Kane Roberts-Kane Roberts

Yesterrock/ Universal
2012



This re-release should make fans of Kane Roberts quite happy. This is especially true if you have held off on picking up this release thanks to the outrageous price on sites like Amazon ($90 for this album! Really?) and Ebay. For those of you out of the loop Kane Roberts is mostly known for his work with Alice Cooper. As Alice's guitar player he performed on the albums “Constrictor” and “Raise Your Fist To Hell” as well as performing live on the tours for those albums. After deciding to strike out on his own Roberts released this self-titled solo album in 1987. The album appears to have already been re-released once and although I can't be certain of it this particular re-release does sound as if Yesterrock/ Universal has added an improved sound to spice things up. Musically this falls somewhere between hard rock and 80's radio rock. "Rock Doll" comes off like a leaner and meaner (and certainly tougher) Warrant while "Woman On The Edge Of Love" is Survivor if Survivor had been a heavy metal band. "Triple X" has that hard rock/glam metal feel and even if the lyrics are overly sexist and drenched in 80's imagery it is still a nice foot-stomping rocker. "Gorilla" shows off some of Kane's superb guitar skills. Incidentally Kane handles all of the guitar work on this album as well as playing keyboards and of course providing lead vocals. Drums were performed by Victor Ruzzo while the bass duties were handled by Steve Steele. "Outlaw" is more 80's hard rock and that brings up one point about Kane's self-titled release which might end up being a problem for some listeners. The album is incredibly dated. From the lyrics to the music itself it all comes rolling out screaming "I am a product of the eighties boys and girls!" While the album still sounds good as a whole it hasn't aged well. Despite that revelation tracks like the softer "If This Is Heaven" and the hard and heavy cruncher "Out For Blood" are certainly entertaining. "Out For Blood' is muscle bound metal not unlike something Manowar would pen. Speaking of which the song “Full Pull” was penned by Alice Cooper. With that knowledge it would be easy enough to imagine Alice himself singing it. "Full Pull" is a fun little number even if it is somewhat cheesy. Obviously Kane ended up repaying Alice the favor as in 1989 he played guitar on Cooper’s "Trash" album. The song “Bed Of Nails” had Kane's trademark guitar written all over it while “Trash” saw Alice embracing the sounds of 80's hard rock in all it's glory thanks in no small part to Robert's involvement. Back to this album though and "Too Much (For Anything To Touch)" is a rather decent attempt at straight ahead rock while "Tears Of Fire" comes of as a shade too AOR for it's own good. The record ends with another Survivor on steroids track by way of "A Strong Arm Needs A Strong Heart". After this record "Saints And Sinners“ was released by Kane in 1991. So far a rumored third solo album (started supposedly In 2006 by Kane) has yet to be released. Roberts has managed to keep himself fairly busy though. In additional to appearing on numerous albums as a guest musician he formed the band Phoenix Down in 1999. They released the one album “Under The Wild Sky”. He also has been hard at work as a graphic designer and programmer for various video games. This re-release as stated should be a joyful thing for Kane Roberts fans who have been left out in the dark thanks to high secondary market prices. It is due for release on April 20th and as it is a Yesterrock/Universal release you should have no doubt of the quality of the product.