The Almighty
Powertrippin'

Every now and then it happens to remember the days gone by: when we were young and strong, especially now that we are old and rubbery, when we were more naive, less shrewd, when, for example, in music, we sought simple fun and not the (apparent?) intellectual-cultural sophistication.

When we went to a Metal concert just for the thrill of diving into wild moshing and certainly not for the artistic qualities of the performers: personally, my competitive activity, in the specialty, began in Padua in 1987 during a concert by D.R.I. and ended in 1999 after the Milan date of the "Ed Hunter Tour": in fact, even before that event, I decided that I would hang my leather jacket and boots on the... peg and from then on, I would watch (literally) concerts rather than just be part of that indistinct mass of studded black human flesh energetically moving in the front rows of every metal, punk, hardcore concert, etc. etc. that I had participated in until then (and there were many...).

Beyond the digressions, we talked about fun, and just today (thinking back to an old Maiden tour, Milan 1993, where the subject of the review performed as Special Guest) one of the most "ignorant" (in the good sense of the word) and most fun bands of those years came to mind, that is the Scottish "The Almighty" and, searching for them in the beautiful DeDataBase, the result was a very sad "0 reviews". Therefore, not being able to "absolutely overlook this form defect," I decided to write a small piece on their album that I like the most (which is also their most famous): that "Powertrippin'" from 1993, of which I still keep a t-shirt.

The Almighty formed in the late '80s in Strathaven, Scotland, at the initiative of guitarist-singer Ricky Warwick. The lineup was the classic hard-rock/heavy-metal group setup: a guitarist/singer, a lead guitar, a bassist, a drummer, and the background of all the members came from the British-style '80s Punk-Rock (before founding his band, Warwick had contacts with New Model Army). The sound, right from the start, was that monolithic and indestructible developed on characteristics taken from both the '80s Hard-Rock (especially in the bass lines) and the Classic Metal of the same period (typical the guitar riffs and the "aggressive" drums).

After two albums with decent sales (and tours with Megadeth and Motörhead) in 1993 came the third, "Powertrippin'", which can still be considered (even after the split in '96 and subsequent reunion in 2000) confidently their peak from every point of view. The main characteristic of the album is that on the already described derivative canvas of previous works, Warwick and his associates combined additional mainstream references both musically, especially in melodic phases, and in the "media" approach to the audience (an approach that in live phases remained massive and "pulled"). The singer's voice, clearly AOR, well matched the good hard mixture especially in the acoustic tributes of pieces like "Jesus Loves you...but I don't" or in songs decidedly winking at the radio universe like "Addiction". The atmospheres (combined with the texts imbued with "rebellious" "clichés") therefore ended up recreating that ancient but fascinating flavor of venues where the smell of sweat mingles with that of bourbon and where walking you hear that characteristic "crunch crunch" created by stepping on empty peanut shells...

Certainly not a very original or innovative work but definitely a good album to listen to when you feel like something fun and not at all demanding and absolutely "hostile and ignorant" or, like me, to remember that "athlete" that (fortunately?) I am no more...

Mo.