So Phoenix, Arizona has produced one of my favourite bands of all time – Icon. Their 1985 album Night of the Crime qualifies into my top ten albums of all time. It seems the 80s metal scene in Phoenix had even more to offer. I had never heard of Rip N Tear before getting that Demon Doll Records/Metal Legacy Records newsletter in early 2020 presenting this band I knew nothing about and had never heard of. To be honest, there is not much info to find on the band. What I do know is that it was made up of lead vocalist Jim Seagrave, Fred Robinson and Mark Parks on guitar, Randy Bush on bass and drummer was Chris Casey. It seems they put out a cassette album locally in the late 1980s called Hard Love. That’s about what I know about these guys.
So what is on this remastered reissue from Rip N Tear? What you get is a blast from the past and some late 80s hard rock – the way that they don’t make it anymore. The most negative thing I can say about this album is that it only contains eight songs. The opener is also my favourite, song called “Fight”. It has all the features you want from a big rock song – the hooks, the gang like vocals and a punchline to stick in your head for a while. This song could easily have been a huge hit back in the day when MTV really played music and not the rubbish reality crap they broadcast today. This was produced back in the day when rock was big and the music was fun and that’s what Rip N Tear were all about. You get three more mid-tempo rockers “Home Late Again”, “All Over Town” and “Watch Her Walk” The latter starts up with a kinda funny conversation, all about the unresponsible, partying rockstar that does not come home until the day after and the girlfriend having enough of it.
After that, we go on to“Oh No, I Got Zero” which is a reggae song and just utter rubbish so let’s just forget about that one. What hits your ears after that filler is a heavy riff courtesy of Robinson/Parks with some really cool high pitched screams from Seagrave. We are talking about the title track called “Hard Love”. It’s a really heavy and catchy song that is definitely a highlight on this disc. The album rounds off with the more mellow “She Cried” (even though I am not a big fan of that saxophone!) which is as close to a ballad you get here and the heavy rocker “When You Calm Down” which rounds the album off. With “When You Calm Down” my fist is back in the air and my kids kindly point out to me I shouldn’t scream “When You Calm Down” just that loud. This album was a real surprise to me and proves there are still gems out there for the reissue labels to find. The sound quality of the songs are top-notch for being an 80’s recording with temporary production.
It’s a bit of a mystery why there are not more songs included on this album or maybe Rip N Tear did not record any more material? From the original cassette release, there are only eight songs and no bonus tracks seem to have been included. Demon Doll has of late become a bit too picky for my taste that all the material has to be up to par and all that blah blah blah. Bonus tracks does not have to be from DAT or CD in my opinion. I might be out on a limb here because I have no idea if there even was more material available. The release would also have benefited from some kind of band bio as most of us wouldn’t know who these guys were or even that the band existed.
Still a great find and I have to give this release 7/10 geeks. What lowers the grade a bit is that the number of songs are on the low end for an album and that the packaging could have been more informative. That being said, if you are a fan of Dokken, Quiet Riot or maybe Twisted Sister you should definitely check these guys out!
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Mikael Svensson
Also, find more of my CGCM reviews here: Mikael Svensson
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