The wait for a new MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP album – which will see contributions from Slash, Axl Rose and Stephen Pearcy – is almost over, yet while it’s still in the pipeline, a box set comprising the collective’s early output is scheduled for issue on March 28th. “Early” in this case means the four platters originally released soon after the band’s leader, the first German musician to become a star within an English ensemble, UFO, had left his brother’s project SCORPIONS and gathered a line-up on his own – the four platters recently remastered anew a fleshed out with additional material, with two bonus discs filled with rarities.
Is It Loud Enough?
Michael Schenker: 1980-1983
It needs to be said that initially what’s titled “Is It Loud Enough?” should have consisted of eight CDs, not six, and bear the legend “1980-1989” rather than “1980-1983” it has now, but somewhere along the way the plans were changed, although the collection’s quality remained the same, with each disc looking like a mini-LP where artwork, up to inner sleeves, is faithfully reproduced and all of them housed in a two-piece slipcase box alongside a 52-page booklet that includes new interviews with Michael Schenker, Gary Barden and Graham Bonnet, and extensive liner notes by Jerry Ewing. Most of the music may be available on separate editions of these records – only getting the albums within a single context must feel good.
CD 1 – The Michael Schenker Group (1980):
1. Armed And Ready
2. Cry For The Nations
3. Victim Of Illusion
4. Bijou Pleasurette
5. Feels Like A Good Thing
6. Into The Arena
7. Looking Out From Nowhere
8. Tales Of Mystery
9. Lost Horizons
CD 2 – MSG (1981):
1. Ready To Rock
2. Attack Of The Mad Axeman
3. On And On
4. Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
5. But I Want More
6. Never Trust A Stranger
7. Looking For Love
8. Secondary Motion
CD 3 – Assault Attack (1982):
1. Assault Attack
2. Rock You To The Ground
3. Dancer
4. Samurai
5. Desert Song
6. Broken Promises
7. Searching For A Reason
8. Ulcer
CD 4 – Built To Destroy (1983):
1. Rock My Nights Away
2. I’m Gonna Make You Mine
3. The Dogs Of War
4. Systems Failing
5. Captain Nemo
6. Still Love That Little Devil
7. Red Sky
8. Time Waits (For No One)
9. Rock Will Never Die (Walk The Stage)
10. I’m Gonna Make You Mine (US version)
11. Time Waits (For No One) (US version)
12. Systems Failing (US version)
13. Rock Will Never Die (Walk The Stage) (US version)
14. Red Sky (US version)
15. Rock My Nights Away (US version)
16. Captain Nemo (US version)
17. The Dogs Of War (US version)
18. Still Love That Little Devil (US version)
CD 5:
1. Just A Lover (1979 demo)
2. Looking Out From Nowhere (1979 demo)
3. Get Up And Get Down (1979 demo)
4. After Midnight (1979 demo)
5. Breakout (1979 demo)
6. Cry For The Nations (radio edit)
7. Armed And Ready (as featured in “Guitar Hero: Metallica”)
8. Dogs Of War (edit)
9. Never Trust A Stranger (monitor mix)
10. Let Sleeping Dogs Lie (Sounds flexi edit)
11. Girl From Uptown (single version)
12. Dancer (DJ 7″ edit)
13. Don’t Take It Out On Me (non-album track)
CD 6:
1. Let Sleeping Dogs Lie (rough monitor mix)
2. Attack Of The Mad Axeman (alt. version – monitor mix)
3. Never Say Die (live rehearsal take)
4. On And On (rough monitor mix)
5. Looking For Love (monitor mix)
6. But I Want More (rough monitor mix)
7. Girl From Uptown (alt. version)
8. Rock You To The Ground (rough alt. mix)
9. Ulcer (early studio take)
10. Captain Nemo (early studio take)
