Year : 1988-1989 (Loudworks Records Edition 2000)
Style : Melodic Hard Rock
Country : United States
Audio : 320 kbps + scans
Size : 168 mb
Bio:
Badlands was a band founded by former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee and former Black Sabbath members Ray Gillen and Eric Singer. Badlands also featured bassist Greg Chaisson. After the first Badlands album, Eric Singer was replaced by Jeff Martin. The group lasted from 1988 to 1993 and released two albums, Badlands (1989) and Voodoo Highway (1991) before Gillen left and was replaced by singer John West from New York. Ray's death in 1993 effectively ended any hopes of re-uniting the project. The album Dusk (a demo recorded in 1992 - 1993) was posthumously released in 1998.After touring with Ozzy Osbourne in support of the Ultimate Sin album, Lee was fired in a telegram from Sharon Osbourne while working on one of his muscle cars back in Los Angeles. Lee was completely caught off guard at the time of his firing as he was under the impression he had a solid working gig with the Osbourne camp. Wishing to distance himself as much as possible from his former boss, he set about looking for a charismatic front man with which to launch a new band. He found just that when he met Ray Gillen, a struggling vocalist who had just been separated from Black Sabbath after a short time. Within weeks, the duo had enlisted bassist Greg Chaisson, whom Lee had met during an Ozzy audition. According to Lee, Greg was dismissed from the audition before he had the chance to set up his equipment. Ozzy told him to leave because he showed up for the audition wearing sweat pants. Gillen’s former Black Sabbath bandmate Eric Singer on drums. With melodic sensibilities and solid chops, each member of the band proved a cornerstone creatively, while presenting energetic live shows with flawless musicality.The band released Badlands in June 1989 to good reviews. The band released videos for the songs "Dreams in the Dark" and the Zeppelin-like "Winter’s Call," and both enjoyed decent airplay on MTV. This boosted the album to its peak on Billboard’s album charts at no. 57.Eric Singer soon quit Badlands and later joined Paul Stanley's solo club band which later earned him a new job with KISS following the death of drummer Eric Carr. Badlands picked up Jeff Martin, former vocalist for Racer X and band mate of Greg Chaisson's in Phoenix-based bands Surgical Steel and St. Michael, to take over on drums, and the band released Voodoo Highway in 1991. However, Badlands was slowly breaking apart at the seams. During the recording process, Lee accused Gillen of conspiring with their label to push the band in a more commercial direction. This subsequently led to Gillen being fired. However, since a tour of the UK had already been booked, the vocalist was temporarily re-admitted for its completion. Unfortunately, this wasn't well-publicised in the UK press and the tour attendance was possibly affected.While Voodoo Highway was being recorded and produced, band tensions began to rise. Among other things, the band refused to cooperate with Atlantic Records, who demanded a songwriter (Desmond Child) be hired to help write songs with the band, with Lee stating that the band would "rather make money touring than releasing an album [they] did not believe in." Meanwhile, Gillen had been writing his own material that the band could supposedly use and had called Atlantic to tell them he had completed three or four songs that all had potential to be hits. However, after he presented these songs to the band, Gillen found his bandmates unwilling to record them. Gillen then called Atlantic again, attempting to convince the label to pressure the band into recording his songs. The band continued to refuse, claiming the songs were of an average standard.Due to this band drama, as well as changes in the musical climate at that time (the fizzling out of heavy metal, and subsequent rise of alternative rock), Atlantic subsequently dropped them shortly after their second album was released. In addition, the dispute over the recorded Gillen material led him to quit the band with claims that Lee was a lazy musician, unlike his former band mate Tony Iommi. Lee hired Debby Holiday from the band Stiletto to replace Gillen on their UK tour; however, Badlands drafted Gillen back in to complete the tour before he officially exited the band.
Album:
Awesome hard rock act BADLANDS was a band founded by former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee and former Black Sabbath members Ray Gillen and Eric Singer. Badlands also featured talented songwriter & bassist Greg Chaisson. Before being signed by a major label for the release of their 1989 self-titled LP, Badlands recorded a bunch of demos.As requested, here’s the “Demos & Unreleased 1988-1989” release on CD by San Marino based bootleg label Loudworks. The set include demos of songs that later ended into the first Badlands album, and songs never recorded that only exists in the demo form featured here. Sound quality varies, but it’s fine overall.It’s really great to hear Jake E. Lee’s raw guitar sound, licks & solos. What a terrific axeman he was. This is also interesting for hearing Gillen’s performance, and realize his takes for the final album were put with almost no effects. He roars as good as on the major label production & mix.
Line Up:
Ray Gillen - lead vocals, harmonica
Jake E. Lee - guitar, dobro, keyboards, percussion
Greg Chaisson - electric and acoustic bass
Eric Singer – drums
Tracklist:
01. Let It Bleed
02. Shake Down
03. The Last Time #1
04. Get Ready
05. Soul Lives in The Heart
06. In The Heat
07. Badland
08. Jade’s Song
09. Lord Knows
10. Reckless Child
11. Hard Driver
12. The Last Time #2
13. Rumblin’ Train
14. Devil’s Stomp
15. Seasons
16. Time Goes By
17. Want To Live With You
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