ANGEL "Angel & Helluva Band"

US Released : BG0716

STOCK STATUS: IN STOCK - ships in 1 day

Click song title to play

 

TRACK LISTING - Angel

1. Tower
2. Long Time
3. Rock & Rollers
4. Broken Dreams
5. Mariner
6. Sunday Morning
7. On & On
8. Angel (Theme)

 

TRACK LISTING - Helluva Band
1. Feelin' Right
2. Fortune, The
3. Anyway You Want It
4. Dr. Ice
5. Mirrors
6. Feelings
7. Pressure Point
8. Chicken Soup
9. Angel Theme

ANGEL:

Frank DiMino (vocals)

Punky Meadows (guitar)

Mickey Jones (bass)

Greg Giuffria (keyboards)

Barry Brandt (drums)

 

Produced by: tbd

Engineered by: tbd

Mixed by : tbd

Mastered by: tbd

 

Digitally remastered reissue edition of the first two Casablanca Records albums. A sensational live act, Angel were a firm favourite on the concert circuit. Original albums date from 1975 and 1976. Angel was a '70s heavy metal band based on the East Coast featuring singer Frank DiMino, guitarist Punky Meadows, and keyboard player Greg Giuffria. They had their biggest success in 1978 with the album White Hot, which featured their Top 50 cover of "Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore." The group broke up after the release of Can You Feel It, but had their work repackaged in several different collections, including 1999's One Track Mind. Angel's later releases were given over entirely to the sort of pomp and glam excess that made them a virtual spot-on blueprint for 80s hair metal, and their self titled debut certainly has Queeny guitar and shrill hair-sprayed aggression in abundance on numbers like "Rock and Rollers." But from the opening notes of "Tower," there's a curious admixture of progressive rock, almost entirely due to Greg Giuffria's contributions of harpsichords, piano, and Mellotrons. Like many first albums, this one is in some ways more interesting than the more Angelic follow-ups, simply because it shows as much what routes they did not follow as which ones they did. Despite their dated white polyester clothes and androgynous makeup, Angel had surprising talent and range for a group whose initial purpose was to be some sort of divine answer to Kiss. That being said, their sound was far from original and was highly derivative of other top acts of the time, including Kiss themselves. So on Helluva Band you get the Queen-like "Feelin' Right," the Emerson, Lake & Palmer-meets-acoustic-Yes of "The Fortune," and the Boston boogie of "Anyway You Want It." The rest is poppy and commercial rock, which was more accomplished than the gender-bending glam metal that would follow them in the '80s. Helluva Band has some intriguing moments, especially from progressively minded keyboardist Gregg Giuffria.