowing tracks that range from anthemic opener The Last Time to Ray s soulful gospel acapella piece In A Dream (a musical foreshadowing of his own death only a couple of years later....?) and everything in-between. I absolutely love the supercharging Soul Stealer which literally explodes in your face and leads into 3-Day Funk - talk about supa-doopa-groovin (Jake always had that great wrist...) and being in the pocket ! Losing Eric Singer and gaining Greg s old Surgical Steel/St.Michael band mate Jeff Martin, whose Mitch Mitchell-style drumming fit Badlands to a T, really proved to be a godsend. You can literally tell these 2 guys have an almost kinetic connection as they provide for a loose but tight foundation that allows Jake to do his guitar thing with reckless abandon and Ray to shine (what a voice!) atop this latter day Led Zep rumblin train. This album s Jade s Song is Joe s Blues (named after Jake s in-studio VH guitar tech, Joe Holmes, who could NOT play the blues at all but ironically enough would end up becoming Ozzy s guitar player a few years later....) where Jake proves his mastery of the acoustic guitar. Speaking of which, BADLANDS electrified version of James Taylor s Fire and Rain is absolutely stunning and truly does the original justice. Nothing much else to say other than a) BUY this underrated gem if you can find it (for a decent price) and, b) why is this album totally out-of-print (hello, Wounded Bird - aren t you guys doing all sorts of WEAtlantic re-issues?) to begin with?!
Lost Blues-Rock Classic - I have recently been reacquainting myself with the incredible, long out-of-print and virtually unknown Badlands albums with the help of the mighty amazon.com....this album is yet more proof that these guys deserved to be huge. A mixture of muscular rock/metal riffs combined with sublime slide and blues playing from the inimitable Jake E Lee, near-perfect hard-rock vocals from Ray Gillen, plus excellent songwriting and originality of style. If Led Zeppelin had been heavier, this is what they would have sounded like. Any guitar fan would love this album, snap it up if you can find it! Whiskey dust runnin through my bones....
This Record Rocks!! - Voodoo Highway the sophomore release from Badlands is a first-rate follow-up to the band s self-titled debut. This record rocks hard like its predecessor, but it also showcases a more versatile and mature collection of songs than the first. Tracks range from up-tempo hard rockers in Heaven s Train, to the A Capella almost southern hymn In A Dream.The band clearly had more creative control since Lee was producing this time around and as such Voodoo Highway has a rawer, less slick sound to it. More like a classic 70 s album than a screechy Heavy Metal record. Jake E. Lee experiments with some different guitar tones as well as Dobro, slide, Hammond B3 organ, and piano.Ray Gillen s vocals are masterful in their warm, powerful, and passionate soulfulness that made him the best blues singer since Paul Rodgers and he could do Robert Plant far better than the Zeppelin legend himself. His range and emotion on the cover version of James Taylor s Fire and Rain will make you never want to listen to the original ever again.Jeff Martin (ex RacerX vocalist) replaced Eric Singer (KISS) on drums and it is a much welcomed addition. His playing brings a looser, groovier feel to the band than Singer s stiffer 1234 style and Greg Chaisson s Bass locks in with Martin to make a fantastic rhythm section.Highlights include: Show Me The Way3 Day FunkLove Don t Mean A ThingFire and Rain (Yes, a brilliant cover the James Taylor classic)In A Dream (This was sung by Bo Bice on American Idol recently)Voodoo Highway is bluesy, melodic, hard rock at its finest and the Lee/Gillen song machine is in top form.Buy It!!
Ray Gillen - a tragic loss!! - BADLANDS self titled debut CD was one of the finest hard rock releases ever, so I remember being very excited when this follow up came out. VOODOO HIGHWAY did not disappoint! It is filled with powerful guitar riffs and of course Ray Gillen s incredible vocals (RIP). Songs such as SILVER HORSES, WHISKEY DUST, HEAVEN S TRAIN and SOUL STEALER are heavy blues based songs that will blow your doors off. IN A DREAM is a beautiful slow paced song that really shows off Gillen s vocal capabilities. The other songs are somewhere in between, all of them loaded with blues and funk! A great listen from beginning to end!I highly recommend this CD, along with their self titled debut BADLANDS and DUSK (their third and final CD). After BADLANDS broke up, Ray Gillen joined a band called SUN RED SUN. They have a 3 CD box set SUNSET available that is another MUST HAVE! It s a little hard to find, but definitely worth the search!