UMUR Draws a Circle is the 2nd full-length studio album by Danish hard rock/ heavy rock act D-A-D ( then called Disneyland After Dark). The album was released in in June 1987 by Mega Records. Draws a Circle was produced by Mark Dearnley, who had worked as a studio technician on "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC ( the sound is decent but nothing special).

The band started out playing something as unconventional and un-Danish as cowpunk on their debut album "Call of the Wild (1986)". The music on Draws a Circle still have more than a few traces of that style, but it´s on this album that D-A-D started playing hard rock/ heavy rock and tracks like "Isn´t That Wild", "I Won´t Cut My Hair" ( which would later appear on the US version of the band´s 4th full-length studio album "Riskin' It All (1991)") and "God's Favorite" are probably the best examples of that. As mentioned the band had not completely given up their country/ cowpunk sound yet though and the America cover "A Horse With No Name" ( which on a sidenote is excellent) and "Black Crickets" are examples of that style. The band also venture into gospel rock territory in the song "There's A Ship", so bearing the eclectic nature of Draws a Circle in mind the album will probably appeal the most to an open minded hard rock listener.

I think there are some absolutely lovely tracks on i>Draws a Circle like "Isn´t That Wild", "I Won´t Cut My Hair", "God's Favorite" and "A Horse With No Name", but infortunately not all tracks on the album reach the same high quality level and there are a couple of rather forgettable tracks on the album too. So somewhere between a 3 and a 3.5 star rating is warranted. I guess I´ll be a proud nationalist this time and give out a 3.5 star rating.

UMUR "Riskin' It All" is the 4th full-length studio album by Danish heavy/ hard rock act D-A-D ( then D.A.D.). The album was released in October 1991 by Medley Records. "Riskin' It All" was meant to be D-A-D´s big breakthrough in America ( the band even changed their name from Disneyland After Dark to D.A.D. to avoid possible lawsuits from the Disney corporation. They changed it again later to D-A-D) and the album was released in the USA through Warner Brothers. That marriage didn´t end happily though as D-A-D was fired by Warner Brothers as a result of poor sales ( well that was the labels opinion anyways). Other than the failed US adventure the album sold fairly well other places in the world though ( Scandinavia, mainland Europe and Japan).

The music style on the album pretty much continue the heavy rock/ hard rock style the band started playing on the preceeding album "No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims (1989)" albeit with a bit more commercial sensibility. The album spawned three "hit" singles in "Bad Craziness", "Grow or Pay" and "Laugh 'n' A 1/2". Thorleif Hoppe´s cartoonish music video for "Bad Craziness" is legendary. There are several hard rocking tracks on the album like "Bad Craziness", the title track ( the hardest/ most "metal" track on the album), "Makin' Fun Of Money" and "Rock 'n' Rock Radar", but the album also displays other sides of the band´s sound. For example "Grow or Pay" which is a power ballad type track, "Down That Dusty 3'rd World Road" that has the country type feel that the band were known for on their early albums and "Laugh 'n' A 1/2" which is a classic acoustic guitar rock ballad. All in all a quite varied album. As always with the humourous/ comical lyrics that D-A-D excel in.

The musicianship is excellent. I like how much room the two-string bass playing by Stig Pedersen is given in the mix, the solid drumming by Peter Lundholm Jensen, the attitude laden vocals by Jesper Binzer and the brilliant lead guitar/ twang guitar work by little brother Jacob Binzer.

The album is well produced by Nikolaj Foss, D.A.D. and Lars Overgaard. Lots of hard rocking power in that sound.

"Riskin' It All" ( while not as successful in the US as expected) did very well in cementing D-A-D´s position as the hardest rocking act from Denmark, and while the band have softened a bit over the years, playing more mainstream hard rock/ rock these days, no one has been able to claim the Danish hard rock throne since. I wouldn´t call "Riskin' It All" a flawless album by any means, but it´s an important album in my collection. About half of the tracks on this album are Danish hard rock classics while the rest are very enjoyable albeit a bit more standard in quality. A 3.5 - 4 star rating is warranted.

Time Signature Are we alive here...

Genre: alternative metal

Having released a post-punk/cowpunk album, a punk rock album, a heavy metal albums, and a hard rock album, D-A-D turn to alternative metal on this album, bbviously inspired by the grunge and alternative rock and metal waves of the time. "Helpyourselfish" is probably D-A-D's heaviest album and contains some of the bands, for my money, best works of their entire career. A lot of the tracks involve diminished and augmented chords which were reintroduced into popular rock music through the alternative rock, as well as groovier pentatonic and blue-note based riffs (which were emphasized by RATM, another important actor on the alternative metal scene). Production-wise, the album has a crisp, yet unpolished sound which suits the musical style very well.

I'd recommend this album to fans of 90s rock music, be it grunge, alternative metal, alternative rock, or noise rock, or even gothic metal. It's really an underrated album on the international scene of heavy music.

Time Signature Bad craziness...

Genre: hard rock / heavy metal

"Riskin' it All" does not really continue were "No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims" left off, as "Riskin' it All" is more of an AC/DC-esque hard rock album with heavy metla influences, while "No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims" was more of a metal album with hard rock elements.

Tracks like "Bad Craziness", "D-Law", "Rock 'n' Rock Radar", "Makin' Fun of Money", "Smart Boy Can't Tell Ya" and "Riskin' it All" are melodic and metallish hard rock tracks falling somewhere in between Guns 'n' Roses and AC/DC, while "Down the Dusty 3rd World Road" is a blues-spired track with an almost 50s-60s-ish twangy guitar sound, and "Grow or Pay" is a melodic power ballad (which, fortunately, lacks the cheesiness that was typical of power ballads of the 80s and ealy 90s).

I think fans of hard rock and traditional heavy metal will like this album, which is full of melodic hooklines (including D-A-D's trademark twang guitar melodies), but it probably will not appeal to those who prefer extreme metal.

Time Signature Sleeping my day away...

Genre: heavy metal

"No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims" is D-A-D's first proper metal album, and an old favorite of mine. Containing twelve hard rock and heavy metal albums, including the hit "Sleeping my Day Away", there are still some twang guitar soloes to be found, but other than that there are no traces of cowpunk or post-punk on this album. Actually, the twang guitar melodies work quite well against the backdrop of distorted heavy metal guitars.

"Jihad", "ZCMI", "True Believer", and "Siamese Twin" are uptempo heavy metal tracks with catchy 80s metal choruses. "Point of View", "Girl Nation", and "Lords of the Atlas" are more midtempo and more melodic tracks, containing a lot of catchy melodic hooklines. "Overmuch" is a catchy AC/DC-esque song, while "Rim of Hell" are slightly heavier "Wild Talk". "Ill Will" is the heaviest and hardest track on the album, which even contains some galloping guitar and other heavy metal klichés (come to think of it, it's probably me favorite track of the album).

I'd recommend this album to fans of traditional heavy metal, hard rock and glam metal alike.