Customer Reviews
They screwed Schenker on this one, but he's still The Man!
BUT. This is a misrepresented CD;Schenker put his trust in Kulick and was shafted. . . let me say this about Schenker. I had a compadre,a guitar player that had never heard Michael before,and he saw this laying about and stuck it in his personal CD player. . . and I didn't get it back 'till 3 days later. PROOF that everything he does has musical,guitar God merit.
Having said that,buy any OTHER CD by Schenker first and this one last.
The band sounds like a sophmoric cover band,only MS shines. . .
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Is This "MSG" "Michael Schenker" or ????
Like so many other old time Rockers his guitar playing shows absolutely no sign of wear or tear. We need to give Michael Schenker credit for staying busy. He does however show a lack of better judgement with this "Heavy Hitters" release.
The name calling blame game over wether this was a legitimate release with Michaels permission does not matter !!
Heavy Hitters was released and should be evaluated on its own merits not on the merits of people in management behind the scenes. Now that the piont has been made, lets talk about this Cd.
It features a solid line up of musicians that offer us fine performances. The recording and production values are solid overall {still room for improvement}.
Michaels guitar work is explosive and defined. It has all this going for it "yet" it fails to live up to its potential.
Michael Schenker is an awesome talent, so why does every lead solo he plays sound so similiar to the one before it. He is supposed to accurately duplicate the fine guitar playing of the original artist. He doesn't even come close and what's worse is his lack of respect towards the original guitarist. It is bad enough that he should neglect to capture the style of the original artist "but" he also neglects to change his tone settings for each of these songs. It sounds as if Michael came in to record his parts after everybody else was through. He plays like someone on short notice. His solos sound rushed and uneventful. Michael should have payed closer attention to dulpicating the style and sound of the original guitarist. The whole piont of doing cover songs is to do justice to the workings of the original.
The same holds true for the drummers, bassist, keyboardist and vocalist who decide to record cover songs. Keep it real and play it true !!!! Michael Schenker did this for the money. Pure and simple.
Even with its many faults "Heavy Hitters" does offer some solid stuff here and there.
A few of the more decent versions are:
Blood Of The Sun, Doctor Doctor, War Pigs, Money, and Politician.
If your really interested in hearing how cover songs should be played then pick up a copy of Pat Travers "Power Trio" Cd or Styx "Big Bang Theory".
Final thoughts: We sould be thankful that he chose not to pay tribute to such great artist as the Beatles, Led Zepplin, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendix, or Steppenwolf. If he played them the way he played these it would have been an abomination.
Mr. Schenker, you are a true talent and a guitar vituoso so please keep it real next time around "okay" ?.
Wow, another album of covers, what a surprise!!
No one should care how great the covers sound, stuff like this gets old real quick to anyone who ever listened to Schenker. Awesome line-up of talent, lack of effort by not writing/creating/producing new material. It was because of his originality and creativity that made him the guitar hero he is/was. Listening to this (and his other covers) is like microwaving a frozen dinner. The food's already there & prepared. . . just needing to be heated. Try something unique. . an entire album of original material.
. You can see a complete list of all Michael Schenker Group discography, or go back to the Michael Schenker Group tabs
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