{"id":4751,"date":"2011-11-04T00:00:34","date_gmt":"2011-11-04T00:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=4751"},"modified":"2013-06-01T14:05:54","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T14:05:54","slug":"album-review-scorpions-comeblack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-scorpions-comeblack\/","title":{"rendered":"SCORPIONS – Comeblack (2011) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCORPIONS
Comeblack<\/strong><\/span>
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\nSony Music Entertainment (2011)<\/span>
Rating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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In the midst of their farewell tour, rock legends the Scorpions took some time to re-record seven of their biggest hits and six songs that influenced them. The result is Comeblack<\/em>, and will likely be the band\u2019s final studio offering. As a fan of reissues, re-recordings, and deluxe versions, I was fairly surprised to see this album. I have always felt that the Scorpions were great at capturing a special sound that was undeniably them. <\/p>\n

The album opens with \u2018Rhythm Of Love\u2019 and \u2018No One Like You\u2019. While these are two of my favourite tunes from the band, even I will admit that they sound lacklustre here. There\u2019s no real bite at all; they just sound tired, not being nearly as interesting as the original recordings. The clean sound actually takes away from them quite a bit. \u2018Winds Of Change\u2019 has the same problem; you just don\u2019t feel the moment like you did on the original recording. The originals had this fresh spark that drove them, while these songs sound technically great and extremely well rehearsed. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that the band falls flat all the way around though. \u2018The Zoo\u2019 sounds great, boasting a slightly bluesier swagger and some downright amazing lead guitar work that just drives the song to a whole other level. \u2018Blackout\u2019 benefits from the crisp production here as well. While I have always enjoyed this song, the original has a very muddled sound to it and here it is presented in a crystal clear fashion that lets each instrument really be heard. James Kottak\u2019s drumming is unbelievable on the re-recording as well, which takes the song to a better place. <\/p>\n

The second half of the album is cover songs and includes \u2018Tainted Love\u2019 (Gloria Jones), \u2018Children Of The Revolution\u2019 (T-Rex), \u2018Across The Universe\u2019 (The Beatles), \u2018Tin Soldier\u2019 (Small Faces), \u2018All Day And All Of The Night\u2019 (The Kinks), and \u2018Ruby Tuesday\u2019 (The Rolling Stones). This is where the listener really gets their money\u2019s worth. \u2018Tainted Love\u2019 sets its heavy groove down firmly, as if alerting the listener to the fact that the band is asking for their full attention! \u2018Children Of The Revolution\u2019 is another moment where guitarists Jabs and Schenker really shine. You can tell they love this song as it just melts the listener from start to finish. \u2018Across The Universe\u2019 and \u2018Tin Soldier\u2019 are solid and offer a different view of what makes the Scorpions tick, while \u2018All Day And All Of The Night\u2019 sounds like The Kinks on steroids. \u2018Ruby Tuesday\u2019 takes the album out on a high note, with a beautiful take on one of rock\u2019s most sacred songs. The band really gives it all here and the song just explodes, leaving you with nothing but good vibes as the album comes to a close. <\/p>\n

Overall, this is a hit and miss collection. Personally, I\u2019d have preferred to have had an album of covers as the re-recordings, for the most part, have nothing on their original counterparts. Still, it\u2019s nice to have something fun from the Scorpions during their final hours as I\u2019m sure many live recordings, greatest hits, and box sets will follow in the coming years. <\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCORPIONSComeblack Sony Music Entertainment (2011)Rating: 6\/10 In the midst of their farewell tour, rock legends the Scorpions took some time to re-record seven of their biggest hits and six songs that influenced them. The result is Comeblack, and will likely be the band\u2019s final studio offering. As a fan of reissues, re-recordings, and deluxe versions, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,257],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-scorpions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4751"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11979,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4751\/revisions\/11979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}