By the time Blood & Thunder was recording, the band has scaled down to a four piece with the departure of guitarist Laurie Mansworth. Also gone but replaced are drummer Frank Darch and singer Paul Mario Day. Day’s replacement is an unknown by the name of Mick Stratton and while the guy never went on to any kind of fame, he’s a pretty good singer with more of an AC/DC or Nazareth snarl.
The record sounds good and I’d dare say the band benefits from the changes. Guitarist Kenny Cox brings some solid riffage this time around and it keeps the whole thing chugging along. Sadly, this is nearly the end of the road as the band would fold before the close of 1982. There’s a CD reissue of this that has notes by some of band members and Mick Stratton recalls being flabbergasted when the album came out as he was not informed about the cover featuring just this photo of guitarist Kenny Cox. I don’t know why it cracks me up, but I’ve always took the statement like he knew the album was doomed at that very moment.
Original 1981 US release on Atlantic Records. This one came from a record show and had a bunch of permanent marker on the front when I found it. I used the dry erase marker trick and it worked, but there’s some shit on Kenny’s left eye because it. Like anyone else is going to give a fuck, haha! Record is otherwise pretty clean.
Comments
Post a Comment