The good news is that Herr Michael Schenker, now 67 years old, is still playing like a demented Deutsch demon. His scintillating guitar solos, on practically every track here, are frankly breathtaking in their dextrous fluidity.
The bad news is that all too often the solos are rendered irrelevant due to an overbearing Eurovision heavy metal mentality, the main vocalist here – Ronnie ‘Rent-ADio’ Romero – dialling in an overwrought performance that is as efficient as it is soulless.
There’s even a stodgy tribute to the aforementioned Ronnie James in A King Has Gone. (But, really, lyrics such as ‘He gave us rock, he made us roll’ are exasperatingly awful.)
The high spots are Wrecking Ball and Yesterday Is Dead, where Michael channels his inner UFO to startling effect. No wonder he’s pictured on board a spaceship on the album cover.
