Shane’s Rock Challenge: BADLANDS – 1989 – Badlands

Shane’s Rock Challenge: BADLANDS – 1989 – Badlands
By Shane Pinnegar
7.5/10

Coming out of a celebrated stint as Ozzy Osbourne’s guitar slinger , Jake E Lee wasted no time after being fired by Sharon Osbourne (by telegram, no less) and assembled a hard blues outfit to showcase his playing. Importantly, Badlands quickly became a band, with ex-Black Sabbath singer Ray Gillen and drummer Eric Singer (deliberately to taunt the Osbournes?) and bass player Greg Chaisson all pulling more than their weight to become greater than the sum of their parts.

This whole album kicks like a mule, propelled jointly by Lee’s searing bluesy licks, and Gillen’s soulful vocals. High Wire, Devil’s Stomp, Winters Call, Seasons – they’re all excellent songs, and despite the band not having a distinct enough identity to crossover to the mainstream, they managed to sell almost half a million copies of this record and remain strong favourites with many hard rockers to this day.

 

Category: Shane's Rock Challenge