Year : 1985 (Retrospect Records Edition 2006)
Style : Melodic Heavy Metal , Melodic Hard Rock
Country : United States
Audio : 320 kbps + scans
Size : 98 mb
Bio:
Axtion was born in 1983, Columbus OH, with founding members: Randy Amos - vocals, Kevin Bell - bass guitar, Bruce Tarney - drums, John Pettibone - rhythm guitar, Darren Lazzari - lead guitar.Performing original songs, they combined powerful guitar-driven riffs with catchy vocal melodies, all atop a thunderous, gut-punching rhythm section.They embraced the high energy and FM radio suitability of the era of 80's metal.Axtion released "Look Out for the Night" in 1985.The album features Darren Lazzari and Michael Weldon on guitars, Randy Amos on vocals, Michael Brett on bass guitar and G.T. Mitchell on drums. Following a live EP, the band was disheartened by the lack of record label promotion and dissolved shortly afterward.The band played the Columbus circuit for little over a year, but our home was the historical Al Rosa Villa, where the band opened for Helix, Mark Chatfield’s “Rosie”, and a few others, along with several of their own shows, including the January ‘86 show and the recording of the Axtion Live LP. The band had a couple different line ups in Columbus and then another after relocating to Pittsburgh to record the “Look Out For The Night” LP. Axtion then became…Randy Amos-vocals, Michael Weldon-guitar, Michael Brett-bass guitar, G.T. Mitchell-drums, Darren Lazzari-lead guitar.Axtion only played the Pittsburgh circuit for a little over a year (strangely the same as Columbus) but opened for several national bands including: Stryper, Pat Travers, Autograph, Talas, Roughcutt, and Trouble, and received write ups in several national/international publications including Billboard, Rock Scene, Metal Edge, Hard Rock Video, Kerrang, Enfer, and several others...along with monthly write ups in Pittsburgh’s Steel City Rock Magazine. Axtion played to full houses over the Pittsburgh area from Jan ‘85 to Mar ‘86 including The Syria Mosque, Graffiti, Mancini’s, City Limits, The Decade, La Viva, and finally their farewell show at Steele Auditorium Cal St University, where Axtion’s Look Out For The Night was voted the second most requested song of 1985 by Cal St Radio 91.9 FM with nearly 1000 attending the farewell show.Many many thanks to all of you that made the Axtion years so very special, including the 2019 reunion shows, they will never be forgotten…and thank you to everyone who is onboard and supporting my new solo album.
Album:
Great debut albun in reissue from Retrospect Records.This band plays hard rock/heavy metal which may be likened to early Krokus.There’s quite a bit of slow stuff in this one, like the ballady ‘Hold Me Tight’ which reminds me ballads by Helix. This is as the name suggests a love song, with slow tempo and an oft repeated simplistic approach to guitar. In fact; I can’t get over how much this one sounds like Helix. Nothing too interesting in this one really, it’s a middle-of-the-road ballad that doesn’t blow you away like a good Paul Stanley one. I wouldn’t say that this Cleveland-based bands specialty is ballads, based on this, the only one they produced officially. I’m not sure if it was a record company stipulation that this ballad was included, or written, I guess I’ll probably never know. What I can say is that ballads are fun to write, and to play, and though I don’t hate this one, I just feel it could’ve been a little better or less reparative at least. Ballads are best when slightly less repetitive.More energetic stuff, and perhaps the band’s strength, lies in the hard rockin’ traditional rock numbers like the well-titled ‘Fury of the Tempest’ which I thoroughly enjoy. This number packs a punch, with squealing guitars and some good production hints which accentuate screams and give t that strong stereo edge. The title and chorus of course are very ‘metal’. Much the same can be said about the following track, ‘Precious Rock’ (excellent double entendre). I really the verse riff in this one. Its got that late 70s/early 80’s Judas Priest sound, almost proto-speed metal, with a distinct 70’s influence (remembering the 1985 release date). Seems like guitarists Lazzeri and Weldon came up with a good one, and decided to stick with it, as the riff is heavily repeated throughout the four minute song.Deeper material is evidenced in the title track, which couples some eerie wind blowing production, sustained keyboards and great acoustic trade offs in the intro, before punching into plugged in guitars. The lyrics are pretty much the classic metal ‘fear of the dark/night’ sorta thing, which I for one enjoy. There’s a cool lyric which says something dark like “Feel the heat off the crosses that burn”. A lot of dark poetic imagery like that: church bells, fear, the night taking its toll and that sort of thing, make for a dark number here, very ‘metal’ indeed. This one is certainly the epic of the album - why not, with the epic subject matter – at seven minutes. It’s largely slower in pace, but has some good screaming guitars and heavy, minor-laden riffs, with some good ideas on guitar harmonies.Other tracks like ‘Your Number’s Up’ have an almost Di’ Anno-era Iron Maiden feel to ‘em, with some force and energy being projected. There’s some cool guitar leads in this one that make it ‘jump out’ a bit. Good stuff. I also enjoy the thundering bass that cracks along underneath without needed to take too much attention. ‘Shoot the Stars’ is another hard rocker, this time round containing your typical uplifting, motivational brand of lyric.The album passes through your usual love ballad, rock anthem, fast/energetic number, darker song formula like so many others in this period/genre, but that’s something I enjoy; I’m not afraid to admit ‘im a ‘genre’ fan more than anything else. That said; this is one decent heavy metal album for a damn obscure act. Axtion is a band with a great name that takes there place along so many other bands from Middle America/The Midwest, or pretty much anywhere that isn’t the east or west coast that while playing great heavy metal, had little chance of success being located so far from the epicentres. I really like the style of album art used here, and can think of countless similar examples including Touched’s ‘Back Alley Vices’. Great stuff that goes along well with not only the albums title, but the bands overall sound, I think. Good collection of songs here, and I wouldn’t mind hearing more from these guys, but alas.
Line Up:
Randy Amos - Vocals
Darren Lazzari - Guitars
Michael Weldon - Guitars - See also: ex-N.M.E, ex-Angus Grimm
Michael Brett - Bass - See also: ex-N.M.E
G.T. Mitchell - Drums
+ guest:
Jim Pitulski - Vocals (Additional)
Production:
Recorded At – Audio Innovators
Mastered At – A&M Studios
Art Direction, Producer – Andrew Sands, Zyp Yusavage
Cover [Album Cover], Photography By – Marciana Rossi
Cover [Back Cover], Photography By – Ken Holida
Design Concept [Album Cover Concept], Design – Andrew Sands
Engineer – Richard Piatt
Engineer [Assistant] – Bob Marion, Doug Suhr
Executive-Producer – Jim Pitulski
Image Editor [Photo Re-Touching] – Bob Jakub
Make-Up, Hair – Celeste Garofalo, Lisa Halkovitz
Management – Jim Pitulski Productions, Inc.
Model [Front Cover Model] – Shelley Shaw
Producer – Darren Lazzari, Richard Piatt
Written-By – Darren Lazzari (tracks: 1 to 5, 7 to 9)
Tracklist:
01. Road Runnin' 04:05
02. Spread the Axtion 03:23
03. Hold Me Tight 04:44
04. Fury of the Tempest 05:18
05. Precious Rock 03:59
06. Look Out for the Night 07:13
07. Your Numbers Up 03:06
08. Shoot for the Stars 06:23
09. Stand Up! (For What You Believe In) 04:01
Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/
