KROKUS – Alive And Screaming [Digitally Remastered reissue]

As requested, here we have the not so easy to find remastered version of KROKUS album ”Alive And Screaming”, with a noticeable improvement in sound dynamics. Recorded at their peak of popularity on their tour of the United States and Canada in 1986, Arista Records put everything on the table for the Swiss band here; a top producer, engineer &, mixer in Tony Platt (Shy, Foreigner, AC/DC, Cheap Trick), and ”the” mastering man, George Marino.
The result is a typical mid-Eighties polished, clean live recording with Krokus performing their biggest hits.

While at the time I already listened to Krokus on regular basis, I never heard the band alive, and ”Alive And Screaming’ was their first live LP, at the time some kind of a certificate that your band was successful, big enough to deserve a live album.

What attracted it to me was the cover. It’s a paint by artist Les Edwards. It is so creepy and sinister that it looked perfectly eerie and something I needed in my collection. The picture is taken from Edwards’ work ‘The Croglin Vampire’, and was also used as a bookcover for Best New Horror 1990, edited by Stephen Jones and Ramsey Campbell and published by Robinson.
Click here to see it in full size.

But then it was the music. For the live album, there are two changes in the line-up. You now have Tommy Keiser on bass and Jeff Klaven on drums. Otherwise, you still have Krokus core in Marc Storace on Vocals, Fernando von Arb on Lead Guitar, and Mark Kohler on Rhythm Guitar.
The band rocks hard with “Long Stick Goes Boom” taken from Krokus album ‘One Vice at a Time (1982)’, “Midnite Maniac” from ‘The Blitz (1984)’, and “Hot Shot City”, fron at the time newest album ‘Change of Address (1986)’.

But my absolute favorite is “Screaming in the Night”, easily the best Krokus song ever, and one of the greatest songs from the ’80s. This live version sounds incredible. It captures the magic of the album version and brings a new energy to the song. The sound / production is crystal clear and it’s everything you want in a live song.
And of course the live version of the classic “Headhunter” rocks. It is bombastic, loud, and so in your face. Marc Storace sounds amazing and the band is hitting on all cylinders. It is a raucous good time and they are just killing it.

As extra interest, Krokus added into the track list a song they never recorded before, the Bob Marlette-written “Lay Me Down”.
”Alive And Screaming” rocks hard, and even more with this punchy remastered sound.
Highly Recommended

01 – Long Stick Goes Boom
02 – Eat The Rich
03 – Screaming In The Night
04 – Hot Shot City
05 – Midnite Maniac
06 – Bedside Radio
07 – Lay Me Down (New Track previously unreleased)
08 – Stayed Awake All Night
09 – Headhunter

Marc Storace – vocals
Fernando von Arb – lead guitar
Mark Kohler – rhythm guitar
Tommy Keiser – bass
Jeff Klaven – drums, percussion
Jai Winding  – keyboards

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