Sunset

Sun Red Sun was formed from the ashes of Belladonna. Guitarist Al Romano (appearing here on the cover with Mike Starr) recorded seven tracks (four of which he wrote with Belladonna) with drummer Bobby Rondinelli for a new band project. During the recording sessions it was suggested they get together with ex-Badlands vocalist Ray Gillen. The demo tapes were sent to Gillen, who agreed to record with Romano. Bassist Mike Starr, fresh from his sting with Alice In Chains, filled out the lineup. But drummer Rondinelli got an offer and subsequently left to tour with Sabbath. Gillen flew down anyways and recorded with Romano, but after completing several of the tracks, he passed away just as the band was getting ready to start touring.

While the primary attraction to this collection is the very last studio recordings of the late Ray Gillen, the basic fact is there are only four original tunes here with the renowned vocalist. Those songs make up the first half of disc one, while vocalist John West (of Royal Hunt) and guitarist Al Romano split vocal duties evenly on the remaining tracks. This disc was originally released as Sun Red Sun in 1997. The sound is straight-ahead meat-and-potatoes 80s American metal, containing some ever-so-slight sleaze-rock overtones, but also mixing elements of power metal and thrash. The Gillen tracks definitely redeem the first disc and show fans a different perspective on the singer, who worked with Deep Purple, Badlands and Black Sabbath in his day. The last Gillen track I Know A Place is the most vocally interesting, alternating straight-ahead verses with a fantasy-metal chorus. Of the other four non-Gillen tracks, Responsible, with its insistent tribal drumming, is the best. This track also features a guest solo from Savatage guitarist Chris Cafferty. The remaining two tracks are slightly marred by guitarist Romano's competent, but faceless, vocal work, though Deadly Nightshade does alternate between an interesting middle-eastern theme and more basic metal riffing, like a Savatage B-side from Hall of the Mountain King.

Disc Two was originally released as Ray Gillen 5th Anniversary Memorial Tribute in 1998, and repeats the first four tracks of Disc One, and includes some outtakes from the original Gillen sessions, including two additional takes of Outrageous, and additional versions of Hardlife, Lock Me Up and I Know A Place. There's also a different mix of Lock Me Up. A fine, brief instrumental, The Final Curtain closes the set and wouldn't have sounded out of place on the first disc at all. Other than the low-vocal take on Outrageous these performances aren't much different from the final tracks on the first disc. In fact more interesting here are the heartfelt, strange and somewhat rambling O.G. liner notes from guitarist Al Romano describing Gillen's final days - apparently, sensing Gillen was ill (he kept his illness very low-key until the end) he claims to have had the vocalist taking a strange daily regimen of shark cartilage, wheatgrass juice and no less than 35 vitamins!

Disc Three was originally released as Sun Red Sun: The Lost Tracks. After Gillen's death, at the behest of his manager at the time, guitarist Al Romano was persuaded to replace Gillen's vocal tracks with John West (who had coincidentally played with Badlands after Gillen's departure). So annoyingly enough Disc Three - again - repeats the first four tracks from disc one and two, this time with West on vocals, with a few additional SRS studio outtakes from the latter incarnation of the band, as well as two live cuts with bassist John Monte (ex- Mindfunk). The studio outtakes are mildly diverting, but mostly throwaway moments, such as The Hawaiians, a six-minute conversation with an extremely friendly vacuum cleaner saleslady.

The rating mostly represents my opinion of the album/EP that is disc one. Discs two and three are mostly superfluous, and the fact remains all of the worthwhile material could have been fit on one disc with a little more time spent on packaging and sequencing. That said, so long as you don't fork out too much for this budget box, it's not a bad way to acquire the music from this diverting footnote to the great Ray Gillen's career.