Nine live tracks, from last year’s European tour, plus a pair of in-the-studio cover tunes (BLACK SABBATH’s ‘Sign Of The Southern Cross’ and ‘Running Wild’ by JUDAS PRIEST). Only three of the selections are reprised from the classic Plug In & Hold On – Live In Tokyo, released two decades ago and this latest effort is a nice mix of old (going back to the initial pair of Shrapnel albums and two from the Razorback Killers CD they were pimping at the time. Sadly, there’s nothing included from the excellent Warball, easily their best effort since departing Atlantic Records, but then again, they were just the opening act. Didn’t matter to the rabid Euro-crowd, who recognize the opening strains of ‘Replicant’ right away. As on that revered Digital Dictator disc, the title track is followed by ‘Minute To Kill’. Only the opening twin leads of ‘Lady Took A Chance’, but it segues into ‘Down To The Temple’, mainstay guitarist Geoff Thorpe wildly soloing all over the place. ‘Abandoned’ is heavier than normal, thanks in part to Brian Allen, who possesses a more sinister tone than the smooth throated Carl Albert (RIP) who made many of these songs classics. There’s a little between song banter, much lead by Thorpe, particularly prior to ‘Let The Garden Burn’, a track originally written for the Germany’s Headbangers’ Open Air festival (undoubtedly included here as a peaen to the hardcore metalheads oversees), as it’s not one of their best, Allen yelping his head off, between calls for a circle pit. The concluding trio, a proto-thrash ‘Hellraiser’, the long forgotten ‘Soldiers Of The Night’ (which originally featured Vinnie Moore on guitar, alongside Thorpe, back in ‘86) and ‘Don’t Wait for Me’ is a slice of headbanging heaven, even with the over-the-top post-production crowds. Outside of the US west coast, it will be difficult to see domestic live dates, so this is the next best thing.
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