Wednesday, December 22, 2021

The 1981 Listening Post - Samson - Shock Tactics

 Samson - Shock Tactics



#206

May 1981

Samson

Shock Tactics

Genre: Metal

4.5 out of 5



Highlights:

Nice Girl

Go to Hell

Bright Lights

Grime Crime



Couple quick notes before we dig in.

This is the last Samson record with Bruce Dickinson before he joined Iron Maiden. Okie doke. 

Of more interest to me is that Russ Ballard wrote the first track. And we all know that Russ was part of Argent, which was a descendent of The Zombies which now makes a through line, for me, of late 60’s psychedelic rock to modern day devil horn metal obvious.

“Riding with the Angels” is a driving Thin Lizzy kind of track, with Dickinson’s Coverdale-esque vocals. 

The album is a NWOBHM boogie metal fest. At times you can imagine Dickinson fronting a much harder edged ZZ Top (“Grime Crime”). 

“Bright Lights” reminds me of “Run to the Hills” in very good way.




https://music.apple.com/us/album/shock-tactics-bonus-track-edition/1143219486

No comments: