Krokus - Change of Address

This is a discussion that was beginning in the Vinyl collector's thread. Since not everyone looks there, thought I would post it here. What do you think of "Change of Address".

Vexer6 wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

mikeinfla wrote:

Krokus - Change Of Address


All free. Krokus really sucks, I had never heard the album and that is just NOT Krokus. REALLY bad.

And stay away from Change Of Address!

Yes, worst thing they ever recorded. I have it in my collection but when I want to hear some Krokus I never, ever reach for that album.

I would definitely disagree with that, I prefer it over their early releases(before Marc Storace joined the group).

IMO the album has some good songs like Hard Luck Hero, Now(All Through The Night), Let This Love Begin and Burning Up The Night.

It's terrible. They were trying their best to get some more success in the United States and completely neutered their sound. It's a very bland, limp album from a band that had cranked out the great Headhunter just 3 years prior. No me gusta.

I haven't heard it in years but if memory serves it was pretty much assembly-line, bland stuff... and a major disappointment after two reasonably solid albums (Headhunter and The Blitz.)

Don't get me wrong, The Blitz has moments of radio-friendly cheez on it too but on C.O.A. they cranked the Velveeta factor up way past 11.

It also pretty much destroyed whatever momentum they'd built up in the U.S.

Luckily the LP was given to me so it was free. I ripped a digital copy for the guy who gave it to me and plan to never listen to it again. Obviously the record company was steering them in a direction instead of them going where they needed to go. Terrible album, even School's Out is a terrible cover.

I gave it a listen and i dont find it bad, in fact, its better than the Blitz IMO. "Now" and "Burning Up the Night" are excellent songs. Of course, its not as good as Headhunter mind you, but its still solid.

Fat Freddy wrote:

I haven't heard it in years but if memory serves it was pretty much assembly-line, bland stuff... and a major disappointment after two reasonably solid albums (Headhunter and The Blitz.)

Don't get me wrong, The Blitz has moments of radio-friendly cheez on it too but on C.O.A. they cranked the Velveeta factor up way past 11.

It also pretty much destroyed whatever momentum they'd built up in the U.S.

I definitely halted the momentum they had build up with One Vice At A Time and Headhunter.

Ever notice that bands on Atlantic Records were notorious for this? Raven, forced by their record company to go more commercial. FAIL! Twisted Sister was another one.

ultmetal wrote:

Ever notice that bands on Atlantic Records were notorious for this? Raven, forced by their record company to go more commercial. FAIL! Twisted Sister was another one.

Yep, Atlantic did it to Savatage too (Fight For the Rock).

Even bands who were already radio-friendly suffered (listen to the debut album by Frehley's Comet, then check out Second Sighting). Good thing Malice, Manowar, and Testament were able to avoid this for the most part.

Headhunter is the only krokus cd to grab my attention.

but I need to check some other stuff.

ultmetal wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

I haven't heard it in years but if memory serves it was pretty much assembly-line, bland stuff... and a major disappointment after two reasonably solid albums (Headhunter and The Blitz.)

Don't get me wrong, The Blitz has moments of radio-friendly cheez on it too but on C.O.A. they cranked the Velveeta factor up way past 11.

It also pretty much destroyed whatever momentum they'd built up in the U.S.

I definitely halted the momentum they had build up with One Vice At A Time and Headhunter.

Ever notice that bands on Atlantic Records were notorious for this? Raven, forced by their record company to go more commercial. FAIL! Twisted Sister was another one.

They weren't the only ones, Epic did the same thing with Molly Hatchet on The Deed Is Done. I don't know if they wanted them to be 38 Special or what but it is another album that is terrible. Foghat ZigZag Walk is another head scratcher. Why not let bands just do what they do best?

Even the album art looks 80's New Wave. The vocals on it remind me of Rick Springfield. No longer a Fool For The City!

I'm not a huge Savatage fan, but I love Fight for the Rock. I also disagree about Twisted Sister and Frehley's Comet.

I don't disagree that they were pushed/went in a more commercial direction, but I personally disagree that the results were bad. I love Second Sighting, as mentioned Fight for the Rock, and Twisted Sister all the way through.

Change of Address is not there best but not the worst either... Krokus like so many others were going for a completely different sound as the sound on the charts was changing...This album in some ways reminded me of the direction that bands like autograph, Y&T and even keel were going...a little of the bands sound (singer mostly) and a little edge but alot of Bon Jovi pop metal..

