Borrowed Time

Well, five new songs, and two that were originally on Lightning to the Nations... those two are re-recorded.

Five of these seven tracks appear on the Half Moon Records "greatest hits" compilation, in great sound quality, and the sixth and seventh are not worth scavenging ... To Heaven from Hell is definitely the second-weakest song on this album, and I can see why it didn't make the best of. It kinda plods along. Don't You Ever Leave Me is just garbage - their stupid radio hit. Let us never speak of it again.

Am I Evil? Classic! This is the 'Mister Guitar' version - right before the main solo, Sean yells out Mister Guitar!!! Then, Brian's godly solo... just as godly as the original, though I do wonder why they had to re-record it. Both of them sound good, it's the shitty Metal Blade re-releases, not the early 80s LPs, that we must be worried about. But, there is an even better sounding version out there.. namely Half Moon. Lightning to the Nations is fundamentally identical to the old title track...

In the Heat of the Night, the opener - a slow, brooding number, but epic as a motherfuck - this is DH's sense of atmosphere coming through loud and proud here. Call Me is their other radio hit, and this is just a fun fucking song. It's a bit 80s-cheesy-glam, but damn if they don't do it well.

Then, the title track... I'm living!!! On borrowed time!! Man, this and In the Heat of the Night - just plain classic heavy fucking metal. It's hard to describe quite what they sound like, other than they must be heard. The epitome of melodic metal.

So why the 58, as opposed to a 100? 4 of 7 tracks are classics, Call Me is a barrel of fun, and then that is 5 of 7 that you can obtain much easier, in fully remastered sound (BETTER than the original I am describing here), on the Greatest Hits. Thus, this album is not bad, just obsolete. You can read my review of that CD for more info on these songs.