The 1981 Listening Post - Uli Jon Roth - Fire Wind

Uli Jon Roth -  Fire Wind

#119

1981 Housekeeping

Uli Jon Roth (As Electric Garbage…I mean, Electric Sun)

Fire Wind

Genre: Metal Garbage (Sorry, did it again)

1 out of 5

Lowlights:
Charlie and I

This is, by accounts, one of the worst metal albums I’ve ever heard. 

To all those Scorpions acolytes, I am sorry. Sorry that your guitarist, in a drunken haze it seems, committed any of this to acetate. 

I guess you could call what Roth is doing “singing” but I’m not sure I would. Because what it sounds like to me is what someone who has never heard singing before was told to do at gun point. WHY ARE YOU TRYING VOCAL RUNS, ULI!?!?!?

This is horrible. I’m not sure what “Prelude to Space Minor” is supposed to be in prelude to but…it takes up a couple minutes of space before Uli gets back to his Hendrixian desperation. 

I don’t know what “Chaplin and I” is about beyond the character in the title and Uli makes me want to never investigate it further. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/7n4ubwGM8VTr0khbfJEuwE?si=ftsMyOy6RZSGFVzAHIj_Pg

The 1985 Listening Post - Uli Jon Roth & Electric Sun - Beyond the Astral Skies

Uli Jon Roth & Electric Sun - Beyond the Astral Skies

#61

1985 Housekeeping

Uli Jon Roth & Electric Sun

Beyond the Astral Skies

Genre: Rock

4 out of 5

Highlights:

The Night the Master Comes

Icebreaker

I’m just gonna ask this: Why didn’t Meat Loaf turn to Uli John Roth when Jim Steinman wasn’t available? Sure, Desmond Child writes radio hits but this guy seems to be a perfect match for Meat’s soaring theatricality. This is the guitarist for Scorpions so a lot of the bombast is expected and so is the Spinal Tappiness but I love it for all of that. 

This reminds me of Steve Vai but with an emphasis on songs. The playing is remarkable but so is the mind bending weirdness.

I planned on a couple tracks before bedtime but I couldn’t go to sleep until I finished.

And I’m glad I didn’t cuz the opera meets prog rock “Eleison” was worth staying up for. No, it’s not “good”. But the fact that it exists, coming so soon after hearing a metal band invoke Carmina Burana, has me thinking about Randy Rhodes and his influence on guitarists of the era. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/beyond-the-astral-skies-bonus-track-version/691267395