Through the Fire

by

Hagar, Schon, Aaronson, Shrieve

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After VOA and Three Lock Box, Hagar hooked up with Journey guitarist Neal Schon, himself having finished up with their album Frontiers. Along with Mike Shrieve and Kenny Aaronson, the four staged a series of live gigs (November 9-21, 1983) which was recorded live by the Westwood One Mobile Facility, the folks who work out the King Biscuit programs. The entire album is live, but was overdubbed later in a studio, mixing out the audience noise on 7 of the 9 tracks. The result sounds more distinct than a live album might, yet there is more edge and raw energy than a studio album usually has (King Crimson did this same thing on their Starless And Bible Black album). The Hagar touch is particularly evident on the cover of Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade Of Pale." Also of interest are tracks 3-5, which link up in an almost Progressive Rock fashion, contrasting the death-like state of a marriage-gone-infidelity ("Animation") to the state of the buried Pharaohs in Egypt ("Valley Of The Kings / Giza"). If you like Sammy Hagar, want to hear Neal Schon play hot Rock guitar, or just like catchy songs, this is worth the price!

Just found out recently that this is not a studio album but a live one. I finally pulled this out and listend today after aquiring this about two years ago. They play very good live but the songs are subpar in my opinion. It kind of sounds like a bad Sammy Hagar album without the hooks in the songs that I look for. Come on guys 5 stars???!!! It would have been good to see them make a few studio albums because they might have been even better. Schon is very very good playing live guitar like he always is. This cd just isn't up my alley like it is for some Amazon customers.