Search - Badlands :: Voodoo Highway

One of the best hard rock albums of all time!

Ghost In The Ruins | The Volunteer State | 05/19/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you like Led Zeppelin, Whitesnake, Deep Purple, and 70's era Bad Company, then you need to purchase all of the Badlands cataloge!



With that said, some record label needs to get smart and reissue these lost classics to a new generation of listeners. We're all starving for some traditional, hard driving rock n roll, amongst the college frat punks in garages claiming to be rock bands! The current music landscape in America is in sad, sad shape, and we all know it. Bo Bice from American Idol has covered the song, In A Dream, from the Voodoo Highway album. That song very well may win Bo the competition! With that in mind, shouldn't someone get a clue, and give us the Badlands releases again? The sellers that have the cd posted for sale now are simply trying to cash in and take advantage of people due to Bo's success with the song! In conclusion, be patient, because a major label will get their hands on the Badlands cataloge, and it will be available for everyone to enjoy!"

Just rediscovered this gem - classic rock updated

Perry M. Koons | Crownsville, MD United States | 02/18/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Badlands are one of those "shoulda been" stories from the late 80's/early 90's, featuring absolutely smoking musicianship and vocals courtesy of former Ozzy guitarist Jake E. Lee and awesome singer Ray Gillen (RIP). This band sounds like a cross between Zeppelin, Deep Purple, with a bit of Hendrix and Foghat thrown in here and there. They truly recall the sounds of their heroes while sounding pretty fresh, this is one band that transcends the "hair metal" genre and actually does not sound the least bit dated. Most of the riffs on tunes are searing, especially "Soul Stealer" and "Heaven's Train", and "Shine On" kicks in sounding like a riffmonster from Alice In Chains. What drags this disc down is a few tunes that are, I hate to say, dull...but the good outweighs the bad. For fans of the previously mentioned band plus Whitesnake, Scorpions, and heavy Tesla. PS I think I found this for $5.99, so hunt around before dropping more than $15.



Best Tracks:

"The Last Time" - Whitesnake without the melodrama. Great driving tune.

"Whiskey Dust" - Probably my favorite slower tune on the album, this seems like it would be easy to characterize but I'm struggling to find a comparable artist/style. Barroom blues with the usual great vocals.

"Soul Stealer" - Neo-Hendrix riff kicks off this headbanger. Great blues based metal.

"Heaven's Train" - I swear, I wrote this riff without ever having heard the song and kicked myself that someone had thought of it first (and played the hell out of it). Another upbeat heavy rocker."

Underrated blues/rock band compels musicianship to new level

Robert Kleeman | TX | 01/04/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Much in the spirit of Zeppelin, the Badlands take their smart rock and outline a detailed map of musicianship that easily makes todays Limp Bizkit compost creations, a musty meddle of distasteful whiner garbage. When it's said that this CD is hard to find, there is a duel meaning. Finding a copy to own for yourself may be quite a challenge, but more importantly, a CD of this calibur is hard to find in a world where it's cool to regurgitate already virulent ideas. This CD is more than enough to make the group's cover of James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" a rock n' roll classic."