Reviewed - 07/26/04

Time Machine
[Relentless Records]

In the promotional material that I got for Villain's "Time Machine" album, it stated that the original pressing of this 80's metal bands' album was catching up to $400.00 on Ebay. Funny that, since I've never heard of them before, nor have I ever heard anyone else talk about them. I'm assuming most people reading this will be in the same boat as me in being totally clueless about this band, so let's delve a bit into the various aspects of the band and this album.

First off, Villain is an early/mid 80's metal band from where else but California. Like there were bands from anywhere else at the time. Anyway, their musical direction seems to be along the lines of the more melodic and traditional bands of the time. You know, bands like Dokken and Saxon and such. I also hear a bit of Mercyful Fate in the guitar melodies, but I'm sure that was unintentional on their part. Some parts of "Time Machine" get a bit on the speed metal side, but for the most part they are more subdued even including a lot of metal ballad type of structures within their songs. You'll also find a healthy dose of rather good guitar solos and anthem style songs that I'm sure went over well live back in the day. The thing is there's nothing really that unique about this band's sound. I've never heard of Villain before, but I feel like I have because back when this album came out, the scene was saturated with other similar bands.

The lyrics are sung in and written in English and deal with the oh-so-cliche theme of being out and living life on the "streets". Young teeny angst-ridden lyrics about the street just never seemed to go over with me well since most of the bandmembers that wrote these songs came from upper middle class white families with nice houses. Anyway, for what they are, the lyrics are written fairly well. The vocalist is Carl Albert, who after doing a short stint with Villain went on to join Vicious Rumors. Sadly, during the time I spent researching the band for this albums' review, I found out that Carl died in 1995 in an automobile accident. His vocals on "Time Machine" really remind me of Don Dokken a lot mixed with maybe a bit of John Bush Armored Saint era styled vocals. When he's singing the few ballads on the album, he's a bit too melodramatic sounding to me, but the rest of the time his vocals shine. He was obviously a talented vocalist, and it's a shame he's passed on.

For an album recorded in 1985, the production is remarkably good. Really, this sounds so good, I wouldn't have been surprised at all if it had been released in 2004. I'm sure it was remastered, but even taking that into consideration the production is outstanding.

The layout and packaging of the re-release is great. The cover art is kind of bland, but it's colorful so it's no big deal really. The booklet also contains a slew of photos of the band from back in the 80's, as well as all of the lyrics that are printed in an easy to read font style. The logo is a bit cheesy, but it was the 80's. Cheese was good then.

After all is said and done, I feel this is a good album, but it's nothing I haven't heard before. Even thinking back to the time when this album was released, at least ten other bands that sound like Villain come to my mind. Two cool things on the album people might want to take notice in is that they do a kick ASS version of Queen's "Tie Your Mother Down", plus the last seven tracks on the album are rare live and rehearsal tracks. If you are looking for older 80's metal that is really heavy, it'd be best to stay away from this album. But if you're looking for something along the lines of early Dokken or Armored Saint, you might just love this album to death. Why go out and buy the 80's retro bands to get your 80's metal nostalgia flowing when you can get the real deal obscure 80's bands now newly released on CD format? These true 80's bands are ten times better than the retro bands of today.