Menace to Society

You’ve got to love the man… the moment he was shown the door by the Maidens, Paul Di’Anno was already ready with a rival act, one under his own name. The battle for the UK metal premiership continued under the Battlezone moniker after just one album released as Di’Anno, not to mention his participation in the very short-lived ex/future-Iron Maiden (Clive Burr (R.I.P.), Janick Gers) members’ gathering stint Gogmagog (one EP in 1985). The Batlezone affair lasted for two full-lengths, but the hard’n heavy tactics epitomized on those were hardly a competition to the Maiden much loftier repertoire.

In other words, Di’Anno had to think, and he had to think hard… the 90’s were coming, beckoning both seductively and threateningly, offering new possibilities for the battered 80’s veterans. The ”adapt or die” situation became only too pressing before long, but our British hero had no intentions on laying down the weapons. He changed his band name to Killers, a nice wink at Maiden’s sophomore opus with his indispensable involvement, and, as a raucous defiant gesture to the settling aggro/groovy trends, he smacked “Murder One”, a pure classic metal parade, quite comparable to Maiden’s first two… no kidding. Ha, interesting; if the man had decided to march through the 90’s as a proud old school canons’ defender, who are we to not fully support him? All the way to the more or less timely scheduled demise.

Bullshit; some artists are meant to be immortal, and Paul Di’Anno is easily one of the chosen ones. The thing is that, before he becomes an open menace to the groovy/numetal society, he has to start looking for ways to compromise his staunch retro metal lifestyle. Just a bit maybe? Sure thing, and here comes the album reviewed here, a blend of angry post-thrashisms and classic metallisms, challenging both “Far Beyond Driven” and “Burn My Eyes”, both released the same year, with “Die by the Gun”, a belligerent post-thrashy behemoth, vintage Pantera including in Di’Anno’s newly epitomized quarrelsome shouty vocals. The grip of the groove permeates the first half with the short bouncy title-track, the seismic stoner/doomy “?”, and the dynamic post-thrashy “Think Brutal” erasing all memories of classic metal glory, to the point that the old Di’Anno fanbase have by no means lasted beyond this last cut.

Yeah, all hail the new flesh, line up for the new king(s) of groove… yes but no; old habits die hard, and after a short interlude (the soulful ballad “Past Due”) the killer team produce a couple of hymns to the old school, ironically this trip down memory lane spearheaded by the cover of “Faith Healer” of the 70’s Scottish rock outfit Alex Harvey Band. Not very even this trip, though, peppered by tepid semi-ballads (“Conscience”); cheesy hard rockers (“City of Fools”) on which Di'Anno even attempts some rappy lines to a hilarious effect; and more intimidating grooves (“Chemical Imbalance”). Now that I think of it, I should probably bet on the first half for being more coherent and homogenous, rather than on the not very convincing assembly of tunes that follows later.

The truth is that Di’Anno tries to sell himself too cheaply to the ruling vogues, daubing the jury’s eyes with a collection of rowdy numetal hooks initially, before serving a sloppy half-cooked tribute to the retro metal roster. The problem is that the band are not quite sure whether said roster deserves a tribute as again the latter is dissipated with more groovy references, not to mention Di’Anno’s shaky performance behind the mike… the rappy experiments are not even the worst offender here; the man provides one of the most awful synthesized/industrialized vocal tirades of the 90’s on the mentioned “?”; how on earth he thought that this particular gimmick would please even His Supreme Groove Majesty, is beyond me. Well, when you see/hear that the highlight on an album of the kind is the cover of a song of a 70’s rock band (a really cool number, by the way), you know that there must be something wrong with it. To whom could this recording sound like a menace, one wonders? Definitely not for the Iron Maiden crowd, who would gladly part with more than just a few laughs while listening to this.

Yeah, the 90’s spared no one; a lot of heads fell under the groovy guillotine. Some of those even rose for more underground exploits, including Di’Anno who quickly brought back the old moniker, Battlezone that is, after this album’s release; bade his old comrades a farewell, teamed up with his compatriots from Tokyo Blade who had recently re-formed, and unleashed “Feel My Pain”, a very similarly-executed, contrasting concoction of songs. Not much achieved with this last opus, neither commercially nor critically, which prompted the man to pull the plug on his artistic career for a prolonged period of time. His re-emergence in the new millennium with the German heavy metallers Architects of Chaoz seemed like a deal, with both old Di’Anno and Iron Maiden songs serving as the backbone for a string of well-accepted live stints… alas, it all went downhill once again when Di’Anno and the rest of this crew split under fairly acrimonious circumstances a couple of years later.

The veteran even lent his vocal skills to the Greek black/death metal cohort Evil Within for an isolated cut, what do you know? Now that sounds more like a menace to society… no, not really. We need to hear more old school battle cries from this camp… Di’Anno still has it in him, no doubt here. With a more sober mind, with all demons from nefarious musical influences exorcised, the man simply has to be deemed a force to be reckoned with… even when his presence on the contemporary scene is more of an ethereal, semi-lurking one.

After 1992's "Murder One", Paul Di'anno and the crew lingered a bit until the time was right for their next album to drop. In 1994, the immense "Menace to Society" was unleashed.

Groove metal was all the rage at the time. Rob Halford was starting work with Fight at the time, and Pantera was bigger than ever. So, Mr Di'Anno probably decided to hop on the industrial train. The result was a heavy metal parade still in the spirit of the traditional metal of "Murder One", but with the heavy groove flavor added on. This album is, for the most part, damn good, and almost a mini-masterpiece in its own right. The lyrics, while not particularly deep, are still strong, thoughtful and above the average metal album; issues such violent youth, falling back to old habits, mistrust, insanity and more are touched upon. Di'Anno sings with full, deadly grit vigor this time around. A bit uneven at times, but mostly threatening and vicious. The sound and production of this album caused a reverse in performance as it seems. Cliff Evans' guitarwork, while still good and surprisingly melodic at times, is pushed into the background of the mix in favor of Gavin Cooper's bass and Steve Hopgood's drumming, which are now more up in front here with ultra-loud and heavy gusto. It's a bit of drastic change at first, but all for the better.

The songs, as I earlier mentioned, are all mostly well-written. Riffing and killer solos are a must here. Faster, heavier pieces like the totally awesome "Die By The Gun", the even more ferocious "Think Brutal", or the stinging, short title track are kickin' showcases for catchy but thunderous riffing, neck-snapping solos and raw drumming. Ballads are done right this time around, like with the downbeat but nice-sounding "Three Words" or the similar "Past Due". But like the last album, there are a few minor snags to be found here. Just two songs, the oddly-titled "?" and "Faith Healer", while not bad particularly, come off as too unmemorable and repetitive, respectively. Also, Paul shows us yet again that he, for some reason, doesn't know how to end an album proper. "Menace" end with "City of Fools", a rap song. I not even fucking kidding. I'm sure this was meant to end the album on a light-hearted note with the "Hey! Ho!" gang vocals and blast-beats, but even with the guitarwork to be found here, I just have to scream NO! The fuck were they thinking, breaking the pace and mood like that? The mixture of rap and metal even kinda makes this song an early nu metal composition. BOO!!! Five Finger Death Punch go home!

Overall, this album is great. The super-heavy, raw bass and drumwork and Di'Anno's vox really shine here. The songs are cool in one way or another, although some are a bit unmemorable, and the goofy finale is a bit of mood-killing head-scratcher. Well worth a check though.