Another of our favourite bands here at GDM are Los Angeles South Bay rockers Silent Rage.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Silent Rage
ALBUM: Shattered Hearts
LABEL: Chameleon
SERIAL: CHLP-3611 (LP), RR-417 (CD)
YEAR: 1987
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Timmy James Reilly – lead vocals, lead guitar * Mark Hawkins – guitars, guitar synthesizer, backing vocals * E.J. Curcio – bass, backing vocals * Jerry Grant – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Rich Young And Pretty * 02 Rebel With A Cause * 03 Shattered Hearts * 04 Sarina * 05 Fight For Rock * 06 Make It Or Break It * 07 Goodnight Lorraine * 08 Wanting You * 09 She Can Shake It * 10 You’re Not The First One * 11 Some Kind Of Woman
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
Another of our favourite bands here at GDM are Los Angeles South Bay rockers Silent Rage. Formed way back in 1985, the band are still existence, and at the time of writing this review, are about to launch their latest 2008 offering ‘Four Letter Word’ upon the masses.
However, we revert back 21 years and review their debut 1987 release ‘Shattered Hearts’. The band by this stage, had been picked up by AOR demi-god Paul Sabu, and he would go on to provide some songwriting and production for this much overlooked debut album.
Unlike their later efforts which ended up being very tough Californian metal in the vein of Y&T and Lion, ‘Shattered Hearts’ lies closer in spirit to AOR and melodic rock, one can assume the band being only two years old, still had a lot to learn with locking down their sound and style.
The Songs
A smattering of drums and a hard driving beat leads the way with ‘Rich Young And Pretty’. The lyrics are kinda corny but were par for the course back then. The first version of ‘Rebel With A Cause’ is heard on this album. Many of us prefer the version on their sophomore LP ‘Don’t Touch Me There’ – which had better production values.
The title track ‘Shattered Hearts’ has the Paul Sabu stamp of approval on it, whereas ‘Sarina’ has huge dollops of melody applied to it – the track has a nice sing-a-long quality to it as well! The Rage boyz let their hair down on the party-anthem of ‘Fight For Rock’ – it’s a raging track that will get the Friday night assembly rockin’ big time!
‘Make It Or Break It’ was a track the band placed on a Pure Rock compilation LP, which is how they opened doors to bigger things. It’s a pretty commercial track with a sub-strata of keyboards under the hood. The opening chorus to ‘Goodnight Lorraine’ reminds me of Charlie Cayte’s band Tour De Force, and proves to be a classy AOR tune all round. Who would’ve thought these guys had it in them?
Prowling the backstreets in the KISS like ‘Wanting You’. There’s a bunch of guitars that riff in a similar fashion, but the vocals are much better than Stanley or Simmons could ever supply. ‘She Can Shake It’ is a fun sort of listen, with big square wave synths and a vibe that could be best described as power pop on steroids!
‘Your Not The First One’ is unbelievably good AOR, with a heap of keyboards provided by Mark Hawkins. I wonder what would’ve happened if the band pursued this direction into the future? Who knows. ‘Some Kind Of Woman’ is another in the mould of AOR/hard rock, with keys again providing a melodic backdrop. It has a very British AOR feel to it from my way of hearing, All good stuff though!
In Summary
The following year in 1988, Gene Simmons had come out to L.A looking to sign up a few bands to his fledgling label Simmons Records. The two major benefactors were Silent Rage and House Of Lords.
While HOL would release their debut in 1988, Silent Rage would have to wait for another year, due to conflicts with Chameleon Records. Not helping matters was Simmons wanting to place a name change on the band.
However, the boys stuck with Silent Rage – for their classic 1989 release ‘Don’t Touch Me There’. Read more about Silent Rage via our articles listed below (click tag).
Silent Rage on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
