voila_la_scorie This is the third and final album by Mother's Army, a band that is hailed as a progressive rock super group on Wikipedia. I disagree with the prog label but the album does rock. "Fire on the Moon" is heavier than the last and the vocal harmonies have been traded in mostly for Joe Lynn Turner's rough rock vocal.

As I wrote in my review of "Mother Earth" the second album, that album is slow and ponderous at times. This album picks up the pace and gets raunchier in the guitar quarters. Gone are the slow songs of approaching environmental doom. There's a more sinister sound to some of the songs like "Moruroa Atoll" and the title track really has guts.

The lyrics, like the music, pick up the tempo. Joe Lynn Turner sounds like himself and really lets loose on some tracks. Jeff Watson gives more heavy grind from his guitar and the drumming by Aynsley Dunbar rocks and rolls with the music with more energy than what Carmine Appice provided for the slower previous album. My only gripe might be that the sound is not as clean as on the previous album. It is a bit muddy, like the bass was recorded on lo-fi almost. But other than that, for a good hard rock album this one does rather well.

MMA classifies this as hard rock and that's what you should expect. However, this is not KISS or AC/DC. There's still a menacing metal edge to some of the songs. True, there are lighter moments to be found here and there, but overall, Mother's Army have shot from the gut on this album.

voila_la_scorie To add to my Deep Purple Family collection a few years ago, I tracked down and ordered a couple of Mother's Army CDs because Joe Lynn Turner (DP mk.V) was the vocalist. When I looked at the band line-up, however, I thought that this should be one heck of an album: Bob Daisley-bass, Jeff Watson-guitar, Carmine Appice-drums.

Wikipedia lists Mother's Army as a progressive rock band, though if you ask me they are only sniffing around the perimeters of prog. The songs follow a medium tempo, sometimes with heavy, ponderous guitars, other times with clean electric guitars and some keyboards. JLT takes the lead vocals whenever his rough rock voice is required, but often the band take a gentler approach and go for vocal harmonies. There might be some evidence of a prog touch in the way I find there is only some evidence of prog on albums by Threshold, except Threshold usually have a song or two up to 10 minutes long per album and Mother's Army do not. There are some songs with a change in the rhythm and tempo, taking them slightly beyond the standard rock format. But they are a long way from being really a prog band.

For that matter, even though there is a lot of heavy guitar here, they are also a ways off from being a metal band, too. Perhaps in 1984, my friends and I might have been excited about finding a good melodic metal band, but in these modern times Mother's Army aren't heavy enough. So you have an album that's not quite metal enough and not quite prog enough. So, how about the music?

I had to listen to it five or six times before I could really start to pick out songs I like. My first impression is that this album is like the debut album of a band recording on a budget. The particular skills of each member don't really shine through except maybe Daisley's bass, which is thanks to the clear recording of the bass track. Joe Lynn Turner sings with moderated energy and many tracks are vocal harmonies rather than a solo vocal, as I said. I would have expected more energetic drumming from Carmine Appice or more remarkable guitar work from Jeff Watson but overall I think any of the members could have been substituted with some no-name up-and-comer and the album wouldn't have sounded much different. I haven't heard the debut, but perhaps they were going more for style and atmosphere than a talent show. That actually might be the good point: the album focuses more on song writing and music rather than being a showcase for each member.

If the band was going for a certain mood, though, I'm afraid I find it a little bit of a sleeper. The lyrics about environmental doom and the hippy-ish lyrics about wealth being unnecessary sound unoriginal now. In fact, on some songs if you replace Mother Earth with God or Jesus you would have an album by a Christian rock band.

If you are into something heavy but not really aggressive and light but not pretty and don't mind hearing about how modern life is killing the planet, then give it a listen. I'd say start with "Circle of Hands" and "One Common Law" to get a feel for the album.