Alot of labels were forcing the bands to change their sound...Look at Y&T...they went from heavier sounds like earth shaker and black tiger to Contagious and in my view one of the worst 80s metal albums ever ..Down for The Count..

Down for the Count is actually my favorite Y&T album.

I used to dig this song, but now it isn't as great as I remember. You're right, everyone suffered from Bon Jovi syndrome then.

It's certainly not the first one I reach for when I want to scratch the Krokus itch, but I like "Now" and "Hot Shot City" and "Winning Man" is pretty good too.

I had it on cassette. When I was culling out, I listened to it a few times to choose which songs to record as mp3s. Looking at my mp3 collection, I only chose two songs from that album: "Now" and "Hot Shot City," so I guess I didn't dig it too much.

ultmetal wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

I haven't heard it in years but if memory serves it was pretty much assembly-line, bland stuff... and a major disappointment after two reasonably solid albums (Headhunter and The Blitz.)

Don't get me wrong, The Blitz has moments of radio-friendly cheez on it too but on C.O.A. they cranked the Velveeta factor up way past 11.

It also pretty much destroyed whatever momentum they'd built up in the U.S.

I definitely halted the momentum they had build up with One Vice At A Time and Headhunter.

Ever notice that bands on Atlantic Records were notorious for this? Raven, forced by their record company to go more commercial. FAIL! Twisted Sister was another one.

I also thought "Pack is Back" and "Come Out and Play" were pretty solid albums.

I also wouldn't call it "Bon Jovi" since they were far from the only commercial hard rock group at the time.

I also like "The Deed is Done", don't think it's a bad MH release at all, kinda sounds like KISS(especially Backstabber).

I think "Fight for The Rock" is also a pretty good album, lots of great songs on that one(particularly the title track), though the Badfinger cover admittedly isn't very good.

Also like "Second Sighting".

In general I quite like many of these commercial 80s rock albums, there's just something about keyboards that really trips my trigger I guess

Some other disliked commercial releases I enjoyed are

Accept-Eat the Heat
Cheap Trick- The Doctor, Lap of Luxury and Busted.
Triumph- Sport of Kings, Surveillance and Edge of Excess.
Rush- Power Windows, Grace Under Pressure and Hold Your Fire
Yes- Big Generator
Deep Purple- House of Blue Light and Slaves and Masters
Scorpions- Savage Amusement and Eye II Eye
Europe- Out of This World
Loudness-Hurricane Eyes(definitely don't think Rock N Roll Gypsy is a "keyboard-laced pop-metal piece of crap like Scott said ) Soldier of Fortune and On the Prowl
Judas Priest- Turbo
Megadeth- Risk
King Kobra-Thrill of a Lifetime
Sammy Hagar-V.O.A. and I Never Said Goodbye
ZZ Top- Recycler
Def Leppard- everything after High n Dry
MSG-all the Robin Mcauley albums
Fastway- Waiting for the Roar, On Target(original version, not the reworked one) and Bad Bad Girls.
Alcatrazz- Dangerous Games
Y&T- Down for the Count and Contagious
Lita Ford- Lita, Stiletto and Dangerous Curves
Lee Aaron- s/t
Heart- Bad Animals and Brigade
Alice Cooper- Trash and Hey Stoopid
Digger- Stronger Then Ever
Ted Nugent- Penetrator

John Gallagher of Raven has spoken many times about their disastrous experience not just with "Pack Is Back," but with Atlantic Records in general. He said Atlantic wanted them to be "KISS Meets Bon Jovi."

It's no surprise that Krokus went this direction. Many bands or their ilk were in a bind at exactly this time - 1986. Both Glam and Thrash were exploding in popularity and traditional metal bands were being left behind. Raven, Krokus, Y&t, Twisted Sister etc... were all from the older generation and their sound was becoming dated and less popular. The solution for many was to go for glossy production and tone down their heaviness. Almost every one of these bands failed spectacularly as a result.

For instance, Raven had zero success with The Pack Is Back and tried another course correction by going in a thrashier direction with the Mad EP, Life's A Bitch and Nothing Exceeds Like Excess. That didn't work for them either as younger thrash bands crowded them out and they were left behind as being irrelevant musical dinosaurs. Thankfully for Raven, they never stopped producing music and have had something of a career in the intervening years.