{"id":14564,"date":"2021-02-18T05:00:32","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T05:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=14564"},"modified":"2021-02-14T19:22:17","modified_gmt":"2021-02-14T19:22:17","slug":"the-almighty-powertrippin-cherry-red-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=14564","title":{"rendered":"The Almighty – \u2018Powertrippin\u2019 (Cherry Red Records)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>With high profile tours and two well-received albums under their studded leather belts, Scottish rockers The Almighty found themselves at the pinnacle of the UK rock scene in the early \u201990s. Not a week would go by without singer Ricky Warwick\u2019s face peering moodily from the pages of Kerrang! or Metal Hammer. Leather jackets would be emblazoned with their skull & death wings logo at gigs, and hell, they even opened proceedings at Donington Monsters Of Rock \u201892. Their brand of dirty, biker rock n\u2019 roll crossed rock genres and their shows would attract as many Poison t-shirts as it would Motorhead and Metallica.<\/p>\n

But times they were a changin\u2019 by the early \u201990s, and the sound coming from Seattle was making waves across the world. An extensive tour with the up-and-coming Alice In Chains would inspire the band and take them in a heavier direction. Replacing original guitarist Tantrum with former Alice Cooper guitarist Pete Friesen would also mark a big change to the band’s sound and direction for album number 3.<\/p>\n

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With the onset of Grunge and having now found a new writing partner in Pete Friesen, Ricky Warwick and the boys relocated to a remote farm in Wales to write. Pete\u2019s use of drop d tuning would inspire new ideas and a heavier sound that would take the band away from their punk roots.<\/p>\n

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\u2018The Almighty\u2019s 3rd<\/sup> album \u2018Powertrippin\u2019 was released in April 1993 to rave reviews and would be their most successful release, reaching number 5 in the UK album charts. The first single \u2018Addiction\u2019 is the perfect example of where the band was heading. The one thing I remember from first hearing it is how heavy they sounded and how different the production values were compared to previous albums. Listening back now, to me those first two albums sound dated and \u2018of their time\u2019 (as many 80\u2019s rock albums now do due to that drum sound). Whereas \u2018Powertrippin\u2019 sounds…. massive! This is due in part to producer Mark Dodson who obviously pushed the band hard in the studio and got the most out of them.<\/p>\n

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Don\u2019t get me wrong, I love those first two albums, they had some great songs on there for sure, but\u00a0to me, The Almighty had now come of age and morphed into the band I wanted them to be. \u2018Powertrippin\u2019 has a heavier, edgier sound that is more in tune with the times, yet still retains killer melodies and catchy anthemic choruses.<\/p>\n

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The following two singles continued the theme. \u2018Over The Edge\u2019 with its instantly familiar picked riff and gargantuan, anthemic chorus is pure The Almighty, a full-force, rock machine. Whereas \u2018Out Of Season\u2019 is a more subdued, moody affair that nods its head to what was coming out of Seattle, in particular Alice In Chains. \u2018Sick and Wired\u2019 could’ve been a single and the emotive \u2018Jesus Loves You, But I Don\u2019t\u2019 surely should’ve been one. The title track is full of tribal beats and killer riffs, and that cool, effortless riff in \u2018Instinct\u2019 still gets me every time. Elsewhere, \u2018Eye To Eye\u2019 is a punchy closer, up there with the best. I can safely say there isn’t a bad track on \u2018Powertrippin\u2019 and it still sounds as fresh and vibrant today as it did in 1993.<\/p>\n