Uli Jon Roth: Scorpions Revisited – Volume 1

A new slant on 70s Scorps.

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This could easily have become a wallow in nostalgic mud, and sunk under the weight of the originals. But Uli Jon Roth has brought so much joy and style to these 70s Scorpions songs that they take on a new life.

He has meticulously delved into the band’s catalogue, of which he was a crucial part, and manages to both bring back the memories of those glory years while also making the music work in a modern context.

The choice of songs varies from the obvious – The Sails Of Charon, Polar Nights, We’ll Burn The Sky – to the slightly more obscure – Crying Days, All Night Long, Drifting Sun – and throughout, Roth’s playing is a virtuoso joy.

He’s also assembled a band to do justice to these songs, with vocalist Nathan James really showing some Meine-esque chops. Shame he didn’t tackle He’s A Woman, She’s A Man, but you can’t have everything!/o:p

Malcolm Dome

Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021