BOC & Challengers of the Unknown -Club Ninja Debate is

[Ted Jackson jr. EL84]

>> From:          Andrew Gilham <Andy_Gilham at MSN.COM>

> > Historically CN will be looked upon a bit more favorably I believe.
>
> Jeez, how long do you want for history to make its judgement?  :)
>
> Surely, in hindsight _CN_ is *still* a patchy AOR album, whereas the early
> albums are seminal metal classics.
>
> You'll have noticed that the quotes in _Challengers..._ were all from the
> first three.
>
> - Andy
>
My take on CN is that it would have been an impressive album by any
band other than BOC, whose own lofty achievements in the past have
rendered it one of their worst albums.  The outside songs are, for
the most part, lame, and the absence of Allen and Al makes the record
sound like another band alltogether.  Granted, any album with BD's
gtr playing all over it can't be all bad, and he and EB contribute
plenty of good vocals as well.  If Al had still been around, I wonder
if tunes like 'Make Rock...' and 'Beat 'em Up' would have been
included.  Not to say that Al's taste is perfect, but even his odd
songs have a certain quality that makes them acceptable:  a tongue in
cheek humor that isn't the case in the two aforementioned songs.
Notice how immediately after Al's departure, the appearance of songs
like that and 'Let Go' on tRBN begins to happen.  Probably meant to
be jokes, but they aren't all that funny,,,
theo