During my late teens, I usually didn't correlate musically with very many of my class mates. I do remember, though, that at some stage, I began listening to a young band called Skidrow, supposedly under the protective wings of Jon Bon Jovi. I was mostly into heavy metal, thrash and death, but there was something about this band that I liked instantly. Interestingly, after some time, most of my class mates in upper secondary school were hooked as well! 18 & Life and I Remember You (and not so much the harder songs of the album which I preferred) we listened to, oh, around a zillion times I believe on the school trip to Rome and other occasions where music could be fit into the agenda.
Since I found out that I was going to review this release, I've been revisiting those old releases as my pass-time activity whilst driving to work. It's been really nice to turn the clock back a couple of decades and sing along to those old hit songs.
And that is the kind of experience 'ABachalypse Now' offers you (very silly title, by the way); it's a trip down memory lane in the company of one of hardrock's finest voices and a couple of handfuls of songs by the band that made him famous as well as a few of his (lesser known) solo tunes.
The full release consists of a DVD and two CD's, and I've only had the opportunity to check out the CD material. The material on the CD's is taken from two concerts, one at France's Hellfest and the other from the Nokia Club in LA. There isn't much of a difference between the two sets, really, so you could argue that the two concerts plus other songs from other concerts could have been cut together, but there's probably a good reason for this. If nothing else, then at least you get proof that Bach can consistently deliver the goods, even 20 years down the line.
By the sound of it, Bach has a blast of a time on stage, as does the rest of the band. To put it plainly; the two concerts sound like true rock'n'roll parties - with a band that's ready to go and the songs to back them up. However cheesy it may sound, 18 & Life can still send a little bit of shiver down my spine when we get to that 'that child blev a child away' line, even if Bach doesn't deliver it note-perfect live. His heart seems to be in it, and for that he gets a lot of cudos from yours truly. A kick-ass release.
