CD REVIEW: SCORPIONS – Return To Forever

Shane | 5 March 2015 | Reply

CD REVIEW: SCORPIONS – Return To Forever
Sony
20 February, 2015
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
9/10

For a band who retired a couple of years ago, German legends Scorpions are not only unusually busy, but also in rare form.

This album, their eighteenth studio album over a stunning fifty-year career, sees them reworking some outtakes from their most commercially successful period in the ‘80s (specifically the Blackout, Love At First Sting, Savage Amusement and Crazy World albums), as well as pitching in with some brand new material in the same vein.

By playing to their strengths, they’ve created an album that transports the listener back to the band’s glory days, and the glory of ‘80s hard rock itself.

It’s all here: Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs’ savage guitar work, Klaus Meine’s uniquely strangled vocals, and a rhythm section to die for in new boys James Kottack and Pawel Maciwoda: pretty much everything you could want in a Scorpions album.

New tracks Going Out With A Band and We Built This House are very autobiographical, reflecting on the band riding the renewed wave of interest and success the past few years have brought them.

Older numbers such as Rock My Car, Catch Your Luck And Play, House Of Cards and Rock n’ Roll Band all do what the band do best: rock hard with enormous choruses and soaring melodies and solos.

Return To Forever is also a return to form for Scorpions, and guaranteed to please any fan of ‘80s hard rock.