On this album, Hurricane come along like a triple threat of AOR, hard rock and metal.
Written by: Dangerzone
ARTIST: Hurricane
ALBUM: Slave To The Thrill
LABEL: Enigma
SERIAL: 7 73577
YEAR: 1990
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Kelly Hansen – vocals, guitars * Doug Aldrich – guitars * Tony Cavazo – bass * Jay Schellen – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Reign Of Love * 02 Next To You * 03 Young Man * 04 Dance Little Sister * 05 Don’t Wanna Dream * 06 Temptation * 07 10,000 Years * 08 FX * 09 In The Fire * 10 Let It Slide * 11 Lock Me Up * 12 Smiles Like A Child
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
Formed in Los Angeles in 1983, Hurricane gained notice with two of its members, bassist Tony Cavazo and guitarist Robert Sarzo, brothers of more famous hard rockers Carlos Cavazo (Quiet Riot) and Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot, Whitesnake).
They released an E.P. ‘Take What You Want’ in 1985, followed by their first full length ‘Over The Edge’ in 1988. It was an above-average set of hard rock, quite superior to Motley Crue, Kiss and co at the time.
Sarzo quit soon after and was replaced by Aldrich, formerly of Lion. His addition helped Hurricane record their best album to that point, although it couldn’t match the top 100 position of ‘Over The Edge’ on Billboard. The album was produced by Michael James Jackson, who produced a few Kiss albums in the early 80’s, notably ‘Lick It Up.’
The Songs
On this album, Hurricane come along like a triple threat of AOR, hard rock and metal. Raucous opener ‘Reign Of Love’ has all three, a good melodic chorus with lashings of synths but rock solid riffs.
‘Next To You’ has more of the same – catchy, yet heavy. It’s an acquired touch, far more engaging than Skid Row or Dokken could ever have hoped to be. ‘Young Man’ has the metal attitude and riffing, very aggressive work from Aldrich. Classic non-grammatical lyrics like ‘he talk like the thunder’ further the cause.
‘Dance Little Sister’ is raunchy American hard rock, perhaps similar to 1990 era Warrant. The lyric ‘close my eyes and dream bout’ a special woman makes me want to cream’ is laugh out loud stuff. Doubled with a strutting, cornball riff, quite unbeatable. ‘Don’t Wanna Dream’ is the first ballad, but with more balls than some other major wimp outs of the time. Good clean harmonies dominate.
Side two follows the same suit as the first, crunching rockers like ‘Smiles Like A Child’ and ‘In The Fire’ with the odd power ballad, ‘10,000 Years’, thrown in. Overall it’s not as polished as the first half. Some problems with melody at fault. The line ‘she come back sorry, then she leave me again’ is the saving grace.
In Summary
The slight weakness of side two notwithstanding, this hit the shelves at the wrong time. With hard rock’s day almost up it went unnoticed. Causing more of a stir was the album cover, featuring a spread eagled woman about to be ‘injected’ by a mechanical device.
Strangely a copy I bought in New Zealand featured the original cover, yet the one I got in the States was the banned version (yes, I had the one with the girl on it too, sold it, damn.. Ed). Reviews were good, but the band soon split, due to a sadly dwindling hard rock climate.
Unexpectedly, Hansen revived the name in 2001, recruiting Schellen and some other faceless musicians for a new album ‘Liquifury’. Apparently it was more ‘modern’. ‘Nuff said. Aldrich can be heard on Dio‘s excellent 2002 album ‘Killing The Dragon’, far more like it.
Hurricane on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
